I hinted at this in my last post. I am not even sure that I fully understand what I want to convey with this post, so please accept my apologies for my "published" rough draft.
Every teacher I know works hard at their craft. They are trying to create new and exciting lessons for their students. We're all well aware that the days of writing a lesson and implement it for the next 10 (or maybe more) years are gone and with good reason. We've done a great job of making education more exciting, more engaging and much more about the learning than compliance. Why then do we feel like we're bumping up against the ceiling when it comes to innovating our practice? I will submit to you that if you want innovative lessons then it's time we innovate the lesson planning process. As I wrote in my last post "Do something innovative like plan WITH your students, not for your students." I think that this is a starting place for just about anyone and everyone. I am hesitant to outline too many other steps because I have always been a firm believer in the idea that what works for you may not work for me. The inverse would also be true. You are a professional. You know what your kids need, what works for them and what meets them where they're at. What I will say is that it's time to think long and hard about the conditions in which we lesson plan. Including kids in the planning process is just one idea. What if we stopped sitting around in groupings that are homogenous by subject area when we plan? Another idea, what if we put our teacher work days in the middle of the school year, so we could have entire days during the school year to make the adjustments we need to make to the ever-changing needs of our students? There could be an infinite list of ideas to try. The bottom line, changing what you do is hard if you never change how you do it.
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A memory crept back into my mind today, and it was one I hadn't thought about in quite awhile. Some of the events from this memory weren't even all that worthy of being remembered. In fact, it was a memory rooted in my own mediocre performance.
I was a 7th grade Texas History teacher at the time. We were in one of my favorite units, the Texas cattle drive days. I know it doesn't sound all that fun, but trust me, there is so much you can do with this content to bring it to life. So many of my lessons in this unit were great. We roped cows, went out and learned to live off the land and so much more. We spent more time outside the classroom than we did inside it. But it was a day inside the classroom during this unit that changed so much about how I would move forward as a teacher. At the end of this mediocre lesson one of my most challenging students came and talked to me about how much he had enjoyed class that day. I was shocked, this was middle of the road at best but yet there he was. It changed the course of the year we had together. So I asked him the question that wound up changing my teaching moving forward: "What worked for you today?" That was the moment that led me to think at the end of the day that it really isn't about how great I thought my teaching was, it was about whether or not it resonated with kids. Prior to that day I would spend a lot of time in isolation reflecting on my craft. I would talk to other adults but never the kids. When I started reflecting with kids on not just the learning, but the learning process I was transformed as was my teaching. I learned that some of things I thought were so great were really missing the mark. I learned that you don't have to teach the same lesson 4 class periods in a row. And I learned that there is both a transformative power and release from a burden when embrace the reality that your greatest resources sit right in front of you each and every day. So get out of reflecting alone, or in your small concentrated room of "adults know best" planning sessions. Do something innovative like plan WITH your students, not for your students. Don't just let kids give you feedback, encourage them to, including critical feedback. Above all, empower yourself with the realization that it's not about your teaching, it's about their learning. |
AuthorJeff Lahey Archives
January 2020
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