EFFIE BATEMAN | Lifestyle | Contact
A Betoota Heights primary school teacher has resorted to taking drastic measures to capture her students attention, as short-form content such as Tik Tok and Reels have caused the younger generation to have warped attention spans.
With reports that Gen Alpha has both a shorter attention span and is more inclined to learn visually or by experience, it appears that the traditional way of teaching may need a shakeup.
That, combined with dual working parents who are too tired after a busy days work to police their kids screen time, has now led to a generation that struggles the notion of concentrating in class, one hour blocks at a time.
But veteran English teacher Ms Haversham, 62, thinks she might have the answer.
She speaks to The Advocate to tell us more about this groundbreaking new teaching method.
“It’s very hard keeping students engaged these days”, says Haversham, with a grimace, “Back in my day, putting a rusty coin in a glass of Coca Cola for a few days blew our minds.”
“Nothing impresses these kids anymore.”
Haversham goes on to explain that she’s also noticed student’s aren’t performing as well in English and Maths anymore, which she blames on multitude of factors.
“The coronavirus pandemic distant model of learning really didn’t help, nor does the current school system of enforcing that everybody passes.”
“Throw Tik Tok in the mix, and it’s a recipe for disaster.”
Haversham says she’s now resorted to doing her lessons in one minute segments, complete with dance moves and having short form videos such as ‘Skibidi toilet’ in the background.
“Excuse my language, but if I ever meet the cunt who made Skibidi toilet, it’s goodnight nurse for him.”
“And I survived the ‘Puck you miss’ era!”
More to come.
