Teaching as it could be...should be?

OK, as promised, I have permission from the student - Mia Rajcic of 3C - to use the excellent analogy that she used in her essay "What makes a good teacher & a good student?"

She wrote:
"If we compare the system of education to a table tennis match, we should realise that it should not be one-sided, as if you were playing against the wall; there has to be a teacher on one side and the student on the other, both playing fair, not trying to knock one another down, but to arouse one another to a better performance."

As I read this inspirational idea on the train to Prague (nearly 2 weeks ago) I began to see some images in my head...

For some teachers - teaching has become like the one-sided affair of 'knocking it against the wall' - just as you can see in this clip from Forrest Gump! The teacher teaches...and only receives back what they want to hear...nothing should surprise them or put them off their course...

However, I love the image of the teacher & student engaging in a sort of teaching table tennis match, with the teacher serving (to begin with - yes, I believe the teacher has to take the initiative...but - as in the English Club - I am open to students taking it instead!) & the student sending something back that perhaps is not in the teachers notes/plans/curriculum, and as Mia says "arousing one another to a better performance". Surely a teacher would want to get something from the lesson too?! I certainly do!

So, with this image in mind, let us - yes, US (for it takes both parties to make this work!) go and play some English Table Tennis ;-) Then perhaps we might get a language version of something resembling this video clip ;-)

Then perhaps we might get a language version of something resembling this video clip ;-)