The Empowerment Fear

We talk about the magic word of engagement a lot these days in schools. Engage teachers in Professional Development, engage students in the classroom, engage parents as part of the school community; all great ideas and schools everywhere are doing a great job of finding new ways to engage teachers, students and parents in learning.

Let's for a moment, take a look just on the horizon of engagement.  If you look out there you may just see engagement's even more elusive cousin: empowerment.  If you hold still, do nothing and stare at empowerment it tends to shrink and disappear, so be careful in how you approach it. Empowerment is something we want to lure out of the distant horizon and provide to our teachers, students and parents. We want to give the power of control to those whom we control.

For now, let's talk about empowerment in terms of our students. We have long tried to engage our students and provide for them the atmosphere where they can do, where they are engaged in learning. Student engagement is indeed powerful when it comes to learning, and for the vast majority of our students we engage them and they learn. If they are not engaged, we find interventions that will help to engage them. That is the system we have established and that is how it works. An engaged classroom has students working, collaborating and learning; students are at the heart of the engaged classroom, and engagement is good. But, in that great scope of engagement, have we not just created a different form of compliance? Are we not just setting the stage for another act in the play of school? Engagement is a way to achieve the goals we set tuned in to our own motivations, so when students engage in our activities are we engaging students in compliance, or are we empowering them to learn?

Empowerment in learning is allowing students to determine for themselves the best course of learning for them. Empowering students in the classroom grants them the autonomy to make responsible decisions for their own learning. Students in an empowered classroom are still working, collaborating and learning. They just have an intrinsic motivation to do so, not a motivation born out of compliance. If we want our students to want to learn we need to empower their learning instead of asking them to comply with our learning plan.

Easier to say than to do, of course. So what holds us back? Fear of losing control? Fear of not meeting learning objectives? Fear of what this classroom may look like?

To be a teacher means you need to have a bit of control. For most teachers that bit is a lot. We don't see it as control, only keeping order for learning to occur, for engagement to happen. There are classroom rules designed to have an orderly classroom, there are due dates and grades designed to ensure learning requirements are being met. There are modeled student expectations of what learning, studying and classroom actions look like. All compliances designed to achieve learning. Let's be honest though; these are all designs to keep control of the classroom so chaos doesn't break out, we are said to have a wild class that doesn't learn.

How, then, do we go from engagement and compliance to engagement and empowerment? How do we break the fear of empowerment and losing control over learning?

Educators need to do all they can to give up some power, a little at a time even. Show yourself that the students can take the power and be responsible. Have them choose how to learn tomorrow, ask them when work should be completed, ask them what the classroom and learning should look like. Start small and allow yourself to grow with them. By empowering students to learn, educators empower themselves to be part of the learning process instead of the master controller.

We must create an atmosphere where our target is not compliance but empowerment. We need a classroom where students are provided choices of learning and the tools and opportunities to engage in learning. We must provide students with enough power in the classroom so they can choose their path for learning and then stand as a focusing check to that power so they indeed complete the learning targets we found together.

Fear of empowerment is a great force. If we look out there, isn't controlled engagement enough? Not anymore. Our students are empowered in so much more of their lives experiencing autonomy from their daily routines to organizing, controlling and curating their own digital image on social medial.
The sun is not setting on engagement, but the need to empower is a light we cannon shy away from.

Our students need us to step out of the shadows of control over their learning and provide them with the tools to find success in learning, not to drive them there, but to show them the path.

Student Voice: Class Expectations & Syllabus

So as this school year started I took to the ways of many other educators who are incorporating student voice into the classroom and had my 8th graders help create a class syllabus and technology policy.

I have spent the past few years dabbling with student voice in the classroom and have come to the conclusion that for me, in my class, having students share their voice is better than dictating expectations and learning to them.

During the past year I have hosted a Student EdCamp where students discussed grading, technology, formative assessments and other topics that were important to their learning without teachers prompting them, and the ideas from that EdCamp were fantastic.  With more technology I have been able to give students more options in how they learn and listen to what works best for them.
From the start of this school year, I wanted to incorporate as much student voice as I could.  I have started by opening up my syllabus to the students.  The way I explained to my 8th graders is that they have been in school for eight years, so they already have a lot of experience with school and what a well run classroom and learning environment looks like.

I provided a few talking points, i.e., describe what coming to class prepared looked like, or what work time or down time looks like.  I threw in a couple of my own afterwards (I think its important to share pet peeves with students so they know going in that tapping on their desk with their pencil like the drummer from Def Leopard gets on your nerves).  I was very impressed with what every group in every class ended up doing.  As a matter of fact, the majority of the class expectations were exactly what I have had for the past few years.  There were a few additions that put me on the edge of my comfort zone, like a change in how students leave the classroom, or having snacks in class that make me a bit nervous, but together we worked out expectations so we both feel comfortable.

Overall, the benefit of opening up the syllabus to not just student input but to student creation is that you build a higher level of trust with you students.  Students are part of the learning process. After all, the learning process we have been creating is entirely for them, so why not have their input and voice in that process?  In the process, students practice communication, working in groups, problem solving and seeing things from a different perspective than their own and even that of a student, all great skills to make our future students proud.  As we have been underway for a couple weeks now the impact of providing student voice and input in the class syllabus is visible and has had a positive impact in the classroom and in building relationships with students.

If you are thinking about bringing student voice into your classroom and don't want to jump all the way in, there are ways that you can stick a toe into the water that make a big ripple in the learning pond.  Student voice when creating a class syllabus can be a big leap forward and a great starting point.

Make Your Future Self Proud

As a middle school teacher I have the pleasure of working with a unique group of students.

At times I look out and have no idea what they are doing and can't even begin to guess why they are doing what they are doing;  the really fun--and sometimes frustrating--part about this is that at times, they don't know why they are doing what they are doing either.

Middle school is a mix of growth spurts and hormones which cause mood swings and attention spans to be that of a squirrel at a nut factory.  In the classroom it is a mix of students who are completely with it most of the time and want to do their best, to students who may not know what day it is or what they are wearing without looking down, and every kind of student in between.  Some are so busy with school, sports, activities and home life they don't know if they are coming or going.  Others do their own thing and try to fly under the radar.  The one factor that all these students have in common is that they are trying to make it through each day, one at a time.

So when I look out and see my middle school students doing seemingly random things, I give a quick chuckle on the inside, sometimes on the outside too, and know it's time to talk about "Future You."

With all that is going on in a middle schooler's life, they often don't see past the immediate present, and sometimes not even that far.  We often need to remind them that what they do today has an impact on the future.  The future could be an hour from now, tomorrow, next week, or when they are 30.  What they are doing now impacts others and themselves beyond the moment.

I often say, "Do something today to make your future self proud."  Nobody wants future you to get a time machine and come back to talk some sense into you, nor will that actually happen. So, let your actions pick people up and your presence inspire. Do something today to make your future self proud.

As a teacher I do my best to model this same sentiment.  What can I do today to make my future self proud?  What can I do to pick up students who are down, or colleagues who had a rough day?  How can my actions inspire students and teachers to become the best future self they can? All I really can do is keep learning how to do what I do better each and every day and share what I am learning with colleagues.

If future me were to rent a time machine and come back for a visit, I would want him to thank me for doing what I could now to make me proud then. (There's some timey wimey stuff in there somewhere).