Speaking of back to school… here’s a goofy description of school by Goofy! The year was 1952 and in many, many respects things haven’t changed much!
Category Archives: Teaching
Back to School Rules
One day last year I arrived at school a little early to read with second graders. I slipped into the classroom quietly and sat on the edge of a desk, appreciating the opportunity to eavesdrop on the group who were gathered around the teacher considering guidelines for a project they were about to begin. One of the girls slipped away from the group to whisper in my ear. “Mr. Boomsma, you’re not supposed to sit on the desks.”
I thanked her profusely and immediately changed my seating arrangement. I’m always a little embarassed when I unintentionally break a classroom rule but I enjoy how the kids try to help me stay out of trouble.
Rules are good things. I recently happened to read “Ten Rules for Students, Teachers, and Life.” These rules have a somewhat uncertain beginning that appears to involve John Cage, Sister Corita Kent, and may even Bertram Russell. We do know that Sister Kent used them in for an art class she taught and they became the official art department rules for the college of LA’s Immaculate Heart Convent–her alma mater. Since I know how difficult it can be to know and remember lots of rules, let me share just three.
- The duty of a student is to pull everything out of your teacher and your fellow students.
- The duty of a teacher is to pull everything out of your students.
- Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make.
Imagine how much our classrooms and schools could change if we could follow them. We perhaps need to expound a bit on rule number three. Here we are talking about the learning environment and process. The ability to make mistakes is an important part of learning and we need to learn and allow that ability. The rule is, I think, leading us to the understanding that a mistake doesn’t equal a failure.
Of course I’m not proposing we allow students (or adults) to sit on desks. But a good place to start education in any form is to define the role of the teacher and students–and the fundamental way we will “make” learning.
Bringing It All Together…
Students who’ve taken my “Stand up, Speak up, Shut up!” public speaking course know that one of the keys to effective presentation is to speak based on the listener’s perspective–it’s not about what you want to say, it’s about what the audience will hear, feel and think. This relatively simple truth should not be difficult to grasp, but we’re instinctively self-centered and tend to think more about what we’re going to say (or present) than what others are going to hear or see.
A six minute animated presentation on Brain Pickings makes the distinction and will tempt you to buy the book “100 Things Every Designer Should Know About People” by Susan Wenschenk. My copy is on order, but the preview available on Amazon demonstrates the validity of focusing on the listener/viewer/reader’s perspective whenever we design just about anything–a website, a course manual, a flyer…this all comes together when communication is involved.
Here’s a the last point of the six-minute presentation: “People imitate your emotions and feel your feelings.”
I’ll confess (please don’t hate me for this) that many years ago I did some telemarketing training. One of the exercises we’d conduct was to have students sit back-to-back so they couldn’t see each other’s face. An observer would count the number of times the marketer smiled during the conversation as would the “customer” who couldn’t see. The accuracy of the counts was amazing. People hear a smile. A third observer would watch the customer and count smiles–there was always a strong correlation between the marketer’s smile frequency and the customer’s. That customer unconsciously imitated the marketer’s emotions.
That’s only one sense–hearing–so we would do well to consider what all the channels (senses) are communicating regardless of the media. Most training or education involves auditory (speaking/hearing) and visual (slides/seeing). Watch the six-minute presentation and you’ll discover which one most often trumps the other.
Grab A Bucket…
The idea of having a bucket list (things you are committed to doing during your life) has become more than popular–it’s nearly viral. Traditionally follks haven’t thought seriously about their life accomplishments until their mortality becomes real. Now I hear young people and kids talking about their bucket list.
Well, here’s another bucket idea that I think is extremely adaptable, practical, and useful. The idea is geared for kids — they get all the good stuff — but once you get the fundamentals, you can see it working in organizations, families, companies… The bucket represents your mental and emotional self. You fill your bucket with words and actions that demonstrate you care about somebody.
One adaption of this was made successfully by the Livermore Maine School Committee with an elementary school program to encourage positive behavior and make it a habit. A feature of the program is a literal bucket–when teachers and staff see a student “being nice” to someone they write the child’s name on a slip of paper and place it in the bucket. A monthly drawing means students receive recognition in the form of extra recess time, books, etc.
Back in my corporate consulting days, we used a similar approach with “something extra” coupons. Every employee was allowed to award a coupon to another employee for positive behavior that “went beyond” the norm. While coupons could be redeemed for lunch discounts, etc. we found that most people didn’t redeem them and kept theirs as trophies!
There are some great kids books about bucket filling–for information and resources visit the Bucket Filler Website. Put on your creative hat and see how your family could have a bucket… or just make it a personal habit of making sure you do something every day to fill your own bucket!
This idea was also posted on New England City and Town News Notes–a great site for news and ideas from around New England!
Ten Commandments for Teachers
How could I not be interested in a site called “Brain Pickings?” (Brain Pickings is a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, culling and curating cross-disciplinary curiosity-quenchers, and separating the signal from the noise to bring you things you didn’t know you were interested in until you are.) A recent post offered Ten Commandments for Teachers as offered by Bertram Russell in 1951. I’m not sure I’d limit these to teachers and I’m having a lot of trouble picking a personal favorite!
- Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
- Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
- Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
- When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
- Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
- Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
- Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
- Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
- Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
- Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.