An imaginative way to make learning stick

February 7, 2019 • By Unleash Learning • 12 comments

It’s crazy that this took me years to figure out.

Once I did, not only did I see student learning increase…

…but students told me that the ideas we were learning became more meaningful…

AND were sticking with them for longer.

That’s why I can’t wait for you to meet Matthew Johnstone.

Mathew is a well-known storyteller, illustrator, public speaker and formerly worked in the advertising industry.

“So what does an advertising guy have to do with teaching?”

Thing is, Matthew’s discovered that in a sense, an advertiser’s job is similar to teaching.

You have to get ATTENTION, engage your audience, and make them REMEMBER your content.

Based on his journeys as an Ad Man…

…Matthew’s going to show you how he uses these strategies to unleash learning in his classrooms to great effect.

*Want to listen to it as a podcast? Click → HERE

*SPECIAL BONUS: At the end of this engaging interview, we’ve got some FREE resources from Matthew just for you!

You’ll be able to see his strategies in action.

We’ll give you the “secret link” to get these bonuses in the video.

Watch this powerful interview and get the bonuses now.

I’m cheering you on!
William

A question for you...

What’s one action you could take from Matthew ideas, or if you’ve taken our online program, what are some actions you’ve already taken that relate to Mathew’s tips and ideas?

Answer now

Comments

Shelley Thompson says:
February 12, 2019 at 7:28 am
Hello,
One action I will try to take is add more visuals to help explain the concepts of math to help students relate it to real life scenarios. It will reduce the note taking and hopefully make the subject less tedious at times.
Thanks
Reply
- William DeJean says:
  February 12, 2019 at 7:39 am
  It’s a great action Shelley! We will look forward to hearing how it goes and the feedback you get from your students. Thanks for letting us know.
Gian Hakim says:
February 12, 2019 at 7:42 am
Engagement is the key to learning! We need to capture student interests and create learning experiences that resonate with them. Learning styles need to be considered, music,, art or humor all enhance the learning experience. Matthew’s approach makes sense to me you have a snap shot to impact learning so using a dynamic approach is vital!
Thanks for sharing the podcast.
Gian
Reply
- William DeJean says:
  February 12, 2019 at 7:44 am
  Well said Gian! We couldn’t agree more. That’s why Engagement is a key in the Unleash Learning System. We’re glad you found our discussion useful.
Bianca Pretorius says:
February 12, 2019 at 9:38 am
I’ve always loved the idea of using stories, but would love to do so more. Especially in explaining new or complex ideas. As a DigiTech and Science teacher I get to do a lot of practical activities, but the content is always a bit harder to keep students engaged, I will definitely try to add more visuals/stories/analogies.
Reply
Margot says:
February 12, 2019 at 10:15 am
A picture is a hook for understanding, a quick way to relate to a topic. It tells the story quickly and elicits emotion, so the heart informs the head.
Now how do I do that in my Maths classroom?
Reply
Heather says:
February 12, 2019 at 2:19 pm
I’m always aware that words can divide us, because they can have such strongly different meanings for each of our students. When I say ‘home’, I am envisaging a place of warmth and comfort and safety. But for many of my students, home might be a battlefield. So as I am speaking, or using the written word, I can be misunderstanding the connections and images that my students are making in their minds.
Using images provokes a response from a different part of the brain. It can provide a shared concept, or at least, a shared beginning from which to discuss a concept. I don’t use them enough; I used to, but the need for information transmission has overwhelmed me of late.
This was definitely inspiring. An arc, an emotional connection, an unleashing rather than a drowning in content… thanks William and Matthew!
Reply
- William DeJean says:
  February 12, 2019 at 2:42 pm
  Hi Heather. Thanks for your wonderful comments. I think it’s a powerful statement…”an unleashing rather than a drowning in content”…wow!
Fleur says:
February 12, 2019 at 8:00 pm
A picture tells a thousand words. My brain is in overdrive at the moment thinking of how I can do this strategy more often in my teaching. Word Cloud or Tagzedo concepts could work well – creating an image with words about the topic – just thinking aloud at the moment. Doodle style resouces are really helpful in a maths classroom. Getting teenagers to love learning sometimes can be hard but merting them on a platform that they can access and are familiar with like images is definitely giving me food for thought. I am thinking now how to revamp my HASS lesson for tomorrow. Thanks for your inspiration.
Reply
Margaret Paton says:
February 14, 2019 at 6:14 am
For me, the take away is about incorporating a story arc to the structure of my lessons and as a casual teacher that can be tricky but you’ve definitely got me thinking. A segue with pix. Searching for images to illustrate the reason, the underpinning concepts of maths I’m teaching. Asking students to create an image from the maths they are learning and explain it to others … I may be going off the track here a bit, but it’s lending that neat beginning, middle, end to each lesson, treating each 50-min session as an ‘event’ in itself (and as a former event management, I get this). I love the idea, too that using images to carry my lesson plan, infuse it with continuity, will mean I talk less as a teacher and THAT would be a good thing. Rgds M
Reply
Mary Ann Hunter says:
February 14, 2019 at 9:13 am
Working with Lower Primary students i think the take away key point is definitely using more visual keys. Pictures do tell a thousand words and I liked how Matthew pointed out the simpler the picture the better. I agree that using more pictures will help unleash the learning foe students.
Reply
Gary Wattie says:
February 21, 2019 at 3:49 pm
I finally got around to watching this. Great concept Matthew, as a Kinaesthetic & visual learner, this resonates with me, I am a tradesman turned teacher, I once had a tradesman when I was an apprentice, his catch phrase was always “KISS” (Keep it simple/ Stupid), Mathews comments about advertising is just that, if you think about the most simple advertising using pictures, it just cements in your brain. The simple pictures and symbols are the best. I am a volunteer firefighter, I deliver a bit of training across our district, I find our organisations sooooo Death by powerpoint its just not funny, slides with huge amounts of text and the presenter often reads it word for word, 🙁 ‘BORING’, I have tried to alter some of the subjects I deliver by removing most of the text from the slide enlarging the original picture or replacing with new pictures, moving the text to the speakers notes for the presenter to discuss and expand on.
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An imaginative way to make learning stick

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