It's all coming together

     It seems so clear in my mind, but I sometimes have trouble understanding why others can't see it.  Making a truly student centered classroom has been a process that has taken me years to formulate.   The day to day management has been the biggest problem.  Until now the technology has been the biggest impediment.  With the chromebooks being given to every student next year, that hurdle is gone.
     The other impediment has been the students.  They are very well trained, and like any trained thing, they don't adjust well to change.  Eventually they will understand I am trying to free them from the monotony of contemporary education.  I am trying to give them a voice and a choice in what and how they learn.  Even if it is just in my classroom.
     That leads me to the third impediment, the system itself.  Some of my colleagues and I joke that we are in the Matrix, and like the movie, we are the only ones that see it.  So how do I, as one teacher, stand out and do what I know is right, when the rest of the system continues to play the game?  The only way I know how, just by doing it.
     So how exactly is it going to work?  I am pretty sure I am close to having the answer to that question.  Maybe another blog post soon.

Why we do what we do.

Occasionally it is useful to look at your classes and ask yourself, "Why am I doing this?".  Far too often the answer to that question is not sufficient. If the best response to that question is because it's on the test, or the scope and sequence says I have to cover it, we can't expect students or teachers to be engaged.

School should be a place where students learn to ask questions and explore interests.  Instead it is too often a place where they are lead from class to class, dutifully following directions and doing assignments that are totally disconnected from their lives and interests.  Students should have more say in the topics they want to study.  They need guidance, not prescribed sets of curriculum.

When teachers ask the question, "Why am I doing this?", the answer needs to be because it will make the student's think and learn.  We are here to teach students, not subjects. When the curriculum and assessment become more important than the students we have lost our way.

Minimal Effort, Maximum Reward

Today I announced the portfolios for the civil liberties and civil rights unit will be due next Thursday.  "Portfolio of what?", I heard many times. "Portfolio of your work for this unit, like all the other units." I responded. "But we haven't done anything."  By that I usually interpret I haven't given specific work to be turned in and graded. We worked on civil liberties debates and will discuss more tomorrow, but I haven't told the students exactly what they should be learning.

This is one of the problems with our system.  We create students, not learners.  If I don't tell people exactly what to do, and frequently how to do it, they are at a lose. It's not really the student's fault.  They have been trained to behave this way.  Classes have never been places to explore ideas, they are things to get through.  The mindset is to get as high a grade as possible, by doing as little as possible.  By the time these kids are seniors they have become quite adept at this routine.

If this is going to change, the focus needs to change. The process of learning is just as, if not more, important than what is learned. What do we want the students to know and how do we know they know it, are the wrong questions.  What do the students want to know and how we going to help them develop the skills to know it are better questions that should guide our teaching.

Questions

I often ask if there are any questions about anything we have been studying recently to start a class. Occasionally, a hand will go in the air.  Most of the time there is an extended moment of silence, as the students look down at their desks, shuffle papers and try to avoid eye contact.  For some reason many students act like asking a question is like going to confession.

I have said many times to my students that the ideal class would be nothing but student questions and discussion of those questions.  After all, questions the students have are going to be more meaningful to them and will lead to more learning. The problem is kids have been taught that answers are more important than questions. We always say it's about what you know, not what you still need, or want, to know. Real learners understand there is a lot they don't know, and are comfortable with that. They even enjoy it.  As Socrates said, "The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing."  I hope as a teacher I can follow Twain's idea to never let "my schooling interfere with my education".

Debates

Yesterday was the first day of the civil liberties debates in Government.  I was very happy with the first set of debates. Every group went all the way or close to the five minute time limit. The arguments were well organized and prepared.  The rebuttals were not as strong, but that is harder to do. It is a totally different skill set. It is funny to see how badly many of the kids want to get into a give and take argument but can't in this format.

Time

I can't tell you how many times I hear, "I don't have time for that," from students and teachers.  There are only so many hours in the day, and everyone feels crunched for time occasionally, but the time problem can be minimized in class relatively easily.

First, if you focus and work a typical class period is a lot of time to get things done.  Laser focus every second of every period is not realistic, but a good half hour of hard work will go a surprisingly long way.  It is a lot easier to waste a class period than to use it well, but that is a life skill.  Most people would have more than enough time if they used it more effectively.

From the perspective of the teacher, I have been surprised how much time is freed up when I don't try to plan every minute of every period.  Allowing the students to make decisions about what they need to get down and how to do it, frees up time for them and me.  It gives me time to work with the students and along side them.

Probably the biggest adjustment teachers can make, myself included, is learning to shut up.  Teachers need to listen more and talk less.  A big part of this goes along with the giving up of control.  When the teacher is talking they feel in control.  I am not saying there is no place for lectures and direction, but I try to remind myself to make it brief.  The less I talk, the more time there is for work.

If you feel you don't have, figure out ways to make some of it.

Student Centered Classes

My goal for the last three years has been to move to a student centered classroom environment.  Daniel Pink's presentation on motivation highlights three key aspects for personal motivation; choice, challenge/mastery and purpose.  Those are three great principles to organize a class around.  If classes focused on big questions that people cared about, there would be far more interested students.  I know certain things need to be covered in different classes, that is a topic for a later entry. At least in my content their is plenty of room for all three of those to work.  The more classes become student centered, not content centered, the better the learning will become.

Motivation and Grades

Why do students go to class, do homework or study for tests?  Most students would answer they do all of those things for the grade.  But are grades an addiquit motivator?  Are they even an accurate way to measure learning?  I would argue grades are problematic, at best.

Grades are a form of external motivation.  The more they are used the more intrinsic motivation is killed.  When you see young children they want to know more and more.  By the time they have reached high school the intrinsic desire to know and learn is all but gone for the majority of students. The two most used questions by students are, "Is this on the test?" and "How many points is this worth?".  Learning for the sake of knowledge is rarely considered.

The other major problem is the importance given to the grades.  Grades have become almost a declaration of personal worth.  Kids measure themselves and others based on them.  Grades are not measurements of a person value nor are they an accurate representation of learning and knowledge.  The inaccuracy of grades is demonstrated well here http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2015/01/what-grade-should-they-get.html.  

Education needs to move to a system that encourages intrinsic motivation and leads to learning for the sake of learning.

Giving Up Control

Many educators are very wary of giving up control.  But it is exactly that act that will free students to once again find their intrinsic desire to learn.  Giving up control doesn't mean the classroom is total anarchy.  It means the teacher is not the sole authority on what should be covered and learned.  Students should not walk into the classroom every day with the mindset of "What is he going to make us do today?".  They should walk in thinking "What do I need to get done today?"  The teacher should not have every second of every period planned out, the same for every student.  There are due dates and whole class activities, but not every day.  Not most days.  When teachers learn to sacrifice some control, to get students thinking and then get out of the way.  Real learning can take place.