Spending thirteen years in the classroom, it is nearly impossible not to pick up at least a few strategies for engaging students. Unfortunately, the downside to spending so much time in the classroom is that there is also a likelihood of getting stuck in a proverbial rut. This is not a blog where I will regale you with tales of how I walked into an inner city classroom, and with innovation and charm won the hearts of my struggling students and redefined the purpose of their lives. I am simply a suburban teacher working in a middle class school district, although I do have the pleasure of working in a diverse district. I have earned a moderate amount of success and respect from my colleagues, mostly by making more than my fair share of mistakes and learning from them. Do not take this to mean that I feel any less accomplished, because I have definitely had the pleasure of positively impacting many students' lives.
While I certainly recommend reading pedagogical articles and looking at research, all that I will provide here are some examples from my personal experience, with a sprinkling of common sense. I have found that changing your perspective in a genuine and lasting way comes when you suspend your preconceptions and acknowledge your own educational prejudices. Of course for the vast majority of educators the advice I just gave is akin to saying "don't eat yellow snow" or "do not judge a book by its cover"; like all simple advice it is easier to voice it then to put it into practice.
As a high school Language Arts teacher with a MA in reading, reading and writing skills are certainly my strong suits, but recently, a great deal of my energy has gone into effectively integrating technology and developing assignments with "real world" connections. As I have learned through my own missteps, the word "effective"needs to be the catalyst for technology integration. If the technology being integrated is not enhancing learning or communication, or streamlining classroom procedures, then it is time to reevaluate its purpose.
This concept of effective integration goes with any classroom innovation as well. For example, if in my attempt to create "real world" connections I have my senior English class watch their favorite TV show and analyze a character on the show, it would be a tremendous waste of time and creative energy. On the other hand, if I challenged the same students to look at episodes of popular sitcoms and identify examples of stereotypes found within the episodes, in order to then evaluate if the show uses broad stereotypes for cheap laughs or as a way of satirizing societal expectations, that would certainly be a far more effective use of that medium. This is not meant to imply that you should not try new activities, on the contrary, try bold approaches to learning; just make sure you have a clear goal in mind and that the lesson/activity/technology has more than just novelty value.
Like many educators before me, I have learned through trials, and often painful, errors, that you have to set aside your educational prejudices, again, easier said than done. We all have our comfortable dogmas that we cling to for security - "that kids parents screwed them up, there is little I can do to combat their up bringing", "my students always make excuses about why they cannot finish work on the computer, it is easier to collect paper copies", "The Common Core Curriculum is too rigid and does not allow for creativity". We repeat these as mantras anytime we begin to wonder if we could do more to challenge our students, and we use them to assuage our uncomfortable feelings and convince ourselves that their is nothing we can do to make a difference.
Of course there are daunting obstacles littering the 21st century educational landscape. I want to be clear I am not one of those educators who believes that every issue facing today's youth is solvable simply by changing school curriculum and classroom practices. Differentiating your instruction, engaging students, and challenging students in with unique and meaningful assignments are great ways to improve your classroom environment, however, they will not lead to an educational utopia or cure all of societies ills. You probably will not save the world, or even America, but you may save a few students and feel better about what you do and its effectiveness.
To begin to change how I thought about education, I had to constantly remind myself that there are many factors beyond my control (state and national education policies, parental influence, peer group influence, societal pressures, etc.), and that the only factor I can control is what happens in my classroom. It is not as simple as just saying it once; you will have to continue to repeat this mantra every time you feel that you are slipping back into the those comfortable dogmas.
Once you change your perspective, the value is both intrinsic and extrinsic - you feel better about what happens in your classroom, you reach more students, you challenge students on a higher level, and you help better prepare students for life outside of school. Anyone who has been in a classroom for more that a week understands that you do not always win - every lesson is not a paradigm shifting success. We do not always win, but we still push forward. If you try something new and it does not work, be honest with your students, reflect on what you could change in the future, and move on. Your students and your colleagues will respect the effort and honesty. Humanize yourself to the students by personalizing your classroom practices.
There is no "one-size-fits-all" change in perspective. Educators who want to change their perspective will need to tailor it to their situation. Factors like: subject, grade level, academic level (i.e. College Prep, Honors, AP, etc.), and school/community demographics, all play a vital role. For example, I am a political junkie who tries to keep abreast of what is going on in the world politics and policies, and I like to look at all of the nuances of an issue before making a decision. This led me to change my perspective on what my role is as a classroom teacher. Undoubtedly, the the lynch pins of my classes are literacy and critical thinking, but my new perspective also had me thinking in terms of politics. Not liberal vs. conservative, and not political parties, but representative democracy. I realized that every one of my students, once they reach the age of eighteen, will be able to participate in our democratic process. Beyond teaching reading and writing, I realized I need to have activities that will help my students to become more thoughtful, discerning voters.
This gave me new direction and a fire to try new way of challenging my students. I wanted to help create informed, 21st century voters who could tell platitudes from real solutions and identify hyperbolic language used by candidates and separate it from the actual facts. And, perhaps the most vital skill that a citizen who is active in our democracy needs, the ability to look at all sides of an issue and choose a position based on their own understandings; not just taking positions based solely on party lines. Now, this does not mean that my entire class is political-science 101, but these ideas are infused into my activities, class discussions, and lectures in hundreds of subtle ways. My students realize there is a purpose to my class that goes beyond getting good grades and learning skills, instead ,there is a ideological glue that holds all of my units together and provides skills that transcend the classroom.
This is what worked best for me; each educator need to discern their own "spark" that will lead them to rethink how they run their classroom. Making an effort to engage and challenge your students is never time wasted. Find your passion and run with it.
