You know, like our students, teachers can be very close to hitting the bullseye and yet miss it. You may have heard teachers say this recently. "Students, we are going to be teaching bell to bell." Not a bad sentiment, but I think is misses the mark, It puts the emphasis AND responsibility on the wrong parties. Try this. "Students, YOU are going to be LEARNING bell to bell." Small paradigm shift but do you have any inkling who is now responsible for YOUR education. Let's be honest, there is no way that I can teach bell to bell. If I did attendance could not be taken, I could not check my email to see if the soccer team is leaving school early for a game. There are things that I have to do everyday that have little or nothing to do with teaching. Do any of my "housekeeping" chores mean you cant be proactively involved in YOUR learning process? Double checking your homework? Checking answers with your table mate to make sure you completed the assignment with understanding? Written down two burning questions you have about any recent topics we studied?
One of the things that is wrong with the educational environment is that most people think education is something we do to you and not with you. Some of us will ask you to "ask three before you ask me." Are we being lazy? No way! Your biggest gains in YOUR education are going to come from the struggles you encounter, and then overcome. "Mr. Smith, how do you do number 15 in the homework?" "Well, that's a quadratic equation that is set up nicely to solve using the quadratic formula.' "Ok, thanks, man." No learning has taken place. Being less helpful and asking you more questions is our strategy to get you to take your thinking to the next level.
Change your mindset, come to class everyday prepared to LEARN bell to bell and let me know if you see a difference.
