Monday 24 January 2011

How to make a cup of tea ...

*Cup of tea anyone?
... erm! Seriously.

The class had been split into 5 groups last week. As I missed last weeks lesson, I made a fourth body on an already function group consisting of Jo, Linda, and Karen. As a group we were all asked to create a lesson plan for any activity we could think of. One group chose the topic writing a story, another making a cheesecake, a third chose baking a dozen buns, the fourth settled on email and we chose making a cuppa.

Our lesson outcomes were that the student would learn how to be able to list the equipment and incredients necessary to make a cuppa; be able to make a cuppa using a tea bag; and understand the risks involved. The differentiated outcomes we discussed included using leaf tea, the ability to make different strength teas and understand the health and safety legislation involved. Just to be clear, our target audience for this life-skills lesson was intended to be students with special needs. Have you stopped laughing at us yet?

We also (for me at least) revisited Bloom (1956) and Maslow (1943) and were told that we would get SMART next week; Simple, Manageable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely? Maslow in particular has cropped up throughout my life. I first came across the dude on a Grand Metropolitan managerial training course in the mid '70's; then University in at least one psychology module; then in business as part of staff motivation courses; in aviation as part of human factors and now in education whilst learning to teach. Still, I guess the dude meant well, even though he only studied the top 1% of a specific campus population.

Those of you who know me may not know I have difficulty with the names of new people I meet. This condition, which I have had all my life, came to a head during this evenings lesson when I kept calling Karen, Linda (or was it Linda, Karen?). I even thought Lewis was James! Thank you Jo for correcting me on at least three occasions! After the lesson, I looked the condition up and the nearest I can come to is a form of agnosia called prosopagnosia. They tell me that if you can name the disease, you can feel better about it. Hmmm. Perhaps I should try some self-help.

*Cup of Tea anyone © 2011 John McCulloug. For the observant amongst you, I take my tea black with one sugar! 
Edited once on 25-1-2011 at 15:120

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