Joy in the Classroom, a Reflection on Dean's Presentation

 Would the students in your class walk away convinced that Learning is a joyful act, worthy of celebration? - Dean Shareski

Joy is a Strategy 

    This week, I had the immense pleasure to hear a presentation by Dean Shareski who is an educator, author, and motivational speaker. I had a smile on my face as I listened to him speak. He kept me engaged throughout the entire presentation and I came away wanting to bring joy and delight into my future classroom and upcoming placement. In this blog post, I will share a few things that stuck out to me throughout the presentation and then share some thoughts about how I can apply this into my upcoming placement and classroom in the fall. 

15 back to school Meme's

Honestly, I had a hard time choosing what I should concentrate on since I garnered so much useful information and heard many striking quotes that have got me thinking about education, how it has traditionally taken place, and what the future looks like. I know that you guys haven't had an opportunity to get to know me but if you had, you would know that I have an outgoing personality, encouraging spirit, and am generally happy. I have a hard time getting angry over anything and I have a hard time keeping a straight face if I have to which made drama class a tad bit difficult for me. Anyways, I really appreciated hearing Dean share about his experience as a teacher, funny things kids have said, and about what he wrote about in his book. The first thing that popped out to me was a tweet that he shared. It said "Back from 2night’s high school open house, the theme was rigor, testing, studying, college ready. Joy, engagement, relevance, not talked about" (I didn't catch who tweeted this but I want to acknowledge that this is not mine). Although this quote is from a high school experience, I am sure that parents of students in middle and early years can relate to this in one way or another. When I look back at my own primary school experience, studying and testing were emphasized more than the enjoyment that is supposed to come from learning. Throughout my learning journey in the department of education, I have realized that there is more to school than that and that my own primary education did not always showcase authentic learning. I want to be an early years educator that brings joy to her classroom, engages her students, and help make their content relevant. In my social studies methods class last semester, we were introduced to the idea of inquiry based learning. In short this method allows students to question the world around them which helps guide their learning experiences. Prior to that class, I would have most likely been more of a traditional teacher who was trying to meet curriculum outcomes 'to a tea' through traditional means such as through research and worksheets. I recognize that learning is more than that. It is an opportunity to give our students educational experience, chances to learn through play, and the importance of learning in the natural environment. I think that many teachers get 'set in their ways' when it comes to how they teach. It is much easier to keep reusing lessons from the past and keep doing things the way we know how. As teachers, we need to be willing to change the way we teach each class that we have and go in directions that will help learning be meaningful for them. Dean also said "By breaking the script, we can lay down a richer set of memories." We want our students to have deeply personal learning experiences which happen when we are willing to be flexible in our teaching practice. 

I'm too Busy 

The other thing that stood out to me was that 'busyness should not be a badge of honor.' Now if Dean read my blog and saw how much I am going to use the word busy, he would probably call me out but I promise, this is to prove a point. When I look back at many conversations that I have had with acquittances or people I see very quickly, usually busyness comes up. I say it, people I know say it, and I hear other people say it. During this pandemic time, I have had the opportunity to slow down and I have quite enjoyed it. Now that things have started to slowly open up again, I have started to participate in more activities again so busyness came back into my regular vocabulary. I have a hard time saying no and I need to work on saying that word. I naturally feel like I disappoint people when I say the word no. I forget who exactly told this to me, but I have been told before that I need to put my career before my family before and I have really struggled with that. I love learning and I am excited to be a teacher but I also have family and friends that I want to spend time with. I love nature and would like to take the time to go on hikes or go kayaking. I know that my first few years of teaching will be hard. I will be starting to compile possible resources and learning things involved in the profession that university simply cannot teach you. I know a few teachers who are in their first few years of teaching and have already experienced burn out early on in their career. I NEVER want to miss important moments with my family and friends. I think time management will be something that I work out.

High Five!

All of the information presented was important and it's easy to listen but not actually apply it into the classroom setting. Someone in my internet for educators course made a comment about pushback from administrators and parents which needs to be taken into consideration but like Dean said, it doesn't have to be crazy and it's a way to connect with the kids in your classroom. My CT from my second placement always started off the day with a personal greeting to each of her students. She asked about their evening or weekend and then gave them a high five, fist bump, hug, or did a dance with them. Due to the ongoing pandemic, I haven't been able to implement this in my last placement but I plan on doing so when it is safe to do so again. I know many of the students looked forward to this and it is a small way to add delight into a child's day. I also liked the idea of having a theme day or week and then center learning around that theme. I science, I am going to be teaching my students about colour. I am hoping to have colour theme days where students wear a certain colour that day. I think that students will LOVE doing this and will add some delight into their day. These are just a few ways to add delight into your classroom. There are many more but that will require many more blog posts. 

 

Teaching Meme's

I will end this blog by sharing a few funny things that I have recorded students say to me during my field placements thus far. In my past placement, we were having a conversation about germs and how this school year is going to look a bit different. My CT mentioned that we use hot water to kill germs and one of the students stated very seriously "I thought that cold water freezes germs." The second one I'm going to share is more heartwarming. On my last day of placement, I shared that I was going to go back to school myself. The students shared that they were going to miss me so much. One student suggested that I could live in the classroom closet full time so that when I wasn't doing my own classes, I could help them out. Lastly, I met the class that I will student teaching this upcoming spring. One of the kids straight up asked me if I've been secretly living in the school because they had never seen me before. I hope that these stories have made you smile a bit, especially with the stresses that come along with the last few weeks of school. 

    This is my last official blog post for my internet for educators. I hope to keep using this blog as I continue my teaching degree. Thank you all for reading and your comments that reflected your personal experiences and how they related to my own. As always, feel free to add your thoughts or push back on something I have said in the comments.