5 ways to make your classroom student-centered

A student-centered classroom allows students to be an integral part of the assessment development process. This doesn't necessarily mean every assessment is created and designed by students, but it does mean there is a collaborative and joint venture of teachers and students in the planning and implementation stages of assessments. Students who help to design and create their assessments will find the assessments to be more meaningful, and typically students end up creating assessments that are more challenging than what teachers would have created anyway...

A student-centered classroom focuses on finding solutions to real-world problems. Too often our classroom focus is on solving problems that lack relevance and purpose in the eyes of students. The student-centered classroom addresses real-world problems that affect or will affect students. This in turn will provide meaning and context to student-driven learning, which then will increase levels of engagement and overall student involvement.

A student-centered classroom is not about what the teacher is doing or what the teacher has done; it's about what the students are doing and what the students can do in the future. We all have experienced the teacher observation model that focuses just on what the teacher is doing, but more and more models are now focusing on what the students are doing. Obviously, what the teacher does affects and impacts what the students are doing, but the most important piece is what the students are doing or are able to do as a result of what the teacher is doing.

A student-centered classroom embraces the notion that there are multiple ways to accomplish an individual task. When we limit and confine students to following a certain and specific path, we ultimately end up limiting their levels of ownership, innovation, and creativity. A student-centered classroom allows, encourages, and embraces the multitude of paths one can take to solve a given problem. This also allows for students to follow their strengths and their interests when completing a task.

A student-centered classroom firmly believes that there is a partnership and a strong level of trust between educators and students. The teacher no longer is and hasn't been for a while the 'smartest' person in the room. Because of this, we need to continue forging a partnership between the teachers and the students and accept an equal playing field when it comes to learning, exploration, and discovery. This partnership is built on trust, and trust happens when we are vulnerable and open to learning with and from others...

A healthy disregard for the impossible...

Larry Page, Google's CEO, encouraged attendees at an event back in 2012 to have a healthy disregard for the impossible.

It's this message that he's infused into the workplace and work environment at Google which has resulted in revenue growth at IPO date of around $800 million to now just under $20 billion... quite remarkable really.

Having said that, what if this kind of mentality and mindset was infused into the educational setting? How would this type of approach affect education and impact the overall structure and organization?

There are almost 4 million educators and nearly 50 million students in the United States who are literally shaping and writing the future of our existence. It's the ideas being discussed in classrooms around the world and the concepts being taught that ultimately define what we believe and how we engage in this crazy thing we call 'life.'

Traditionally speaking, and true more often than not, educators tend to play it safe and tend to be those who are good at doing what they are told. Many educators were the 'good' kids in school and tended to excel in a schooling model that rewarded compliance and obedience.

The world we live in now has shown time and time again that it's rewarding and acknowledging those who aren't just thinking outside the box, but rather those who are literally creating an entirely different box.

It's this thirst and unyielding commitment to transforming life as we know it that is so vigorously sought by society. Society yearns for 'new' and demands for 'different' yet we are still working within a schooling model that wants compliance and obedience.

What if instead of saying 'we can't,' we started saying 'why not?'

What if instead of reprimanding those who question 'why' and instead empowered them to be a part of determining the 'what' based on their own individual 'whys?'

What if we encouraged students and educators to challenge the status quo by rewarding and acknowledging those who go against the grain rather than those who merely drift with the current?

What if the impossible wasn't something we feared and avoided but rather something we focused on obtaining and exploring further?

The next Google won't be born out of talking about and focusing on what's already possible.

The next Google will be born out of solving a problem somebody previously said was impossible to solve...

The next Google will come from an insatiable appetite of being challenged with something others avoided.

The next Google is in our classrooms and in our schools right now... let's make sure we are removing the barriers and unleashing a tidal wave of excitement toward making the impossible possible!
    

Inspirational video for educators

Here is a video I created a few years ago for a back-to-school gathering. The purpose of the video was to inspire, motivate and empower. If you are interested in getting a copy of the PowerPoint I used to personalize for your district or school, send me an email (justin.tarte@gmail.com) and I'd be happy to share it.

Enjoy!

You are the 'game changer'

Too often in education I think we sit back and react to what happens.

We patiently and politely allow life and school to happen without putting too much skin in the game.

Talk of change and innovation tend to stay just that, talk.

We more often than not feel like we are merely pawns in a bigger game of chess.

We are all looking for that quick fix or that dynamic person who will provide us all the answers to our questions...

Well, I'm not comfortable with the sit and wait approach.

I'm not comfortable with putting the fate of my situation in someone else's hands.

And frankly I'm not comfortable with and I don't believe our kids deserve to be told to be patient while someone else or something else provides our solution.

It may be simple and maybe I am overplaying the value of words, but what if we shifted our thinking?

What if we weren't waiting for that 'game changer,' and instead we ourselves became the 'game changer?'

What if every day we went to school we viewed ourselves as our solution? What if we took back the power and stopped waiting for someone or something else?

Just think what would be possible if we made this shift.

Let's empower ourselves and make this vitally important shift and stop waiting for superman and instead become the superman/woman our kids deserve...

Whose responsibility is your happiness?

So, we all live in a world with good days and bad days. Sometimes we even have bad weeks, bad months, and I've even heard of people having a bad year.

Obviously when someone is having a bad day, their level of happiness tends to be on the low side.

These days of low happiness are natural and perhaps even therapeutic from time-to-time.

http://goo.gl/e1Fcn0

It's when there are periods of prolonged unhappiness that it becomes troublesome and frankly worrisome for all those who interact with this individual.

So, when you yourself are having a prolonged period of unhappiness, who do you turn to?

Do you turn to others and blame them for your unhappiness?

Do you take your unhappiness out on your friendly four-legged friend and blame those cute and sweet innocent eyes?

Do you blame your unhappiness on 'the man' and curse him for holding you down?

Do you point your finger in every direction but your own...

Or...

Do you take responsibility for your own happiness and make your outlook toward life something you are in control of?

Do you taken ownership of how you feel and how you let other things affect you?

Do you refuse to let anyone or anything be the determining factor of your level of happiness?

Remember, it's your happiness, so why should anyone else be in charge of it...?