Day 12: 5 Year Changes #reflectiveteaching @TeachThought

How do you envision your teaching changing over the next five years?

I like how this is asking about “my” teaching rather than teaching in general. I envision continuing my push for authentic assessment and getting kids to ENJOY learning. My biggest issue with education today is that we burn kids out.

Students are stressed out and overloaded. Teachers are also feeling the burn. How can we expect students to thrive in a system in which the teaching professionals quit at an alarming rate due to burnout? My own children do not like school… and it is worse than not liking… there is an aversion to the classroom.

It starts in elementary when we test, test, test the kids into submission. They forget that learning and reading can be fun. Writing and creating is an amazingly empowering experience. And yet, when it all becomes rote and lifeless, then the joy of learning is stripped away.

I will work to foster a love for learning at all levels of my teaching and to push other teachers to join my cause. Teaching and learning should be fun. School should be enjoyable. If it isn’t, I’m doing something wrong.