What matters in a classroom

 

While watching the Ted Talk, Learning from Baby George, by Mike Wesch, I found myself making a similar comparison to my own experiences working in schools and particularly in higher education. My students will often ask me what they can do for a higher grade when they have missed class, put no effort in and have not submitted the assignments. They haven't done the work necessary, yet want the passing grade. The grade is always their main focus, not the learning. I have had students say to me- what do I need to do to pass this course when they have not put any effort into it. Sometimes they only take my class because they think it will be an easy A and are surprised when it is not as easy as they thought, and they don't know everything I teach.  The vaccination theory, the idea that once you have learned something you don't need to relearn it really stood out to me.  I am someone who believes in life long learning and I think you can continuously grow and add to your tool box and take away different things from different learning experiences. Some of the things I learn from repeat learning experiences are techniques, other times it is content but I always learn something new or am reminded of something I may have forgot about.  I think setting expectations is important so students understand exactly what is needed to succeed so they feel responsible and accountable for the work completed. I don't assign letter grades to reflections because I want them to express themselves without worry of what the grade will be.  I find this more effective than exams since they are given points for completing the work assigned but with a lot less pressure.  I have found exit slips and reflections helpful in evaluating take away messages and the retention of learning.  

Another thing that stood out to me, is the idea of real world education and thinking about being a young student today. I believe we need to do better in this area and provide more resources and training to make the learning more engaging so students want to engage and learn because they are interested it and find it meaningful. Packing students into a room and dumping education is not working. When class size is big it loses the personalization and I have seen cases where teachers don't even know the students name. They get lost in the chaos of unorganized classrooms and often teachers are frustrated with the classroom management and aren't actually facilitating learning. . I find the connections with students are so important and love that Mike Wesch made it a point to sit with his students and have lunch with them and have meaningful conversations with them to create those relationships and find out what mattered to them. We need more of that. I find even just standing outside in the halls for passing time can make such a big difference in being an approachable adult. I recently did a training session on becoming an approachable adult you can view the slides here for other tips. 

I agree with Mike that students are more than their score or grade.  We know not everyone learns the same yet our educational systems are set up to fail lots of kids. Every student should have an individualized learning plan unique for them and their needs. Moving beyond grades and pass/fail and changing the grading system would help develop young people's confidence and assure students are learning the material and not just being socially promoted because of their age.   There is a lot of pressure put on the student from everyone about grades- the teacher, the parents and even other students. If you get too good of grades you maybe picked on for being a bookworm, geek or nerd so students may not push themselves or express their knowledge for fear of student rejection and name calling. There is a common belief that the smart students are not the popular students. I also see this effects the students who are struggling. They start to believe they can't do it and may just give up- they also might start to identify as the "kid who doesn't like school" and play to that part giving up on future opportunities to learn and thinking their popularity depends on it. Students express themselves in various, diverse ways and it's so important to provide young people spaces to create and learn through their preferences. For example one of my middle school classes was really into TikToc so we encouraged them to create videos after learning about bystander intervention, this went over great because they were able to use technology and a platform they were already comfortable with. Here is an example of a video we created. 

Finally, I really loved the idea of scaffolding the eduction and the idea of helping each other reach goals and not having the project or final grade be the end of learning. I currently teach a course where we work on parts of a project throughout the semester.  I teach the why they need it along with the what they need to know and we break down each assignment into smaller manageable chunks of information that is not overwhelming to them. I think it is important to support and celebrate students progress along the way and I applauded the idea of giving students the opportunities to get it right.  It is important for students to take chances and risks so they can experience the success of reaching a goal and also have the support to work things out when they don't understand or need another chance. We don't ever want to leave a child feeling like they failed and have no opportunity to improve. That is not the lesson we want them to learn or the message we want to leave them with.