It was a delight to have Dean Shareski, author of Embracing the Culture of Joy as our final #I4Ed guest speaker. His talk led with the notion that school and learning need to change - these five big ideas sum up how learning ought to be:
I recall the words of a Grade 8 student written to me last month, “I hate school.” This simple statement hurt. my. heart. This young individual finds no value or enjoyment in school, and tragically, is not alone. It has me aspiring to be that change in schools; the one who brings delight and joy wherever they go. In this endeavour, I reflect on a few questions Dean posed to our class.
The other thing that students seem to love about me is that I’m open-minded and non-judgmental. I share my life with students (within reason) and in turn, students share their lives with me. I want to be their confidant; someone they can trust and seek advice from. I take pride in my student-relationships and I hope this is something that makes me a memorable teacher.
I’ll wrap up with two last takeaways from Dean:
- Learning is social and connected
- Learning is personal and self-directed
- Learning is shared and transparent
- Learning is rich in content and diversity
- Learning ought to be joyful
I recall the words of a Grade 8 student written to me last month, “I hate school.” This simple statement hurt. my. heart. This young individual finds no value or enjoyment in school, and tragically, is not alone. It has me aspiring to be that change in schools; the one who brings delight and joy wherever they go. In this endeavour, I reflect on a few questions Dean posed to our class.
What can we do to help our kids experience delight?
In my opinion, delight is unexpected and light-hearted; it’s simple acts with lasting impressions. I can help kids experience delight by bringing treats for no reason (who doesn’t love food). I can play a quirky YouTube video to put a smile on their faces. I can share goofy stories that have zero relevance to the curriculum, just because. Make memories worth remembering.How do we spend more time outdoors?
I consider this question with a furrowed brow, thinking about my upcoming high school math placement. I’m drawing a blank for math class, but lunch hour is fair game. Invite students to join me for a walk; start up a lunch hour frisbee club. Could we have work periods outside? Sure, why not! I enjoy gardening and see a lot of curricular connections to operating a school garden. For the mean time, I’m still mulling over this question, hoping to discover more opportunities to get students outdoors.What’s your “unfair” advantage?
I loved Dean’s story about the “pants guy”. I reflect on two positive attributes that make me me. I am definitely that “crazy teacher” who’s not afraid to look silly just to make students smile (case in point: full-on rainbow hair for a school fundraiser). Spirit weeks or just a plain old Wednesday, I love getting a rise out of people (this goes back to that “delight” concept).
The other thing that students seem to love about me is that I’m open-minded and non-judgmental. I share my life with students (within reason) and in turn, students share their lives with me. I want to be their confidant; someone they can trust and seek advice from. I take pride in my student-relationships and I hope this is something that makes me a memorable teacher.
I’ll wrap up with two last takeaways from Dean:
“One of the best things you can do for your students is to be an interesting adult.”
All the best to my colleagues in their future teaching careers. Get out there, be interesting and be the reason someone smiles today.“Don’t postpone joy.”
Deanne, I took delight in reading your blog post for the week. It broke my heart to hear that the grade 8 student you know hates school. I have heard this phrase spoken by students I know myself. Many times, they tell me that their teachers don't make lessons fun. As an early years teacher, I find it quite easy to make my lessons fun and engaging through games and hands on activities. I am not as familiar with the middle years or high school curriculum, but I am sure that it is more difficult to make it as engaging. Tyler Letkeman's talk comes to mind about how it is possible to make learning fun! I think that doing school work outdoors is beneficial for our students. In my third student teaching placement, prior to the major switch in weather, we did silent reading outside and I was able to teach part of my materials and structures unit outside. I hope that you are able to find ways to include the great outdoors into your math placement. Best of luck as you finish up your educational journey and start the job hunt!
ReplyDeleteI loved his five big ideas from the presentation, I wrote them down, underlined them, then wrote them down again because they looked messy after the underlining attempt. I think with those big ideas teachers can accomplish making their classrooms a joyful and even a delightful area for the students to want to come in and want to learn and also be educated! There are so many minor things that we can do that can make a huge difference to the perspective of the student and even if it appears nobody else is enjoying, the moment that it is gone, the students will feel like you no longer want to be there either which can cause all sorts of disconnect. I love the final two takeaways that you have listed here as well, I think with just two simple statements you can improve the experience for countless students! Good luck in your placement and into the fall!
ReplyDeleteDeanne, Thank you for your post. Like you, I think that sharing your life with students makes them more open to speak with you and share their lives. It is nice to see teachers like you involved with students’ activities and not afraid to look silly. (I love your photos!).
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