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HILARY HANNA
Never Be Boring
During my masters program, I was introduced to a concept through multimedia related to one of my courses. That concept is called 2o Time in my classroom. It is based on an idea that companies like 3M and Google have implemented. The idea is that the employer, allows employees to use 20% of their work time to work on a project they are passionate about but that could benefit the company. In my classroom, the students are allowed to work on whatever project they are passionate about. I know that they are gaining knowledge in research skills and countless other standards. To motivate my students, I showed them the Kid President video that you see at the left. In the video, Kid President pleads with the viewer to stop being boring. As simple as that sounds, that is my mission as an educator.
I hope to never be "one of those teachers" that keeps a binder or box for each month of the year and when October rolls around we complete the same lessons that I completed with the previous ten groups of students. As an educator, I want to stop begin boring. I want to challenge myself as well as my students.
One of the ways I plan on doing this is to stay apprised of current research into best practices. A teacher does not have to be enrolled in college-level coursework ot know the popular methodologies. The educator only has to care enough to put in the effort to do a little research and find the current best practices. Technology and methods are constantly shifting to best meet the needs of our students. I want to make sure I stay current. I promise my students, current and future, that I will never quit learning.
Another way I will keep from being boring is to differentiate my instruction. If I continue to be an educator who attempts to meet the needs of all of my students, I will never be complacent. I will always strive to meet each student where they are instead of where I think they should be. I will push those who are above grade level and pull those who are a bit behind.
I will try to incorporate as much technology as possible, but I will not make that promise. Thirty years ago, teachers finishing their masters could not have imagined all that was possible with technology. So I will just simply promise to keep apprised of the current trends whatever those may be.
I believe that all of these qualities make the best educator. We need to care enough for our students that we take an interest in what they want to learn, continue our own learning, give them real-world problems to solve, and differentiate our instruction. If all educators make a promise to do these things, our children will succeed in anything they want to do. The teacher-student relationship should meet halfway. Both parties need to make an effort to work hard otherwise we will continue to see mediocre results. When teachers stop being boring and push their students to find what interests them, our education system will begin to see the results we have been looking for for decades.
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