Letting Go

The idea of letting go of control in the classroom to allow for students to become the drivers in their own learning is not new to me.  In fact, it is a topic I am very passionate about.  I began my experience as an educator in a 5th grade classroom.  I cringe just thinking about how I ran my classroom back then.  It was a lot of scripted lessons from textbooks, subjects divided up into nice little time slots throughout the day, and lots of seat work with little student interaction.  YUCK!! My students must have been bored to death!  It didn't take me long to realize that teaching that way was not going to work and that is when my mind shift began. 

Fast forward to the present and my teaching looks completely different.  Since then I have had the great opportunity to become a gifted teacher and I've gained so much knowledge through that experience.  Learning about inquiry-based learning became my obsession.  I've had the privilege to go on several tours of schools that are inquiry-based model schools and I've been able to use so much of what I learned in my gifted classroom as well as share what I've learned with others I work with.

In the blog "Great Teaching Means Letting Go" Grant Wiggins uses the example of a soccer coach to explain how some teachers are teaching in a way that fosters dependence rather than independence.  I agree with the idea that it should be regular practice to provide students with tasks that they are unfamiliar with just to see how they work through it.  How will we know what the students really know until we see what they can do on their own?

The Chris Lehmann Inquiry webinar was full of great insight, as well.  He states that learning should not be about control, but about support.  Students need us to be their mentors and to help guide them,  not to spoon feed them information.  Through many of my own conversations with teachers on this topic, I've come to understand that some feel very uncomfortable with giving up the control that is necessary to truly have a student-centered classroom.  They are afraid of failing and this causes them to avoid changing how they teach.  The excuse I hear most often is that they don't have time for project-based or inquiry-based learning.  It takes too long and they have so many standards to cover.  It is a bit ironic that the teacher's fear of failing is actually causing them to fail their students.   

In my opinion, great teachers...

•  understand that it is okay to let go of some control and put it in the hands of the students.   
• know that it is okay to fail, because we learn from it and move on. 
•  help students to understand that we are all learners and we ask questions that we can answer together.  
•  create spaces that are conducive for learning and collaborating.     
• use inquiry to guide student learning and bring in technology as a tool to engage students
• teach kids, not subjects

 A great teacher cannot do all of this alone.  They need support from district and school leaders.  Too often, district or school leaders do not understand that teachers need a little flexibility when teaching through inquiry.  Too many districts have curriculum benchmarks which requires teachers to teach certain standards in certain time frames with little room for flexibility.  Structures like these are not conducive to inquiry or project based learning. This is where the shift need to begin for more teachers to feel comfortable with letting go.