A Good Teacher Learns

    Well, here we are on Release Day. The video’s done, the social networking is set up and ready to go. All that remains to do is actually press a bunch of publish buttons. I don’t know if my students are nervous, but I have to admit I’m nervous for them. When I think about all the work they’ve put in, the effort, creativity, excitement and energy, I very much want to see this succeed. They’ve created and collaborated, negotiated and delegated, overcome and struggled through. I’ve seen kids show more dedication in the past three months than I’ve seen in ten years of education.
I’ve learned a lot about teaching in the last three months. These students really are right. Educational needs aren’t the same as when I was in middle school twenty years ago. The modern educator is a facilitator, an organizer, and a guide – the modern educator is NOT a teacher. We are no longer (or should no longer be) in the business of giving information. The information is out there, easily grasped. It’s our job to present it to the students in a way that makes them want to learn themselves. That’s basically what this video – and this whole project – is about. We’re still using exactly the same methodologies – with, in some cases, niftier tools – that we used twenty (one hundred!) years ago. Lecture and listen. Drill and kill. Review and test, always test, again and again. Repeat with next unit. That was onerous and tired twenty years ago when I was a student. Why are we still using it now?

A good teacher learns. These kids have taught me.

Now let’s see if they can teach the world.

-J. Fletcher