This Ken Robinson talk makes me proud of the work we’re doing with the Civic Mirror and Action-Ed. More thoughts below.
It’s funny because the biggest challenges and hurdles we’ve faced in helping teachers implement the Civic Mirror is trying to integrate it into the linear model of schools today. The program provides so many rich opportunities for exploration, discovery, and break-out activities that the organic learning environment it provides teachers and students with literally competes with the linear status quo. Sometimes so much so that it can cause distress (which is always overshadowed by excitement and enthusiasm). To use one teacher’s question as an example,
“How is it that the Civic Mirror has me debating Keynesian economics with my student, online, on a Friday night?”
After watching this video, I think the answer to her question is quite simple:
It’s because the school system you teach in doesn’t provide you with opportunities to have that discussion at school … where it be should be taking place and ideally in a way that would allow others to listen and participate too.
Anyway, I just want to shout out to all those teachers, principals, and school systems who want to take part in the revolution Ken Robinson’s talking about:
We’re here! We’re ready and waiting! And if you want to use a program that creates the educational change Ken Robinson is talking about – literally over night – you know how to get a hold of us!
I was motivated to write this post after a student of mine arrived to class 45 minutes late with a note from his mother excusing it because – get this! – his teeth hurt. I’ve heard a lot of creative reasons over the years, but this was a first. This young man will be able to vote in roughly a year. He also likes to skip class. I knew what was up. I recommended that he not show his future bosses notes like this from his mother. “In fact,” I said, “you might not want to show them any notes from your mother.”
I am so grateful that Hara Estroff Marano wrote A Nation of Wimpsfive years ago. As an educator, it gave me the courage to stand by my expectations and principles when parents came in to negotiate marks or question my intentions. It gave me the courage to say what I knew was intuitively true: “Adversity, you know, can actually build character if we teach Johnny to view it positively instead of negatively. Why don’t we make an effort to show him how a lesson can be learned from this little setback?”
Now a new documentary produced by the CBChas come out showcasing the same ideas. It’s called Hyper Parents, Coddled Kids and it’s very enlightening. To view the trailer click the image below. To watch the whole documentary, click here.
If you teach a course where your students need to remember and understand a lot of content, this review game may interest you. I created it a few years back when I was trying my best to prepare a lackluster class of students for their final exam. It’s called Vocab King’s Court, it’s a lot of fun,and it goes like this.
last-minute prep before King's Court
PREPARATION The first thing you need to do is identify what key facts, terms, events, etc. you want your students to know and put them in a list. Give this list to your students at the start of each unit and tell them to begin developing their own glossary or set of flash cards, saying that they will need the list at the end of the unit (or course) to play Kings Court (and do well on the exam).
KING’S COURT OVERVIEW
The game is quite simple. You create one court for every two students in the room, and you create courts by putting two desks together (head-to-head) or by putting two chairs at either end of a long table. A “court” is simply a seating arrangement where two students can look at each other and ask questions (see pictures).
The objective of the game is to make it to the King’s Court and stay there. The way you do that is by beating the opponents you face in all the courts leading up to the King’s Court. When you win, you move up to the next highest court. When you lose, you move down a court. The highest court is the King’s Court, and I’m sure your students will have their own names for the lowest court.
So, let’s say two students face-off in the court just below the King’s Court. The illustration below shows the winner advancing ‘up’ to the King’s Court, and the loser being demoted down a court.Each pair of students in a court are given two minutes to take turns asking one another questions from their self-made glossaries, trying to score more points than the other. It starts with one student asking the other a question. The student who’s asked a question is given roughly 15 seconds to start their explanation (if you let them use their lists, this gives them time to find it), and then 15 seconds to finish. So it works out to roughly 30 seconds for each question. If they provide an adequate answer, they score a point. If they can’t, the ‘question-asker’ scores a point.
students quizzing one another
By the end of two minutes they should have asked one another at least four terms, facts, events, etc. The student who scored the most points moves up a court and the other student moves down a court. If they tie, I have them do one rock-paper-scissors (no best of sevens).
"silent review breaks" between rounds
I often allow my students to use their self-made glossaries or flashcards when they answer questions for the first couple of rounds … until they get the hang of it. After that, though, they cannot use them to answer questions – they have to recall the explanation on their own.
To make it a productive exercise, I insert 5 minute “Silent Review Breaks” so students can brush up on their own. Some students will look for that killer word that will help them score points and move up a few courts. Other students will review terms that they may have got burned on. The silent review breaks, though, are golden: the students do not want to be the ones in the bottom tier and most are really motivated to study in order to advance.
STARTING PLACEMENTS It obviously wouldn’t be fair to start the bright kids at the top and the lower kids at the bottom; in fact, I do the opposite. Without being too obvious, I position the lower students in the higher courts and the brighter students in the bottom courts. This provides the bright students with a fun challenge.
As a teacher who’s run countless simulations in my classroom, I’ve always been amazed at how willingly my students assume different roles and identities. Don’t think only children or teenagers like getting into role. The truth is our ‘identity’ is actually pretty slippery. For a lot of people, ‘who we are’ can change fast. It’s just a strange and fascinating fact of human nature. If you don’t believe me, check out this video on the Stanford Prison Experiment before reading on.
So how does this relate to teaching and reducing your stress for the coming year?
For starters – and I’m only speaking from experience here but there’s got to be research out there that validates this – switching between identity roles is mentally and emotionally draining. Think back to a time when you started spending time with a new group of friends or co-workers who were really different than most people you spent time with. I bet you caught yourself saying new words and doing different things. Their ‘new’ personalities probably started seeping into your personality, you identity. For example, a good friend of mine started talking like Tony Soprano after watching 3 seasons in one month.
I believe most people are inclined to avoid these encounters of ‘newness.’ It’s like we’re hardwired to take the path of least resistance. It makes sense: it’s mentally and emotionally easier to have one identity role and one world-view instead of two or three. Granted some people can effortlessly switch between and maintain multiple identity boundaries with ease, I believe most people can’t. Their psyche attempts to unify them. There’s something within us that tries to find ‘identity equilibrium.’
I AM ‘TEACHER’
One of the biggest adjustments of my life was teaching. I think it’s true for most new teachers. I went from normal-guy to ‘teacher’ in less than a couple of months. I had to organize discussions, evaluate work and talent, make rules, and do whatever it took to enforce them. I was 23. I was becoming ‘teacher.’
And I found myself saying and doing things that I promised myself – just months earlier – I would never say or do.
It was as if my subconscious was willingly assuming the stereotypical ‘teacher’ role because I had to. It wasn’t me. Was it?
I wasn’t letting kids go to the washroom until their work was finished (because that was what the math teacher said I’d be smart to do).
I was yelling at students in the hallway for being (because that’s what the teacher across the hall did all the time and I thought I should too … but I’m always late).
I spelled-out swear words in the staffroom (because that’s what the ladies in their 50’s did and I didn’t want to offend them … but I never spelled out swear words).
I found myself, when marking, scoffing at really innocent spelling mistakes (because that’s what the English teachers I sometimes ate lunch with complained about all the time: bad spelling).
I even read a note that I caught being passed around aloud to the class! (I don’t know why I did that, I hated it when teachers did that … unless it was written by a girl I had a crush on).
I even (and I’ve never told anyone this) said to a group of senior students who were laughing, “Quit having such a good time.” Who says stuff like that? Oh yeah, ‘teachers.’
The point is that I found myself saying and doing all those ‘teacher-ish’ things my teachers did when I was a student … things I didn’t like or just expected them to because they were ‘teachers.’
And, worst of all, I found these new ‘teacher’ parts of me seeping into my out-of-school personality.
I was in the midst of a major identity tug-of-war. It was like I was in the Stanford Teacher Experiment. I felt I had to wear the hat that everyone talked about. I was becoming ‘Teacher’ and it was utterly exhausting, emotionally and mentally.
EPIPHANY
I can understand why we teachers have the reputation we do. Teachers absolutely have to set rules and enforce them if they want anything in the classroom to be accomplished. Classrooms are incubators of chaos just waiting to run rampant.
But, after months and years of soul searching, here’s the epiphany I had … and the heart of what I’m talking about:
You can set classroom rules and enforce them as yourself. You do not have to – just because everyone else has – assume the ‘teacher’ role to do this.
If you re-read my new-teacher memories, in most cases I felt I had to say and do ‘teacher-ish’ things just because. But we don’t have to, I realized. And at a certain point I got so tired of switching between roles (not to mention so weirded out by all of my ‘teacher-ish’ out-of-school behavior) that I made a promise to ensure that my ‘real’ self would not be overtaken and continually stressed by the ‘teacher’ role that was creeping in. It’s a promise that I’ve kept with joy. It’s not only reduced the stress that I believe comes with switching roles, but it’s enormously improved all of the relationships I’ve had with students, parents, and even other teachers.
The promise was this:
I will never say or do anything in the classroom that I wouldn’t say to a friend, family member, or acquaintance out of school.
And, after initially struggling to stick to this promise, I found myself enjoying the profession more. I found myself being more ‘real’ with my students and seeing them for who they really were, not just as students.
So here are some bits of advice for this coming school year that exemplify what I’m talking about:
Teachers are human. We can be human. We can talk to humanly to our students.
Teachers have feelings. Don’t be afraid to express your feelings to your students.
Everyone likes being respected. Explain why you personally like being respected to your students and ask them to do the same.
No one likes being ridiculed or picked on. Buck up and let them know – as yourself – that because you don’t tolerate disrespect in your personal life, you won’t tolerate it in the classroom. And then stop tolerating ridicule and cruelty in your personal life.
No one likes bullies. Tell them that. Share a story about a bully you’ve encountered in your personal life. Tell them how you felt. Don’t hide behind the ‘teacher’ mask and say no one likes bullies just “because.” Get real with them.
In other words, be your self!
And if who you are doesn’t match up to some of the rules that you want your students to abide by, do one of the following instead of hiding behind the ‘teacher’ hat and saying just because:
Change the rule, or
Change yourself
If you don’t, you run the risk being viewed as a hypocrite by your students.
BENEFITS
Trust me, the benefits of being yourself – instead of assuming a ‘teacher’ role that isn’t quite you – will be endless,
Your students will like you more because they’ll be able to relate to you.
When they like you they’ll work harder because they’ll want to follow your lead (i.e. not because you told them to).
You’ll start to question a lot of what you say and do as a teacher, discarding the bad and hanging onto the real and good stuff.
You’ll start becoming a better person,
You’ll start becoming more confident because your identity will be more integrated,
You’ll start inspiring your students,
You’ll begin developing real, life-mentoringrelationships with your students, not the typical ‘teacher’-student relationships,
And you’ll like it,
All of the above will, if you haven’t guessed, decrease stress and make teaching waay more satisfying and enjoyable.
So, Sanity Saver #5 for the upcoming school year is …
There’s no denying it, we are in the midst of the Information Revolution and historians will be writing about this period of time just like they’ve written about the Industrial Revolution. The rules of the game changed. The way people worked changed. People changed.
Over the past few years, lifestyle and time-management authors have been discussing how – in this brand-new Information Age – our approach to work must change dramatically if we ever hope to experience satisfaction with it. With the endless amounts of articles, videos, emails, blogs, and videos at our disposal, it’s easy to feel like there are an infinite number of ‘things’ we must do in a limited amount of time. This creates stress.
So, instead of paraphrasing what some of the experts are recommending, I’ve included three videos that will help you learn how to develop Information-Age life-skills. The gems of knowledge they’ll provide you with will help to reduce the amount reduce stress your feeling this year because they’ll give you a sense of control.
Seriously, take the two hours of time needed to watch these three videos, you won’t regret it! Enjoy.
Over the past few years, lifestyle and time-management authors have been discussing how – in this brand-new Information Age – our approach to work must change dramatically if we ever hope to experience satisfaction with it. With the endless amounts of articles, videos, emails, blogs, and videos at our disposal, it’s easy to feel like there are an infinite number of ‘things’ we must do in a limited amount of time. This creates stress.
