I sat and spoke with my roommate about education the other day. He’s an independent multimedia producer, cool as hell, and really knows how to interpret what goes on in the public education setting. Towards the end of our conversation, I blurted out the following. He immediately told me, “Write it down!” There wasn’t any reason why I should consider this deeply in my educational philosophy.
“The real goal, any goal of any teacher, is to teach an entire lesson.”
“The only issue is… what is an ENTIRE lesson?”
In a good 45 minutes. Students walk in to learn, students walk out with knowledge.
In a bad 45 minutes. Students walk in and can’t learn, students walk out with what?
Each minute. Every hour of the six. Multiply it by 180 and that’s enough hours to garner a decent recommendation on the nearest unpaid internship or community service requirement for a probationary period. Teachers and students are involved in this one-on-31 each and every day with one goal in mind.
So why can’t we accomplish it?
… especially on the teacher side – since we’re the ones who have the job.
I often end a lesson, last 8 minutes or so, walking around as students complete a worksheet question, assessing their understanding in an attempt to at least TRY and wrap up something from my horrible lesson.
(Let’s be honest. If you don’t finish a couple of lessons in the unit like.. Damn.. that sucked… then you need to reflect a bit more on practice mi amigo!)
A couple of them have great responses. A bit lengthy though, so I say I’ll make sure I read later (and I try to!).
A few more are wrapping up, checking out, and trying to avoid the last bit of work.
“What do you need?” “Where are you at with this?” “How I can support you?”
An adamant few are well behind. Thing is, they’ve checked out as soon as I said, “Ok guys, get to work”. It’s crazy to me, and it actually shouldn’t be, but still incessantly is.
“Its been 10 minutes….
10 minutes…
You’re still on question 2. I’ve seen you talking all day. What’s up?”
“Mr. c’mon yo. The computer wasn’t working. I — ”
“Why didn’t you let me know it wasn’t working? Why didn’t you call me over?”
“I DID call you over”
(maybe he did.)
“Ok.. so I couldn’t reach you in time to fix your computer problems. What’s the issue here by the way?” *gestures student’s hand away from mouse and clicks the Google Chrome app*
*Pause for effect*
“Hmm.. Google seems to be working. Anyways. You spent the majority of the 10 minutes talking to so-and-so. Were you talking about the work? No. You were talking about the playoffs. I pass by you twice, I warn you to make sure you finish, you don’t get it done!”
Here’s my kicker.
“So you wasted how much time…?”
Boom. I win every argument.
…and I lose every inch of credibility as a teacher in said students’ eyes.
I immediately had tried to shun this student for not using his time as wisely as our 45 block permits.
Now what?
What’s he going to remember about today?
– …But people will never forget about how you made them feel. –
Maya Angelou
“Today, in Mr. Coleman’s class, I didn’t get as much work done. I got a Needs Improvement on my worksheet, he was breathin’ down my neck, the computer was havin’ mad problems, I don’t know.”
This is what he might have said to anyone after my class. Different pieces would come out in different ways, perhaps a bit more profanity, haha.
But the point is I didn’t accomplish an entire lesson at all.
And I made him feel like it was his fault for not getting the work done, for the sole purpose of it being in front of his face. You (the student) did poorly today, you need improvement, because you (the student) didn’t learn anything about a subject you (the student) didn’t even have time to care about, oh and because you(the teenager) don’t know how to manage time in general and get your **** done.
I even went and taught him the WRONG lesson.
Aight so boom. Not every day is that bad. Not every student is either. (As a matter of fact, NO students should ever be called bad, but I’m working on this.)
Yet let’s get back to the math. 180 days shrinks down to how many? Cut out the assessment time too, because arguably the only time students are allowed to learn is now in small proportion to the amount of time they’re required to prove what they’ve learned.
Take out your bad days.
Take out their bad days.
How the hell do we expect to teach an entire lesson?
And what is an entire lesson anyway?
