A look across the ocean

Steve McCrea describes a project
about improving U.S. schools

All of us, sooner or later, have thought of how our lives would be if we lived in America and attended a U.S. college. Would the teachers behave differently?  Would the classes be more enthralling?  Would we relate to school in a different way?  The answer is yes, at least in Embassy CES, a language school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A remarkable English teacher works there who, through his lessons, upsets the conventional expectations about the bond between professor and pupils: his name is Steve McCrea and he is an unusual educator, a video and computer addict, and creator of the Visual and Active Teacher Training (VATT) project.  Here is the interview that he kindly gave us.

What is VATT ?

The Visual and Active Teacher Training project is an idea that aims to convey the excellent teaching methods I learned while taking a course called CELTA (Certificate of English Language Teaching for Adults); this method changed my way of teaching, transforming my thoughts from “I will teach the way I was taught” to “I need to think about the needs of the student and listen to the student.”  An example of how this way of educating works happens when we are looking for an answer to a problem.  If the answer is given by the teacher, it is less probable that the information will be remembered.  On the other hand, if the student searches and finds the answer, the information is more likely to be absorbed.  This is the core of the Visual and Active Teaching Technique.

How does one of your typical lessons evolve?

I believe that the best lessons are when I start with something interesting for the students; the point is to find what interests the students and what will help them grow. Perhaps it is difficult to find something for each person, but I ask each person to tell me something about their dreams, then we can include those dreams in the class. The focus is then expanded through the research of websites or YouTube videos, then the student is asked to make a summary of the contents and explain it to the class: it is always better when students talk more than the teachers. Afterwards, I ask myself what action can the students do to use the new information --  I encourage the pupils to make a video, post a comment on a web site, write a letter to the local newspaper, add a note to a Facebook page.  The idea is to make the class work REAL and PERSONAL.  There is no single topic that will interest everyone.   There is the lesson plan for the group, but I also keep in mind 25 individual goals -- one for each student.  Another way to expand the lesson is to start from the students' errors: I want to know what the students DON'T know, and then we can build the lesson from there.

But the lesson doesn't end when the bell rings: I always invite my students to send me email messages, to contact me on Skype or on Facebook, to conduct research and display the results during the classes, to use the Internet and, generally, to pursue their dreams and make them come true.

In what do you think you differ from other teachers?

I have a very short attention span and I don't like listening to a long speech by a teacher, therefore I try not to speak too much when I'm teaching. But I also know that some students are shy and they expect the teacher to give them information: so I am constantly looking at the faces of students and changing the direction of my plan to fit their level of interest.  Many teachers feel that the best way to deliver a good lesson is to follow meticulously an already-drawn-up lesson plan; on the contrary, I believe that it is not our jobs as teachers to “deliver” something to the students, but to inspire them to interrupt us and offer other suggestions. I call it "Swiss Cheese English."  When they ask a question, they are identifying a "hole" in their understanding.  I love it when they make errors -- then we can fill the gap.  I also want my students to interrupt me because when they ask me questions, their brains participate in the class. 

Did you ever ask yourself whether you really learn when you watch TV?  I usually don't learn from a video unless I stop it and make notes, then go back and listen again, (or if I tell someone who is watching the video with me -- "Hey, did you see that?") because if I stop and restate the information in my own words, then the information will be stronger in my head than if I just sit and listen to the entire information at one time.  A study was conducted about showing two groups of people the same two-hour movie: the first group watched it without interruptions, while the second group watched it with seven commercials of 2 minutes each, one every 15 minutes. Both groups were asked to describe something in the movie; it turned out that the average number of words and ideas that were recalled was higher for the group that endured interruptions. Why? The scientists claim that the brain had time to review "what happened" during the commercials, so it was possible for some person to retain more details than for others. 

Variety is important.  I try to change the direction during my lessons, perhaps every ten minutes -- and often I give students two or three things to choose to do.  For example, I could say, "Talk with your partner about your favorite city in another country or show your partner an interesting photo, or work together on a grammar problem.   You can choose what you want to do first."  This is annoyng for people who want one subject at a time.   However, for many people my class is like a TV "variety show," or a magazine with short articles, not a book with long chapters. My lessons at school are just 25% of my interaction with students; the remaining 75% takes place in the hallway, before and after class and for the rest of our lives by email, Facebook, Orkut and YouTube (and now perhaps also Twitter, xing and LinkedIn).  You can see the list of social networking sites that I use on my website FreeEnglishLessons.com

What do your students think about you?
Most students think I am not normal...maybe this is a good thing. I have been told that, not knowing what will happen in class, they don't want to miss any.



Do you have someone that you look up to?  Who is your "model teacher"?
There are two men named Dennis who helped make me a better teacher.  I look up to Dennis Yuzenas -- his web site is WhatDoYaKnow.com (yuzenasdennis@bellsouth.net)  -- he is a teacher in Palm Beach, Florida.  Also, I greatly respect Dr. Dennis Littky; I have never met him, but I read his book and I studied his interview on National Public Radio.   CLICK HERE for the NPR.org interview.   One of his most important sentences is about finding a student's passion: “Until we find the child’s passion, it’s just school. When the child finds his passion, we teach to that passion.  We can find internships for high school students:  Kids say, “I love this internship!” and teachers can teach to that interest.”
(See the original version -- with errors)

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