Topic to reflect upon: "How I can ensure powerful learning in students."
Source of Inspiration: Please enjoy this enlightening video on "Ned's Gr8 8s: How Youth Learn" that was shared with us in our teaching seminar.
This video discuss and examine eight criteria that must hold true for learners to have great learning experience:
- Learner must feel okay
- Learning must matter to learner
- Learner must be actively engaged
- Learning must stretch and challenge the learner
- Learner have coaching and guidance to help learner succeed
- Learner have to use the learning
- Give learner the opportunity to reflect
- Learning isn't done when a subject is done; help learner explore next steps
As a rookie student teacher, at this point in time, I don't quite know how to ensure all eight criteria holds so my student will have a powerful learning experience (hopefully, I will have a revised perspective by the time I have my own class).
For now, I want to focus on one fundamental condition "Learner must feel okay".
Students need to be physically and emotionally well to learn. Feeling hungry, lonely, sick, distracted, worried, stress can all take away from a student's learning ability.
Feeling Hungry:
"15 minutes…10 minutes…5 minutes until lunch…seriously, is the clock broken!?"
"I wonder if anyone heard my stomach growl…that was embarrassing"
"Man, I wish I thought of that…pizza for breakfast…smells so good…"
"I'm so hungry…"
Throughout my learning career, multiple permutations of these statements have often taken over my thoughts in class. Many of my teachers in the past have enforced the no food policy in class on the bases of respect for other students and I never questioned it. Smell, sound, curiosity can often be source of distraction for other students. It was also never a major concern, I have always taken this physical component of well being for granted.
However, my EDU 2500 experience changed my perspective and helped me acknowledge the importance of ensuring students aren't hungry when they're learning. I came to realize how much time those thoughts have taken away from my learning as a student, and that hunger can be the greatest inhibitor to powerful learning for students. The student family demographic of this particular school was not well off. Many students often do not have parents or caregiver at home to prepare food for them. In response to this, the school deployed a breakfast/ lunch program where all students are provided breakfast to start the day off right.
I learned while at this school, the harsh reality that even in Canada, there are cases when students have to worry about whether they will be having dinner that night or not and 6X6 is not the top priority. Students need to be physically well to be engaged in learning.
Emotional well being:
How we feel dictates how we act and how we act will affect others.
It was not until grade 5 that my marks started to pick up. Throughout elementary, I was always a marginal student, I would always receive 3's and 4's on report cards (with 1 being exceptional and 4 not meeting expectations). Reflecting back, I realized what changed when I entered grade 5, it was that my family finally settled down and I was no longer on the move. I often zoned out to escape own feeling, Now as an adult reflecting back, I came to realize it was an escape mechanism to help me cope with the distress of constantly moving.
In my EDU 2500 experience, I had a student who often acted out in class. She would sometimes pick on another student who have a learning disability but other times be very protective of her. One time, I had the opportunity to talk with her about her behavior that made me realize her acting out was not intentional but rather an outlet for her bottled up feelings from home. She was the youngest out of three in a broken family and was often neglected at home.
Learning can't happen when student's mind are preoccupied with other concerns.
KSA #1 explained as interim teachers, we need to be aware of contextual variables that will affect student learning.
Perhaps in the role of a teacher, we may be limited in what we can do to address certain situations for students outside of the classroom; but to ensure students are emotionally fit to learn, we can teach students how to acknowledge, comprehend their feelings and teach them proper mechanisms to cope with their feelings in face of challenges.