I think of the "if only" discourse as a sort of cloud (sometimes toxic) hovering over the classrooms where teachers continue the real work, mostly unaffected by it.
Yeah I often feel pretty annoyed by folks outside the classroom who act as if there are obvious solutions that would transform education if only we weren't so stubborn and old-fashioned.
Love your eloquence, always. This one made me wonder how much you share this with the kids?
In teacher ed courses, I feel like my main objective is usually 'teaching is hard.' You make me think I should be doing 'learning is hard' in all my classes!
Great question. I don't present this all in one package, here are the elements I find useful:
When students ask why we're learning something, my basic answer is because learning things makes you smarter, and that's the point of school. I really believe that. We should think hard about what's most useful to learn, but we don't teach things solely because students will use them someday or because they'll help get a job. Learning things makes you smarter, full stop.
I also share that learning requires effort (I often phrase this as learning requires thinking hard about stuff). I think of this in terms of routines. Learning things makes you smarter, learning requires effort, and the best idea we have to get students to put in that effort is to get everyone in the habit of showing up to school, going to math class at 10:37, sitting down, the teachers gives you some math, we work on it, we talk about it, etc.
The best thing I can do to facilitate this process is to do a good job structuring class so the effort students put in results in learning. When effort leads to learning, that shows students that effort is worthwhile and they are capable learners. Successful learning begets more learning.
That makes teaching sound much simpler than it is but when I can get students bought in to those basic pieces I feel pretty good about where we are as a class.
Thanks for bringing Kurt Vonnegut (what a genius) back into my thoughts and for reminding everyone that learning is hard.
I think of the "if only" discourse as a sort of cloud (sometimes toxic) hovering over the classrooms where teachers continue the real work, mostly unaffected by it.
Yeah I often feel pretty annoyed by folks outside the classroom who act as if there are obvious solutions that would transform education if only we weren't so stubborn and old-fashioned.
Love your eloquence, always. This one made me wonder how much you share this with the kids?
In teacher ed courses, I feel like my main objective is usually 'teaching is hard.' You make me think I should be doing 'learning is hard' in all my classes!
Great question. I don't present this all in one package, here are the elements I find useful:
When students ask why we're learning something, my basic answer is because learning things makes you smarter, and that's the point of school. I really believe that. We should think hard about what's most useful to learn, but we don't teach things solely because students will use them someday or because they'll help get a job. Learning things makes you smarter, full stop.
I also share that learning requires effort (I often phrase this as learning requires thinking hard about stuff). I think of this in terms of routines. Learning things makes you smarter, learning requires effort, and the best idea we have to get students to put in that effort is to get everyone in the habit of showing up to school, going to math class at 10:37, sitting down, the teachers gives you some math, we work on it, we talk about it, etc.
The best thing I can do to facilitate this process is to do a good job structuring class so the effort students put in results in learning. When effort leads to learning, that shows students that effort is worthwhile and they are capable learners. Successful learning begets more learning.
That makes teaching sound much simpler than it is but when I can get students bought in to those basic pieces I feel pretty good about where we are as a class.