Max Learning: Oath Taker

    

Five-year-old Max stood with his small right hand raised, staring transfixed into the stern gentleman’s eyes who stood across the counter. I listened with a lump in my throat as he recited an oath in the most heartfelt, serious manner I had ever heard him speak.  “As a Junior Ranger, I Max, will do all I can to take care of and protect Rocky Mountain National Park and the plants and animals that live here. I promise to continue to explore, learn about, and respect the natural world wherever I go.” Many of you know that there are few emotions as powerful as a parent’s pride in their child. I swallowed the lump in my throat and made a commitment to support Max in his oath. 

Max had an adventurous summer in which we traversed 12 states camping, hiking, and exploring mountains, prairies and plains. He was a builder, swimmer, and a gamer. So many of the lessons he learned can be applied to a classroom environment.  Let’s explore some of these lessons.

The Power of Service – Beyond the beautiful vistas witnessed in Big Sky Country, Max especially enjoyed the fauna. Bears, elk, coyotes, marmots, and ground squirrels were some of his favorites. One can’t help but want to conserve these landscapes and the creatures that abound there. Max’s oath solidified a drive to protect and respect our natural world. One of the primary actions that the Park Rangers share is for tourists to NOT feed the wildlife. Feeding wildlife creates issues with human encounters that can endanger these precious species. I knew that Max took this to heart when he approached an adult who was tossing peanuts at a hungry ground squirrel, and redirected his behavior. It takes courage and commitment to redirect a grown man when you are not even 4 feet tall. One of the most powerful intrinsic motivators for us all is to have a sense of purpose. We are driven to have an impact and be a part of something that is bigger than ourselves. Do your learners see themselves as an important individual in the bigger community that is your classroom? How can we engage our students in service as a motivator?

Measuring Up – Max is a strong swimmer for his age. Sometimes it feels like he is almost TOO comfortable in the water. Last summer, on a visit to the Blue Bell Aquatic Center, Max was excited to go down the water slide. Unfortunately, he did not meet the minimum height requirement. What happened next was remarkable. A life guard offered to give Max a swim test to see if he was capable enough to safely navigate the pool at the base of the slide. After swimming a lap, the life guard was confident in Max’s mastery and allowed him to slide to his heart’s content. Without the extra effort on the part of the guard, Max’s experience would have been limited and his engagement would have been less. We see arbitrary limits set in classrooms every day. What can we do for our learners who walk in the door already masterful in the skills we are teaching? How can we give them a “swim test” and allow access to an area of learning that they would otherwise be denied?

Leveraging Passion – Max has a newfound love. It started as just a ripple and grew to a tidal wave. A handful of Pokémon cards purchased by Grandma Sue stretched to a binder bulging with hundreds of cards. This was followed by a drive to binge watch Pokémon cartoons on Netflix. The exclamation point at the end of this near addiction was Pokémon Go.  Courtney and I have been forced to learn more about the Pokémon Universe so we can engage with Max over his new passion. As parents, we found it necessary to set some limits on his time pursuing this passion so that he did not get lost in this alternative universe. Educators know that finding success with our learners starts with relationships. One surefire way to connect with others is by discovering their passions. This can be especially true of our most challenging students. When dealing with behaviors, remember that allowing students to indulge in their passion can be leveraged as a reward for doing the right thing.  How do you discover your student’s passions and engage them through those passions?

Keeping it Real – Santa brought Max a workbench for his 3-year-old Christmas. For quite some time, he found great joy using plastic hammers and toy saws. He connected faux wood pieces of foam with over-sized screws in the shapes of bird houses, rocket ships, and cars. Max is a builder by nature. Over time his interest in building with these toys waned and the workbench became a dust collector. To reignite his fire to build we shifted to real tools and real projects. Hammers, screwdrivers, and paintbrushes… oh my! The authenticity of the work made it engaging. In the classroom, we can extend our student’s experiences beyond artificial problems and scenarios. How do you allow your students to own their learning and make it authentic?

This post started with describing an oath that Max took to earn his Jr. Ranger badge. I propose that we modify this oath and make it fit our role as parents and educators. Would you join me in this oath?

 “As an educator/parent, I Mark, will do all I can to take care of and protect the success of children. I promise to continue to support their exploration, learning, and passion wherever I go.”

A Passion for Success

In my experience, we are engaged when we see someone with great passion.  This is true, even when we are not necessarily as interested in their passion as they are.  In my own school experience, I realize that most of my most memorable teachers represented the extremes on a passion continuum.  Those that had no passion were like Ben Stein's rendition of an economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.  These were my least favorite teachers and served as great reverse role models for my own teaching style.  I survived in these classrooms.  My favorite teachers were on the high end of the passion scale.  These teachers were more like Jack Black’s character in School of Rock! I thrived in these classrooms.

At Morton Ranch Jr. High, 2012-2013 was a year devoted to passion!  I kicked off staff development week with the staff brainstorming descriptors of what passion looked like in a classroom.  We took those words and created a Wordle to represent our collective beliefs.  

Specifically, we identified two areas of passion that we believed accomplished teachers modeled. A passion for one’s content and a passion for student’s success were our focus.

The Morton Ranch staff identified passion for one’s subject with terms like, enthusiasm, energetic, fun and knowledgeable.   Relationships, caring, genuine, and supportive were words used to describe passion for student success.  How does one measure the passion an individual has for their work of growing students?  In response to this question, we made the decision to begin purposefully celebrating the number of students our teachers supported with extended learning opportunities.  A weekly competition was established. The grade level providing the most after school tutoring earning a jeans day.  We began to see an increase in the number of students assigned to stay after for help.  Ultimately, we rewarded specific teachers who were our top interventionists with gift cards donated by business partners. 

As I reflect on the most accomplished teachers I have had the pleasure of working with, I see the balance they showed in their passion for their content and for their student’s success.  The least successful were dispassionate in both areas.  These folks find little joy in our work and quickly exit or are escorted from the profession.  Let’s take a moment to develop a scenario that a reflective teacher could use for goal setting related to passion.  Since my background and teaching experience was in science, I will stay in that content area.

The passionate SCIENCE teacher:  This educator is extremely passionate about his subject area, science.  He has little passion or energy to ensure success of the students.  Professional learning opportunities most sought after involve learning more about the content.  Typically, this teacher has a deep understanding of science, but struggles in effectiveness due to a "curse of knowledge."  The “curse of knowledge” is a cognitive bias that leads better-informed parties to find it extremely difficult to communicate concepts at the level that a novice learner needs.  Students can become intimidated and reluctant to ask questions for fear of looking less than smart.  When questions are asked, this teacher is able to elaborate and give rich detail drawn from their strong understanding of science. The SCIENCE teacher typically has a very teacher-centered approach. He is the sage on the stage. Instead of the students engaging in exciting labs where they can directly experience science concepts, the SCIENCE teacher does demonstrations.  He is very engaged and enjoys his activity, while the students are reduced to on-lookers.  Intervention for struggling learners is episodic, and done in an invitational manner.  When one looks closely, the intervention really is little more that repeating the first teach approaches slower and louder than before.  Students are often blamed for their lack of success.  This teacher is most successful with students who come to their class with all the necessary prerequisite skills, and have an intrinsic interest in science.

The passionate science TEACHER:  This educator is extremely passionate about the student’s success.  He is intimidated by the content area and has little passion or energy to delve deeper into the concepts.  Many times the science TEACHER would prefer to teach in a different content area and is looking to make that move as quickly as possible.  Professional development that is most sought after relates to teaching techniques and strategies.  These teachers are masterful at building relationships with kids.  Many times they are able to reach the novice learner because they can relate to a more basic understanding of the content.  These teachers often have more student-centered classrooms where they serve as a guide on the side.  Students are willing to be vulnerable and ask questions because the environment feels safe.  Unfortunately, these teachers can struggle with stretching learners to the highest levels because they have yet to reach that level themselves.  When asked questions that are at a higher level, this teacher often restates what was in the book rather than draw from their deep understanding.  These teachers provide extensive and varied opportunities for students to gain and show mastery.  Interventions are purposeful and students are not merely invited, they are expected to attend them.  When their students are not successful, they feel shame and hold themselves personally accountable for student failure.  This teacher is able to grow struggling learners from where they are and close conceptual gaps. They are limited in how far they can grow students due to their own limitations with the content. 

The most accomplished teacher would be the PASSIONATE SCIENCE TEACHER.   This teacher is balanced in both his passion for the subject of science, and for the kid's learning.  This type of educator is effective with all populations and is a master of their craft. This is what we must strive to become.

I set the examples above up to be somewhat extreme in their strengths and limitations to give clarity to how an imbalance in one's passion can be an issue for student success.  Although I focused on teachers of science, the idea is in play in all content areas.  I would challenge you to reflect on your passion.  Do you need more focus on deepening the content of the subject area that you teach?  Do you need to focus on relationship building and learning more about interventions that promote student success?  I believe this is a powerful area to explore for goal setting.  In fact, I am quite passionate about it!