Today the city of St. John's celebrated it's long running Wednesday-unless-it's-a-bad-day-weather-wise/oldest sporting event in North America....The Royal St. John's Regatta.
The Royal St. John's Regatta was originally a fixed seat rowing event that took place all day and has since grown into a carnivalesque day off (for most people) with some rowing happening in the middle of it.
It's a fantastic event for the city. And today was no different.
And my reflection tonight comes from that event.
The event is always hugely crowded with people, so finding friends and family amongst the crowd can be slightly challenging at times.
Today I wore my Vietnamese flag t-shirt. Bright red with a large yellow star in the middle. I tried to make myself noticeable to it would be easy to find me in the throngs of people when my friends were looking for me.
And to a certain degree it worked. The problem came with my not noticing my friends when they were waving their hands violently to find me.
This happened twice. Once when I was trying to find my brother, sister in law, father and nephew. The second time when trying to find my friends slightly later. I looked and looked and for some reason couldn't see my friends until a phone conversation lead me in the right direction.
In other words, the directions had to be clear from both the giver and receiver and back again.
And it caused me to ponder about my teaching.
A lot of times we write directions to activities. Sometimes we want the kids to sort out the activity, so we make it more open ended. Other times, we are very specific with our directions to the kids will hopefully follow it to the letter. Then others still, they're somewhere in between.
One of the problems arise when WE as teachers think our directions are clear, but their not and the kids become confused. And a lot of times we cannot trial a lesson. We simply do it and hope for the best.
Another problem arises when the kids are given clear directions but don't ask for clarification.
In other words, the kids become me searching desperately in the crowd to find clarity. And it's not until questions are asked, different directions are faced and clarity is given that they reach the goal.
So we, as teachers, must bear in mind that no matter how good a lesson might be, there will always be some kids who just didn't understand what to do despite your best efforts. In other words, sometimes, a little more handholding will do the trick. Sometimes, we may need to guide more than we like. Sometimes they may not be as independant as we hoped for a lesson.
And that's o.k.
Because sometimes, and on some days, the kids need the boost. They might need the support. Because each day is different for each kid. That means, for me, there will be 23 different days each day. 22 kids' different days, and 1 different day for me. So, each day we have to remember to give clarity in everything we do. So the goal is clear. So the message is clear. So the directions are clear. So our students can learn best.
And we must be humble and patient about it.
Because our words aren't necessarily words all of them will get. We shouldn't be as arrogant to think that we don't need to change something because it wasn't clear to them. Sometimes, we need to take a deep breath and reverse. Go back to where it began. Go back to looking at the ends, and find new directions, new clarity and new paths for our students.
And I know we all know this.
But how often do we actually try and get clarity about the clarity of our lessons.
How often do we do this before a lesson? during? after? How often do we abandon a lesson to work it so we can do it better with more thought?
Should we be doing it more?
Just some post-Regatta thoughts.
I eventually did find my friends. Both, on the other hand, required a phone call, and double hand wave. That worked. The anxiety of confusion was done. I reached my goal. I found my family/friends. And it made me happier.
And it was a great day!
The Royal St. John's Regatta was originally a fixed seat rowing event that took place all day and has since grown into a carnivalesque day off (for most people) with some rowing happening in the middle of it.
It's a fantastic event for the city. And today was no different.
And my reflection tonight comes from that event.
The event is always hugely crowded with people, so finding friends and family amongst the crowd can be slightly challenging at times.
Today I wore my Vietnamese flag t-shirt. Bright red with a large yellow star in the middle. I tried to make myself noticeable to it would be easy to find me in the throngs of people when my friends were looking for me.
And to a certain degree it worked. The problem came with my not noticing my friends when they were waving their hands violently to find me.
This happened twice. Once when I was trying to find my brother, sister in law, father and nephew. The second time when trying to find my friends slightly later. I looked and looked and for some reason couldn't see my friends until a phone conversation lead me in the right direction.
In other words, the directions had to be clear from both the giver and receiver and back again.
And it caused me to ponder about my teaching.
A lot of times we write directions to activities. Sometimes we want the kids to sort out the activity, so we make it more open ended. Other times, we are very specific with our directions to the kids will hopefully follow it to the letter. Then others still, they're somewhere in between.
One of the problems arise when WE as teachers think our directions are clear, but their not and the kids become confused. And a lot of times we cannot trial a lesson. We simply do it and hope for the best.
Another problem arises when the kids are given clear directions but don't ask for clarification.
In other words, the kids become me searching desperately in the crowd to find clarity. And it's not until questions are asked, different directions are faced and clarity is given that they reach the goal.
So we, as teachers, must bear in mind that no matter how good a lesson might be, there will always be some kids who just didn't understand what to do despite your best efforts. In other words, sometimes, a little more handholding will do the trick. Sometimes, we may need to guide more than we like. Sometimes they may not be as independant as we hoped for a lesson.
And that's o.k.
Because sometimes, and on some days, the kids need the boost. They might need the support. Because each day is different for each kid. That means, for me, there will be 23 different days each day. 22 kids' different days, and 1 different day for me. So, each day we have to remember to give clarity in everything we do. So the goal is clear. So the message is clear. So the directions are clear. So our students can learn best.
And we must be humble and patient about it.
Because our words aren't necessarily words all of them will get. We shouldn't be as arrogant to think that we don't need to change something because it wasn't clear to them. Sometimes, we need to take a deep breath and reverse. Go back to where it began. Go back to looking at the ends, and find new directions, new clarity and new paths for our students.
And I know we all know this.
But how often do we actually try and get clarity about the clarity of our lessons.
How often do we do this before a lesson? during? after? How often do we abandon a lesson to work it so we can do it better with more thought?
Should we be doing it more?
Just some post-Regatta thoughts.
I eventually did find my friends. Both, on the other hand, required a phone call, and double hand wave. That worked. The anxiety of confusion was done. I reached my goal. I found my family/friends. And it made me happier.
And it was a great day!
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