Personal Investment

I was thinking about a seminar I participated in a few months ago, and an activity I was required to take part in. I am typically someone who loves to interact with others, try new things, and collaborate. Yet, I had no desire to participate in this activity.  As part of the lesson we were to create a pre-determined item using specifically provided materials. I felt completely inept, and as a result, disinterested. In fact, it stressed me out so much that I was going to use my students’ technique of “going to bathroom” to hopefully miss out on the activity! (I showed maturity though and hung in there!)

I’ve been reflecting upon that experience and wondering what I can do to ensure that this doesn’t happen in my classroom. I believe that two aspects are essential when a teacher presents a lesson: investment and choice. I have an example from a unit I taught last year on the Holocaust. To introduce my unit, I showed a 2006 interview by Brian Williams of Iranian President Ahmadinejad. After showing the clip I asked the students to explain what the problem is. (In this clip Ahmadinejad puts into question the validity of the Holocaust.) The majority of my students quickly recognized that the problem is that some people don’t believe that the Holocaust ever happened. We then discussed why that would be a problem, and most importantly, why it is a problem that might affect them personally. Once I had them invested personally, we discussed how they could solve this problem. Please know, that this entire time I had my own idea how I wanted them to solve this problem. I had a Project Guidelines sheet already developed with learning targets, state objectives, etc. Yet, I didn’t tell them. I allowed them to develop their own projects. The amazing thing, is that for the most part they mirrored what I already had in mind. (Smart students, I know!) What I loved were the ideas they came up with that I hadn’t even considered.

What I saw from this experience is that once students are personally invested and have a choice, they want to be active participators.  Investment means they care, and choice equates to them choosing a means of production with which they are comfortable. (They don’t make as many excuses to run to the restroom.) I didn’t tell them what the problem was - they determined the problem. They then had choice on how to solve the problem. Our goal as  educators is to help our students fall in love with learning, so that they will want to continue learning on their own. I am invested in helping my students be personally invested, in what ever they are learning. Investment - it is has great rewards in the classroom, and in our society!