Google Does Not Work for Everything! - Part 4
Why the current school system doesn’t serve us and what we can do about it
Part 4 – A Solution Model
A brief overview of what is needed
Essentially, schools need to integrate updated neuroscience and whole-brain learning of how children learn best. Using the entire brain helps kids learn. That includes the parietal lobe which is often not engaged during school learning as children are not moving. This is a handicap for reaching learning potential. Kids are born movers.
Children learn best through discovery. So inductive teaching helps deepen retention. With inductive learning, students experience things and draw their own conclusions. Wrestling with the concepts allows them to uncover their learning. As teachers, we often wonder why our students haven’t retained the basics from year to year. Students retain when they discover their learning.
Students must be interested and find their learning relevant. When students are emotionally invested in their learning, cognition is peaked. Often students ask, “Why do we have to learn that?” or “Will I ever use that?” If we can’t answer those questions, it may not be relevant to our students; they will not be emotionally invested, and the result is a low state of learning potential.
Other essentials to consider:
Inquiry-based learning helps students discover their learning
Cross-curricular learning benefits the integration of new concepts into existing brain patterns
Thematic teaching provides holistic, big picture ideas
Experiential learning encourages interest and retention
Social and emotional learning supports 21st-century skills
Whole child focus is more than academics
The Dynamic Teaching Model is a framework of classroom practice that fills the gap between the first three states and the optimal state of thriving.
The results of the Dynamic Teaching Model are:
Focuses on the whole child and whole-brain learning
Uses imagination, develops creativity and innovation
Deepens higher-level and critical thinking and develops student voice and agency
Develops listening and speaking skills which greatly improves reading and writing skills
Practices 21st-century skills and SEL acquisition
causes cognitive retention due to emotional engagement
Learns real-life lessons without real-life consequences
SEL Wisdom: Social and Emotional Learning
Teachers often find their students in the first three states of dysfunction, struggle or traction. We all want our students to reach their full potential and to thrive. Teachers must thrive as well! What is missing? How do we get there?
What is missing is something I call your Teacher Cultural Impact. It is a critical component to enable students to thrive. There are three segments: teacher self-care strategies, teacher mindset strategies and teacher problem-solving strategies. Using the CASEL SEL framework, we dive into each segment and provide teachers practical tools to train students proactively, rather than reactively. When the entire school uses the same strategies, they begin speaking the same language and expectations rise as momentum pulls toward a state of thriving.
Social and Emotional Learning skills must be explicitly taught and practiced so they can be internalized. Right now, teachers do not go deep enough as they often don’t have the skills themselves and/or they are not deeply ingrained and practiced. Skills such as:
bringing down the “emotional temperature” in yourself and in another
a structure of accountability they hold themselves to
apologizing resulting in a desire to elevate another
recognizing the impact of negative emotions and how to turn them around
discovering a new perspective to change the outcome
keeping a context that is empowering to you
nurturing relationships
communication, teamwork, and leadership
These interpersonal skills are essential and when they are lacking, not internalized, or used in practice, it can lead to fewer opportunities and a lack of success in life. Students must learn these competencies in school starting at a young age.
Analogical Problem-Solving: Cross-curricular, whole-brain learning
Teachers often misjudge the amount of authentic practice needed to internalize SEL strategies. This brings us to the “how” of teaching. Pedagogy is critical and requires the use of current brain research for how students learn best. I find that these concepts often get ignored.
As teachers, we must capitalize on children’s innate ways of learning. Children have vast imaginations. They often live and learn inside stories. This context allows them to discover, repeat and try out different ideas. Children learn by pretending (drama), expressing their feelings through action (dance), singing, banging on pots and pans (music), and drawing on the walls (visual arts). Why don’t more of us teach in and through the arts? These are a child’s innate ways of learning!
How can we integrate academic content and SEL strategies? Can we provide a way that allows students to try out their new social and emotional skills inside a context enabling them to learn real-life skills without real-life consequences? We must provide strong teaching that deeply engages the entire brain. And that requires a growth mindset on our part as we learn.
Permanency: integrating the strategies
After completing the training inside the first two circles, educators join an advanced Professional Learning Community (PLC) where they problem solve and deepen the strategies in real-time.
When we teach using the Dynamic Teaching Model, we have heart-based learning. It is deep, meaningful, relational, and develops the whole being. It integrates advanced people skills, resulting in students and teachers thriving.
A challenge
Let’s make this time memorable.
Transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Be the cause of change in your school, district, or area.
Join me for training inside the Dynamic Teaching Model
An invitation
It takes something to move past the status quo. The potential lies within each of us. As Amanda Gorman so eloquently said at President Biden’s inauguration,
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it
Are we brave enough to see it? Are we brave enough to be it? We must grow the community widely by bringing others into the conversation. If you see yourself as a change-maker in education and relate to what has been shared, I invite you to reach out today to Creative Education in Action. I will connect you to the tribe.
Next Steps
Join the Facebook Group
Join our Facebook Group, SEL for Teachers: Empowering our Students to Thrive. This group is specifically for educators and administrators. Receive free pieces of training, lesson plans, bite-sized video clips, and pdfs on things like self-care, teaching growth mindset, how to calm someone down, the Be Kind, Be Hopeful song for children, and more to give you practical support.
Nine Week Program
Changing Lives through the Screen: How to develop and transfer a sense of wellbeing and emotional stability is a nine-week program. This program is inside the SEL Wisdom circle in the Dynamic Teaching Model. It includes a dynamic student program (ready-to-go videos with extended learning, off-screen). For best results, participate as an entire staff. Do your professional learning community (PLC) together and have students and staff speak the same language. Registration is open for the fall. Save your preferred dates today.
School & District Training
Interested in a comprehensive SEL training for your school or district? Contact me to set up a call.
Testimonial: Teachers’ Experience
Click on the following image to play the video.
AUTHOR
Margaret Boersma, OCT is an instructional coach, teaching artist, speaker, educational consultant, and trainer. Her varied career in 35 years of teaching, combined with her expertise in social/emotional learning (SEL), allows her to assimilate the affective domain (people skills) with academic curriculum goals. Having trained extensively in the arts, and with Dr. Eric Jensen in brain-compatible pedagogy, Margaret’s heart is to transform classroom practice to enable students and teachers to thrive. Her innovative training programs result in students acquiring leadership and communication skills while becoming compassionate citizens. Her experience in teacher training extends to Canada, the U.S, the Netherlands, India and New Zealand/Australia.