How One Teacher Changed for the Good of Her Students

Having our students love school, is so, so... first grade, isn't it? Somewhere around fifth grade our students were ready for graduation, and by graduation, I meant from college. There are always a group of students who had enough of summer and were excited to be back in the classroom, but that would wear off by the middle of September. Pernille Ripp describes how students in our classrooms, in her classroom, somehow stopped loving school because of the manner in which we tried to fit them into a system that works for the teacher, and in the process, squelching the enthusiasm for learning of our students. In her classroom, she dealt primarily with straight edges, classes had a specific recipe to be followed. As a result, student's eyes soon glassed over and just burned time as they sat through another lecture. 

Once she realized the issue, she had no one else to blame but herself. I believe that if all of us sat down and considered, many of us have played our part. For me I can recall assigning work that bordered on busy work, and lectures on "boring" topics that was an amazing sedative. Now that we have allowed students to go through our classrooms wishing that "school" didn't exist. Ripp states that is time to create a classroom in which  creates passionate workers. 

So what to do? Rip asks "what is in my control? Homework, grades, punishment, the ways information is presented, the community building, the shared ownership." I really can agree with her perception that we constantly need to question if there is a better way. As I teach history from year to year, no course can ever be the same. I want to go after my passions each year and allow my enthusiasm spill over onto my students. Let's find ways to get the involved in the class, let's get them out of their seats. We need to focus on how our students learn, and not how I can teach the subject more efficiently. Its not a simple matter, students may enter into our class already burned out. But that doesn't mean that we as teachers are helpless in bringing back an enthusiasm for learning. It begins with us.