How to make students (and teachers) want to go to school | Michele Freitag | TEDxYorkBeach

Transcriber: Ana Carolina Bisinella Reviewer: Zsófia Herczeg Every September, for 55 years, I have done the following routine. I get up earlier than I

want

, put on my best clothes, and head to the first day of

school

...again. That's how it is. I have been going to

school

for 55 years. Now you might ask: Why would anyone

want

to do that? The answer for me is quite simple. I love it. I loved school as a child and I love it now as an adult. I always liked learning at school. I got along well with my

teachers

. I loved them.

Generally, they liked me too. In fact, let me tell you about my favorite teacher, Mrs. Erga, my third grade teacher. She was less than five feet tall. She had the biggest heart. When she was in college, she lost a leg due to illness. Just three weeks later, he marched on crutches at her college graduation. That's heart. And she brought that same heart to the classroom. All the children in her classroom felt loved and appreciated. And she made learning fun. That's why I've tried to bring that same heart to my teaching. So yes, I loved school. And Awards Day, that was my favorite because it was often a highlight of the year to take home an award.

So what was it not to love, right? Turns out that's not the case for everyone. Let's look at my own family, for example. My husband really liked school. He didn't love it. And on awards day? He hated it. Because he knew that, no matter what he did, he wasn't going to get one of those awards. And it's not that he's not smart. He is quite intelligent. It's just that the general instructions didn't fit the way he learned. Then my three children came. I thought, Oh, I know they'll love school just like I do. They were the first readers.

They loved to learn. Super curious. I thought this was going to be great. Not so much. They did well, but in fact, they did very well, but sometimes they really struggled because the way they learned didn't fit into that little box. They needed something different to take advantage of their countless strengths. So as parents, my husband and I spend a lot of our time, instead of celebrating, we spend it helping them figure out the system and how to work within it, which is one of the reasons I'm so passionate about changing the system. system so that it works for all

students

.

I have been teaching for almost four decades and during that time I have had many wonderful moments with

students

. But right now I want to share with you a story that is one of those that rips out a teacher's heart. It was just a few years ago. I was teaching fourth grade, giving a reading assessment, and I noticed a little boy sitting there with his head bent over his desk. So I approached; I said, "What's wrong, honey?" And he looked at me with those big, tear-filled eyes and said, “I can't do this. It is very difficult. “I’m just not good at this.” That broke my heart.

Now imagine that for a minute. Imagine if that were his son. Or your grandson. Or his neighbor's son sitting there crying, feeling like a failure because of an assessment question. At that moment, that child was devastated. Broken by a system that is too focused on isolated skills and exam results. A system that is full of evaluations one after another, generating pressure: pressure on the children, pressure on the

teachers

. It can be a real pressure cooker at school and I think we can do much better. So I looked at that kid and said, “Honey, put the test aside.

Come to my desk, let’s talk.” We talked for a few minutes. I had seen it during our read aloud moments. He gave great answers and connections to the books we were reading. So I talked to him about the story he had just read and added the questions being tested. And according to my suspicions, he knew the story well, understood it, and had the skill that was being tested. He was surprised when I said, “Honey, you just passed the test. Go ahead and sit down.” The reason I knew what that child needed at that moment was because I had taken the time to get to know him.

I heard it. I knew what he needed. Teaching begins with relationship. It doesn't matter if you are teaching students in a school, mentoring adults in a job, or training members of a team. It all starts with the relationship. Once you have established that, you can use some strategies that I call CRSSP strategies. The C stands for choice: giving students choices in their learning, not unlimited choices but meaningful choices whenever possible. This empowers students and engages them in their learning. R is for relevance: ensuring that learning is meaningful to students. This helps them connect with it, engages them in the process, and

make

s their work have a purpose.

The first S is for strengths-based learning: focusing on my students' strengths and talents and building from there. When we focus on deficits, it can be counterproductive. It can end up leaving the student discouraged, disheartened. But if we start from a position of strength, it is easier than facing challenges. The second S is for specific, honest and positive comments. I would observe my students being good, doing well, or most importantly, working very hard in a difficult situation. And I would use those minutes, moments as encouragement to build your confidence and your enthusiasm, because success breeds success. And when we start focusing on success, we can address those challenges and students can hear the constructive criticism they need to hear to improve.

The P stands for passion: making sure I know my students well enough to know what their interests and hobbies are. Because knowing what's important to them can allow me to put that into the curriculum in a way that can engage them, hook them, and just draw them in. Now, the next unit in my class was a unit on reading nonfiction and writing. I politely and respectfully put the teacher's manual aside. Because I knew from experience a way to teach it called guided inquiry, which is something I've used for years in my gifted education program. I knew I could

make

it more attractive and also employ these CRSSP strategies.

That is how. First, students are allowed to brainstorm a variety of topics that interest them and choose the one they want to learn about. That decision alone creates choice, relevance and passion. Next, I try to reawaken in my students that natural curiosity they have. I make them think things like: “I wonder how, I wonder why; I wonder if." And they use that kind of thinking to develop questions that help them dig deeper into their topic and really learn about it. Along the way, they'll start to do research. And when they're doing research, I can help them give them that positive feedback.

I can incorporate those skills from the teacher's manual in a way that I call just-in-time learning. What that means is that they learn the skills they need when they need them, just in time, when it's relevant in the process. That gives me the opportunity, now. They work at their own pace, to give them positive feedback. And to empower me, I ask students to volunteer for different tasks that they are good at. What are they experts at? which also allows me to be the guide instead of the sage on the stage. And it also reduces the wait time.

In the end, they are allowed to choose how they will present what they have learned. Again, taking advantage of their options, their talents, their strengths and theirs. passions. I have had my students create videos, books, puppet shows, games, and even program computer games about their topic. And these are fourth graders. Fourth grade students. If we allow our children to use their creativity and show their learning authentically, they will. I would like to share another time when I used CRSSP strategies. Then I tell them about that student who had been crying. He gladly investigated the subject of it.

She did so with enthusiasm. He created a slide presentation and on the day of the presentation there were no tears, just a lot of pride in what he had done. Other students said to me, "Can we do extra projects just for fun?" I was like, “Uh-huh.” (Laughter) Another time I used these CRSSP strategies was when I was teaching third grade back in 2005. I had just finished reading aloud a book called Gooseberry Park. It's a charming story about these animal characters who have to help each other after a storm. My students loved the book and at the end said, “Mrs.

Freitag, could we write to a film company and ask them to turn this book into a movie? Because it would be a great movie! And I said, “I would, and we can, but they can choose it or not. And even if they choose it, it will probably take years to produce. So really, the only way they would see it when they're still kids is if we did it ourselves.” They said, “Could we? Could we?" As I suggested, I had to say yes. (Laughs) So, they spent the next six months rereading the book, writing the script for all the scenes, creating all the clay figures, taking over 6,000 photographs and making the voice work, and then weaving all of that into a 20-minute long action stop video that is still shown today at our school.

Some of the other teachers said to me, “Michele, how can you fit this in?” There's time." My principal said, "Michele, how can you be sure that you are covering all the standards and that they are acquiring all the skills they need?" I was able to calm them down. I was able to tell them exactly what skills I was covering in reading, writing, performance skills, and technology. I knitted it. When we do that, when we integrate learning, we can buy time to make those decisions. Now, over the years, my colleagues and I have seen many changes, many reforms.

There has been a lot of research that tells us what best practices are and how students learn most effectively. Things like the importance of practical and relevant learning, things like the importance of voice and choice to engage students. But during that time, there has also been a big shift in education toward collecting test data. Now, accountability is important, but how does that fit with what we know are best practices? I think the system is very unbalanced. Along with the change in guidelines comes a new curriculum. And very often teachers are asked to teach this new curriculum with fidelity.

And what that means to some people is that all teachers have to follow the teachers' guidelines and do the lessons in order anyway so that all the students get the same thing. In fact, there are districts that go into classrooms and verify that teachers are on the same page. I suggest that teaching with fidelity is not the same as teaching with integrity, which is where you look at what the desired outcomes are and figure out how to get each student there. Don't teach just for the exam. Teachers want to teach this way. They want to teach this way, but too often their hands are tied.

Did you know that right now teaching is the profession with the highest burnout rate by a wide margin? And although there are many factors that explain this, I believe that one of them is the deprofessionalization of teachers. Let me say it again: the deprofessionalization of teachers. In too many classrooms, teachers are not allowed to use their training, knowledge, experience, and wisdom to ask things like: What would work best for this class? What would motivate that student? How can I make this more meaningful? What do teachers need? They need the same things as students. They need these same things.

They need to be able to make decisions in their classroom to use their experience and wisdom to look at the students in front of them and see what will meet their needs, their interests, and their abilities. We need to know that they have permission to do this. They need to be empowered to leverage their strengths and talents so they can teach more effectively. But someone valued and empowered, an employee, will bring more enthusiasm and passion to their work. And the good thing about enthusiasm is that it is contagious. Then, when students capture that enthusiasm, when they are valued and have a voice in their learning, we will no longer have a student sitting at their desk with their head down and crying.

We will have empowered and confident students who will engage in their learning in a meaningful way. I have loved teaching for 39 years. And I love going to school for 55 years. Wouldn't it be great if every student who walked through our doors loved coming to school? Thank you. (Applause)