Welcome to Teachers At Risk
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Nov
30
Why I decided to pursue a MEd
Filed Under The way I see it | 2 Comments
As long as I can remember I have had a passion for learning. My Mom tells me as soon as I could speak, I drove everyone crazy with questions about everything. I needed to know why and why not. Fortunately all my years of formal education have not changed that. Living is still learning; learning is still living.For quite some time now, the Internet has fueled my passion for learning. If I have a question, all I have to do is Google to find some of the answers I seek. Of course, that need to know extends to my teaching practice. I am always asking how can I better meet the needs of my students. Why are things the way they are? What can I do to change them? While I have found the internet useful for keeping up to date on current issues in education and for finding strategies and resources to improve my teaching practice, I have come to realize self directed study may not be the most efficient way to do this. That’s why I have decided to pursue a Master of Education, and that is why I am taking the course I am right now.
I have not been disappointed. The course I’m taking not only provides me with direction I seek, but perhaps even more importantly facilitates my learning by providing me the opportunity to be part of a learning community that reads, discuss, writes and reflects on a wide variety of topics related to education. I intend to share here some of my reflections that come from the readings and discussions we have had over the duration of the course.
I’m just finishing my final paper for this my first course. I’ll be honest and say I’m ready for a break.I’ll have some time so I’ll be able to blog more often. I’m not happy about cutting back on my writing here, but I can only do so much. The next course I’m takng starts in January. I’m looking forward to it even though it means I’m super busy.
photo thanks to icelight
Nov
24
So what’s David’s story and how can we help him?
Filed Under "At-risk" students, motivating students, underachieving students | 2 Comments
David, not his real name, is not at all engaged in my math class. He mostly sits and draws. David’s actually quite a good artist. He also loves drama class. When I sit and work with him on a one-on-one basis he seems to be willing to accept help, but nothing seems to stick. I wonder what his story is. The OSR (Ontario School Record) isn’t telling me much. David told me that he just had the worst day of his life, but doesn’t want to talk about it. I called home but Mom told me she wasn’t aware of any major problems and told me he’s always been quiet and withdrawn, and he’s always been weak in math. I find it interesting that David’s Mom isn’t aware of David’s “worst day of his life”. That’s too bad. Kids certainly don’t tell their parents everything.
I’m really concerned about David, and not just his math mark- he got a zero on yesterday’s quiz. I’m going to talk to his guidance counselor and recommend that David be discussed at the next Student Success Committee meeting. I know from experience that if we don’t help David with whatever his problem is, it’s going to be very difficult for him to do well at school. Students don’t just drop their problems at the classroom door before entering the classroom. The problems follow them right to their desks and prevent them from doing their best.
photo uploaded by pink sherbert
Nov
12
Motivating students by getting them into Flow
Filed Under The way I see it, motivating students, positive climate, underachieving students | 1 Comment
There has been a lot written about how to motivate students. An entire professional development industry has sprung up around the issue. Thinking that the teacher is the key and believing that teachers are life long learners too, I sought out courses and workshops that promised me that if I just did what they suggested, all my students would be motivated to complete all their assignments to the best of their ability. I was determined to meet my students’ needs. I wanted them to experience what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls the Flow, although at the time he had not coined the term. Flow according to Csikszentmihalyi is
a state of altered consciousness in which our ability to concentrate and perform is enormously enhanced. People who achieve this state also report a tremendous increase in their sense of achievement and satisfaction. (Armour, Philip, p19)
Flow occurs when students’ abilities and the demands of the task the teacher give them are in sync. This part of Flow theory reminds me of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Goldilocks, as you remember, wanted everything to be just right for her: the chair had to be not too tall or not too short, the bowl of porridge had to be not too hot or not too cold and the bed had to be not too soft or not too hard. Everything had to be just right for her.
In Goldilocks’ search for Flow, she would be looking for assignments and routines that were just right for her. They would not be too easy so that she would not be bored and not do the work or not too hard so that she would be frozen with anxiety and could not do the work. Goldilocks would be looking for what Csikszentmihalyi calls the Competency Zone, that spot that it is just right for her to enable her to become more competent and successful at completing the task at hand. The competency zone is a moving target. That is important to realize because as Goldilocks masters skills and content in one area, she will eventually going to get bored with it all and stop learning. She is going to step out of the Competency Zone. It is her teacher’s challenge once again to find the conditions that are just right for her so she can step back into that zone and continue to do her best.
Csikszentmihalyi would encourage Goldilocks’ teacher to monitor her to ensure that she does not get trapped in what he calls The Comfort Zone (Armour, p.20), a low energy spot at the low of the Competency Zone where life is easy but not much learning goes on. He would encourage Goldilocks’ teacher to structure things so that when Goldilocks has mastered the task at hand and is just starting to be too comfortable, she would be challenged to operate just slightly outside the top end of the Competency Zone in The Learning Edge (Armour, p. 21). In The Learning Edge, Goldilocks would be asked to push herself ever so slightly beyond her competencies. Csikszentmihalyi suggests that staying in the Learning Edge (Armour, p. 22) is crucial for optimum learning or Accelerated learning to take place. Here, Goldilocks would learn the most in the least amount of time. The trick of course is to get Goldilocks into that spot that is not too challenging for her or not too easy for her. The tension has to be just right.
I.’d like to share this TED video with you so you can hear Csikszentmihalyi speak about Flow.
Armour, Philip. (2006, June) The Learning Edge. Communication of the ACM
Vol. 49 No. 6 pp. 20-23.
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