A Vision

I often speak with my students about their dreams and how they will see them into fruition. “Have a vision,” I tell them. “Know where you want to be and work for it.” “It’s not going to be easy but dream big and be willing to put in the effort,” I preach.

I must practice what I preach. I do not know how to see my educational visions into fruition, as the path is marred with boulders, walls, and landmines. I do know the status quo in public education is not cutting it. My students lack engagement, I lack motivation, and the system slowly robs our souls.

Not knowing how I can be a catalyst of change but knowing change is needed, here is what I would like to see when my children begin their education.

I envision a place….
• ….where classes are 10-15 strong and students are known by who they are and not by just a name on a roster
• …. where teachers have the resources to make learning come alive
• …. where teachers are allowed to plan based on student understanding and not state requirements
• …. where students know their classmates and stereotypes no longer exist
• …. where learning comes alive not on a chalkboard, whiteboard, smartboard, overhead, or any other projection apparatus, but alive in the hands of the learner
• … where all students are free to learn through their strengths
• …. where educators are valued for the lives they impact and not the test scores they deliver
• …. where math teachers can teach science, science teachers can teach history, history teachers can teach English, and English teachers can teach math
• …. where the classroom exists outside the classroom walls
• …. where students view the world as their classroom
• …. where parents understand the impact we have on their children
• …. where students come early and stay late
• …. where teachers are compensated justly for what they do
• …. where curiosity is the catalyst of learning, not the next page of the text book
• …. where all students can say, “my life was changed here.”

Can you imagine such a place? Let’s make it happen. But like I tell my students, be willing to work for it.

Unanswered Questions

I shared with my students a “Motivational Friday” last week entitled “Questions I Want Answered.” The questions started worldly. For example, Scientists say the universe is expanding, where is it going? And, How can a country allow a Hitler, Stalin, or a Pol Pott brainwash them? The questions narrowed to more specific, personal inquiries such as Why do I do what I do everyday? What difference can I make? And, What is my role in society?

I am certain scholars can give me reasoned answers for the first set of questions, yet the more personal questions can only be answered from within. In relation, I can ask one type of question about education that can be specifically answered, but the ones I struggle with the most are internal:

1. With the talents I’ve been blessed with, am I in right profession?

2. With “No Child Left Behind” what do I do with the students who choose to be left behind?

3. At what point do I say, "It's just a job" and protect myself from the emotionally attachment of student success/failure?

4. Do I put too much blame on myself?

5. Why does one disappointment impact my mood more than one success?

The most recent question I’ve battled derives from my students’ consistent need for entertainment. I know that learning may be difficult for my students, tedious at times, and perhaps hurt. Not all concepts come easily and too many of my students give up when learning becomes more like a chore than outside stimuli they are accustomed to finding in video games and computers. As far as I can tell, the majority of my students have a “if it’s not fun then it’s not worth my while” attitude when it comes to learning.

The questions that I am battling today are: Is my role as a teacher to entertain so that my students learn new concepts? Or do I teach students that learning is a necessity and self-actualization is actually the reward and, therefore, the entertainment. Too often it appears that when I fall short in entertaining, the cell phones come out and texting commences.

I understand my students’ need for entertainment, but somehow I must convince them that unless we define learning more than just in-the-moment entertainment, then they will wither as they have trusted the feeling of learning and not the act of learning.

I don’t know how to achieve this right now. If I did, I’d currently have students in my classroom eager to get help; instead I sit typing in a listless classroom materializing my own educational thoughts. I’m learning teaching is not easy and not a feeling I wish upon anyone. Though the feeling of success is euphoric, the feeling of failing to show the value of education to all my students is debilitating. But I don’t cling to the feeling, I cling to the act, and with that I will continue to pursue my students and meet them in their current state of seeking entertainment and carry them into a land where active learning becomes entertaining.

And so I do not give up hope.

.