Relationships, Relevance and Rigor

On our last full inservice day we had the pleasure of meeting and listening to Dr. Mike Neal from the University of Kansas.  He talked about a lot of different things but always came back to what he referred to as the new R's of education.

Relationships, Relevance and Rigor.

Making education relevant is something all educators need to focus on.  Students can (and will) get information anywhere.  Even in fourth grade last year I had a student correct something I had given an educated guess on the previous day.  It wasn't something I had taught but something I had to theorize on late in the day without time to do the proper research.  I took the guess, said we would talk about it the next day and honestly forgot about it.  They didn't.  They took what I had said and did their own research later.  It wasn't a big deal to me to be wrong.  I LOVED it.  I loved that they took the time to prove me wrong, did their own thinking, were involved enough to pay attention to remember later what we had started talking about and then took the time to prove me wrong.  But what does that mean for us teachers?  What does it mean when our "expertise" is only as needed as the nearest smart phone, computer or tablet?

To me it means several things.

Relationships seems so easy.  But is it?  Take the time to really know your students.  What makes them tick?  And not just the kid that makes YOU tick.  What makes them who they are?  Do your students love Minecraft?  Go play it.  Or just read about it.  Its worth your time.  Do they play an instrument?  At in local plays?  Read a book series you haven't read before?  Play a sport?  Go watch them play.  Cheer them on.  Show an interest in who they are.  Let them know and feel that you care about them as a person and they will buy in when you most need it in the classroom.  No one doubts that each kid who walks through your door truly matters.  Making sure that they know that is worth every minute spent on your Saturday at a little league basketball game.

Start these conversations that make students WANT to learn.  Take those chances on things that popup and give them a little time.  Your day is full.  I get it.  Every minute of my school day is booked with something.  The best lesson I did with my class last year was not a planned one.  I got an email before lunch about a webinar about Polar Bears.  My notification went off on the board (how did I forget to turn that off????) and the students saw it.  They were intrigued.  It wasn't a webinar we would participate in directly.  Just be watchers and maybe send a question through Twitter.  But it was during recess!  They didn't care.  They gave up recess to start that conversation about Polar Bears and conservation.  It was relevant.  It meant something.  We took part in several other learning opportunities like this through the year.  They weren't on the lesson plan but each one makes the ranking for my favorite moment of my first year in fourth grade.  They were all relevant.

Relevant doesn't mean easy.  Students want to be challenged.  Rigor might mean different things for different students.  Pretending that every student can all do the same things and do them well is counterproductive (don't even get me started...).  Finding and assigned things that are rigorous might require more of your own time but the results are well worth it.  Be creative!  And rigor doesn't always mean "hard".  Rigor ties back into relevance.  Give assignments that encourage students to do more, learn more, to come back tomorrow and say you were wrong about something!

New School Year!!!

With a new school year comes new goals!  And what is rule #1 of goal making?  Accountability!  Having survived year #1 in a classroom my goals this year all surround expanding what I waded into last year.

#1 - Use Skype in some way to let my students explore the world around them.  Whether through a Mystery Skype or bringing in an expert in some way using Skype (or Google Hangout) to bring in someone from around the country (and globe) to collaborate with my class is something that I want to make happen.

#2 - Write here.  And get my students blogging.  I can't really expect them to constantly write if I can't do the same right?  So I lump those together.  More laptops in my room will mean that access isn't an issue anymore.  I don't want them to write long, drawn out essays each week but SOMETHING.  Any my goal is the same.  Whether its sharing something from my personal life, a good cheer for one of my favorite teams or better yet something educational my goal is a post a week.  It might be Saturday at 11:59 but thats the goal.

#3 - Use Augmented Reality.  And this one starts day 1 with how I want to welcome parents to our back to school night!  We are diving right into this one!

#4 - Let my students be the experts.  I talk too much.  I want to talk less.  Not teach less.  Talk less.

#5 - Have Fun.  How could I not really?  I have a fantastic job.  And how could I expect my students to want to be here if for some reason I don't?  And how could I want to be here if its not fun?

There are of course a hundred different goals that could be 6-105 but I will keep it at a nice 5 for now.  It IS the first day back.