That Was Then, This Is Now

As I sat and reread some of my recent blogs, it occurred to me that I needed to add a few more thoughts. I used to be a teacher who ranted and raved and punished. Students would report that they were afraid of me....I had a very strong need to power over my students....I was really bothered by the fear I caused in present students, past students and future students. Was that really what I wanted? The answer was NO. I didn't want students to do what I wanted because they were afraid, I wanted them to do what I wanted them to do because they wanted to learn. I didn't want to be that teacher anymore. I needed to change. That is one of the main reasons I have chosen Choice Theory. It gave me the opportunity to focus on my power within and my power from rather than my need to power over. I know that trying to control students is nearly impossible, from my work with choice theory I now know that it is totally impossible since the only person I can control is myself. Yes, you can get compliance through fear, intimidation, and punishment but that was not what I wanted.

The second main reason for using choice theory and a competence based classroom come from my high need for power within. That is the power I get when I'm successful as a teacher. I had always had success as a teacher, or so I thought until we began to give a pre and post test in science that was designed to test student learning of the concepts taught throughout the year. The first year, my students average score on the post test was 40%...pretty sad results, yet the majority of those same students had achieved A's, B's or C's. These results caused me to do some soul searching and evaluating of what I taught and how I taught it. The next year saw some changes and again, the post test results were painful to look at. I could have said it wasn't me, it was the test, but I helped write the test, so that would be just like saying it was me. I decided that something really had to change. I became a part of our Academy and took classes on Action Research and Understanding By Design. I rewrote two of my units and presented my students with more choices, more technology, more real life learning and less worksheets and tests. Obviously my hope was that my post test scores would improve. I also shared with the students what they needed to know and understand in each of the units. I told them that it was my goal to have each and everyone achieve 80% or better on the post test. Believe it or not, they did it. Even those students who didn't complete the day to day work go 80%. I was thrilled. I also knew that there was more work to be done. I continued to rework my units and participate in the Academy. The focus the second year was on leadership and action research that collected "hard" data for evaluation. Again I relied on the pre/post test we had been using. I wasn't quite as successful the second year, however all of my students achieved 75% or better. Throughout this time, I was still very much a traditional teacher in that I expected and even demanded that students do what I wanted when I wanted it. I tried to control not only their learning, but also their behavior.

It was during my third year as an Academy participant that Dale introduced us to Bob Sullo's Activating the Desire to Learn. That really was the turning point for me. I tried the idea of a competence based classroom for one unit towards the spring of the year. I also worked on giving up some of my control issues. Scantron, standardized testing, was used for the first time that year rather than the pre/post test we had developed. I was hopeful that my students scores would improve, but I had my reservations. The focus of my Academy work for that year was again centered around improving my teaching to meet the needs of all the students and improve the overall learning. Again, my students showed growth which was really good, however, I knew that more changes were necessary. It wasn't necessarily the content or the delivery that had to change, it was me personally. I was still frustrated by students lack of interest in school, their doing the work only if it was "for a grade" and their lack of enthusiasm for learning.

That lead me to Basic Intensive Week, which I believe has made me a better teacher. I haven't raised my voice or "gone off" on a student yet this year, which I think is really good. My students seem to be having fun learning and are retaining more information than ever. I won't know how well they do on the scantron test until late in May, but in class discussions I see more students involved and sharing what they have learned than ever before. They seem to want to learn and do well not for the grade, but because they want to learn. Friday, during my science class we discovered that we were double booked in the computer lab. I decided to take my students back to my classroom and let them work on the Mac's. One group of students asked as we were going back if we could have circle time. I said sure, what would you like to talk about. Their answer was our recent trip to the Body Worlds Exhibit at the museum. They were so excited...the discussion that followed was amazing. We talked about what they saw, learned and questions they had. What was really amazing was as the bell rang, they asked if they could come in at lunch and continue the discussion....never in 27 years of teaching had that ever happened. That for me was the icing on the cake. They were excited about learning, they were sharing and they were having fun doing it. Isn't that what education is all about.....