How much impact can your safety net have?

If you have been following my blog, you know that I just celebrated my 10th anniversary of entering the classroom. What you might not know is that I am teaching Social Studies classes, by myself, for the first time. And, guess what? The content areas are not even my specialties in Social Studies! 

This 11th year all of a sudden feels like my first year, all over again. But now, the stakes are higher. I expect more of myself. Why? I know what it takes to do this job well, because I've been doing it for ten years. And therein lies the problem.

I expect too much of myself. I expect to plan lessons and activities for Sensation and Perception for my Invite to Psych class to the same level of my lessons on Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. It's just not going to happen, at least not now. Not yet. 

When we do a job for too long, we often forget what it takes to do that job. Or what it means to reevaluate and relearn. On the first day of class this semester, I was 100% honest with my students and told them that I had not taught either class (Invite to Psych & Non-Western Cultures) before. I immediately followed up with, "But I'm excited to jump back into the material and learn alongside with you. A bonus is that I can better help you learn, because the learning process will be so fresh in my head." They smiled. Those smiles felt genuine and authentic in that moment. 

Perhaps those simple honest statements I shared built trust from the start. I did not try to pretend that I have all of the material memorized or my lessons until June planned. As much as I wish they were, I am embracing the fact that they aren't. I have spent copious amounts of time sorting through resources from colleagues. It is those resources that have given me a safety net, but also a sense of freedom. I don't need to teach or plan my lessons in the same manner, but those materials are my starting point, From there, I can modify to fit my students' needs and my style. 

This safety net is what was lacking at my last school. Every decision I made was a risk, without a safety net. It was that environment though that transformed my own educational philosophy, which has evolved even more. Here I can take risks. I have a supportive network who encourages and students who motivate me. I can ask my students to connect what we are learning in Psychology with what they stumble across in their internet/social media wanderings and collect artifacts. I can ask them to maintain a digital portfolio. I can ask them to embed a Twitter feed on their webpage, even though it might be a new skill! I can ask them to make their learning real. 

Then, today, the next step was their idea. My students asked if our class time could somehow be more personalized and self-driven. At first, I wanted to ask if they had been reading my Twitter feed recently!! What a moment for me. What a moment for those holding my safety net. What a moment for my students. They asked to own their 80 minutes. Yes. I could not have asked for a better request. 

Before I spend most of the upcoming holiday weekend reorganizing some pieces of class for them, I am going to finally zone out at Bikram Yoga. I've only been waiting for two hours for class to start. That's what happens when you are playing the role of a first year teacher and forget to check the class schedule! 

What have you learned?

Two years ago, I spoke with my grade school English teacher, who told me that at the end of every school year she asks one specific question:

What have you learned?

In hearing the question, I was immediately transported back to my undergraduate years at Saint Joseph's University. Father Nick Rashford, who was president at the time, frequently invited student leaders to his residence for dinner. Of course, any intelligent college student would jump at the chance to get face time with him and a delicious meal. At the end of every dinner, he would pose one question to the group: What have you learned? Each student would contribute a personal answer. 

He never forced our learning to match up with what he wanted us to learn that evening, but rather what we took away from the discussion and experience. That is one of the Jesuit principles of education: cure personalis or "care for the individual person."

My grade school English teacher receives a myriad of response from her students, just like Father Ashford would receive from the student leaders. At the time of the conversation with my former teacher, I had just started at a new school, so I decided to start this new tradition. At the end of every semester since then, I have asked my students, "What have you learned?"

A year ago, I created this Google Form, which is clear evidence of my love for technology tools within the ELA classroom.

Celebration of Learning

Since I am constantly evolving as an educator, this semester I went one step further. After the students completed this activity, I asked them to prepare a brief "presentation" to share with the rest of the class. I put presentation in quotation marks because I did not define what or how they were to present. At my core, I do not believe that I can tell a student what they should have learned or how they should feel comfortable sharing it, much like Father Rashford. I do believe that I can help them discover and utilize the critical thinking skills that should go into these tasks.

I only asked that the "presentation" show evidence of their learning throughout the semester and that they share it with the rest of the class. For many, publicly sharing anything is a daunting task, let alone something so very personal.

In the future, I plan to market the day as our "Celebration of Learning" and will host it on the last day of class before final exams. Not only does CoL give the class a last few moments to connect as lifelong learners, but it builds confidence during a stressful time. It also reminds the students that I truly care about them as human beings.

"You need evidence!"

Staying aligned with one of my mantras, students (and I!) back channeled to share even more learning during the CoL. Back channeling is new for them (and some keep their Twitter account private), but I LOVE that they took a risk. 

Of course, we had a hashtag: #GVPerEng4. You can discover some of our learning on Twitter. :)