To What Ends?

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a French pilot and novelist once said, “If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea” (ThinkExist). This sentiment fits perfectly with my philosophy of teaching. As a teacher my goal is not only to teach but also to seek out ways to unlock a desire to learn in my students. I believe that when that fire in the belly is lit children begin to find ways to seek out learning experiences. The challenging part is that it will take a different kind of spark for every child. I want to help kids to see their own potential so that they see their education less as a chore and more as a vessel that will carry them where they want to go in life. A vehicle built with their very own minds, hearts and hands, supported and guided by their teachers.

By What Means?

First and foremost is in attaining my goal is keeping inquiry alive in my classroom. I must get to know my students and discover what motivates and drives them and we cannot learn about each other without a two way dialogue. This two way dialogue is an important aspect of building a positive relationship with my students where they feel that their ideas and needs are valued. As I learn about my students it then becomes my job to incorporate their learning styles, ideas and desires into our curriculum. For example instead of providing the class with a list of my rules, the class would work together to build our own list of class rules, which could be modified by the class if something is not working for the group. It is also important to model positive relationships and social expectations to my students by building strong positive relationships with parents and other school staff members. These interactions should be characterized by respectful communication, a helpful demeanor and using empathetic consideration toward the feelings of others. Students should be able to see how each interaction I have and the decisions I make affect my relationships and how others perceive me as an educator.

These ideas tie back into the concept of having a collaborative classroom where the children have ownership of helping to build and maintain the interactions. Inquiry based collaborative teaching approaches are supported by educational research. Authors Brigid Barron and Linda Darling-Hammond collected various researches on these approaches in their article for the Edutopia website. The article concluded that, “Evidence shows that inquiry-based, collaborative approaches benefit students in learning important twenty-first-century skills, such as the ability to work in teams, solve complex problems, and apply knowledge from one lesson to others (Powerful Learning: Studies Show Deep Understanding Derives from Collaborative Methods). As a teacher it will be my job to employ many different instructional methods to keep students engaged and create opportunities that build their motivation to learn. Important methods that I will use could include the use of driving questions to increase student involvement in building knowledge and using authentic project based activities that give students an opportunity to apply their knowledge and problem solving skills. That being said I also believe that creating a well-organized classroom space and making smart classroom management decisions will help keep the focus on cooperation and inquiry learning. Group work and allowing peer-to-peer tutoring can help build the students confidence in their own abilities and everyone will have at least one thing that they can teach the rest of the class.

To What Degree?

To discover if I am succeeding in my objectives, I will have to examine students work and behavior. Are the students putting forth a clear effort even if the results aren’t always perfect? Is their work improving and are the children beginning to take ownership and pride in the activities we are doing as a class? These are important questions to ask when deciding whether I am successfully creating an atmosphere where students are growing into lifelong learners. While these things cannot be measured on tests, if my classroom is succeeding in increasing my student’s desire to gain knowledge their academic success should improve at the same time. Assessment strategies that can help measure these kinds of outcomes are more hands on for example having students keep a writing portfolio to see how their writing is improving over time. Another key component to giving the students ownership of assessment is to give them a voice in assessment of their work. This could be accomplished by using student created rubrics as an assessment piece.

Why?

The purpose of creating this collaborative classroom and encouraging my student’s to unlock what motivates them is to eventually let my students go. They will only be with me for a short time in the grand scheme of their lives, but if I can introduce the idea that education is more than an obligation, it is an opportunity; I can work with them to begin to construct the vessel of their choosing that will carry them into the endless immensity of their futures. 

Works Cited

Barron, Brigid and Linda Darling-Hammond. "Powerful Learning: Studies Show Deep Understanding Derives from Collaborative Methods." 8 October 2008. Edutopia Website. website. 7 May 2016.

ThinkExist. ThinkExist.com. n.d. 2016. website. 7 May 2016. <http://thinkexist.com/quotation/if_you_want_to_build_a_ship-don-t_drum_up_people/170927.html>.