Using Passions to Reconcile Changes in the Educational Landscape

About an hour until game for the NCAA National Championship, and here I am feverishly attempting to finish another post. It might come as no surprise that the concepts of team and common goal have been on my mind recently.

I cannot remember my life without basketball. My dad taught me how to play on our backyard court. In third grade, I started playing basketball for the HGA Cougars. During elementary school, my family traveled to watch my future high school's teams play. Then, in ninth grade, I joined the CCHS Cardinals, the team I'd been studying for at least six years. My college alma mater, Saint Joseph's University, has its own storied basketball team. My first teaching job came with a junior varsity coaching job, which eventually turned into a varsity coaching job. One of my teams even made our mark on school history by qualifying for state playoffs for the first time ever!

I do not know what life is or feels like without this game. 

When March rolls around, I finally get to share my passion with so many others. For a short three week period, we, as a country, pause and give credit to college athletes. We begin to feel like we intimately know them. We love to hear stories about who played together in high school or on AAU teams. We try to pick out the tournament's Cinderella team. We hear phrases like "the best player in the country you've never heard of" (more on him later). We learn about the everlasting effects of a strong coach. The NCAA tournament is a vivid component of our national consciousness.

What is it about this game? Why did it steal my heart? Why is it one of my passions? What has it taught me? How can I use to empower others?

Team. Common goal.

I no longer spend every day after school in the gym, and while I miss those times, I use them to fuel my instruction. As the influx of technology and changing educational philosophies bombard educators, I rely upon my love of basketball to guide me.

Implementing cooperative learning experiences in the classroom is my everyday equivalent of basketball. Most often students will find the desks arranged in groups of four in my classroom. When assigning a new task, I'll direct students to work together. My students practice skills, like writing claims or drafting questions, over and over, much like the 20 foul shots we had to do every day at practice. Consider the Jigsaw method or Novel in an Hour strategy. Students break apart the whole, then must come back together to make sense of that whole piece. The team has to achieve the common goal.

The 21st century classroom looks more and more like a basketball team's practice than it does the classrooms of the past. Some students have to watch tape. Others are going through drills at one end of the court, while some others are playing 3-on-3 at the opposite end. The American education system, also part of our national identity, is under attack. Teachers are consistently being pressured to innovate, create, and whatever else any other buzzword dictates at the moment. Many experts may be able to suggest different strategies, tools and techniques to implement into the classroom. What experts are not able to tell us is exactly what the school experience is going to look like in 5, 10, 15 or 20 years.

Will school still be held from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm? Will we still have four core content areas? Will students still need to physically attend school every day? Will teachers hold office hours? Will teachers deliver lessons online or in person? Will teachers be able to work from Starbucks (yes, please!)? Will sick days be a thing of the past? Will students be assigned to study hall? Will students still need hall passes? What will assessments look like?

The world is changing, and along with it, our job responsibilities and our daily workflow. We, as the select group who gets to teach America's next generation, must change with the rest of the world. There are many what ifs floating around nowadays. We must take the reins and steer the American education system in the best direction for students. Their stories, much like DeAndre Bembry's or as the rest of America knows him "the best player you've never heard of," must be shared. In order to flourish, students deserve to have networks, like playing for AAU, outside of their school building. Seek out the Jim Boeheims, Roy Williams, Pat Summits, Shaka Smarts, Phil Martellis, Geno Auriemmas and Jay Wrights of the teaching sphere. Learn from them. Celebrate them. Emulate them. We owe that to our students.

In this historic period of transition and transformation in the American education system, we need to rediscover our own passions and allow them to guide us, so we can lead our students towards the common goal.