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TEDx Talks
Published: 2015-05-27
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCFg9bcW7Bk
I'm one of the best jobs in the world because I get to work with people who are fun funny energetic creative and insightful they happen to be fourteen to eighteen years of age I really do think kids keep a person young and I think that's probably why when I'm in the presence of adults I sometimes don't know how to act so you'll forgive me so inspiring
the students of the future what really works thirty seven years of teaching experience have taught me that two things are needed research based teaching techniques and relationship relationship is huge but we'll talk more about that later when I'd like to look at first are the techniques I think probably most of us remember the teacher centered classroom this is probably what we're familiar with from our youth
you remember the teacher was up front and center students were in nice neat rows not allowed to talk to each other and the teacher the source of authority downloaded information to the kids who regurgitated up back up on a test designed to measure how much content they could remember now I have to admit I love lecturing but my students don't always love it it does not
always inspire so I was thinking what really inspires years ago I was doing lunch duty at school standing in the lunch room being visible watching kids go through the cafeteria line and as I watched the kids going through the line it occurred to me they love having choices as I said to myself self maybe that would work in the classroom let the kids have choices and
so that's what I did I converted my classroom to a situation where student choice was a big part of the room along west for other sees collaboration can be indication critical thinking and creativity actually over ten years ago the national education association identified those last four sees on the list as the sensual twenty first century skills that kids should learn and I agree wholeheartedly I had
a choice to the top of the list not as a skill for kids to learn but rather as a characteristic of the classroom my choice I mean a situation where many learning activities are available to students designed to meet the many diverse learning styles that they have and the kids love it as much as they love choices in the cafeteria now I think were made for
learning this way imagine our early hominid ancestors out looking for food don't you know then finding and tracking that woolly mammoth required critical thinking and problem solving it definitely required collaboration teamwork I mean you wouldn't want to do this by yourself No Way and collaboration required communication and then I imagine those people sitting around the campfire at night re living the adventures of the day's hunt
they must've had smiles on their faces when they were retelling the story of the hunt and I know they smiled when they put those cave paintings up on the wall because creativity is a uniquely human pleasurable satisfying activity so I believe our brains are wired for the five sees SS there wired for the five sees that authentic learning will happen when kids are allowed to engage
in the five cities and not just learning but I think kids will enjoy a classroom set up like this and even be inspired in this way now this requires a classroom set up based on the five sees requires a shift from a teacher centered classroom to a student centered classroom in this requires a teacher to remove him or herself from front and center becoming more of
a guide on the side rather than a sage on the stage but this opens up opportunities and not merely teach but the coach to mentor to nurture and inspire and that's why I love it so much now time out it's important for me to mention these are not my original ideas I stand on the shoulders of giants remember Plutarch he said in a long time ago
the mind is not a vessel that needs filling but would that needs igniting and more recently Albert Einstein education is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to thank alright you're gonna have to bear with me I'm gonna get real goose bump plea for a minute one of the absolute most exciting moments of my life my professional life was meeting Albert Einstein
just a few years ago changed my life bumping into him in that wax museum what what a moment it was so I stand on the shoulders of giants giants like Montessori MP as day and doctor Sam post away who was doing a lot of these things in his biology classes at Purdue University back in the nineteen sixties I'm a product of the Purdue biology department that's
where I fell in love with biology I stand on the shoulders of giants Mike Tom Watson Steve ran back who were doing this back in the nineteen seventies in their high school biology classes I stand on the shoulders of many giants called elementary school teachers and special ed teachers so I'm a product of all of those mentors so collaboration communication critical thinking creativity and student choice
what's it look like if I could you share with you briefly the experiences that I've tried with this I've taken my ninth grade biology classes and divided the school year up into two to three week units at the beginning of each unit the students are given a menu of all the smorgasbord activities that are available on the menu now this is been challenging because I've had
to write all of these activities so that no matter what combination of activities a student chooses to do based on their learning styles and no matter what order they choose to do the man they'll still achieve the required objectives for the unit it's been fun it's been a challenge but the kids love it they love having the choice and there are many times when they forget
that I'm even in the room and that's okay one of the things that is not required there are two activities normally never units that are not required one is the test at the end of the unit and the other one is the computer tutorial I've taken several summers and written these self paced interactive computer tutorials that the kids work through they're designed to take the place
of the stuff that I use to lecture on kids have told me in private Mr rule we like the tutorials better than your lectures and that's okay that's perfectly okay because it's all about them and so if you came to visit my class on a typical day you would see some kids working through the computer tutorials you would very likely see some kids working on some
website activities online it's very possible you would see some kids in a corner of the room with headphones on watching a video related to the unit writing out answers to questions that accompany the video I'm sure would see students doing laboratory activities you would probably notice some kids tending to their ongoing science fair projects and I know for sure you would probably find a group of
kids off in another corner around an educational game designed to teach them about some biological concept related to the unit and you would likely see some kids doing some hands on mines on simulations learning about some other biological phenomena I know you would see some kids off in a corner filling out what are called reflection sheets that are designed to get them to think about their
learning self evaluate their efforts take past knowledge in connected to new knowledge and there's one other activity on the menu that a lot of kids really enjoy it's called arts and entertainment it's on the menu in every unit and this is where the students take any concept they've learned in the unit and at home develop some kind of a project presentation and then present it to
the rest of the class on the last day of the unit arts and entertainment has to be non traditional it's only limited by their imagination so they can come in and perform a song get present a movie present a model that they've built poetry any non traditional way of demonstrating their knowledge of something they've learned in the unit for example these two young ladies in our
biochemistry unit took it upon themselves to build a model of a chlorophyll molecule using gum drops to represent the Adams these two young ladies their sisters I happen to decide to demonstrate a very creative way the fact that they each inherited half of their genes from mom and half of their genes from dad gotta love them this method of teaching for may I have found thirty
seven years experience it's not only effective but it's fun because it allows me to sit down small groups of students while I am team teaching with that fleet of ten computers it gives me the opportunity to sit down with a group of two three or four or five kids and respond to questions that they initiate it allows me the opportunity to listen ten there are thinking
and teachers when you do that just if you do this the whole situation create someone of a teacher paradox because by removing yourself from front and center you seem to become less important but paradoxically in reality you become more important because while working as a guide on the side you're freed up to use the most powerful teaching techniques I have ever run across in thirty seven
years there is old as the hills it doesn't matter what techniques are used these to always work I'm talking about two loves first the teachers love for the subject and passion for the subject and secondly the teachers genuine love for the kids first let's talk about the passion you know what I remember about third grade remember Jenny on the bus I'm not kidding third grade no
the thing I remember most about the classroom in third grade is I remember our teacher every day after lunch would read to us for ten to fifteen minutes she would read to us Tom Sawyer what an adventure we have black and white TV we had cartoons on TV but this was different it was obvious to us that miss her she loved reading and she was passionate
about reading to us Tom Sawyer what an adventure at the end of the ten minute reading parent I couldn't wait until the next day to find out what would happen to Thomas friends I don't know if miss her she realized it or not I should have written her a letter a long time ago she inspired me to be a reader but you see she wasn't saddled
with state mandated standards and state mandated high stakes standardized testing and so she was free to teach and inspire I'll never forget her she means the world to me I should have written her a long time ago then for that other love teachers love for the kids if there are any teachers in the audience don't get nervous I'm not talking about warm fuzzy emotional love I'm
talking about genuine decisional put the other person first kind of love it motivates it inspires in a powerful way I'm talking about the kind of love that CS Lewis wrote about it in his book the four loves he described it as I got a lot of the highest level of love known a self sacrificial kind of love I love that's passionately committed to the well being
of the other this kind of love is not always emotional but it is always decisional so teachers great knows this means you can love your kids even when they're not likable does that ever happen because this kind of love is not emotional it's decisional and it motivates and inspires in a powerful way and this is old as the hills so teachers then airtight lesson plan is
important I'm well organized consistent discipline plan is important effective use of technology is important standards are important but please don't let them stifle your creativity all these things are important but what the kids are gonna remember most of all is you don't forget that sixth see caring that is the most effective most powerful most inspiring way of teaching getting their attention motivating them inspiring them what
they're gonna remember most is that you look them in the eye and ask them about their extra curricular activities and they're part time jobs what they're gonna remember most is that you just asking in the hall how they were doing what they're gonna remember most is that you worked really hard the first couple weeks of school to learn their names in the first couple days what
they're gonna remember most is that you went to their athletic events in their concerts what they're gonna remember most is that you lead the class in loud off key choruses of Happy Birthday what they're gonna remember most is that when they made the newspaper you put their newspaper clippings up on the wall in the classroom and you told them to autograph them and you told them
to do that so that someday when their autographs were worth lots of money it would find your retirement what they're going to remember is that you were transparent and that you were real and that you had the ability to laugh at yourself and laugh with them so what's really important how do we motivate how do we inspire allow kids to involve themselves in the classroom in
