Best Practice / First Year of Teaching / Leadership
Are we boring our students to death?
I am engaged in an ongoing philosophical debate with a colleague and friend. [On an aside, I strongly urge each person to cultivate this type of relationship with someone that will enable you to participate in discourse about our field. You will find it rewarding and energizing.]
My colleague argues that our schools need to be restructured from top to bottom before any real change will occur. I contend that this change must start in the classroom, and as more teachers embrace a change in teaching practices, the school will also be transformed. My friend argues for a radical systems change. In contrast, I will argue that we will accomplish our similar goals by a change within each classroom. The change will grow classroom by classroom. We both strongly believe we can do a better job for our students.
Perhaps he and I are engaging in nothing more than the old chicken or egg debate. Both of us agree that change needs to occur. I guess at the core of the argument is how this will take place. Perhaps our differences can be understood by knowing that I have spent most of my career working up the administrative ladder, and he has spent most of his career as a teacher leader. My cynicism for a systems approach is based upon the obstacles that I have seen and encountered in the “politics” of school change. These obstacles range from elected school boards, parent advocacy groups with special interests, teachers’ unions, budgetary constraints, safety and security concerns, personnel issues, and the general state of educational controversy today ranging from assessments to the Common Core. However, I strongly believe that each teacher can significantly impact the lives of the students in his/her classroom. We can dig into these obstacles at another time.
I believe we are boring our students to death. In an overwhelming number of classrooms that I have observed, our students are continually faced with impersonal and teacher directed lessons. I have followed the schedules of students in the past, before this practice became popular, and I can tell you that by midday I was ready to jump out of the third floor window. I can only guess what the students feel like.
I have just completed reading two powerful books that I strongly recommend. Both deal with schools of the 21st century. They are: Most Likely to Succeed-Preparing Our Kids for The Innovation Era by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith and Deeper Learning- How Eight Innovative Public Schools Are Transforming Education in the Twenty First Century by Monica Martinez and Dennis McGrath. These books will help spark personal reflection and if used correctly, group discussion. Both books support my argument that in general we continue to bore our students with useless, poorly presented material.
I think the first place we should start is to reduce the amount of teacher talk in the classroom. A 50-minute class may consist of 45 minutes of the teacher lecturing, given directions, or controlling the class. I have sat through enough of these types of classes that I can speak first hand of this experience. Change will start immediately if we can agree to limit teacher talk. If you are talking more than your students, you are talking too much.
Work to make the activities student- centered and relevant. Allowing students choice will also go a long way to engaging students. There must be a free flow back and forth exchange of information between the teacher and the students. As students work in pairs and small groups, the teacher should assume a variety of roles. The students will be actively engaged, not passive note takers. I also predict that as engagement rises, off task behavior will decrease.
I would like to close today’s article with a discussion of a passionate belief that I hold: the over reliance on the use of the photo copier. We have moved from being copier dependent to copier addicted in desperate need of a copier rehab. As I reflect upon my administrative career, the best reform I could have instituted was to destroy the photo copier. If you are a teacher reading this, start now to cut back on the handouts. If you are a principal, think of ways you can get control of the situation. I guarantee you that as you start to look more deeply into what is being copied and for what purpose, you will need to prepare for controversy. You are touching on and trying to change a sacred paradigm. I recall a visit to a second grade classroom where I saw a dozen handouts neatly lined up for distribution on a kidney shaped teaching table. The students were dutifully moving from one handout to the next. I am sure when parents opened students backpacks each night the handouts popped out like the magician’s spring snakes in a can. Sadly, the parents probably like this, assuming that children were good and busy all day, never really caring about what they learned. Can you execute your lessons without the aid of these handouts? I think that you can. I know it is hard because the book companies market their products pointing out the wealth of copy ready material. They know how to sell their products.
From today’s article please reflect on your instructional techniques and what you can do immediately to make your classroom more active and student centered. Let’s work to change one room at a time. It all begins with you.
Good Luck.
