Years ago I arrived in Panama for a reclycing project at the Chiquita banana plantations. I was convinced people would talk English, but this wasn't the case. It felt terrible. Not being able to express myself. I felt almost like an alien, helpless and lonely. This circumstances gave me a big push to learn Spanish as quick as possible.
I remember I started writing down every day 10 words which I translated into english and dutch and I found a way to master the grammar. And I fell in love...that helped as well :-)
Freedom
Learn at your own pace
During my time as teacher on a primary school in Amsterdam, Covid wa happening and because of that we had to switch to online classes. I experimented with embedding learning material in interesting and powerfull stories with audio/visual and textual support. It was playfull with quizzes, challenges, funny video's, short tutorials and freedom.
Freedom to choose a topic, freedom to choose the moment to work on it and freedom to choose out of a variety of weekly assignments. And it worked!
After this online period, my specific group of students was performing much better then comparable peer groups. This fueled my belief that finding the intrinsic motivation is the key to learning! With this mindset we are developing this online platform. Join us!
I started with giving Dutch lessons with Dutch songs at the time I was working at a homeless centre in Amsterdam.
Kind regards,
Geert Damstra
Motivation
key to learning
As teacher on primary schools I learned that intrinsic motivation is the key for learning and I believe there are a number of circumstances that make you motivated.
- If you are interested in the subject
- If it is practically applicable
- If it is connected to a story
- If it is connected with one of your passions
- If it is fun to do
- If you get rewarded for it
- If it's important for survival
With this mindset we developed the program.