Why are we learning this?
A lot of teachers take teaching too seriously. Well, let me rephrase that. They take their content too seriously. So many of my students talk to me about how their teachers think their class is the most important class they take. The kids are overwhelmed by the amount of work they need to do for this class. They talk about how they don’t really like this class or the teacher. And it makes me sad.
It makes me sad because these teachers are lying to our students. Almost none of our kids are going to use the Pythagorean theorem in real life. I mean, maybe one or two of them will. But we don’t teach the kids content because the content is important. We teach stuff that can be found within five minutes of a Google search.
We are there to teach them some real skills. In chemistry, I teach my students how to analyze data, read graphs, explain themselves in writing, solve problems and think logically. Chemistry is the tool I use to do that.
It’s important to be upfront about what you teach and why. This will get the kids to respect you and your class. They will work hard because they will know that they are actually there to learn something worthwhile in your class. And it’ll help even more if you take the time to get to know them.
Identifying the real life skill that you’re teaching in a day can help your lesson plans. This can help you with your delivery of what you teach each day. And if your students know the VALUE you’re giving them, they’ll be on board, and thus, your class engagement blossoms!
Check out my “Why are we Learning This?” posters I hang in my classroom.
