Motivated in the Classroom, Year after Year

As I reflect on this past semester, I'm already preparing for 2011 classes. As I do so, I'm proud to say that a former student just applied to the Teach for America program. For the teachers and professors in this profession for the short term or the long haul, here's my take on staying fresh in the classroom:

There is a symmetry to every college semester, with a set number of weeks and exams at fixed intervals. Just like a Hollywood screenplay has three acts, I love the predictability that the semester structure brings. After teaching for a while, I became adept at seeing common class trends and defining plot points along an arc - when to expect enthusiastic student participation, when students might be stressed or losing confidence, when to pull back on the material or forge full speed ahead. While the structure is predictable, every semester has an energy and a life of its own.

Someone once asked me how I can teach the same subjects year after year without getting bored. My answer back: “Do you think that a recording artist gets bored singing the same song for the past thirty years?” It may be the same song, but there’s a different interpretation and a fluid audience each time. A performer can kill one night, and then fall flat the next evening if the crowd’s chemistry isn’t there. The song remains the same, but those sitting in on the sessions may not always be on the same page. Yes, the course material is similar from year to year, but meeting different students each time is the secret part of the equation which keeps things lively, unpredictable, and exciting.

A teacher’s job is to keep things fresh and provocative, regardless of mood, subject, or student engagement. The show must always go on. The good news is that there’s ample opportunity to shift gears from week to week to capture attention and to captivate. ...

Naturally, my curious students ask me why I don’t practice law anymore. The best answer I can come up with is an analogy from the movie, Good Will Hunting, when psychologist Robin Williams is discussing personal relationships with patient, Matt Damon. Damon just had a perfect first date with Minnie Driver, and he tells Williams that he’s never going to call her again. To which a surprised Williams inquires why. Damon explains that the date was so perfect, that he didn’t want to ruin that memory or image, and risk an imperfect second date. The psychologist smiles and reminds his young patient that he’s not so perfect himself, and neither is his recent date. The trick he says is to take a risk and discover whether you’re perfect for each other.

Being a teacher is not a perfect profession, and I know I’m an imperfect teacher. But we’re perfect for each other. I’ve learned, changed, grown, and gotten back more than I bargained for in many courtrooms and classrooms.

Today, I am refreshed and ready, but already messed up on the first day of the current term in front of 120 students. While I remembered to bring the syllabus, I forgot to bring their outline for the first unit. The class was already confused about the first assignment.

Maybe I have an overactive imagination or a hypersensitive ear, but I could’ve sworn I heard a student mutter under her breath: “This professor sucks!”

Excerpt from Unlocking Your Rubber Room: 44 Off-the-Wall Lessons
c 2009 Perry Binder

Classroom Humor Sparks Creative Problem-Solving

In my recent article, The Case for Humor in the College Classroom, I wrote: As college professors nationwide prepare for a new academic year, my message for them is simple: Lighten up! Your students just might engage and learn.

Now, researchers on humor and thinking (not kidding, that's a field of study) at Northwestern University found that people were more likely to solve word puzzles with sudden insight when they were amused, having just seen a short comedy routine. “What we think is happening,” said Mark Beeman, a neuroscientist who conducted the study with Karuna Subramaniam, a graduate student, “is that the humor, this positive mood, is lowering the brain’s threshold for detecting weaker or more remote connections” to solve puzzles. ...

In their humor study, Dr. Beeman and Dr. Subramaniam had college students solve word-association puzzles after watching a short video of a stand-up routine by Robin Williams. The students solved more of the puzzles over all, and significantly more by sudden insight, compared with when they’d seen a scary or boring video beforehand.

Continue reading Tracing the Spark of Creative Problem-Solving
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/science/07brain.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Free the teachers: Give classroom educators the freedom to inspire students

Below is an interesting Op-Ed in The NY Daily News - I agree with the tone of this piece, to give more freedom to teachers in the classroom. However, overthrowing an entrenched bureaucracy is a daunting task, and more immediate impactful suggestions are needed. For the short term, rather than asking what's wrong with K-12 education, I would ask each school the opposite question (as I quote from the book Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard): "What's working right now" at your school?

To me, what's working right now is that there are so many talented teachers who are doing great things, while toiling in anonymity. That is the main reason I created The Inspiring Teacher Series - to highlight the inspiration so evident in these teachers. So why don't we give financial or other incentives to the superstar teachers to mentor other teachers in your own school? With meaningful feedback for other teachers.

Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking on how best to connect with people to get them excited and engaged, whether in a classroom, boardroom, or bored room. I believe that if you show learners that you have a sincere stake in their futures, you have the ability to inspire them on a daily basis, and spark a “light bulb moment.” And if teachers commit to a sincere interest in each other's future, that level of commitment will become evident to the students, and learning will be infectious.

My mantra: Learn from each other and grow as a team. Borrow the best classroom secrets from each other, just as comics observe great comics to improve their own material and delivery.

Op-Ed by Philip K. Howard

Free the teachers: Give classroom educators, suffocated by bureaucracy, freedom to inspire students
Cathie Black, the controversial choice as New York City's schools chancellor, hasn't been saying much lately about her theories of education. But in her 2007 book, "Basic Black," she had this to say about what makes a good teacher: "The best educators bring an instant smile to your face." The worst ones, she went on, "were the ones who seemed to be on automatic pilot, teaching out of a sense of duty rather than joy, and just counting the months or years until retirement. These teachers lacked authenticity in their work ...

Inspiration is what makes a good teacher. Just as Black remembers, the good teachers are the ones who have that spark, that spontaneity, that essential honesty. The good teacher inspires her students to respect her and listen to what she has to say. These traits of personality cannot be taught.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/11/28/2010-11-28_free_the_teachers_give_classroom_educators_suffocated_by_bureaucracy_freedom_to_.html#ixzz16xZmyxiU