Today I taught a lesson to my Year 10s on coastal management. Normally I wouldn't spend a blog post talking about a specific lesson but what I learned today I think can be applied to education enlarge.
Today I taught my students about swash (when the wave washes up on the beach) and backwash (when the water retreats back to the ocean following a swash). I also taught them about constructive waves and destructive waves. I decided that after some basic vocabulary word instruction that we would head out and actually act out swash, backwash, constructive and destructive waves. After some prep about what I expected of behavior, I escorted my students out to the Quad and had them line up in front of me. I told them that when I said 'swash' they all had to move forward as if they were a wave. Then when I said 'backwash' they were to move back to their original place. I continued the lesson with the different types of waves (destructive and constructive) and had them 'deposit' leaves on one side or pick them up depending on the type of wave they were. So what's the problem and how does this relate the bigger picture of education? Well I'll start by mentioning that this lesson was a big deal for me. It was my first time trying to do something with this class that met their learning needs (many are kinesthetic learners) while also hitting content in a subject area completely new to me. What surprised me was that an activity that I thought they'd be all over only had about 75% student buy in. About 25% of the kids were sitting on the bench with their phones out or full on rough housing off on the side. No matter what I said, I couldn't get them back. The kids that stayed with me, on the other hand, were... with me. After going through some cycles of waves, I decided to introduce destructive waves. "What should we do if we are going to try to imitate destructive waves?" I ask. "Run!" a student says. (Sweet! He gets it!) I said, "Exactly! So swash down and collect your debris and go deposit it!" Now.... Was this lesson successful? That is the ultimate question that I have been asking myself since starting school here. Part of me says 'yes' because it achieved what I wanted - students moving the replicate aspects of coastal erosion. But did it for all students? And is that my fault? What could I have done differently to have a higher engagement rate? I stewed on these questions until the end of the day when I asked one of my coworkers what he does to engage students that don't participate. He wanted to know more about my experience and so I explained it to him. His response was that I should feel pretty good about 75% participation. He said that there are just some kids that aren't going to respond no matter what you do (those of you from Seward, please know that these kids are really different (yet the same in some ways) to our kids) and some aren't going to respond at all. He said that sometimes you just need to teach to those kids that want to learn. This brings me to some really important questions I've been contemplating since being here. I feel that in the US, if a student doesn't succeed, somehow it is our fault as teachers. We didn't prep enough. We didn't have engaging enough lessons. We didn't meet their learning needs. Somehow, our classroom environment or our lesson style failed that student. Now, I ask myself why I have that impression about the American school system and I realize it is the evaluation process. I've had principals come into my classroom to evaluate me and make a map of my student seating and make marks every time students are off task or are not actively participating. I get it. It is a valuable tool for gauging engagement. But the end result is that if students aren't 100% engaged, there is something wrong that you did as a teacher (classroom management, engaging lessons, etc.) It is also about professional development. So much of it is directed towards meeting every student's needs (which isn't bad, don't get me wrong) that by default a disruptive student is a student whose needs weren't met. I've brought that mentality here to Australia. And.. it is killing me. For those of my friends out there that are teachers, imagine your first year of teaching. That's what this is. The only difference is is that I know what I'm capable of and I can't replicate it here. Well, at least not yet.... This brings me to the philosophical education theory that I'm chewing on. How do we support teachers and help them deliver quality instruction (without expecting a perfect performance) and also encourage them to take the educational risks necessary to continue to enrich the classroom experiences of their students? Here are my thoughts (and these thoughts aren't school, state, or country specific. They are general reflections of teaching overall):
That's it. Simple. Consistency, lighten the load, and don't make all the 'failures' of a classroom the teacher's fault. Some are beyond their control. Swash, backwash, swash, backwash, swash, backwash.
4 Comments
Naomi
2/23/2017 14:09:32
Myla,
Reply
Myla Liljemark
3/1/2017 01:56:43
Naomi, Thank you for your inspiring and uplifting thoughts. I'm pocketing each one of them and will take them with me to school! The big thing you noticed too is that you can take risks with your teaching when you aren't stretched. You can be your strongest when you have only a couple things to plan for. I'm learning. I'm growing. I'm definitely not bored anymore!
Reply
Walter G. Kloepfer
2/24/2017 13:57:29
One of the reasons I retired last year was because I was unable to get through to 3 of my students. It was the first time I had any who I couldn't seem to get through to. In two of their cases, it included a failure on the parents' part too.
Reply
Myla Liljemark
3/1/2017 02:00:09
Such wise word Walter. Thank you. You know how it feels to not be able to reach a kid, or a few kids. It is reaching kids that makes us want to go to school every day.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThe Liljemark's enjoy exploring the world. This blog chronicles our adventures. Archives
December 2017
Categories |