Compliance, Engagement, Empowerment - A Teacher's Journey

As a new teacher, I felt the most important thing I could do to help my students learn was to have them be compliant with my requests.  I thought if they were completing the work and activities I had planned, that they would have the best chance at learning what I knew they needed.  I wasn't completely wrong, and many of my students learned many things.  However, I know I wasn't taking them as far as I had hoped.  My evaluations would say things like "business like atmosphere", which was supposed to be a compliment.  It felt complimentary to me at the time, but I would find it offensive if my classroom was described in that manner now.  My classroom learning with compliance as the goal could be defined with this meme.

I quickly transitioned to understanding the need for my students to be engaged, not just compliant.  Don't get me wrong, I know they still needed to be compliant about many things, but compliance was no longer my goal. I still expected classroom policies and procedures to be followed, along with school policies and procedures.  What changed is that I began focussing my efforts to create lessons that would engage my students in learning.  I wanted compliance to be a result of engagement.  I took on the position that if my students were engaged in their learning, compliance would come naturally, and much more learning would take place.  And it did.  My evaluations reflect that my students are typically very engaged in learning experiences, and that makes me a happy teacher.  My classroom could now be defined with this meme.

Since becoming familiar with George Couros's blog, hearing him speak, and reading his book, Innovator's Mindset, I have embraced the idea that my learners need to be not only engaged in their learning but empowered to be involved in creating their learning experiences.  I can't do it every time, but I am attempting to do it as much as possible.  The result:  happier students who are learning more, and a happier teacher who is learning more as well.  Less than a year ago, I would have said I would be the last person to be using social media to further my professional development, but now I don't know how I ever taught without it.  I may have even been likely to want things locked down at school that could "interfere" with student learning.  Now I know those things lead to student learning much more than they interfere with it.  I had to get over my fear and wanting to be in control of everything.  I had to realize that I didn't need to have all of the answers.  I had to be willing to let my students teach me.  As educators, we need to embrace the changes in the world we live in, yes, WE.  This isn't just the world our students live in, it is the world we live in.  In his book, George Couros state (page 102), "Imagine what school would look like if we really focused on empowering learners."  I did imagine that.  I'm still imagining that.  And I am attempting to empower my students as much as possible - it's the best education for all of us.  My class can now be defined with this meme.

Example of my empowered student learning:

My class is participating in the Global Read Aloud by reading the book Pax, by Sara Pennypacker along with classes all over the world.  My students have been connecting with a group of students in Virginia (we are in Indiana) through blogging on the WriteAbout website.  They are engaged by sketch noting while I read chapters aloud to them.  They are engaged in the blogging.  Then, I introduced them to Screencastify and showed them how to make a video to introduce themselves to other students.  They resisted because of anxieties about taping themselves, but then they engaged and did that.  A few of my students were actually empowered at this point, as they wanted to use other tools they were familiar with to create their videos.  I allowed them to use whatever tool they chose as long as they were able to share it with me.  When they were finished, many even blogged about how having the experience to make a video was an example of bravery (as we were discussing bravery in regards to this novel).

Last week, I was able to connect with a teacher in Canada who wanted to connect with my class.  Her students watched my student's videos and then were inspired to create videos of themselves for my students to watch.  After that, we did a live Google Hangout between my class and theirs to get to know each other better and discuss the book we have been reading.  It was AMAZING!  Still, though, this is just engagement, as I provided them the tool and opportunity (after having to work tirelessly all week to get Google Hangout unblocked for student use).  Now comes the empowerment.  After this experience, my students began a spontaneous conversation about all of the ways Google Hangouts could help them with learning.  Some of their ideas were to use it to continue group work from outside school since it would be like they were together, help them with their social skills, help them with conversation skills, get them off of their video games, and communicate with and get to know people all over the world.  I hope they can stay empowered.  I hope the 5% of students who will likely use Google Hangouts when they should be doing something else don't cause this tool to be taken away from everyone.  I hope the teachers who aren't ready to embrace new technology, relax their need to be in control of everything, and who are still looking for compliance above anything else don't ruin this opportunity for others.  I hope my administration has the wisdom to see the good outweighs the bad, that this is best for learners, and that decisions should be made based on the 95% - not the 5%.  Time will tell.  No matter the outcome, this teacher will continue to do her best to provide her students with the tools they need to be empowered in their learning!