Prepared for Anything: A Few Thoughts About Driving Learner-Driven Learning
I learn best when I take ownership over that learning. I know that not every one is like me, but still, I truly believe that learning is a process best undertaken with certain criteria in mind. Specifically, I’ve found that frame of mind is critical to genuine learning at the onset and throughout. Before we can engage we have to be prepared to engage. We need to be ready. We have to warm up. And while we are engaging, we have to believe that the sky is the limit. I would suggest that an ideal state for any person to learn in is a state in which that person is open to new ideas, even in the face of potential failure, which is often what we face whenever we risk authentic growth and development.
Warm up for meaningful engagement. A few days ago my daughter woke up about half an hour early. She stood up in her crib and ceremoniously shouted “Mommy.” I went to get her. When I arrived she reached up as if to say, “Get me out of here!” I picked her up. As we walked into my bedroom she repeatedly shouted, “Downstairs! Downstairs!” Not only was the shouting relatively difficult for my morning ears to process, but also it woke her three-year-old brother in the next room.
Before long me my wife, my three-year-old, my one-and-a-half-year-old, my three-month-old, and I were all in bed together. My five-year-old slept thought it. Why did I believe that there’s even a chance for another few moments of quite relaxation at that point? Wishful thinking, I guess. As the old song goes, “Waking up is hard to do.” I think that’s how it goes.
For the first half hour of our morning there was an inordinate amount of whining, groaning, growling, and frustrated flailing. It was almost unbelievable. I believed it though, because I’d seen it before. My wife and I reminded, redirected, and worked with every fiber of our beings to stay patient and speak in soft voices, but try as we did, the fact was that these little ones got going to early and too quickly. They needed some time to get started. We all needed some time to get started. We needed some food in our bellies. We needed some motion in our bodies. We needed some time to warm up. We were doing much better around the kitchen counter an hour later.
Similarly, when I remote started my car this morning it screamed and moaned like you wouldn’t believe. When I got into the drivers seat I saw that the temperature gage read -8. That’s cold! After running for a while the motor purred like a kitten. My car needed to warm up. I would argue that all of us need warming up, not just in the beginning of things, but also after breaks of any length and any kind.
Whether or not we know what awaits us during the course of any given day, preparing thoughtfully by taking the time to warm up enhances engagement and sets the stage for meaningful learning. I believe that giving yourself and your students the opportunity to warm up before diving in to any activity or course of study can help each of you own your learning process, and in turn, it can enhance the potential for meaningful progress.
Foster Cultures of Enthusiastic Exploration. I was at the video store the other day picking up a movie for family movie night. When I got to the cashier I was informed of a $4.50 late fee. Tragic. Renting the movie attached to this late fee was only a buck and a half. We rented it, we watch it, but we were too busy or lazy to think about returning it on time (by “we” of course I mean “me”). So there it was, a $4.50 late fee staring me in the face. I suppose it’s good because if not for overblown late fees my local video store would probably be out of business…and dinosaur though I might be, I like my local video store!
While I can chalk it up to stimulating the economy and feel relatively good about that, I also have to feed six people breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Ok, one of them only drinks milk right now, but it’s my purgative to stress in anticipation. When the cashier told me about the late fee my mind said, “Get out of it!” In an effort to do just that I asked, “Is there a half off late fee special today?” She laughed. I laughed. I got the impression that we connected. She said “no.” I realized that we hadn’t. She consoled me with, “It never hurts to ask!” followed by, “The worst I could say is no!” She was right, and you know what? It wasn’t even that bad!
The worst he/she could say is no is one of my favorite clichés. The simple truth is, whether you’re dealing with late fees or a quest to discover new planetary systems, the worst thing that could happen in any given situation is that you might not find what you’re looking for. Actually, there could be significantly more risk involved in the space exploration scenario, but I’m guessing that you get what I mean.
I believe that one important way to help learners feel valued, and subsequently engage in meaningful learning, is to encourage them from young ages to feel positive and enthusiastic about exploration. How do you encourage exploration in your classroom or school community? In what ways do you model reasonable risk taking related learning and growth? As parents and educators, I think that it’s an important part of our job to help the students we serve feel comfortable reaching out and looking past perceived boundaries.
When we give kids some space and some strategies to warm up with, show them how explore and make sure they feel safe, celebrate that exploration through both triumphs and challenges, and then consistently remind them that the worst outcome is just the potential for something different than they expected, we help them move forward in exciting and positive ways. How are you making sure that your students are prepared for anything?
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