(Not) Just Another School Year

This year will be different…

Welcome your students with a new kind of message - one that imparts hope, excitement and promise:

“This year is yours to learn.”

1. My year is not planned. I have no intention of putting you through the same activities and assignments that your older siblings have done. Our focus for learning may be the same – but the way that we get there will be according to your learning needs (not my teaching needs).

2. Success or failure is up to you. I have zero interest (or intention) on ‘getting you through this year.’ Take your own learning into your own hands. I will support, guide and facilitate – but it will be you that holds the keys to your own success. I will not make excuses for you – nor will your parents – it is up to you to realize your centrality in this year’s educational plan.

3. Learning is paramount to your personal development. I absolutely recognize that your social networks, personal interests and skills are important to you – they are also important to me. That is why I will do what I can to weave them into my teaching practice. You will see yourself in our curriculum. They are the guiding principles framing our learning together – but they need a face and a perspective – yours, the student.

Let this year get messy. Let yourself fall into the deep, dark abyss that is the unknown. Take on new challenges and learn what it means to love learning – yourself.

I promise you that this will be your year of inspiration, reflection and passion – if you throw away the same old worksheets and craft new learning experiences with an entirely new (and refreshed!) group of students.

Let the journey begin! You are doing the work that matters in helping to bring about new, profound changes to the way we reach students and guide learning.

(The Response) Open Letter from a Student to a Teacher

There you are. Standing in front of us all for what seems an endless amount of time. How long will this go on for? Do you truly believe that this lesson is THE LESSON? What chance do I have in the real world if I choose to listen to your words? What opportunities will await me if I decide to buy in to what you are saying? What skills are you providing that will allow me to succeed in a 21st century world?

Each time you ask me to complete yet another meaningless task, I wonder: do you know that your teaching can be irrelevant? Does it scare you to think that you may not have much to offer me today? What things have you done to keep your practice current and engaging?

If I choose to speak out, you will reprimand me. If I choose to leave the work where it is untouched, you will penalize me. If I choose to complete what you assign, you will not notice me. I will need to determine how to play the game. My actions will be of my own design.

Perhaps I will decide to comment in discussions. Maybe I will try to improve on my work. In case there is a chance for me; it might make sense to listen to your advice. But if I take this on – if I take you on and your teaching – you had better not let me down. Bring your best because my attention is up for grabs.

And if when this year is over, you ask me what I’ve learned, I will respond with confidence: the things that matter. Some of those things are yours to give and others are my lessons to learn. In the end, you will teach me things. The content of them is up to you, but their impact on my future is solely my decision.

Open Letter from a Teacher to a Student

I can see you. Sitting in that chair staring at the clock – and sensing what awaits you on the other side. Knowing the choices that lie ahead of you and coming to terms with the fact that you are solely responsible for your own actions. It’s your decision. I can speak to you or at you, but inevitably it is your choice to hear what it is I am saying. You can pretend not to listen, but deep down I know that you want to.

You await words that ignite your thoughts. You await activities that incite you to grow. You wait for moments that inspire you to change. The things placed in front of you to complete; the words written on the board to consider; the notes left in the margins of the last piece of work you submitted – these things build to a climax. The product of your effort will be knowledge. The direction of your journey is upon you.

What do you have to lose? Even if everything I have to say is boring, you have developed your critical listening skills. Even if every activity I assign is meaningless, you have considered your interests and adhered to them. Even if every mark you receive is disappointing, you have created goals and evaluated them. And when the time comes for you to understand your centrality in the future, what will you accept? Is it easier to sit there and watch the clock or should this be the moment of your awakening?

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I need to know that you are there. Your criticism can be my most powerful tool. My job is to prepare you. My role is in front of you. You cannot change me, but I will grow. All those things I learned are subject to your approval after all. You are my audience and I want that call-back. While it may not seem like a song and dance up here; it really is the same. My path may start in front of yours, but I hope that one day you will still see it in your rear-view.

I have signed up for this battle. My tools are laid out in front of you to use. Choose your weapon and draw. We can do this for as long as it takes. I will not back down in my resilience for your potential. I have seen with my own eyes what I can do for a student and I will not accept any less. You do not intimidate me. Your personality (however challenging) is what brings me back and drives my plans for tomorrow. You are my student; I am your teacher. You cannot let me down.

Teaching as a Catalyst for Human Potential

There are students in our rooms that need us and others that will be fine on their own. Those that need us can often be the most challenging to handle in terms of teaching and behavior - but that is why they need us. Somewhere along the line they have fallen victim to unfortunate circumstances. Whether these were experienced in utero or at the hands of a loved one; they have arrived in your class with this truth as baggage. Teachers are the people who can help shape a student's life in a single year. Every year that student is exposed to new routines, new ideas, new expectations and should emerge as a more well-rounded individual.

Unlike parents, students get to 'trade in' teachers annually. Without doubt, there are always teachers that have challenged us in both positive and negative ways. For myself, a brutal first-year university English professor deterred me from staying in the English Department at Queen's. Who knows where I would be or what I would be doing had I been timetabled into some other professor's English class? However, I feel that these glimpses into learning environments that don't work have allowed me to become a more well-rounded teacher myself. It is difficult to identify and truly enjoy the good, unless you have sampled the bad.

Students will always have things to say about their teachers. This incredibly inspirational speech given by Dalton Sherman with over 76, 000 views on YouTube is a testament to how profoundly teachers (and parents) can prepare and educate a child - especially in public speaking. I was first shown this during a Reading course that I was taking last year, and while watching it, I just kept picturing students that I have taught who might have been thinking the things that Dalton is saying.

How many of our students have the potential in them to deliver a speech like Dalton? How many of us teachers have helped to prepare students in our classes with the skills necessary to accomplish tremendous things? Every once in a while, remember Dalton's speech as a way of allowing yourself to take credit for the learning that you have inspired. Maybe one day it will be a former student of yours that is preparing a conference center full of teachers for another academic year.

My journey begins

Over the past two weeks I have invested a great deal of time and energy to 'feeling out' the waters of online writing. There is a huge potential to do what I enjoy and share it online in a fairly straightforward manner. Over the past 16 days I have managed to expand this writing venture into several spreading directions. This blog is now connected to blogger.com, blogtopsites.com and blogged.com. In addition, the School Board I work for has posted this blog as a link on their new social networking site (www.scdsbnetworkedlearning.com). I have sent emails to friends to let them know and posted links on my Facebook page to this blog. In short, I have put myself out there and am eager to see where this all could lead...

My latest venture began yesterday. I started a "Fan Page" for my blog, "Ignite. Incite. Inspire." attached to my Facebook account. I am still in the process of figuring out how to actually suggest this page to my friends so that they can have easier access to what I am writing. I have tried this twice, but no page suggestions seem to be going out to my friends yet. Also, when I signed up for a "blogtopsites.com" account there was an option to connect to my Facebook account (which I took advantage of). What this means is that my blog posts here are automatically sent as a feed and posted on my Facebook Wall. People can now read my posts without having to navigate to another website (if they don't want to). In the process of adding this Facebook stuff I came across an online writing community that allows people to post articles on their site and have advertisement revenue directed back to them as a royalty. My application was approved by an editor and today I sent my first article to the "Education" editor to be posted (hopefully tomorrow sometime). If you want to read what I am writing on this site the address is http://suite101.com. I will post a link on this blog page in the sidebar to easily access these posts too. To me, this website is a more structured and serious writing opportunity to voice my opinions on things teaching and beyond.

Who knows what could happen here? I guess the message is to put everything behind a goal. I have the goal to post to this blog everyday - and so far have been successful. I would like to consider more serious writing opportunities and am thinking about entering a writing contest through "The New Quarterly Online (http://www.tnq.ca). In the end, I would like to believe that I tested the waters and will come out of it with something gained. I love teaching and this would add a love of writing about a topic that I have (and continue to ) experience daily as an educator. This post adheres to advice that a former leader gave me in the fall, "Be transparent. People will respect you for it and always know where you stand." This is all sides of me and writing in a so-far 16-day relationship.

two worlds collide

All we want is to be recognized and appreciated. Whether it is for love or legacy, humans at their very nature have to matter in order to function. Why do you get up in the morning? How is today different than yesterday? Have you thought about what you hope to get out of this day and not the next? Teachers often change lives by showing the world (but first their students) who they really are. Those students need entertainment, guidance and sometimes, even learning. They won't ask you for it - they assume that if you know what you're doing, you will bring things to the table that matter to them. While we often aspire to "one up" the next generation, we often find ourselves walking in the very steps that were forged before us. Only by stepping out of that comfort zone that was our experience growing up, can we blaze a new trail of educational direction. The pieces are all there. We are slowly making gains in the technology that will someday soon show students that their learning is not mutually exclusive of their interests. Their technology is our golden ring - grab it and run.

If all the world's a stage and we the players - do you deserve the encore?

Engaging Students

Ignite. Incite. Inspire.

These 3 words should drive our instruction and motivate change. The change will come in not only the data collected, but in the attendance numbers. Both teacher and student working together as instruments of learning. Every year our classes are as much for US to learn from, as we are for THEM to learn from. With the increased focus on technology in the classroom and removal of barriers that suppress creativity and stunt individual learning growth for many of our students - we are heading in the right direction.

Instead of pulling out that worksheet that always goes well, scrap it just before the lesson starts and wing it. My best lessons have always come from spontaneous things and risk-taking. Teachers should have an innate ability to entertain and improvise - in everything they do. See where the lesson goes. Hand over the controls. They will drive you somewhere (not crazy of course) if you're willing to tag along.

Students know what they want and they equate it with what they need. Listen to them.