Teach for Meaning Narrative

I found many of our videos on Teaching for Meaning to be incredibly similar. This is because we are forward-thinkers looking to improve our lives in, and out, of the classroom. While reviewing several of your videos and integrating my ideas with yours, I have determined 3 Core Principles of Making Meaning.

3 Core Principles of Making Meaning

1. Stress Weighs You Down
2. Encourage Life Long Learning
3. Learn From Your Students

I'd like to share my thoughts on each of these principles.

1. Stress Weighs You Down

I posted about this issue in one of our discussion posts on the SCB4 Forum. Here's a list of stressors that do not involve my actual day-to-day classes:

• I am an integral member of the school's PBIS team. I am someone the team (and faculty throughout the school) turns to for ideas or assistance because they know me and trust that I will do a good job in fulfilling their need. Also I am going to be co-spearheading an overhaul of our school's PBIS "brand." I am going to love this (because I know I'll help make life better for everyone at our school) but it's still a ton of pressure and extra work.

• I run the Luna Creative Arts Magazine student organization. We have a school-wide event on May 4th where I create, host, and manage anywhere from 250 - 500 students, parents, and community members who participate. I do this alone. The 6 reliable students in the organization (and mostly me) create everything for the event. I enjoy this, but it takes a huge amount of work to pull off (at my standard - which is high). On top of planning and orchestrating this event, I also need to make the actual magazine. This puts me in charge of sales, promotion, and everything that goes in to this organization.

• I am a co-advisor for Link Crew, a mentoring program for every single freshmen that walks in to the building. We are currently in the process of reviewing applications, scheduling interviews, hosting the interviews, and then approving or denying students to become Link Leaders who mentor the freshmen. I do have two other teachers who help with this, but I find I  carry a lot of the stress because I am the logistics guy. (Thanks, STRATEGIC StrengthsFinder results :) )

These three things are my main stressors at the moment. This is in addition to all the regular stuff we have to deal with as teachers. It's tough to enjoy April and May because of all this stress. 

Revising My Life to Lessen the Stress

One thing I have been slacking on ALL YEAR has been having my copies prepped and ready before the day I need them. I'm fortunate enough to work with an awesome lady who runs our copy machine, and she's great about all my last-minute copies, but this stresses me out because, although mentally, I'm prepared for class, I'm physically working to the last minute to have my materials ready to go. This is also impacted by my overachieving nature, where I'll make super-involved, management-heavy, prep-heavy activities in all of my classes (I teach 3 different preps throughout the day, Honors LA 10, LA 9, and AP Lang and Comp). My classes are not in a neat order, either, so I'll often have to tear things down/move things around during passing time which then does not give me time to relax and be in the moment when my next class begins. I start class on time, but my mind is BUZZING with everything I need to do. It's stressful.

So I am going to seriously try having my copies ready ahead of time. It's such a small thing, but I think it'll really make a huge difference for me.

2. Encourage Life Long Learning

I know 100% that I am a life long learner. It's one of the big reasons I became a teacher - I love to learn, share my learning, and celebrate it with others. It's tough to explain to students why it's so important to be a learner, so I frame it with a quick history lesson on philosophy and rhetoric. 

Boring, right? Actually though, kids seem to love this conversation because kids love to learn. Here's a quick summary of what I explain to my students:

• Long, long ago in ancient Greece, before schools existed, they had trouble settling disputes. Merchants would take advantage of customers, Kings would take advantage of citizens, and the average Greek person could do nothing about these problems. Well, eventually some super smart guys (Socrates, Plato, etc.) came up with a way to help the average person argue their case - this is the beginnings of rhetoric. Unfortunately, they could only teach the rich (because education was not a right, it was a perk). Over time, their teachings transformed and morphed in to one simple question: "Why?" If you could ask "Why?" and know to expect a thorough answer, you could save yourself a ton of trouble. This is why we're in school. This is why we are learners. And this strategy has existed for thousands of years! So why change it now? Those ancient Greek citizens were life long learners because they knew they had to be in order to change society to become what was best for everyone, not just some (the rich). Etc. Etc. Etc.

Revising My Life to Encourage Life Long Learning

I've had this idea for my classroom for a long time, but I think I can try it out now. I've always wanted a "Discovery" or "Question" display in my room where we could write down all of the (not necessarily content-related) questions students ask throughout the day. These are questions we could come back to if we have a few spare minutes OR students could research them and come to class with the answers for extra credit. We could also use this display to record all of the interesting (not necessarily content-related) discoveries about the world. (For example I'd include the class's discovery about the origins of La Cucaracha from a previous blog post). This would encourage life long learning because we are celebrating all the natural ways our brain makes connections. It'd be a fun, affirming experience.

3. Learn From Your Students

It feels like most of what I've learned about teaching I learned from interacting with my students. I love kids' natural desire to get up, be involved, and learn something. I also appreciate how willing they are to step out of their comfort zones and try something new. I've found that students will tell you - loud and clear - when you're doing something that doesn't quite work. 

• Students will let you know through their words, non-verbals, or behavior if your teaching isn't working for them.

The phrase "Monitor and Adjust" came up during my mentor-mentee meeting this afternoon. I tried to help my mentee understand how important it is to be able to read a room. What are the student identifiers for "hey, this is great!" versus "hey, alert alert this is going wrong." This is a tough skill to visualize and describe, but it's so obvious once you've had some experience. It's probably one of the most valuable items teachers need to have in their toolbox, but it's the most difficult to teach to someone. 

Revising My Life to Learn From My Students

I  want to begin creating extension, or bridging, activities for my students who finish work early. I tried one out today. 

• Activity: I asked my 9th graders to independently read "Taoyateduta is Not a Coward", fill out the Elements of an Argument Model, and then color code the piece to find the 3 Modes of Persuasion. 
• Extension: I told my students that once they finished, they could work on extending their learning and previewing tomorrow's lesson by annotating the speech for Rhetorical Devices (I gave a list) and then choose one and brainstorm why they think Taoyateduta decided to include that in his speech. 

My students took this idea of an extension activity seriously and they wanted to do it - they wanted to learn more about what the author, time period, and rhetoric.

Final Comments

I believe these additions to my classroom will make me a stronger teacher, my students more engaged learners, and my classroom an even more productive space.