(Ron Moore with students at Guildford Primary School)Hi
My name is Ron Moore. I’m engaged as a tutor in the ‘Chess in Schools’ Program. It is my privilege to introduce this most fascinating of games to students.
I first started playing chess when I was at primary school and have been hooked ever since.
My experience in learning to play better chess was a long process. I ‘pushed wood’ for a long time, suffered many thrashings and only gradually became aware of the strategies, subtleties and complexities of the game.
As I began to play a better game I came to enjoy chess even more.
Fellow workers and family recognize me as someone who is very process orientated. Is this an outcome of my chess playing? Possibly! There are probably a number of skills that every player derives from playing chess.
The purpose of the ‘Chess in Schools’ is to develop cognitive skills, but I believe, in teaching school children to play a purposeful game of chess, much more can be learned.
And we should never forget that chess is great fun and can be enjoyed at any number of levels by both novices and experienced players.
11 comments:
Hi Everyone,
I had a marvellous class at Chewton today. The kids were just wonderful; burning with curiosity, enthusiasm for chess, friendly, co-operative, and really enjoyable to work with. I did the visualising the board exercise, encouraged more reflection with questions, followed by puzzles and then the Progression Table. It was just full on energy and fun. We set some questions for the kids to write a written response to. Peter McConnell, their teacher, will ask them what they like about chess and which do they prefer to play chess or computer games, and give reasons for their opinions. It will be interesting to see how they respond if we get them to answer the same questions somewhere down the track.
Ross Allengames class, South Castlemaine Primary School, is truly amazing. It has a culture which says ‘it’s cool to learn’. Ross,s student are passionate about chess and prefer chess to computer games, and when I asked them why they said it was because chess makes them think and enables them to plan and strategise.
We are trying to get funding to bring a trained psychologist into the schools and measure the students for impulse control and then see if there is any improvement down the track.
Regards Harry
Is technology amazing!
I posted the following on Susan Polgars blog and have recieved a reply in less than 24 hours!
steve from australia said...
I'm interested in applications of chess with students with ADD or ADHD.
If anyone has any anecdotes, research or articles, could you forward them to
carroll.steven.r@edumail.vic.gov.au
My hunch is the ADD student loses focus easily through boredom. Many ADD students I've worked with end up working in kitchens. Why? Because commercial kitchens are busy frantic environments that maintain interest.
Similar charcteristics with a chess-board? Maybe.
Every move has a different set of permutations and a chess game continually evolves and changes thus maintaining interest.
Just a hunch!
Saturday, July 08, 2006 8:28:29 AM
Hi,
I don't know if this is any use, but this site runs a program for ADHD
kids, so I guess they know a bit about it.
Regards
Phil Harris
http://www.ichessu.com/Main.aspx?subPage=AboutICU
Hi Steve,
I saw your post on SP's blog, yes.
I am from England.
The IchessU is a project of a friend of mine, IM Alex Rabinovitch, and I
recalled him mentioning ADHD to me while he was setting it up.
It makes sense to me that he would be the man to talk to, as I have yet
to meet anyone as hyper as him....
Hope it's of some use.
Regards,
Phil
We first started chess in the second term of 2006. Our teacher Ross Allengame has been playing chess in his classrooms for around ten years. We first started to play chess in the start of second term of the year 2006.
Before we started playing chess I wasn't really into it and I thought it to be quite boring! I didn't really know how to play and I didn't know the rules.Once we stared playing chess at school I realized that it was a really fun game!
When Harry started to come to our class to help us learn to play and learn some tactics about chess it became really interesting to me. We learned new ways to get people into checkmate and also good game strategy.
We figured out a lot of websites and facts about chess. There is a website called www.plasticbishop.com where you can verse people in chess from all around the world.
By Juliana
Hi my name Bridie i am in grade 6 at Chewton P.S. My teacher Mr. Mac is really good at teaching stuff. I like chess because it makes you think before you move. My chess tutor Harry is really good at teaching about chess. We have loads of fun with him!
Thanks heaps Harry
Hi my name is Krystal im in grade five from Chewton P.S I think chess is a good stragey to use because you think about what move you're going to do. My teacher
MRS T is a great teacher she is easy to talk to and she understands every word you say. our chess teacher is harry well he calls himself the mighty harry potter. He is a great teacher. we have a load of fun and i love playing chess and thinking of moves to do.
Hi my name is Molly i am in grade 5 at Chewton P.S. My chess teacher is grate and thats why i like chess so much. and also its a lot of fun
Hi My name is Scott. i am in grade 6 at chewton p.s. my teacher is
mr.mac. i love playing chess for lots of differant reasons! my chess tutor is Harry. i hate chess
Hi My name is scott and i am sorry for what i said and i will never do it again
hi am cassandra i go to chewton primary scool i play chess
The tutoring is really going great. We have the point where students can record moves and reflect on their decisionmaking referring to strategy and tactics. We are constantly practicing regrouping, cancellation and addition and subtraction as well as referring to the co-ordinate plane. The main thing is students are beginning to formulate plans and think ahead.
This is marvellous.Regards to all bloggers Harry
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