Thoughts on Life Inside and Outside of Room 26
Learning...12/22/2012 A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading. After last year's seniors left, they wanted me to know something. "Do a sample conference, so we know how to do it!" I fear this. It makes me tremble. My students are so accustomed to 'playing school' that very often they copy the best ideas from someone else and think that it will garner them an "A." School is about getting "A's" right? If we don't get "A's" why are we here? How can we figure out a way to get an "A" without thinking, problem solving, or even investing? Just do what the teacher says; that will get you an "A".
The only place that an "A" really exists is in a school building, and despite what everyone tells us, school is really a place where, ultimately, we want to learn how to think. If an "A" is the result of learning, then bravo, and if a "C" is a result of learning, then bravo, too. An "F" only means that we have more work to do in that area, and school should be the place where we learn how to do that learning. This "playing school" pattern in my upper level students is alarming. When I won't "show them how" they become nervous and ask "Is this okay?" "Is this what you want?" "Should we do this?" I don't help them a lot either: "What do you think?" "How would you solve this?" "What challenge would you like your fellow students to experience today?" "What knowledge can you gain by working together?" Learning does not mean a silent room with a study light and a pair of glasses, or an all nighter, or memorizing of facts to fill in bubbles on a multiple choice test. Learning is not scoring well on a test. The test is not the end. We want school to teach about life, yet school is a place of correct answers, sitting in rows, and not having community. The world has very few correct answers, we very seldom sit in rows (although cubicles could be a close comparison) and community is how we live. Learning is exciting, dynamic, developmental, loud, and human. Most of all, learning is human. When we struggle through something alone or together with a learning partner, we grow, develop and enhance our minds; perhaps even our world. Even something as simple as trying a new recipe, or passing the driver's test is exciting when our mindset is "Hmmmm..how am I going to manage this?" rather than "How am I going to get an 'A'?" Who cares? If the recipe does not turn out, or we don't pass the driving test, we are living in real life. We can try the recipe again, ask others for their thoughts, or we have the choice to look up another recipe and try that one! We can take the errors from our first driving test, learn from them, and pass it the next time. Real Life is real, so learning is gradual and messy, like life. Teaching that is very difficult, but it is always a in my mind as I challenge my students to learn, truly.
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I am...A teacher of students of British, World and Contemporary Literature. Archives
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