Overview:
Many so-called “new” teaching strategies are simply rebranded versions of practices great teachers have always used—building relationships, personalizing learning, and making lessons meaningful—reminding educators that they’ve been doing this work all along. so-called “new” teaching strategies are simply rebranded versions of practices great teachers have always used—building relationships, personalizing learning, and making lessons meaningful—reminding educators that they’ve been doing this work all along.
Think back to your favorite teacher. I had two, Mrs. Swartz and Mr. Clevenger. One was my 1st grade teacher and the other, my 9th grade Social Studies teacher. They taught way back in the 1960’s and 70’s.
As a student, I wasn’t able to label their teaching methods, but I did know they were creative and cared. While Mrs. Swartz may have misunderstood how to use the term “cool it”, and Mr. Clevenger may have entirely misinterpreted the underlying meaning of the song “Bye Bye Miss American Pie”, they definitely understood today’s latest teaching principles. Your favorite teachers probably did too.
When you look at the laundry list of “new ideas” in education, you’ll see several terms that help us become better teachers. Here are some examples:
Building Strong Relationships with Students; Building Relationships with Students: 8 Ways to Connect – PBIS Rewards. One of the tips in this article is to ask about the students’ playlist. In a sense, my Social Studies teacher was doing just that by discussing a current song with the class and giving us a historical perspective on what it meant. Even though he tied it in to the Kennedy assassination, we later discovered it was about Buddy Holly. Who knew!
Personalized Learning; The Benefits of Personalized Learning: How It Helps Students | American Public University. This article suggests introducing new technology into the classroom. Mrs. Swartz was very innovative for her day. When papers were warm and fresh off the new mimeograph machine, she would let us smell them and associate the aroma to fresh baked bread. That’s probably an OSHA violation nowadays but is surely stuck in the memory banks.
Project-Based Learning and Real-World Application; Project Based Learning with Real World Experiences – BSD Education. Another great teacher of mine in 6th grade had us do independent projects to present in class. My topic was how to build a briefcase bomb like the one used in the movie “Airport”. Now that project based activity really made an impression on her. Obviously the demonstration did not involve any real explosive devices but can you imagine the “risk taking” involved by the teacher? Good thing the AP was busy dealing with ‘trouble makers” and didn’t just decide to pop into the classroom.
Formative Assessment and Timely Feedback. Formative Assessment and Feedback | Teaching Commons. Here the author suggests providing written feedback to the student. As you can guess from my previous examples, I received a lot of written feedback….. These are just a few examples of the latest and greatest techniques in education which have actually been around for decades.
As a CTE teacher for the last 16 years, my background was not in the education field. I was in industry for most of my career. One consistent truth pervades both industry and education: “Everything old is new again”. Countless times in my previous career, there would be a very important meeting to introduce a new method or technique which was designed to revolutionize the industry.
At the same time, employees in the back of the room would murmur, “Didn’t we already try that a few years back?” or “Yeah, yeah…. They just called it something else back then.”
After more than a decade and half in my current role, it appears we as educators are roughly in a three to four year cycle where revolutionary new ways of instruction and implementation are discovered. As teachers, the majority of us truly understand these strategies regardless of the new title and use them naturally throughout the school day. Today’s strategies are certainly more refined but their core ideas stem from years of great teaching.
As educators, implementing these strategies often strikes us as common sense. Maybe it’s our upbringing and the desire to help and nurture others. Maybe we picked up some pointers in a college class. Maybe it’s in the DNA of an individual devoted to educating others and sowing the seeds of learning. Of course the word education is derived from the Latin term,” Educere” or “Educare”; “to train or mold”, “to lead out” or “to draw out”. Educare vs Educere: What’s The Root Of Education . Perhaps the Latin is new to some of us, but the meaning is as natural to us as a personal conversation with students, a hello in the hallway, or recognizing signs of stress in a student who is just having a bad day.
Ask yourself, do you operate like this on a daily basis? If so, relax. You’re doing what is innate to someone who makes a difference. The students who come back to visit after graduating seldom say they loved your lesson plan. They talk about the connection and how you made a difference in their life.
Maybe it was one quirky story that lit their passion to learn more, or the silent role model you became because there was no one at home they could confide in. So many different things inspire individuals. Take comfort in knowing that the basics of education always revolve back around. Most come naturally to good teachers even if they get “rebranded” every few years or so.
Tom, I absolutely agree with all you say about good teachers. At the same time, I think there is a real danger in promoting the notion that we can be satisfied with the reality you present–that we don’t need to rethink school designs, that rediscovering and using past best practices is sufficient. If you are interested in my discomfort, I wrote about it in Intrepid Ed News: “Been There: Why Nothing Really Changes.”
Well done Tom. Knowing you, as I do, I am sure you have connected with your students in the same way Mrs Swartz and Mr. Clevenger connected with you. You would have made them both very proud.
Tom, this is great! I loved this in particular: “You’re doing what is innate to someone who makes a difference. The students who come back to visit after graduating seldom say they loved your lesson plan. They talk about the connection and how you made a difference in their life.”
As a fellow CTE educator with decades of industry experience, I also saw old ideas come around in new packaging, over and over. And I saw employee survey data shelved if its findings were inconvenient. Unfortunately, too much money and people-energy is spent trying to force professionals to conform to a particular vocabulary, when what really counts is being able to perceive and respond to needs–either employee or client needs in industry, or teacher and student needs in education.