Honoring Time (Strategy #1)
Honoring Time? Well, I’ll be honest; that’s a new concept for me. Time and I have always seemedto be in different corners of life’s boxing ring ready to “duke itout.” (guess who usually wins? ) If I am not fighting time, then I amrunning from it or trying to "manage" it. Those strategies have notbeen successful either. I think it is time to try a differentapproach. (Change requirement number one: the student isready)
So this year I will be working to change my mind-set. Overand over again I have seen that “Perception is Reality”. If I am goingto do things differently, I probably should start thinking differently. Thenagain, isn’t that what TPRS® is all about? If you have never readSusie Gross’ story about her son and the banana, take a minute andcheck it out. ( scroll down to Chris' banana story.) It’s a beautiful metaphor for changing perceptions. It’s definitely time for me to flip the banana on time!
A number of years ago my district invited Dr. Hal Urbanto present an in-service on character education. His observationsaboutschools and character education re-focused my teaching and altered thecourse of my career much the way TPRS® has. One of the points that Dr.Urbanmade in his presentation was that he challenges his students to changetheir attitude about assignments. He promised to create appropriateand worthwhile assignments, and asked them to think about how luckythey were to havethe opportunity to learn something new and to be successful in hisclass. When a student said, “Do we HAVE to do this?” Dr. Urban’sresponsewas “No, you GET to do this!”.
I have been using this approach to assignments for a number of years and I can tell you that while it may notchange every student, it will change the overall perception of assignments inyour classes. It was simple, but powerful. Flip the banana.
Thisyear it is my turn to GET to honor Time, rather than HAVE to wrestlewith it. Since this won’t come naturally for me (!!!) I need toidentify some thoughts to latch on to in order to get started.
My first strategy is to start with the phrase “Teach for June”. It is a phrase that we often use in the TPRS®world. (It is also the name of Scott Benedict's website!!) Focusingon what this phrase really means to me will help me to focus on thenaturally developmental power of Time. Teaching for June doesnot mean teaching for the final exam. It does not mean teaching sothat students will be prepared for the next level. It does not meanteaching so that my district, department or colleague will be happy. Although these are goals we must address, for me, the phrase implies somethingdifferent entirely. For me, the expression “Teach for June” means keep teaching until they get it!!!”
Formany teachers that isn’t just flipping the banana. That’s flipping theentire tree. Maybe even the plantation. I’m not planning anything that dramatic. It isn’t myplan to stay rooted on one topic, one project or one phrase until mystudents have mastered it. I don’t want to close the door on anythingin the language or in the curriculum. What I want to do is to remindmyself that if students don’t “get” something (vocab, structure etc.) ,it is because they just don’t get it YET. Then I will keep findingways to create CI……without punishing myself or them for not having acquired it YET. I’mgoing to remind myself about those three things that affect change…let Time do its work ....andkeep going.
The great thing about TPRS® is that teaching isn’tabout TEACHING the language…it is about USING the language and makingit comprehensible in as many ways as possible. So I think that it isquite likely that this banana flip will open doors for me with mystudents rather than close them. I’ll let you know.
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