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.