For a very long time, the “norm” for teaching styles has been teachers lecturing in front of the class with powerpoints while students write down notes based on the lecture. Classes, for the most part, have adhered to this teaching practice. However, recently, teachers have gone in a different direction and have gotten away from lecturing everyday. They have taken a more hands-on approach, giving less lectures and giving more activities and exercises.

“[I use] team building exercises to get the classes together so we feel more comfortable with one another,” social science teacher Joe Bush said.

Sometimes, it isn’t what or how they teach, but more the style that they use to convey a message that makes teachers different from their counterparts. For example, in English teacher Ryan Asmussen’s class, he finds no fault in being a little wacky to get his class to get what he is saying.

“I’m a little more edgy at times, use a bit more ironic humor, act things occasionally more so than some teachers,” Asmussen said. “I’m willing to look goofy to make a point.”

Most teachers don’t just decide that this is how they are going to teach a class. Many times, it is just how they are naturally and they just bring it out while teaching.

“You really can’t do this consciously. If you do, students will see it and react negatively,” Asmussen said. “My style is only different aspects of myself, both good and bad.”

As most teachers were in school at a time when teachers taught with just lectures everyday, they can tend to go off in that direction. However, it is important to realize that since a new generation of students have entered high school, there is a greater need to look at the best ways to teach the students.

“Many of us grew up with teachers who were lecturers, especially the teachers who are in our 30s or above, and so sometimes we tend to do the things that helped us learn the most,” Bush said. “I love listening to a lecture, and I learn a ton from it, but not everyone does that, so as teachers we have to continue to look at the research to see what the best practice is.

Even with this new way of thinking about teaching, it is also important to understand that there is still a need for lectures. Especially in content-based classes, it’s important to have lectures that give kids the opportunity to take notes on important things that they may need to memorize. There should be a happy medium between the lecturing side and the activity-and-exercise side of teaching.

“You’ve got be careful not to abandon everything because kids do have to learn how to listen better in lectures and kids have to learn how to memorize stuff, but you just can’t do that all the time,” Bush said.