Be Bold! Stop Talking!

Innovation for innovation's sake has no value. The essential question every teacher should ask when designing a learning experience should relate to the why.

Walking into a traditional classroom of uninspired students who had loaded  workbooks full of answers that required little thought, I immediately recognized the challenge. This was not about tests and grades, this had to be about learning. How could I transform this group into hungry minds demanding to inquire about the world? How could I establish an environment where they could engage in the learning design and care about ideas, thoughts, words?

I am a risk taker. I will not play it safe in the classroom, because minds are at stake. So, when the time came for my second evaluation, I went into my preconference with the idea that I was going to continue my quest and involve my mentor in this quest.

So, I explained that my summative experience for my students to determine their understanding of nonfiction text structures would be stations where they would have to apply their knowledge of these structures. I remember my mentor just looking at me, as I explained that this was the first time I was unleashing them with this format. I truly did not know what to expect. I did know that more than just the understanding, what I really wanted to see was a change in their feelings about learning. I wanted to see if through this experience they could feel more confident about what they had learned.

My mentor smiled and said, let's do this.

The results humbled me. At first as I explained the groups and the format, blank faces looked back at me and I thought that I was about to crash and burn. As they went to their centers and began their activities, there was awkward silence, resistance. Then I just allowed the silence and stillness to work. They needed time to process. They needed my smile to assure them. 

Soon activity replaced the stillness. Maybe they were curious or just the first to "blink" in the standoff, but the students began to read and respond in the stations. When they had to compare their thoughts with others, through the intense conversations I heard challenges such as "how can you prove that?" and "where are your signal phrases to indicate this?"

I smiled. This was just the beginning. In my debrief with my mentor, he counseled me that he was unsure that this approach would be effective, given the age of the students and the dynamic (oh, did I forget to tell you that this group includes six students that have enough frequent flyer miles to ISS to travel around the earth five times?). He was uneasy about the silence and whether that would signal the resistance that would be a fatal blow. What he observed was that the silence did not mean the absence of activity or indicate resistance. The silence was the transition from students passively accepting and regurgitating information to engaging in the material.

I could have chosen something safe for my evaluation, but my students deserve more. They deserve my best and that I continually challenge what I consider my best. So, this blog will share the lessons that I continue to learn from some of my educational mentors, as well as my units, the technology that I use, and some ruminations about "teaching in the fast lane." I hope through sharing my success and failures, you will find solutions or insight into your circumstances.