Spirit of Learning (Recent thoughts on Education)

(I wrote this for my students but it certainly applies to all of life.)

Go! Do! Be More! Faster! Harder! Aaaaaaah!

It seems the world is pushing us to hurry up and . . . what?  . . . be successful?
What does that even mean?

I have been reading a very interesting book called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F---K, by Mark Manson. Despite its punchy title, it is a powerful little book that puts into perspective what it is we are here to do in this lifetime and what really matters. I highly recommend it.

The reason I bring it up is that I have found recently that many students have forgotten what it really means to get an education. News Flash: Education is not merely preparing to have a job.  If you are well educated it is more likely you will get a job, but education does not have the explicit goal of getting you a job. Training will get you a job. Education will give you quality of life. 

The Spirit of Learning is the spirit of real education. And, that is what I am most interested in as a teacher, as a human!.  What is the bigger picture here? So, when you submit an assignment (as crazy making as it can seem) it is not about the length, it is not about the number of sentences, words, characters. Everything you turn in for credit is an opportunity to show me that you are putting in the time to investigate the content of the course and most importantly how it changes you, your views, your appreciation. your world! This is the stuff that will enrich your life and make it meaningful.
Counting points to get that A (or B or C) will only torment you. That is not the spirit of learning.
I promise that if you do your best to communicate the spirit of your learning in each and every assignment the grade will follow. Because you will actually be learning.

Things that require you to work hard are thing worth having. Freebies are transient and disposable.  They may make you happy in the short term, but they will not make you happy in the long term.

Give yourself a chance to enjoy your education.

3 Tips for the Spirit of Learning

Ask yourself:
1. "What is the goal of this assignment?" "Why would my teacher assign it to me?" Answer those question within your submission.

2. "How am I representing myself in my work?" "Do I express that I learned something from the assigned reading?" "Do I honor the process with full sentences and grammar?" Ensure your submission reflects your mature thinking and values.

3. "Is there a way I could actually make this FUN?" That doesn't mean you have to spend MORE time on the assignment, it is about your ability to enjoy the challenge and/or process while you are working. (In fact it might actually take you less time working this way. . . just sayin')

Pep Talk for the Teachers

Welcome to the crunch time.  

If you are like me, you too might be wondering: How am I going to finish this semester?   

This happens to me most every semester. I start off strong, hopeful, excited (possibly deluded), and about 5 weeks from the end, I start to wonder what have I done? I am tired, overwhelmed and worried that time is running out.  Plus, my students are tired, overwhelmed and worried that time is running out.  A clear recipe for disaster.

I started explaining to my students the nature of an instructor's thinking process.

Optimistic Teacher experience:

 

Weeks 1-4  The teacher is filled with hope. She feels patient when students stumble because it is the beginning of the semester and they are "still learning the ropes," and everyone needs a break now and again when they are learning.

Week 5-9 The teacher is in the meat of the content, tons of information is coming out and the students are still grasping at straws trying to figure out what is expected of them.  Patience it still present because the students still have a chance to catch up!

Week 10-13 The teacher is feeling the pressure. The students need to learn this! Time is running out!  Patience is running thin.  The students should know better at this point.  

Week 14-18 The teacher is disappointed.  The students are making the same mistakes and the teacher’s patience has run out. Have they learned anything?  There is no more time to save this ship. Despondency hits.

Combine that with the Struggling Student experience:

Week 1-4 The student is filled with hope, ready for a fresh start.  The teacher is so nice and so patient.  I can do this!

Week 5-9  The student is settling in, but this is way more work than expected. But, it's still the beginning of the semester! What?!?  Time for midterms?!? We just started school! I haven’t studied. But, it is ok, I can make it up.

Week 10-13 The student is tired. The student has a hard time focusing because they caught a cold, and they have so much to do, they don’t know where to start.  Mountains of homework have piled up and the teacher is so demanding! She has no patience anymore! I am stuck!

Week 14-18 The student notices just how far behind they have gotten.  This is serious! They go to the teacher in hopes of figuring out how to put a semester’s worth of learning into 4 weeks.  She explains that is not how it works, and: no, she will not give you the notes from the lectures.  Student: I am screwed. The world is against me.

Somehow, I think I can change the nature of the student/teacher experience. But, I am realizing that maybe that is simply the inherent nature of the student teacher experience. 

 

But, the reality is that for every difficult student there are actually 10 lovely students who have learned so much!  Just this week I received this note from a Modern I student’s journal entry:

“Taking a dance class has completely changed my views on the activity of dancing, as a whole. "

However, we as humans are biologically build to remember and focus on the challenges. It is part of our survival biology. So, it is easy to forget the success of the many, when faced with the struggle of a few.  It is particularly hard for me to accept that students have the right to fail. I want them to succeed so badly that I forget that I actually have NO control over their choice making.  Those who want to learn will, and those who haven’t put in the effort will not.  No amount of convincing will change it.

And, remember that we are doing something right. We do care. We have given them tools.  We have shared information.  And, some have learned lessons that have nothing to do with the content, but have everything to do with their future lives. 

To all teachers: This is YOUR pep talk.  We give pep talks all the time, but around this time, it is we who need a little uplift to keep us in good spirits. 

Learning takes time. And, a semester will never be enough time to learn it all.  And, that is ok.  Students will struggle because humans will struggle. My Zen teacher reminded me today that “We are all ordinary.”  No one is better or worse. No one is closer to enlightenment than another.  We are all simply ordinary.  We learn the lessons as they come to us and as we need to learn them. Students and teachers: we are all learning life. 

As instructors we get to be reminded of this every semester. 

Learn and let learn.

Beth

Recipe for a New Semester

Yes. The days are counting down and the start of the new semester lies just around the corner for many of us.

As a student it was always my favorite time.  I was excited to learn to new things. I had the books ready and had already glanced through them cover to cover to see what is in store for me.  I purchased new spiral bound notebooks and organized my classes according to color coded three ring binders with matching tabs.  I selected my favorite pens and then bought brand new ones just in case.   I prepped my backpack with back ups for all the important items (just in case):  Pencils, pencil sharpener, highlighters/ colored pencils, erasers, permanent markers, baby wipes, socks, extra tights or dance pants, underwear, bobby pins, 5 or 6 hair ties, lipgloss and mascara.  Then of course my entire dance bag full of shoes and more dance paraphernalia than you can imagine. 

Yes, the beginning of the semester was pure excitement for me.  Even better than Christmas in some ways, because the gift of the semester was going to last my entire lifetime. 

But, now as a professor. I find the start of semester a little less sparkly than before.  Now, I am faced with looming and overwhelming questions:  How can I make it better?  How can I clean up my grading system? How can I be better organized?  How can I keep better attendance?  How can I get through with the fewest headaches possible? 

Yes, starting the semester as an instructor takes on a different flavor, and it wasn't until tonight (while lying in my savasana in yoga class) that I realized I need to change my perspective and think more like I did as student. I need to get excited and recharged. 

So I have developed this Recipe for a New Semester:

1.  Get a New Purse:  nothing is more refreshing than organizing a new purse.  Clean out the old receipts lingering in the corners of forgotten pockets, manage the number of pens that have either accumulated or disappeared over the last year, and throw away the smashed lozenges and Hershey's kisses that have ground themselves into unrecognizable state. 

2.  Get your Syllabi Done: at least 3 days before the start of classes.  Write them, and send them off to be printed. If you are like I am, then they will never be perfect so don't sweat it.

3.  Buy a new iPad (or other gadget): Ok. So this is a luxury, but still, having a a new "toy" to play with makes it more fun to input your attendance rosters or configure your email groups.  Plus, it can make you look and feel hip. That's what I'm talking about! I plan on trying an attendance app for my rosters, and I plan to try garageband for some of my dance class accompaniment.  It is something for me to learn and play with.  PS If you hate gadgets or technology in general, ignore this ingredient for the recipe.

4.  Input your Calendar: for the semester and block out times for things you want to do.  I really wanted to find time to go to the gym, yoga and my meditation center each 2x/week.  I have input it into my calendar and blocked it off.  I am making myself unavailable so when I get asked to do something additional I can more easily say "no" if needed. 

5.  Test your pens: Satisfaction by definition. Throw away the ones you hate and keep the ones you love. 

6.  Plan two of your favorite classes:  create the lesson plan you want to have, not the one you feel you should have, but the one you wish you had gotten as a student or perhaps could really use for yourself now.  Let them be unencumbered and passionate. 

7.  Steel Yourself:  if you are like me, perhaps you are too compassionate?  Or perhaps you are too rigid?  too monotonous? too spontaneous?  too frustrated? too frustrating?  Yes, we are teachers, but we are still human beings.  I have to remember to set the tone for the semester in the first few weeks.  For me, I need to draw the line and stick to it.  Being too accommodating just makes the students more lax (and makes me crazy as a result).

8a.  Option 1:  Take a long bath with aromatherapy and a good short story (preferably from The Sun Magazine). 

8b. Option 2:  Make yourself a stiff drink.  Hot Toddy's are especially effective in cold weather.

9.  Be Hopeful: it can only help make it easier.



Have a great semester everyone!

All Riled Up and Ready for the Big Push

If I were pregnant, the title might mean something entirely different, but thankfully I am not pregnant and I am referring to the big push that happens twice every year. It is called "finals" time.

The "finals" themselves are not the problem, the problem is all the loose ends that have as of yet gone untied or un-severed and must be either tied or severed by the end of the next three weeks.  And, the process of tying and severing as it goes (even when it goes "well") just plain sucks. It the worst part of teaching as many teachers know and agree.

What happens is: all the students realize 3 weeks out that they are screwed, and they all want you to do something about it.  It is rough being the one to explain that they dropped the ball, that they did it to themselves and now they have to live with it. Not a fun conversation.

True, I am a softy. But, that is because I believe that I need a break every once in a while and therefore my students probably need a break too. I draw a hard line where it "matters."  but I am basic just too darn empathetic.  And, even if I don't give them leeway, I still find myself continually barraged with email or unsuspected visitors to my office hours who are desperate for an ear if nothing else.

I was a good student. Truth be told, I was an excellent student. I only ever got one B+.  Ever.  That is how determined to succeed I was. It has less to do with smarts and more to do with conviction. I wanted it, I wanted the information, I wanted to learn I wanted to grow and change and explore and write. So, the A was a natural result (most of the time).  So, when it comes time to give out my grades. It hurts me to give out B's in a tap I or a modern I class, but I have to get over that.  Not everyone tries as hard as I do, and frankly not every one gets the required results from their effort.  Not everyone is "natural" at math and not everyone is "natural" at dance.

What am I doing here?  You don't really care about this, or if you do (because you are a teacher) you already know exactly what I am talking about, and therefore I am preaching to the choir.  The reality is, that I am writing this for my own benefit. As I write this blog, I am trying to convince myself to let go.  To ride the last wave of the semester like a relaxed surfer instead of a nervous and rigid grandma.

I have a lot to do. And tonight, I calendared out the rest of the semester. Probably not the best thing to do right before trying to go to bed.  Now, I am all riled up.  Anxious to get the work done that has to get done whether there is time for it or not.

I tell myself: "Everything I do now, I don't have to do later." And, this motto helps.  But, at 11:30 pm when it is time to sleep, I shouldn't be considering going online to grade.  I just shouldn't. Those papers will have to wait another day.

But those days are running out.

Oh, the sound of the ocean.