2019.11.11. Boardwork

Last year, in one of our sessions with our mentors in the Academic Leadership Development Program (ALDP) of La Salle, there was a discussion about how teachers are technology "immigrants" who need to learn the language, so to speak, of the students, who are technology "natives." 

[But first, let me elucidate a little bit about the point of the discussion. Kids nowadays are born into a world wherein the technology is advancing at a breakneck pace. This, obviously, affects the way they take in knowledge; nobody wants to carry a thousand-page physics book when you can have hundreds of them stored on your phone; or, the very idea of having a book, itself, is weird to some students when they can watch love lessons and experiments online. Teachers, who have been taught under different circumstances using different (old) methods, should adapt.]

I had a small exchange with one of the mentors, Dr. Bobby Roleda from my home department of Physics. We agreed on a particular point about teaching the formal aspects of physics: at times, the old-school chalk-and-talk method is still the more effective way to teach. Nothing beats the slow and steady articulation, complete with illustrations and/or occasional erasures. 

Fast forward to this year: Dr. Roleda is now the Vice Chancellor for Academics (again) and I got to teach his Mathematical Methods for Physics 2. 

And for that: boardwork. 

I think my students appreciate the effort that comes in writing down the lecture this way. I usually write as I talk, so that the students can (hopefully) follow the logic of the lesson.

In my years of teaching, I realized that boardwork is an art, one that is not only vital but can also be fun. ■