Teaching is all about making sandwiches.
Whipping up a sambo is essentially the skill of telling it how it is in a digestible format. Slap praise on either side of some gristly criticism and your communication is flavoured with encouragement. I guess this is also called tact.
For someone who grew up with one parent imbued with the social talents of a snail and the other with the etiquette of a very vocal parrot, tact was one of those skills I didn't inherit. I cultivated it over 23 years of keen observation and trial and error.
The parrot half of my DNA still fluffs up in a rage at the idea of having to mediate the truth, and my snail side curls away at the thought of having to tell the truth. I've mostly rewritten all that programming and now I'm as diplomatic as a dachshund.
How does the teaching sandwich relate to the wider world beyond report writing and assessment feedback?
Try making a sandwich for your lover, your mother, your best friend. Sandwiches can be squeezed into letters, phone conversations, post-it notes, dinner conversations... Sandwiches can be about politics, culture, real estate. My favourite part about sandwiches is that you can make them cynical.
e.g.
"Dear Raine & Horne,
Thanks for managing our lease.
Please fix the blinds, let us repaint, fix the tap in the laundry, fit proper ventilation into our bathroom and buy us a new mailbox.
Once again, thanks for managing our lease.
Yours Sincerely,
__________"
Whipping up a sambo is essentially the skill of telling it how it is in a digestible format. Slap praise on either side of some gristly criticism and your communication is flavoured with encouragement. I guess this is also called tact.
For someone who grew up with one parent imbued with the social talents of a snail and the other with the etiquette of a very vocal parrot, tact was one of those skills I didn't inherit. I cultivated it over 23 years of keen observation and trial and error.
The parrot half of my DNA still fluffs up in a rage at the idea of having to mediate the truth, and my snail side curls away at the thought of having to tell the truth. I've mostly rewritten all that programming and now I'm as diplomatic as a dachshund.
How does the teaching sandwich relate to the wider world beyond report writing and assessment feedback?
Try making a sandwich for your lover, your mother, your best friend. Sandwiches can be squeezed into letters, phone conversations, post-it notes, dinner conversations... Sandwiches can be about politics, culture, real estate. My favourite part about sandwiches is that you can make them cynical.
e.g.
"Dear Raine & Horne,
Thanks for managing our lease.
Please fix the blinds, let us repaint, fix the tap in the laundry, fit proper ventilation into our bathroom and buy us a new mailbox.
Once again, thanks for managing our lease.
Yours Sincerely,
__________"
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