Who will my students BECOME after they LEARN with me?

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This little image is one of the very first I did for the blog – almost 3 years back!

It’s been downloaded so many times – hey, some people have even conntacted me and asked me for “permission” to download it (yes, there are many nice guys out there…gals, too). Others have suggested that I add a word or two…we could probably add many!

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Not that you need me to tell you…but I was kinda stating the obvious when I did this – and, I was also linking it to two other questions that TEACHers ask themselves on a Monday morning…or Sunday night:

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Very different, aren’t they?

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It’s not really a toss-up…it’s a choice!

I’ve found that the TEACHers who ask the second question “do business” very differently to those that ask the first. I’ve also “confessed” (and recently re-booted the post in which I made that confession) that I used to ask the first far more than I ever asked the second.

So…how do we get from that second question to the one I have used at the title of this post?

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Well, I thunk it’s a question of what matters…or, to be more specific, what we thunk matters…and what we do to breathe life into that thunk.

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Go back to that first image, for a minute…I was suggesting that there are 11 things that are really important in allthingsLEARNing.

If you had to choose 3 of them, what would they be?

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• FUN, perhaps? It’s important, for sure…but it might not make the top 3, yes?

• What about REFLECTION? Yes, that one might be in there.

• FEEDBACK? The LEARNing lube…gotta have that in my top 3!

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Or, maybe, it’s EXAM PASSES!

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For me, top of the list would be:

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Come on! Only 18 words there…you know the ONE!

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Need another clue?

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It’s in there TWICE…

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OK…I know you have got it by now – but I just wanted to throw in this one, too

I know, I know…but I did take all that time to prepare it!

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Besides…who doesn’t love the She-Hulk? I bet Maya Angelou does…

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LEARNing has to involve change…change in the way the LEARNer thinks, feels and acts.

It’s not just about LEARNing “stuff” or it shouldn’t be. The “stuff” we are creating these days is growing at exponential rates…and if our goal, as TEACHers, is to simply TEACH this stuff, we might as well just pack up and go home – and leave it all to the tech we now have!

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This is why our questions have changed…have to change.

Just asking “What should I TEACH today”? …is a “stuff question”.

Asking “What should my students LEARN today”? is an improvement…and, asking “What should my students be able to do with what they LEARN today”? – is even better!

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However, asking:

…is a whole new ball-game.

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A ball-game that scares the crap out of many TEACHers!

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Indeed, many TEACHers I have discussed this question with tell me it’s an impossible question – especially those that work in the ELT “racket”. They tell me that primary TEACHers (even university TEACHers) have a shot at this – they are well-placed…they have enough stuff to TEACH…they can shape minds (and souls)!

A friend of mine once told me, “I’m beginning to think that all that stuff about you being a LEARNatic is true…Come on! I’m just a bloody language TEACHer…I TEACH grammar…sorry, language communication skills…I help kids with the 4 skills…and vocabulary”!

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Read that again…

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My friend is, by the way, a great TEACHer. But, he is not “great” because of his knowledge of grammar…nor because he knows how to TEACH the 4 skills (rather than just “practice” them using a silly textbook).

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…look at how he describes himself!

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I wanted to slap him upside his head when he said this! Instead…I think I made him pay the bill!

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Why do so many TEACHers put themselves down in this way?

Maybe it’s because this is what institutions have LEARNed them…I don’t know!

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My friend is a great TEACHer because he really knows how to “connect” with his students…and because the quality of his interactions with his “kids” allow him to make a real difference to the way those kids think, feel and act – and I ain’t only talking about GRAMMAR!

You see…it doesn’t really matter “what” we TEACH…what discipline we work in, yani! Afterall, none of us really “TEACHes courses”, do we?

We TEACH kids, teenagers, young adults…and even old farts like me!

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When I had this discussion with my old pal, it took a long time to convince him (what the heck…he was paying the bill)! Seth Godin had not published his latest book The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?

I wish he had! Perhaps, we’d have fewer TEACHers saying the type of things my friend was saying.

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Seth’s book has also led me to add another little question to my list:

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…far more important for us as EDUcators, yes?

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Afterall, we (also) need to remember the words of Ellen Hocam:

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Wonderful BEDtime reading for every TEACHer (and their dogs):

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The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? by Seth Godin

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Do we really need more “Why Guys” (n’ Gals) in EDUcation?

When I first decided to take the leap into the blogosphere (16 months back), I read every single “top blog” on the web – 6 to 8 times…and then, again!

I was looking for the “secret”…you know, that “magic ingredient”…

I read pages and pages of the advice offered by the so-called social media gurus. Although a lot of this advice annoyed the hell out of me (“education” and “business” are not always the best of bed-fellows), all the best bloggers kept advising me to come back to the same point…what is the PURPOSE of your blog?

I actually liked that…it made sense to who I like to think I am as a man, as a teacher, as a thinker!

Obviously, my blog was always going to be about EDUcation (or COOKing, perhaps)! Funny thing is, I probably would have a got a lot more “hits”, if I had gone with the latter…ne se (and Google Translate still “sucks”)!

The problem was that I am soooooo interested in soooooo many things…classroom practice, technology, leadership, performance improvement, language development, cognitive growth, assessment, curriculum, innovation, teacher education…

In the end, I did go back to PURPOSE…I went back to LEARNing. That was the “line” that seemed to connect all my “dots”.

I drew up my little manifesto…and have always tried to stay true to that.

 

 

The thing is – this PURPOSE keeps bringing me back to the notion of:

…and:

This is why I loved the idea of the Why Guy (click on this – great video) when I first stumbled onto it – OK; it was not really “that” Why Guy (though it is a fun video clip). The term was (from what I was able to dug up) the brain-child of Mike Castellucci – and it has been picked up by a huge range of organisations and web-based thinkers.

 

Seth Godin (one of the Blogging Jedi Masters I researched many moons ago) has recently done a post on the importance of having these “guys” (and “gals”) in every institution around the globe…

Seth tells us we need to be asking more questions like:

• Why does it work this way?
• Why is that our goal?
• Why did you say no?
• Why are we treating people differently?
• Why is this our policy?
• Why don’t we enter this market?
• Why did you change your mind?
• Why are we having this meeting?
• Why not?

He’s right – totally right – and those of you that know this blog well will know the types of questions I love to ask…and love others to ask themselves.

 

Being a “Why Gal” is extremely important for anyone in a LEADership role – we know that everyone is a “boss-watcher” and if you want a “thinking team” you gotta “walk-your-whys”.

TEACHers are leaders – and students are “TEACHer watchers”. If you want to help co-create thinking students – you gotta be a “Why Gal” (or “Guy”) in the classroom…

You just knew one of these was a-comin’…

 

I need to tell you a little story about something that happened this week.

You know I have been coaching a few teachers in observation and feedback skills of late. Normally, when I do this type of work – we look at best practices across a whole range of disciplines and practice a few reflection and feedback skills in a more “controlled” environment – then we “step it up”.

This week I stepped it up with two of my favourite “reflectors” – I asked them to observe each other’s class and then take the role of “observer” and give feedback to the “observee” (with me there to “feed back” on the “feedback”). They were both ready – they have established a great LEARNing partnership, they care about each other deeply and they have become really skilled at asking the “right” questions.

The feedback and reflection session went “south” so quickly…it would have made your head spin!

…because of the bloody question “Why”!

 

Sure, “Why?” is a great question – but it also the type of question that can send us all into a “Freudian panic” faster than Mitt Romney can change his position on just about any issue that matters…to US voters.

 

A lot of this goes back to how we have been trained to “hear” what the word “why” actually means:

• Mummy: Why did you do that? I told you what would happen…
• Daddy: Why didn’t you ace that test? Just a “C”…just a “C”…
• Grandma: You didn’t do it…Why not? What’s wrong with you…?

Philip Larkin wrote a great poem about how families “condition” us to certain ways of thinking…sadly many institutions continue with this tradition.

 

Coming back to TEACHers…giving each other “feedback” – look at these:

WHY…I giggled a bit as I typed that…do you think a TEACHer might not want to “hear” the red questions, acaba (good save – Google Translate)?

 

The “Why Guy” is important (in the right context, with the right relationship) – but, we also need the “How Gal”…a gal who knows how to get the “best” out of others. 

…but, most importantly, we need the “How-Do-We-Know-Guy”!

Stop Stealing Dreams…(or, what are schools for?)

I interupt this “mini-series” in favour of a Public Service Announcement!

Seth Godin is probably one of the most prolific bloggers (and writers) on the block – and he’s recently published a 30,000 word manifesto (and you all thought that “I” wrote a lot)! 

It’s a REALLY good read!

The title, as you have probably gathered, is about allthingsEDUCATION (or, perhaps more specifically, allthingsSCHOOLING) – and Seth is keen to start a “fire or three”.

He dedicates this to “…every teacher who cares enough to change the system, and to every student brave enough to stand up and speak up” …but I also feel it would be great for more teachers-in-training and parents to get their hands on a copy!

I’m not going to say too much but want to add Seth’s intro and note to us all:

• Click HERE for the original blog post from Seth

• Click HERE for the PDF (on-screen edition)

• Click HERE for a printable copy of the manifesto.