Following:

Once again David Karopatwa has not blogged recently so I again searched through the archives of his blogs. I came across this blog posted on Saturday, April 11, 2009, titled "Rules We Live By." In this blog Darren discusses how he has become more and more interested in visual design as it pertains to teaching. This is another of many blogs that he has posted that have to do with visual content. I find this interesting given that he is a math teacher. In this blog he showed slides with fascinating pictures that he used to relate his Introduction of Statistics to real life applications for his students.

Darren then listed these Rules to Live by:
Break apart big ideas into smaller bite-sized pieces
Simplify the message (even when discussing game theory to predict the future)
Give a message space to stand out and contrast to focus attention
Use more visuals and less words
Use clear, easy- to- read charts with simple shapes and colors to add texture and clarity.

He noted that these ideas work best especially when presenting more conceptual ideas.
I believe that his goal is to allow students the opportunity to formulate opinions and ideas on their own. He seems to give his students a venue to construct their own learning and he is there to help facilitate the process. I think that as a teacher I need to be aware of my approach as to what I am trying to convey to the students so that I allow them the ability to think for themselves without me doing all the talking. I guess I need to be sure to credit them with the ability to expand their thought processes to grab onto big ideas.
I know that it is true that visuals do stimulate our thought processes in ways that words alone do not. And if children are presented with clear images that relate in relevant ways their learning to the real world they live in, then they will be stimulated to participate and even eager to learn more. I think that is what every teacher would wish for.