RUTS – a nuisance, destructive, and yes, unconscionable in education! They will tear up an automobile, spoil a good appetite, or ruin an otherwise good teacher’s presentations. Variety has often been called the spice of life. Variety tends to keep us out of ruts and on a smooth course to successful and productive life and work.

Teachers tend to get into terrible ruts often unwittingly, by the continual use of the same method or technique, class session after class session. That method which was good at the beginning soon loses its newness, freshness, and vitality, and falls into a humdrum pattern of day-to-day predictability. Freshness and originality of purpose and practice so vital to the production of the student’s intrinsic motivational drives and forces within the student, wane and are often totally thwarted. Thus, secondary motives (striving for necessary grades, personal acceptance, etc.) become the ruling motivational force for the student, as the real desire and interest are sadly lacking.

Educational Spice is a compendium of over 100 educational methods and techniques intended to spur the teacher’s imagination and help eliminate the normal classroom ruts. The purpose of this book is not to present an exhaustive treatise on each method or technique explored, but rather to bombard the mind with many possible alternatives for avoiding methodological ruts, and to tantalize the curiosity toward more in-depth investigation, and ultimately towards more spontaneous personal creativity.

This study has endeavored to incorporate this information into one volume, thereby bridging this gap for the educator, and thus enabling every student the opportunity for freedom from a traditional bland diet, through a generous sprinkling of Educational Spice.

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Dale Cook Enterprises                     
educationalspice@yahoo.com