An Educator's Journey: Matt Noyes
put my line here, image first
put my line here, image first
[img_assist|nid=136|title=The Spiral Model|desc=The Spiral Model as it appears in Educating for a Change.|link=none|align=left|width=450|height=341]
The spiral model illustrates several important principles of popular education:
Here's the problem. Evaluating a course at the end, and/or at various points during the course, is essential to good teaching/learning practice. But, the tools I have used have sometimes felt dull and plodding, like busy work, especially when I try to get people to make the evaluation more specific and concrete.
The problem is worse when the participants are friendly and compliant. Then it really feels pro-forma.
[Put here the AUD handout -- who does what? Use it as a checklist activity that people can do, discuss in pairs and then share in group. Can also use it as an agree/disagree list.]
[WHERE DOES THIS BELONG? MAYBE BETTER TO PLACE IT UNDER ACTION, OR UNDER PREPARING FOR ACTION?]
Checklist of 13 Basic Principles of Democratic Organizing
(adapted by Matt Noyes from The Troublemaker's Handbook, by Dan LaBotz, Labor Notes 1989)
I have been concentrating on The Workers' Inspiration: Popular Education for Union Democracy. My plan is to get the intro section for each chapter and one activity into good enough shape to be viewed by the public.
I had initially planned to make them available only to registered users until they were in more finished form, but that would mean that a new visitor wouldn't really see much, and might not decide to register.
So, though they are not entirely finished, I am making them public in the hopes that they will make the site more useful to people.
Tu, con que intencion y como pretendes utilizar las tecnicas? (Alforja, Tomo 2, "Advertencia!")
And you, what are your intentions, how do you plan to use these techniques?
The Chart:
Spectrum of educational approaches in the field of labor education.
These models are intended to represent three distinct approaches to labor education. They are simplified and incomplete, but should reflect coherent methods that we have experienced in our work. The idea is to use these models to explore how we work now, and how we want to work, where we want our work to go.
For each category, please:
Circle the paragraph that best describes how you do your education work now.
By Matt Noyes, adapted from "Power" in Literacy for Empowerment: A Resource Handbook for Community Based Educators. Washington, D.C. : Association for Community Based Education, 1988. (ACBE credits this activity to Barbara Greene of the Mountain Women's Exchange.)
[illustration: workers placing stickers on a democracy and power line]
Summary:
Non-Trivial Pursuits
Case studies in basic legal rights. (Any resemblance to persons or institutions living or dead is largely coincidental.)
1. Two Minutes
What does the word "collective" mean in the phrase "collective bargaining?"
When can an individual employee or group of employees bargain their own contract with management?
2. Three Minutes
A circle game adapted from "Se Murio Chicho" in Tecnicas Participativas Para La Education Social Vol 1. (The sentence is from a scene in the John Sayles film "Passion Fish" http://youtu.be/hkcIBvJU8Uk)
Good for: fun, expression, loosening up, paying attention to details.
Setup: people sitting in a circle
Number of people: at least three
Materials: none
Time: 30 mins.
Flow: