It's that time of year when many of us are counting down the days until summer. So many of us are just burnt out or in need of a break. And many of our students are too. But imagine if they weren't. What if our classrooms were so filled with passion, that our students felt (at least partially) disappointed that the school year was coming to a close?
I came across this blog post entitled Ending the School Year Well. It offers a great collection of thoughts and ideas from many educators about how they do just that in their schools.
I came across this blog post entitled Ending the School Year Well. It offers a great collection of thoughts and ideas from many educators about how they do just that in their schools.
This is a great time of year to reflect and consider what changes we can make to benefit next year’s students. We can try something new in the spring and use summer to learn from our trials. When the state testing is done, teacher evaluations are wrapping up, and unannounced walk-throughs are minimal...it’s the perfect time to take a risk and try something new you are considering implementing next year. Even if it’s not perfect, it has to be better than our students counting down the days until they are out of our classroom, popping in movies, and cleaning the room! We often revert to what we are comfortable with and what we know. Sometimes it means breaking out of our comfort zones in order to find our passion and to inspire our students to find theirs. It’s a great time of year to consider how we can create a love of learning in our classrooms.
Why Does It Matter?
Inspiring a love of learning is the first step in developing lifelong learners. We want their learning to continue way beyond the walls of our schools. We want them to constantly strive to know, learn, and do more. We have to acknowledge that although the content we are teaching is valuable, it won't be enough in the 21st century. Our students need the skills and desire to be lifelong learners so they can thrive as the world continue to change around them. It's our responsibility to cultivate curiosity and to provide opportunities for our students to collaborate as they learn to use resources to answer complex questions and tackle problems. Not only does being a lifelong learner, in my judgement, bring more joy and fulfillment to life, but it creates citizens who can contribute to making the world a better place.
No matter what standards, curriculum, testing, or challenges we face, we have the responsibility and privilege to inspire a love of learning in our students. If school is a place of compliance and passive gaining of knowledge, how can we expect our student to see the value and power of learning to make it a priority in their lives?
Ways to Help
I love talking to kids-my kids and their friends, my students and my former students, etc. I love getting insight into their perspectives on all things to do with school and learning. One thing I love to hear about are the reasons they do and don’t like school or learning. With their thoughts in mind, I gathered a few ideas about things to do in the classroom and ways we as educators can keep our passion alive for teaching. I certainly don't think I have this completely mastered, but it is something I am intentional about and continuously look for ways to improve. I aspire to foster a love of learning in each of my students and these are a few ways that have helped me so far.
How to Inspire a Love of Learning
Get connected
Find someone that inspires you. Whether that is in your school, district, or on twitter, find someone that inspires you in an educational way and connect. Watch them teach, meet with them, follow their blog or tweets, bring something into your classroom from theirs. I love this post about finding your marigold in your building. So important. Surround yourself with the ones that love what they do and don't seem to get caught up in the negativity.
Also, connect with the people in your building! Get to know the people you work with. Take the time to get to know them outside of school life. Teaching is a demanding job and it's so nice to have others that understand it and can be there for you on a rough day. You'll start to realize you are part of something bigger than what goes on in your classroom. When you feel connected to others in your school, it snowballs and in the end benefits your students.
Read
Make the time. It can be quick articles, blogs, or lengthy educational books. Read things not related to education too. We (no matter what subject you teach or age of your students) should be encouraging a love of reading. It's far more effective when you have your own love of reading and can share that with your students.
Give Choice
Whenever you can, find ways to give students choice. Maybe it's about what they write about and where they do their writing during writer's workshop. Maybe it's about what book they read when you conference with them or meet with them in a strategy group. Maybe it's about who they sit by or work with for an activity. Maybe it's a genius hour or passion project where they get to choose what they learn about. This article has some great ideas regarding How Giving Students Choice During the Day Can Create Unstoppable Learning. Maybe it's about what order they complete the learning activities in. Maybe it's about how they will demonstrate their learning. Maybe they can choose the topic they research or generate a question to explore. Find ways to give them choice. You will see them much more invested when they feel they have a choice throughout their day and ownership over their learning.
Limit the use of worksheets
This was top of the students’ “don’t do” list. Too many worksheets. It doesn't mean never do a worksheet, but be open to finding other options. Find a way to accomplish the same practice or goal of the workshop in a game format, task cards, or more interactive activity altogether. For example, I often take our math workbook problems and create task cards. They literally are the exact same problems. When meeting in small groups, students love to use their dry-erase markers and solve problems at their own pace. I can provide immediate feedback as I observe them working. I also have been taking the word problems and creating a choice menu with these problems. Get creative so you are still giving students opportunities to practice, but in a more engaging way than any worksheet offers.
Try New Instructional Strategies
Using a variety of instructional strategies allows us to better meet the wide range of needs in our classrooms and encourages student engagement. Keep it interesting for them. If we want our students to develop a lifetime love of learning, we need to reach them in a variety of ways. It doesn't have to mean completely changing the way you run your classroom, but try implementing something new. Talk to your colleagues, look on Pinterest & Twitter. Try a SOLE lesson, experiment with writer's workshop, try guided math or reciprocal teaching, do a cubing activity, use Google, play a Kahoot game, try a Nearpod lesson or investigate inquiry-based learning. Keep it fresh. When you hear about a new strategy, don't fall into the trap of finding something wrong with it or immediately thinking of why it wouldn't work in your classroom. True, they won't all work for you. And yes, it can get messy when you are trying something new. You for sure have to let go and accept that it might not be perfect. It's a risk and sometimes it will be a failure. But it's how you reflect and what you gain from your failure, that will transform your classroom into a place where a love of learning will flourish.
Meet the Needs of Individual Students
Differentiated instruction. Yes. It isn't always easy, but teaching a group of 25 students rather than 25 individual students just doesn't cut it anymore. For me meeting with students in small groups and individual conferences is a way that I have found to meet the individual needs of my students. Direct instruction has it's place. But often a mini-lesson followed by students given the opportunity to practice the skill will be far more effective. Consider the age of your students and reflect on how much time you spend in front of them talking. You can read my post here about the Shift from Whole Group to Small Group and my post about responsive teaching here.
Empower Students
Create an environment where students don't feel like they are a compliant visitor in your classroom. Let them have ownership and let them make it their classroom and let them make it their classroom. One small way I do this is for students to know that they help each other solve problems as they come up. I'm typically am working with individual or small groups of students and when issues arise, students know to turn to each other rather than me. They help each other log into Google Classroom or solve a disagreement over a preferred reading spot. Paul Solarz's book Learn Like a Pirate has so many great suggestions and has inspired to make this more of a priority in my classroom. Our students can be responsible and be leaders if we give them the chance.
Have student set goals
Focus less on grades and more on learning goals. Support your students in developing individual goals to help them grow in whatever area you are teaching them. Give them strategies to help meet their goals. Monitor their progress and celebrate successes!
Foster a love of reading
This is a complicated one. There are so many factors in developing effective reading instruction that fosters a love of reading. There are also many great posts out there about the "killing the love of reading" that ends up happening in so many schools . Here is a recent one that I think is great. In our attempt to keep students accountable or to see evidence that they are applying all of the amazing strategies we teach, we take out all the joy that reading brings. I think sometimes we are so afraid that we must hold students accountable for every moment in our classroom. How do we know they are really understanding what they are reading? We feel the need to make sure our students demonstrate their comprehension on something tangible. Yes, sometimes it's necessary. But not EVERY time they read. An individual reading conference can often be way more powerful. This is one that I have been guilty of and have worked really hard at changing the structure in my classroom to allow for more individual conferences. Let them enjoy a book of their choosing without having to complete papers or projects. Let them enjoy reading and the powerful discussions it can inspire.
Provide opportunities for working with others
Whether it's partner work, book clubs, SOLEs, cooperative learning, designated time for partner reading or reciprocal teaching groups, find ways for them to engage with others.
Play Games
There are so many options to incorporate games. Game-Based Learning (GBL) is a movement now in education. Here are a couple of links for more information on incorporating gaming: MIND Research , New Media Institute, & Edutopia. Incorporating games doesn't have to be complicated and doesn't always involve technology. Kahoot is a popular gaming platform that can be used to introduce new concepts and as formative assessment with options to collaborate with classrooms around the world using Google Hangouts. The possibilities for games involving tech are endless! And on the low/no tech level are games like the classic whole class Jeopardy game to review information or math games from the days of Everyday Math like Addition-Top It, Penny Under the Cup, Salute, Beat the Calculator, etc. Games involving dice, dominos, and number cards are low-tech ways to integrate games. It's also so easy to differentiate with games. Anytime I announce that we are going to play a game, the class always cheers. Games are a simple, effective way to get your students engaged and loving learning! And almost all of the students I talk to mention that playing games make learning more fun.
Offer flexible seating
Gone are the days of students sitting in rows of desks all day long. Tables of all shapes and sizes, pillows, lap desks, stools, beanbags, couches, balance balls, and scoop rockers offer students a choice in seating and a chance to find a workplace that works for them.
Don't compare yourself to others
If I had a good teaching day and am letting myself feel like I actually might have the hang of this teaching thing, all I have to is look on Twitter or Pinterest for a few minutes and feel completely inadequate. Somebody is always doing something that I haven't tried or thought of or sometimes ever even heard of. If you aren't careful you can get overwhelmed if you focus on all that you are not doing. Don't. Don't compare. Don't get intimidated by others who are doing something you are not. Instead, be brave enough to learn or be inspired. And don't let comparison and differences breed negativity. Blowing out someone else's candle won't make yours shine any brighter. We each have something to offer. There is room for all of us to shine.
Be Reflective
My classroom, my teaching, and the learning experience I create are always a work in progress. I never (and probably never will) feel like I have mastered teaching. (If I do, someone let me know it's probably time to retire!) I've grown and improved, but there is always more I can learn and implement. And because of that, I find that I'm constantly reflecting on my teaching and the learning in my classroom. (And this blogging is certainly adding to that reflection time.) For me, reflection is the first step of many in making a positive impact on the lives of those that I get to teach.
Ignite a Passion for Learning
I chose my blog's name "Ignite a Passion for Learning" so easily. It was on the front of each mini-portfolio I created to give to districts as I began my search for my very first teaching position. It was weaved into my required "Philosophy of Education" piece due upon graduation. William Butler Yeat's famous quote inspired me then and inspires me now:
And 17 years later, igniting a passion for learning is my ultimate daily goal. It's what drives me. For me, it's the greatest gift I can give each student that enters my classroom. I want each of my students to show outstanding growth, but that's not enough. I want them to LOVE learning. I strive to create an environment where they want to be there...Where they are engaged, persevering, succeeding, growing, thriving, and ENJOYING it! (And what I've come to realize is that my passion is to do that for not only students, but for the teachers that teach them each day. A part of what motivates me to take the time to write this blog is the hope that I may inspire someone else to want to learn more, reflect on their practice, and positively impact more students.)
No matter what challenges we face in education, this for me is the core of our purpose. Lighting that fire in our students. As a mom and as an educator, I humbly ask that you join me in reflecting on how we can ignite a passion for learning in our students, in ourselves, and perhaps even the educators around us.
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