Be the Change

I had a wonderful conversation yesterday with a beloved graduate Professor of mine about the future of education and in particular, how we see ourselves playing our part in it's future.  In my mind, I just could hear Mahatma Gandhi's famous words playing like a mantra, "be the change you want to see in the world."  

Education, we feel, should be about excitement and engagement.  If students are excited and engaged about their learning, they will learn!  When the goal at hand is to get a certain amount of questions right on a test, their hearts just aren't in the right place.  Life is all about intentions.  Students, just like us teachers, want to have fun, want to find meaning, and don't want to be bored!!   If we are excited, having fun, finding meaning to our work and are content it will show and our students will enjoy our classes more.  If we are bored and jaded, that will show as well and our students will not enjoy our classes, zone out and not succeed as well.

Now, I know a lot of people out there are thinking that their subject is hard to teach, hard to learn and just not fun.  I challenge you to alter that believe!!!  Many people, when I tell them that I teach Chemistry say, "ugh! I hated that in high school!" Well, what if you had fun coming in to class?  What if your teacher very obviously loved what they did, came to work with excitement, love for their students, and was always willing to try new ideas?  Maybe you would have liked it more.  

I love my job and I truly care for my students.  I make sure that they always know that.  My goal is to constantly increase their engagement, increase their excitement, and thereby increase their success by (hopefully) making them want to learn instead of feeling the need to have to learn.

Do they have to learn a certain curriculum for a standardized test?  Absolutely!  Do I get evaluated based on how my students perform on that standardized test?  Sure.  But if they want to learn they are more likely to perform better and be happier while doing so and in that case, everyone wins.

The change I want to see, is a world with #happyclassrooms yet productive classrooms and it is possible if we lead by example.