Remember what's it like not to know - Part 2

This entry continues what we were talking about last week...

I had an instructor in my flight training who had difficulty remembering what it was like when he started flying. I’d ask him for an alternate explanation to whatever he was teaching me but he could only repeat what he had said originally, which I didn’t comprehend or I wouldn’t have asked for clarification. He couldn’t see that I was having trouble grasping the concept. He didn’t understand that repetition works fine when we’re tying to remember but it’s useless in restating something that doesn’t make sense the first time.

When I was learning how to land the plane, which is one the most challenging parts of flight training, I asked him where I should be looking – out the front of the plane, out the side, or at the instrument panel. When should I round out - the moment when you change the plane from pointing down toward the runway to pulling it back so that the back tires land first? He said that I should look ahead at the runway until I got the right ‘look.’ What look? He said I’d get it. Probably true but, what was the look I was going for? I needed a visual, a picture to look at back at the hangar after the lesson. Or, perhaps a video from the cockpit perspective. Or, at least a few landings where he was flying and would say to me, “See what the runway looks like right now? That’s the ‘look!’ ” That’s what someone who doesn’t know needs.

When I taught math, I, of course, always used the proper terminology – quadratic formula, Pythagorean Theorem, and so on – but I always coupled the terms with alternative descriptions and often a real world connection. What is the Pythagorean Theorem? It’s the relationship between the sides of a right triangle. Why should they care? They might want to fit something diagonally through a doorway or take a shortcut from school. They may be designers or builders. To teach this formula, to teach anything, we have to step out of our roles as authorities on the subject and remember the time when our subject was as new to us as it is now for our students.

Remember what it’s like not to know the material we’re teaching.

No one else in my immediate family is a teacher. They are huge football fans and in their quest to explain the game to me, they forgot that I have no references to football. They forgot what it’s like not to know.

As teachers we must remember back to the time when the information we now have at our fingertips was brand new to us. We must put ourselves into the mindset of the students who sit in front of us and create explanations that make sense to the newbie. Our explanations should contain the proper vocabulary, but each of these new words must be paraphrased so that our students can understand what we’re talking about.

More on this topic next week...

Have a great week (despite all the negative news...)

Connecting with what they know...part 2

I experienced what it felt like to have someone explain something new to me last year when I was watching the Super Bowl. I have a limited knowledge of football but I’m willing to learn more. My Dad and brother told me I could ask questions as long as I asked during commercials. Fair enough.


I did fine for the first few minutes of the game but as the game progressed, the commercials were not nearly enough time to answer my questions which were becoming more detailed. Their answers became quicker and more technical. My level of understanding began to drop dramatically as they used more and more words that were familiar and comfortable for them but confusing and unfamiliar to me.

I remember actually beginning to feel sick to my stomach. Is this how our students feel when we inundate them with material they don’t understand? Do they feel overwhelmed? Frustrated? I did and I was in the safe environment of my brother’s home where there was no potential for embarrassment for not knowing, no worry about how knowing would affect my future.

When we teach our subject matter to our students we need to connect to what they currently know. Whether it’s material previously learned in our class or information from the world outside the school environment, our teaching and their learning must not occur in a vacuum.

Connect with the known.

We learn by connecting to what we already know.

“When landing an airplane, combine pitch and power as you enter the downwind leg adding in a notch of flaps while turning from downwind to base and base to final. Make final adjustments once the runway is in sight and crab the plane in if needed to adjust for wind direction and speed."

Unless you’re at least a student pilot, many of the terms used in the preceding paragraph don’t mean anything to you. You’d probably be hard pressed after reading or hearing that paragraph once to state or explain the content. And yet we often put our students in just such a situation.

The topics we teach are near and dear to us and we often recite the content unaware that to our students, the information exists in a vacuum. What we need to do is connect the new information we’re teaching to something our students have learned previously with us or already know.

As you teach your lessons this week, take a moment to think of how the information you're sharing is being processed by the teens sitting in front of you. Are you connecting to what they already know or are using words that leave them lost and confused?

More on this topic next time...have a great week!

Ignore the "Don't smile until Christmas' rule

When I first began teaching, I often heard people who had been in the classroom for quite a long time say, “Don’t smile until Christmas!” I heard that comment and I had to admit that I wondered if I was in the right career! Not smile? How could I do that? Was this really true? Would I be a bad teacher if I smiled? Did my favorite teachers smile? So many questions. What to do?

My decision was a no brainer for me on many levels. First of all, I couldn’t avoid smiling. It was in my personality to smile for a lot of reasons and certainly there would be enough funny experiences in class to warrant a smirk or two. Second of all, how could not smiling create an atmosphere that students would want to be in – not to mention one that I’d want to be in? I may have tried not smiling that first year, but I know it didn’t last long and I certainly smiled on a pretty regular basis for the rest of my teaching years.

Why wouldn’t we smile? Remember how difficult high school was? It’s even tougher now on many levels and a smile is the simplest thing we can do to welcome our students to class and to let them know that they’re in a safe, comfortable environment. We don’t have to become friends with our students but there’s no reason to become their enemy. Life is very difficult for many kids these days and I believe part of our job as teachers is to create a happy environment that makes learning fun.

Research shows that when we smile, even when we’re not in the best mood, we begin to feel better. Our bodies equate certain expressions with certain feelings. We can feel good and smile or we can smile and feel good. It works both ways. That’s why people who are feeling sad are asked to “smile” to feel better. We actually do. So here we are as the teacher smiling and feeling better. Our smile is reflected back at us by the students who in turn feel better. A great way to start a class! Your students will have a better chance of enjoying their time in your class too!

So smile! We picked this career. Enjoy the ride!