Why Does This All Matter?

This past week, I was with a leader as the "aha!" moment occurred. The leader is a recovering cog in the machine. For school had been a series of structures. You know how cogs are. In schools they see schedules, semesters, grades, courses, content to cover, and students to get in class. For cogs, student engagement is following the teachers directions, completing the assignment and making sure the grade book is up to date.

But there it was, the "aha!" moment. In explaining rumination of thoughts for the upcoming year, the leader explained that the goal for everything was student ownership. Ownership, not the usual cog like answer of responsibility, but ownership. See responsibility is me completing what others want me to do and me behaving the way others want me to behave. Ownership is me being invested in what I am doing. Me wanting to be involved in the experience and the teachers including me as an important part of the experience. The experience revolves around me just as much as it revolves around the teacher, the course, the grade, or the content.

The leader went on to explain that this would really need to involve a whole lot of staff contemplation and discussion. Ongoing conversations regarding not what this class is supposed to cover but rather where students are at and what do they need to learn next. Refocusing our learning experiences in every subject around the children's progress, goals, and gains rather than activities we've used.

We all remember the first learning experience which truly mattered to us. We all know when learning became important and when school became important. Furthermore, we all have friends who never found that moment in which learning in school became something important for them. Some who exit thinking they wasted 13 years of their lives completing the tasks of others.

Student ownership generates student growth. Learning experiences such as problem-based learning, Genius Hour/20% time, self-selected reading dialogues, student-involved choices, and gamification all seek to invest the children in making learning theirs and not ours. For in schools, if we simply train, practice, drill, and test. It is all impractical and we are doomed to failure. Only when we make connections both academic and social, apply in real life, and find ways to make it part of us, can we make learning matter.

Eye of the Tiger - Chuck