Panning for Gold

This week’s discussion again reflected the general group consensus that we had some trouble connecting to and applying the material from the book. This isn’t a surprise: the target audience for the book is K-12 educators, and that’s not who we are. That’s not to say that there isn’t anything there for us. There is, but it’s not always right there on the surface. One of the best qualities of our group is that we keep stretching and searching to understand the strategies and tools in the edventures described in the book. It reminds me of the thousands of people who moved west in the 1840’s in search of gold and a better life. Through our conversations, we are actively seeking to discover methods of better teaching. We are sifting through the massive amount of ideas and suggestions available to us, washing away the ones that won’t work for us, and using the tools we have to uncover the treasure. Like the 49ers, we are panning for gold.

There’s a lot of places in education that mirror this concept of panning for gold. Each time we attend a Teaching and Learning with Technology workshop or a Canvas training, that’s what we are looking for. When we read our students’ evaluations of our classes at the end of the year, we’re looking for honest and constructive feedback. If there’s two or three students who take it seriously, those comments are worth gold to us as teachers. The rest, not so much, and so we let those other responses wash away. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by our classes and our students, especially when we perceive that it’s not going well. It’s even easier to let one outspoken and critical student or one apathetic, painfully drawn out class discussion be the one thing we remember at the end of the day. After all, we had such high hopes for this lesson. We really thought that this time, it would produce the results we wanted. This time, every student would get it. Often, the truth is that there were twenty three other students in class who were engaged and interested in the lesson that day who made smart, insightful comments. There were ten other discussions held in that same class over the course of the semester that were rich and meaningful. We aren’t going to hit the motherlode every day, with every student, with every lesson.  That doesn’t mean we quit trying; for a lot of us, it means we try harder, or we try something different. This is where our group comes in.

Although we are not an official book club, we are not not a book club either. One common characteristic of all of the book clubs that I’ve been in (and dropped out of) is that there is a fair amount of complaining. It seems to be easier to start with what we don’t like instead of what we do.  This is one way that our group veers away from the typical book club.  We tend to start with examples of which strategies we could use or what we liked about the reading. This makes us a more productive, as well as positive, group. There’s value here, somewhere, if we keep searching. Maybe not in this spot, but in the next. Maybe not with this tool or technology, but instead with this one. Not for first-years, but for upper-class students. Not a fit for humanities, but just right for science.  If we are diligent and keep working at it, revising our methods, trying new tools or new ideas, there will be a pay day. We believe that it will happen, like our own version of Manifest Destiny for twenty first century teachers. We must chart a new path and expand our teaching methods to connect our students with the content, often using both existing and emerging technology to do it. We’re not going to make it alone. We depend on and welcome ideas and tips from others who are following this same journey. Our chances of finding gold are higher if we band together and share our stories and resources.

 

5 thoughts on “Panning for Gold

  1. Thanks for the thoughtful reflection on our group discussion Jennifer! You’ve captured our members’ natural proclivity to discover and refine new approaches to teaching and learning.

  2. So many things resonated in this, Jennifer – but I LOVED this line: “Although we are not an official book club, we are not not a book club either”

  3. I can relate to your comparisons here and hope that you continue to find gold in your class comments and discussions this week.

  4. Fabulous work on synthesizing the dynamic discussion that occurred during the last meeting! I greatly appreciate the creative analogy to panning for gold, as well as, the quote “we must chart a new path and expand our teaching methods to connect our students with the content, often using both existing and emerging technology to do it.” Cheers!

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