The Dreams of Teachers

I had the wonderful opportunity to sit in on parent-teacher interviews last week with a Grade 7 and 8 teacher. Although I am sure I can look forward to many interviews in my teaching career where parents are angry, apathetic, or simply absent, it was pretty spectacular to start off my experience of the parent-teacher meeting by encountering so many moms and dads who are genuinely concerned and interested in the success of their children. I listened to parents who tutored their sons and daughters, parents who advocated for their children, and parents who took the blame for putting too much pressure on their kids to get high grades. I suppose I should admit that many of these parents are in high-profile positions and recognize the effort it takes to be academically and professionally successful; moreover, there were “power-parents” who did not show up for an interview, but from purely my own experience of the day: Bravo Parents! Even where the student needed to translate for his mother or father, it was a phenomenal opportunity for the teacher, parent, and student to get back on the same page and ensure that the student was playing at the top of her or his game.

When sitting down the other morning to my last prep period of the day, I came to a point where there was no other work for me to do. I essentially have all my lessons planned and prepared until we go to visit Crusader castles! This was an alien experience for me since I sometimes found myself scrambling to be prepared for lessons during my practica in October, December, and February. At this school in Aleppo, I, like all teachers here, have between two and four hours of prep time every day. From one perspective, it is wonderful to have all this time because it enables me to take advantage of my evenings in Aleppo. The flip side of this coin is that I am often teaching for only half of the school day; consequently, I find it difficult to keep my “teaching groove” from class to class and day to day. The time that I spend with students is always the most brilliant part of my teaching day and helps motivate me to come up with compelling ways to teach the next day’s lesson. When I only see the kids for two or three periods during the day, it is hard to keep up a full head of steam!

Motivation in Leadership

I hope to someday serialize and post an essay I wrote for my Public History course regarding motivation and Grade 10 History students in Ontario, but time flies and I have still more ideas to write about. I am continuing to examine the motivations of students during my practicum, and in particular I am looking at the level of commitment that some students show towards leadership camps, which I have referred to in other posts. At these camps, students learn about the essentials of communication, group dynamics, problem solving, goal-setting, leadership styles, stress relief among other topics. Whether these participants in these camps actually develop into effective leaders is an entirely different question, but the organizers of the weekend have a high intrinsic motivation to make their camp a success. There is a high emotional attachment to the camp, many students feel that they change as a result of this camp and want to make a difference in the lives of others, and there is also some pride or status attached to being a part of this camp, which is of course an extrinsic motivation. I am not sure that educators are ready or really want students so interested in a particular course that they put off other school work, become almost obsessively focused on the work, and ignore even bodily needs of sleep when preparing for large activities, but it is interesting to look at how such motivation might be directed and harnessed for the purposes of education. While I suspect that one of the reasons that students devote so much effort to leadership camps might be because it is not a school activity, I think that this potential should nevertheless be investigated.

To Syria

In September, it was a possibility: “Yeah, Syria is one of the places I’m thinking about.”
When December arrived, it was a choice: “I’m hoping everything works to go to Syria.”
By January, the wheels were in motion: “So I’ve got my ticket to go to Syria!”
In February, I was assured: “I think you will be pleasantly surprised about traveling to Syria.”
This past weekend, I began saying adieu: “Check out my blogs while I’m in Syria!”

Being a somewhat less eloquent writer than some others, I find myself at a loss for the words to appropriately describe my intentions at the outset of my visit to Syria. The official reason for this trip is to gain experience teaching and learning in an international context. I have the incredible opportunity to introduce students the history of the Crusades and accompany these young individuals on trips to a number of the castles that were built during this period of history. As a historian, the prospect of traveling through one of the cradles of civilization where innumerable historic figures lived, fought, and traveled even now leaves me awe-struck. While I hope that friends will never peg me as merely the guy who will always be happy as long as you find him a museum, historical site, or dusty manuscript, I simply cannot wait to find myself surrounded by the walls of castles that once sheltered Salah al-Din and his armies or crusading knights from Europe.

To understand my most deep and fundamental desire to visit Syria though, my reader needs only to recall recent history, hysteria, and horrors. Despite its rich past, its cultural diversity, and its devotion to religious values, the Middle East has been characterized in black-and-white images as a haven for terror, a region of instability and intolerance, and a breeding ground for religious fundamentalism. This is simply an unfair characterization of a region inhabited by hundreds of millions of people. If it is the historian’s job to present and analyze information in a fair and balanced way, then this historian is seeking to address the imbalance in the story of the Middle East that is being told and retold in the media and in households today. If educators are responsible for preparing students to live well and make thoughtful and intentional decisions, then this educator believes that students need to hear an alternative narrative to the prejudiced, conflict-driven message that is currently being circulated. If there is ever to be lasting peace on this little planet of ours, that peace is going to come from understanding.

To this end, as I write over the next month and when I return to Canada after my trip, I hope to be an ambassador for Syria. I do want to describe the amazing experiences that I am having and reassure worried family and friends that I am indeed safe and sound, but it is my deepest desire to convince my readers and listeners that we need to consider these people – Syrians, Arabs, Muslims, people from the Middle East – as individuals who are our friends and neighbours rather than a faceless mass to be feared and contained.

I am not the greatest storyteller –I can never think of the appropriate story at the party unless it occurred in the last two months and often need to be reminded of events that happened only a few years before; consequently, my blog posts and the photos I take will help me to recall teachable moments and surreal experiences in the unlikely event that this trip does not leave a profound impression upon me. At the same time, I will likely comment on matters historical here and educational in Humility in Education, and some posts (like the one that you are now reading) will appear in both blogs, so please look forward to posts that are academic but hopefully not too irregular or uninteresting! When you read though, it is my desperate hope that you will also consider the serious purpose of my visit.

Syria-usly? Yep. Seriously.

Finally, I hope that you will share in my travels by commenting on my posts. Well-wishes and wish lists, comments and concerns, stories and suggestions are enriching for everybody who will continue read on.

“What’s new with me? Well, I’m going to Syria.” What an adventure!

Lesson Plans: To Share Around or Stow Away?

Throughout my B.Ed year, I have had the opportunity to share some really wonderful resources with classmates and come away with a variety of teaching and classroom management strategies. Perhaps more significantly, my Associate Teachers were willing to share their library of resources with me; however, they asked me not to pass these resources on any further. While I will faithfully use these resources only for planning my own lessons, I must argue that many teachers are overly worried about giving away lesson plans and resources. Like the chisel in the hands of a master craftswoman or craftsman, teaching tools will have the greatest impact on students when implemented by confident, competent, and reflective educators. The presentation and execution of an activity guarantees its success and value; when the activity is written down on a page, it has only the potential for creating a successful teachable moment.

I must admit that I did recently withhold complete lesson plans in favour of providing brief outlines of the activities I had led, but in the future I hope to be much more free with the content that I put together. Many of my best ideas are adaptations I have pulled from other contexts, so the lessons I create are only in part my own to begin with. If I take the time to type out, label, and organize my lessons, I should consider this a favour to fellow educators.

I suppose that sharing our treasured binders of lessons and activities strikes at the very heart of humility in education.

Leading the Way in Inconsistent Behaviour

The students who participate in planning leadership camps at my practicum school are incredibly passionate about and dedicated to creating a leadership camp experience that builds on the fantastic time that they themselves had as delegates only a few years before. At the camp that I helped to supervise in the late fall, I was stunned to learn that these students were willing and able to provide a quality camp to delegates when running on only a few hours of sleep. Their motivation in that moment was such that, whether or not this was a reasonable and healthy choice, they were willing to push their own physical limits in order to pull off the camp that they had been dreaming of and planning for the previous three months.

It was therefore so frustrating for me to attend a leadership planning meeting this past Monday to observe this dedicated group carrying on a multitude of side discussions throughout the course of their time together. Brainstorming was definitely less efficient with only part of the group tuned into the discussion, and the disregard that some students showed towards their peers was shocking. Were these the same individuals that had shown a united front dedicated to seeing through a quality leadership camp?

While many of the students involved in planning leadership camp have strong intrinsic motivations for directing considerable time and energy to this extracurricular activity, I wonder if the extrinsic rewards of being recognized as a member of the planning committee or validating the club to skeptical teachers are actually what focus the entire group to complete tasks. Perhaps these students acquire and demonstrate greater motivation as they are able to see the fruits of the labour. Because the group is so large, it may be that a consensus model is unwieldy for organizing such a large event. I believe that the energy these students invest into leadership camp can be directed towards other activities, but it is essential to identify and harness consistent sources of motivation rather than tapping unsustainable levels of commitment.

The Smooth Lesson

When I led Music & Drama sessions and Leader-In-Training sessions at Camp Kintail, it was always important for me to have quick, smooth transitions between activities in order to hold campers’ interest and attention. I also remember being told as an undergraduate student to work on smooth transitions between paragraphs in the essays that I wrote.

While observing my associate teachers and reflecting on my own practice, it occurred to me that leading a seamless lesson is every bit as important as creating smooth camp activities or essays. Students are given opportunities to lose focus when there are unexpected breaks between a mini-lecture and an activity or when certain lab materials still need to be pulled out. If I am mentally prepared for my lesson and have all my handouts and materials organized before the class, I think that I will be more successful in sustaining student focus on both teacher-centered and student-centered activities. Some students might be more motivated to engage in class work and activities if they feel that I am organized and not wasting their time trying to get my own act together. Other students who have trouble staying on task throughout an entire period might simply benefit from having a constant and consistent focus for the full seventy minutes.

The ability to lead a smooth, seamless lesson is thus not only a classroom management technique but also a pathway to success for students who experience difficulties learning in a classroom setting.