A TEACHER’S COMPASS: Five Essential Elements of Exceptional Teaching (Part 2)

This is the second of five essays over the next few weeks.  The first, Release Your Personality, has been posted previously and can still be viewed on this blog.  Collectively, the five essays in A Teacher’s Compass were born of my attempt to conceptualize in plain language the essential elements of exceptional teaching.  They comprise my credo of teaching, my best advice to the novice and veteran teacher alike.  (Each element is discussed more fully in a book I am writing; these essays here are short summaries of the elements.)  As always, I encourage replies.

#2 Tap Their Spirits. This is akin to releasing their personalities.  My first essay in this series, Release Your Personality, was about you.  The focus here is on them.  Adolescents have such abundant spirit.  Isn’t that partly why we chose to teach in the first place?  We like the age.  If we didn’t we’d sell houses or something.  Truth is, teachers spend a great deal of energy trying to suppress teenagers’ spirits.  And this is done often for good reason.  But mostly, we choose to oppress it rather than tap into it.  Their spirits are a great source of enthusiasm and curiosity, if we know how to tap them.  For example, consider the following list.
Most teenagers like to talk.
Most teenagers like to talk about themselves.
Most teenagers appreciate sincere compliments.
Most teenagers like to move around.
Most teenagers like to text message.
Most teenagers like to be on the computer.
Most teenagers like to create things that reflect their developing identities, such as MySpace or FaceBook pages.
Most teenagers want to look good in front their peers (physically and otherwise).
Most teenagers like to laugh.
Most teenagers have an opinion.
Most teenagers want to feel like their voices are heard.
Most teenagers like to be better at something than other teenagers.
Most teenagers have expert hypocrisy-radar.
Most teenagers are curious about your life.
Most teenagers want an adult in their lives who they can trust, someone who     resides in that place between parent and peer.

So the question becomes:  How can I arrange my instruction so that these things they want and like are encouraged but also channeled into the content and structure of my course?  How can I engage students in activities, for example, that get them to talk about themselves while building community?  Or allow them to move around during a controlled activity that is embedded in content?   Teenagers have opinions but they are more afraid of being wrong in front of classmates than they are interested in sharing those opinions.  So, how can we build safety into our lessons so that they can freely share opinions or answers but be protected by validation or anonymity?

One way is to have them write a question they are having about the topic being discussed on an index card.  Then collect the cards and read a few aloud, without names, and answer these questions for the benefit of the whole class.  This allows students to ask questions anonymously – without fear of appearing dumb – and allows you to clear up misunderstandings that many students may be having.  When I have used this, I’ve noticed that I get way more questions than when I publicly ask the class “Does anyone have a question?”.

I use index cards for lots of things.  I use them to allow students to give me suggestions about how to make our class run better.  They fill them out whenever they wish and leave the cards in a Suggestion Box in the back room labeled RESPECTFUL SUGGESTIONS CONSIDERED.  Every few weeks I read a few aloud and announce changes to how we will operate as a class based on their suggestions.  This builds tremendous community and lets them know their voices are heard.  Of course, if I don’t agree with a suggestion I might still read it aloud and tell them why that suggestion isn’t feasible.

There are lots of ways to tap their spirits – too many to mention here.  I tell them about my life, I laugh at my own human frailties, I tell them something dumb my dog did, or what happened when I was in line at Wal*Mart.  And when I do, I find that my captive audience is feeling good about me, our relationship and our class, and I seize the moment to infuse my subject matter.  They become primed and ready and the research shows that learning and retention are highest when students feel good about their learning community.  It costs me nothing and the dividends are high.

I have discovered that a class’ collective spirit is directly connected to my enthusiasm, my ensuring safety at all costs, and the degree to which I nurture that spirit.  It burns brightest when I feed it.  And once the spirit is high, I can do anything.   Tap their Spirits. dven.

(to be continued…)