Creating Conditions For Future Success

Creating Conditions For Future Success

How do we create conditions within the classroom so that students are prepared, not just for today’s world, but equipped to successfully tackle whatever the future holds?  What will learning look like, sound like, and feel like in such a classroom?  How and when will we develop these conditions so that our current students have an opportunity to own the learning?  These were a few of the questions that arose during our latest #Oklaed chat and three tweets grabbed my attention.

The vision that immediately pops into my mind is a student (of any age) curious, excited, and engaged in an authentic lesson in which the student was included in the planning process.  Students are sitting on the floor or at tables; it really doesn’t matter because students are self-initiating rich discussions while smiling and laughing.  Anytime a student or group of students become unsure of the answer to a problem, he or she has access to go beyond the classroom walls to invite an expert into the conversation as if they were a lifeline.  No longer does the kindergarten teacher or the college professor have to be the smartest person in the room, nor are students limited to what one teacher knows and is able to do.  In this classroom, students own the learning and are working much harder than the teacher.  Architects, doctors, engineers, computer programmers, and entrepreneurs are the weekly visitors as they provide feedback to problems and projects students have successfully failed or achieved.  Could this be the type of conditions we should strive to create?  Thanks Dr. Fryer for such a thought-provoking tweet.   

To create such conditions, it is imperative the teacher relinquish some control to the students.

“We’ve got to find a way to make this... fit into the hole for this... using nothing but that.”  What a great scene from the movie Apollo 13.  Should we introduce problems to students that can be solved in many different ways and have more than one solution? 

To create such conditions, the teacher must create conditions in which failure is viewed as a success in learning.

What an extremely high expectation to set for oneself?  A lesson that results in excitement, engagement, and enthusiasm for future learning is what it is all about.  Tom Whitby once said, “The least educators can do for kids is to stimulate a curiosity for learning.  The best would be to impart a passion for learning.”

To create such conditions requires much planning and preparation before the students ever enter the classroom.

John Dewey once stated, "If we teach today's students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow." As connected educators, let's work together to create conditions within our districts, schools, and classrooms so that every student is prepared for their future.  The future is now!

Stay Connected,

Shawn Blankenship