Ending on an Up Note: Grateful for My Teachers

Maybe it’s because the brisk fall air promises that Thanksgiving will soon be here, but I always find it easier to count my blessings in the autumn. And now that I’m in that metaphorically autumnal season of life, I more often recall with gratitude all the teachers who’ve given of themselves so that I could have the pleasure of learning.  Today I’m thankful for:

• My mom, who taught me the names of colors, so I can describe the leaves
• My elementary teachers, who invited me to learn the names of the trees by assigning leaf collections
• My high school teachers, who taught me about the pigments in leaves and the process of photosynthesis
• My college chemistry teachers, who taught me that leaves have colors because leaf pigments absorb and reflect light at different wavelengths…and the physics teachers who explained why the sky is blue, making a perfect backdrop.
• My kids, who taught me that no matter how much of that other stuff you’ve learned, the greatest pleasure offered by leaves is jumping into a big, freshly-raked pile of them.

Enjoy your weekend.

Related articles

• Grateful for All The Lessons (jonathanhilton.com)

Why We DO Need Teachers

Dr. Sugata Mitra (Photo credit: SAIatCalU)

Last week on June 26, I shared some ideas from NPR’s TED Radio Hour’s program “Unstoppable Education.” Dr. Sugata Mitra‘s fascinating “Hole in the Wall” experiments suggested that children, even those from deprived environments, were astonishingly good at teaching themselves how to use computers to acquire complex knowledge. As I listened, I found myself wondering if my teaching job is superfluous. After hearing enlightening talks from Annie Murphy Paul and Rita Pierson, I was relieved when Dr. Mitra returned to close the program and explained why teachers are necessary. As he presented his ideas, I wanted to cheer, and my canine co-pilot may have actually had her adorable ears singed by a hearty “D@#$ straight!”

(You can hear this portion of the program…the 10 minutes and change will allow you to finish the Clean Desk Project that we started last week…by clicking here.)

Emile Renouf – The Helping Hand (1881) (Photo credit: vmarinelli)

The young students in Dr. Mitra’s experiment finally hit a wall in their progress, and he was looking for someone to help them continue their learning. There was no teacher trained in biology available, so he coaxed a  friendly young accountant with no science background to assist. He advised her to use the “Method of the Grandmother,” which consisted of being present and offering warm encouragement, something like “Whoa, how did you do that?” After the cheerleading “teacher” joined the children, their scores jumped 50% and equaled those of students attending an elite private school in New Delhi. Dr. Mitra uttered these magic words:

“Encouragement seems to be the key.”

Yes, yes, and triple-yes.

Dr. Mitra went on to explain how we have constructed a system of punishment and examinations that are perceived as threats, shutting down the parts of the brain that are essential for learning. He continued, “We take our children, we shut their brains down, and then we say ‘Perform.'” He explains how that system evolved out of necessity. Now, however, Dr. Mitra declares:

“We need to shift that balance from threat to pleasure.“

be little (Photo credit: Leonard John Matthews)

Stop the car! He said it! He said that pleasure enhances learning…he’s practically singing our theme song. It sure sounds to me like his vision of creating “a school in the cloud” and providing every child with a computer is consistent with our themes of owning something of value, meeting an achievable challenge, and belonging to a group.

If we want to add pleasure, and the particular pleasure offered by encouragement, to our teaching, what should we do? To quote the little girl to whom Dr. Sitra posed a similar question, “Get on with it.”

Related articles

• Who Needs a Teacher? (pleasureinlearning.com)
• A Response to Mitra Part 2: Classroom Pedagogy (thelongwalkblog.wordpress.com)
• #SugataMitra is trending: Twitter reacts to the 2013 TED Prize reveal (ted.com)

Clever Clip of the Week: What Teachers Make

Here at pleasureinlearning.com, we are talking about teachers and their influence.  Our colleague Pat, a fabulous teacher himself,  loves this video by Taylor Mali, and he occasionally reminds the rest of us to enjoy it anew. It may be a good tonic for any teacher with a case of the winter doldrums.  After all, if we aren’t experiencing pleasure in teaching, our students are unlikely to enjoy pleasure in learning.

So….what did YOU make today?

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• On Speaking With Authority – Taylor Mali (zengardner.com)

COGPOW

The door of the cubby above my desk is cluttered with reminders of how I ought to/want to behave. (I need a LOT of reminders.)  One snippet consists of the acronym “COGPOW.”  Several months ago, Rev. Paige Williams, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church here in Hopkinsville, preached a sermon featuring those letters.  She related that an educator she knew used them as a tool to remember that everyone is a “Child of God, Person of Worth.”  Inspired, I made my own sign and taped it up with the rest of my mess, a constant reminder to treat every student, every advisee, every coworker, every colleague as someone entitled to respect and deserving of compassion.  Some days it’s easy.  Some days….and some people…make it more of a challenge.

Visitors to my office sometimes inquire about the meaning of the word, and I happily share the background.  Regardless of one’s religious feelings or lack thereof, it seems to me a good idea to keep in mind.  Yesterday one of my colleagues sent me an email with the subject line: “An EXCELLENT cogpow article.”  It included this link:

http://mathyawp.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-lesson-of-grace-in-teaching.html

As I read the “The Lesson of Grace in Teaching: From Weakness to Wholeness, the Struggle and the Hope,” by Francis Su, I couldn’t help noticing how many of his ideas, all beautifully expressed, were similar to ones embraced by the authors of this blog.  Like Pat Riley, he feels that it’s important to learn the names of our students.  He discusses the importance of relationships with students and of being transparent about our own shortcomings.  He talks about finding ways to help all students, not just the A’s, feel as though they have met an achievable challenge and have received something of value from the struggle.  He’s singing our songs…or the songs we hope to learn… in a clear, eloquent voice.

pleasureteam note: We plan to feature a series of pieces about outstanding teachers.  If a teacher has been a role model for you or changed your life in some way, please consider sharing that story.  We would love to publish it so that others may learn from that example.

May I Have Your Attention, Please?

At convocation today, some colleagues were reminiscing about their own former teachers and their methods for securing their students’ attention.  One remembered a teacher who threw a baseball at inattentive pupils.  Another recalled the whack of a meter stick on a desk.  I had a teacher who could emit a piercing whistle through his fingers.  We all remember the “hollerers.”

Not gifted with a booming voice?  Neither am I.  A colleague once shared that by the end of the first week of a new school year, she found herself physically tired from projecting her voice.  I could sympathize.  I don’t like to shout.  A shouting teacher sounds to me like a teacher who has lost both her students’ respect and control of her classroom.  And it just seems rude.

I seldom encounter disruptive students, and most episodes of excessive chattiness in the classroom seem to result from innocent obliviousness.  I usually deal with these situations by simply ceasing to speak.  Within a few seconds, all eyes turn to the talkers and other students typically do the “shushing” for me.  Rarely do I need to repeat this process.

A different–and happier–challenge to obtaining attention occurs more frequently.  Since I incorporate lots of group work into my classes, my lab can get a little noisy.  When I first began teaching, I tried raising my voice (didn’t work), clapping my hands (nope), and pounding on the table (more effective, but, again, rude).  I needed a way to help me transition from group collaboration back to focused attention on the instructor  more quickly, and I needed to do it in an inoffensive way.

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping, right?  While browsing in Pier One for some of life’s essentials, I found this little gem in the sale bin.  It filled the bill perfectly….a little glitz, pleasant timbre, adequate decibels, portable, and, darn it, kinda cute.  Now when I need to muster the troops for the next step in a lab, to rotate stations, or to complete a pair-share activity, I just apply an energetic “ding-ding!”

The bell has become part of class culture. If I happen to be out of arm’s reach when I need the class’s attention, a student will often holler “Ding, ding!”  It works as well as the real thing every time.

I recently enjoyed  a piece on NBC news showing America’s top teacher in action, and I was delighted to see that she uses a bell much like mine.  She has gone beyond simply using it as an attention-getter, ringing it to celebrate correct responses.  Here’s Rebecca Mieliwocki  ringing her bell and firing up her class…and us!:
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/47165894#47165894

Do you have a way to get your students’ attention?  Share, please.

—Karen

Car Chalk

Students need to see the material they are learning in class in a way that they see the usefulness of learning it.  With technological advances that we have, there is so much that is competing with our classes and lectures for our students’ attention that we need to come up with new and creative ways to try to compete for that attention.  It would be nice if all of our students had an internal thirst for academic knowledge like most of us have, but the reality is that they don’t.

What I have found that students have is a competitive spirit.  If we are going to have to compete for their attention, maybe a good way to approach that is appeal to their sense of competition.  I like to use a variety of games and activities in my classes where the reward is bonus points.  I realize that a couple of points here or there isn’t going to make a tremendous difference in the students’ final grade, but they don’t see it that way.  If they can earn a couple of points here and there, they feel a sense of accomplishment.

Recently I tried a couple new assignments to try to get the students to put in some extra effort outside of the class (otherwise known as studying).  We were covering the Interest Rate formulas in college algebra.  I’ve always used the example of buying a car in the past to great success.  The students all will plan to finance a car at some point and are usually interested in participating in these calculations.  This time, I gave them an assignment to be my financial planner.  In class, we agreed on a rather nice car that I would try to buy and I told them that their assignment for the next class was to be the one to come up with the best monthly payments.  That student would receive full credit and the rest would receive a grade based on how close they came to the lowest value.  I told them that I would have a set of criteria in mind that I was willing to spend, but they would have to contact me via email with questions to help them set up their plan.  I was over-whelmed with their desire to get the lowest payment, their creativity in their questions, and their enthusiasm for the assignment.  Nearly every student in the class emailed me multiple times during the assignment (less than one day’s time span as the class met daily).  It felt that I was constantly emailing students all day long.  However, I didn’t really mind.  The sense of competition spurred an enthusiasm for the assignment (and hence the material that I was trying to teach) and by that it energized me as a teacher.  I was really proud of the effort that they expended.

On a final note, there is a fringe benefit to trying out new things in your classes.  If a teacher continues to use the same old lecture, same old delivery, same old stuff, then they will never improve on their material.  I can’t count the number of times that I’ve tried something new and  it led to something even better!  Many of the ideas that are working really well to stimulate the students’ interest and critical thinking come from ideas that I had in class.  Many times the original ideas have long since been forgotten, but the imprint that they left continues to this day.  As a result of this recent activity with the car purchasing, I am already thinking of other new ways to offer the students a sense of competition built in to their assignments.

Good luck!    —Pat