How To Re-Energize Your Chess Teaching With 21st Century Tools
You love chess. You love introducing kids to chess. But more often than you like, your chess classes drain your energy.
You know the feeling, don’t you?
You've prepared an inspiring lesson. You’ve spend your evening collecting exciting examples from famous chess games. You’ve photocopied chess puzzles to give to your students. And you’ve stayed up late correcting all of last week’s homework, even though your dog was begging for a walk.
But despite all your efforts and your expertise, your lesson still feels bland. Your students aren’t as engaged and motivated as you’d hoped. And, to be honest, neither are you. You know you should put some fun into your chess teaching. To spice things up. You know that you should try to cater more to your student’s individual needs. After all, in chess teaching, one size doesn’t fit all.
You know all that.
But how on earth are you supposed to do it?
How do you avoid chess teaching that drains the energy from you? Or bores your students? How do you get a grip on things and get them swinging?
Looking for a new way to teach chess? Click here
Chess as a game is ancient, chess teaching is not
The answer is simple: re-energize your chess teaching with 21st century teaching technology. Chess as a game may be ancient, but chess teaching is not. If there’s one thing, that is what Chessity stands for.
Technology offers the secret ingredients that make your pupils crave for more chess. They keep your students playing on. Besides, they unburden you as a teacher. Leaving you more time to spend on the chess in chess teaching.
So, how does this work?
One of the most effective technology enhanced teaching methods is game-based learning and gamification. Anyone who has ever played a computer game knows how it works with games.
You just want to throw one more angry bird to get to the next level.
You just want to catch one more Pokémon before you call it a day.
You just want to play one more game of Fifa 17 - because you know you can do even better than you did this time.
You just want to play one more game of bullet chess…
But you never stop at one.
You don't win every time you play. Yet, you keep going.
If you fail, you want to make up for it.
If you succeed, you want more of that.
Games allow you to fail, pick up, learn voluntarily and win.
Superhero chess teaching
Just image how powerful a tool games are when this motivational force teams up with in-depth learning! It’s like Superman and Batman joining up to fight crime.
That’s why Chessity uses gamification as the heart of its learning system. Following a thorough chess curriculum, kids (and adults) learn how to play chess by playing fun mini-games. Through a routine of trail-and-error they experience success and sharpen their skills. Once this process has been set in motion, it’s hard to stop. And what’s more: it’s a lot of fun!
As a teacher you are aware that your students are unique. Each student brings his or her own learning style and personality to the classroom. Gamification allow you to tap into this this naturally by allowing your students to learn at their own pace. They can pick up on different things at different rates. Without penalty.
Start exploring game-based chess learning
Step by step, your students learn the basics of chess and then proceed into more advanced chess levels, building bang-up board vision and tactical strength. This learning process, that uses artifical intelligence to adapt automatically to your student’s individual chess level, is so effective that it outclasses traditional chess teaching methods. Children are so used to help each other during game-play, that peer tutoring in chess class comes naturally.
So what are you, the chess teacher, supposed to do? Are you to stand idly by, watching your students chess around on their computers or tablets?
No. You get to be Hulk.
(Or Iron Man, if you prefer.)
Being a superhero chess teacher isn’t as daunting as you may fear. Especially not since Chessity provides the appropriate gadgets to help you do the job, which is: to guide your students in their own personal learning process.
Chessity’s tracking data give you clear feedback on how each of your students performs. Where they're struggling, and where they're excelling. Knowing your students' exact chess skills and learning styles helps you in coaching them to become better chess players.
Adding empathy to the learning process
But what's more, as teacher your play an important role in adding empathy to the learning process. According to educator and humanistic psychologist Thom Markham, empathy holds the key in 21st century teaching.
Can you imagine how exciting it is for your students to learn chess with Chessity; with Superman, Batman and Hulk at their aid?
Can you imagine how refreshing this approach to chess teaching is for you?
But what if you are not overly comfortable with technology?
Well, for starters, you don’t have to be a computer nerd to use Chessity. It’s all pretty straightforward and easy to use. And even if it takes you a while to get the hang of it, that’s okay. Start with giving yourself permission to make mistakes. Even Spider-Man gets stuck in his own web once in a while.
Build on your success and retool your failures.
Just as you’re asking your students to do in learning chess.
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