What are you Passionate about?
I am very passionate about education. The best salesman truly believes in their product and I am fortunate to believe in what I do. You may not think of education as a sales job, but it is in many ways.
- (no title)
- Courage Under Fire
- Exploring the Nostalgia of Time Capsules
- Relationships That Matter
- My Modern Sports Team Would Be the Knights of Ni
The teacher has a lesson plan, a set of objectives that they want students to learn, acceptable norms for behavior to be followed, and things that the teacher definitely does not want to happen. Getting students onboard with what they are learning or having “buy in” is critical to ultimate success.
I have always been a questioner. I have always wanted to know why we are doing something, and I think our students are they same way. Engaging them on this level, giving them space to express how they feel in a safe place, really makes a big difference.
The human brain is an amazing learning machine. It will go on learning with or without good teaching. It is just a matter of what it will learn, and what it will ignore. Making sure that students understand the imperative nature of the learning at hand and why it will benefit them, has become central to the beginning of each lesson.
If I am looking through the textbook or pacing calendar and I can not see the relevance of a particular lesson, I do not teach it because if I can not find the relevance, how are my students supposed to? After teaching for a long time, I have found this more and more true. Sometimes it is related to my own bias, but if I feel passionately about something, or can get to a place where I an exuding high energy about a topic, chances are students will buy-in.
Sometimes, I am rather surprised by the success of this approach. I will have students who are one-foot out the door, ready to get on with life seniors, coming in at lunch asking me how to invest money in the stock market because they heard I talked about it the day before in class and they know it is something important.
When I am teaching Microeconomics, it can be mathy and dry at times, so the focus is always on how learning these skills helps one save money and make better economic decisions. I still have some students who check out, but most of them stay engaged and get the key information.
I integrate the dryer topics with games and projects to give them intrinsic motivation to learn, beyond just getting a grade to please the teacher. I have students from all walks of life, so this is absolutely imperative.
It certainly doesn’t happen overnight, but after a few months, processes start to become more automatic. Explanations become shorter. In short, it becomes easier to keep students engaged through the entire class period. By the end of the year, it can be almost effortless, but that does not mean it is easy.
I hope you enjoyed an inside look at a teacher’s thoughts on education today. Thanks for stopping by The LifeLong Learning and Education Blog! Check out some of my other recent posts if you have a moment. Apparently, I brought Covid home from Vegas, so what happened in Vegas, did not stay in Vegas 🙂 Stay safe out there!
- (no title)
- Courage Under Fire
- Exploring the Nostalgia of Time Capsules
- Relationships That Matter
- My Modern Sports Team Would Be the Knights of Ni
What are your thoughts on this?