Seeking opportunities for joy in the classroom
Somewhere in the thick of the many challenges posed upon educators in the last three years, many who have long-loved our work with students have lost their way. According to an article from the National Educators Association (NEA), in “a staggering 55 percent of educators are thinking about leaving the profession earlier than they had planned.” While reported numbers of this magnitude may not surprise anybody that has felt the weight that teachers have carried overt these past few school years, it does begs three questions:
Are experienced educators truly ready to walk away from a profession that has inspired and fulfilled them as professionals, and as humans, throughout their career?
What may be causing the loss of joy for educators as we return to “normal” in our classrooms?
What small steps could an educator take to find opportunities for the authentic joy that has kept them in this profession to this point?
Are teachers ready to walk away?
In conversations with quite a few teachers throughout this school year, the question of leaving the profession has been raised time and again. Frankly, this is not that unusual. The act of teaching is entirely consuming. As a coach, I have had many teachers flippantly suggest it is time to try something else. What is unique is the seriousness with which this suggestion is offered. Colleagues have spoken of the valuable skills they possess. Others have referenced the details of job postings they have considered. The reality of a potential shift in careers is much more palpable.
Why? What is different this year? Most districts have struggled for several years to find substitute teachers to fill staffing holes. This has resulted in all teachers sharing the load of sub coverage each day. That results in more time live with students daily, less time planning with colleagues, less time engaged in professional learning opportunities, less time connecting with friends and colleagues at work, and less time being able to focus on all of the other parts of the job during the day. The trickle effect has been more hours grading, planning, and communicating with families and students outside of school.
This alone may have been enough to push many of these teachers to the brink of quitting. Add to that the societal and political conflicts waging throughout communities across the US, conflicts that call into question core values and how those values should be taught to young people, and educators are placed as sitting ducks amidst the flying shrapnel. For good measure couple this with students still regaining their stamina for full day schooling, longing for the freedom to engage in learning at their own leisure during lockdown, and demonstrating some of the academic after effects of learning through COVID.
While this in no way represents all educators, the reality is that this is a perfect storm of factors that can weigh heavy on anybody’s decision to remain in the practice. Despite the many benefits of serving in schools, the inspiration of helping to grow communities, families, and students, this may be a load too unbearable for many teachers to continue carrying. So yes, many highly skilled teachers that make an impact on student learning are ready to walk away from teaching as a career.
While we acknowledge the reality of this situation, teachers are not helpless bystanders to it. Within those elements that teachers CAN control, there are opportunities to once again find the joy that initially led teachers to the profession. If we can find our sense of purpose again, we can make it through this tough time.
What causes loss of joy as we return to “normal” in classrooms?
While there is not one answer to why many educators are not finding joy in teaching, there is one trend that we can identify and embrace to begin making small shifts in teaching practices that move us toward joy.
Despite the major innovations and changes to teaching and learning that happened as a result of lockdown, one trend that has concerned me throughout the past school year has been the desire to return to “normal.” This desire for returning to normal has been stated repeatedly as a celebration to the end of the odd experience that was living and teaching entirely virtually. That makes sense on many levels — a return to normal would be welcome given all we experienced.
However, suggesting that “normal” teaching practice is (or ever was) the ideal state to support successful teaching and learning, fails to capture several realities. One reality is that educators did not universally find what we now call “normal” to be inspirational, joyful, or successful teaching practice before the pandemic. Neither did many students. Student engagement was a challenge pre-pandemic, and it is a growing epidemic today. The second reality is that normal teaching practice does not stretch us professionally. Despite the many challenges, educators did successfully find ways to amazing and innovative work throughout the pandemic. We kept student learning moving forward. We entirely altered our practice out of necessity. And we made huge strides in entirely shifting the paradigm of what learning has to look like each day. Our students experienced these changes, too, and they have quickly come to realize that learning can look and feel different. We did not see a tidal wave of educators hoping to leave the profession during lockdown, or even immediately following lockdown, which would have been the most natural time for a mass resignation. Why is that?
Virtual teaching and learning stretched teachers in many ways. It was challenging, frustrating, and exhilarating as we broke routines, problem-solved, put the students first, and innovated with what we had available to use. Folded within all of that innovation, teachers experienced the joy connected to personal and professional learning, discovery, pride, growth, and success.
A shift back to pre-pandemic teaching normalcy is a giant step backward in many ways. Despite the relief we feel from not continually having to innovate daily, there is a cost we pay. As teachers shift back to the tried-and-true teaching practices, it is now challenging to find the same level of professional satisfaction we experienced over the past few years. When we grow and transform as humans, we flourish and thrive, and teaching through a pandemic was a period of great personal growth and transformation to find new ways to teach and connect with students.
The opportunity for joy hides within the reality that people are often happiest aas we grow and change. Rather than cling to the rock of what once was acceptable teaching practice, educators will find greater joy in leaving sacred ground to venture out and find new ways to innovate within our classrooms. In observing and connecting with many teachers throughout this school year, many have said that they had re-instituted many of the same routines they utilized in the past. Many have also commented that the students did not respond in the same ways they once did. It is as if the old “tricks of the trade” are no longer working. If what we have always done is no longer yielding the same results, if educators are not fulfilled by the practices and routines they self-select to put in play within their classrooms, there is opportunity to make change and potentially find the joy for which we long.
What can teachers do to find joy?
Adopt
Project-Based
Learning
Your next joyful learning adventure is only a project away!
Finding ways to bring innovative practice to the classroom may be the greatest opportunity to invite change and encourage personal growth. One method to achieve this is to adopt a project-based approach to one upcoming lesson. Centering a unit of study around project-based learning (PBL), which focuses on a tangible outcome/product, an authentic audience, and a goal that has a real-world impact, may just be the spark needed to invite joy into teaching. PBL naturally incorporates many challenges, opportunities to problem-solve, and off-script collaborative moments that will greatly vary the daily routine. The fresh perspective and changing landscape adds an element of excitement that keeps students and teachers eagerly coming back. Additionally, it will stretch and open minds to new ways of thinking that become fuel for teaching and learning. Some of the very best PBL resources can be found on the Buck Institute for Learning’s website PBL Works.
Add Digital Tools to Change Routines
Changing the daily routine by shifting teaching practice will have an inspiring impact on many students. While PBL is one way to do this, smaller adaptations of utilizing new tools in daily routine can also be valuable additions.
Consider adding a “social” component to learning through the use of FlipGrid. This gives students an opportunity to live out their wildest dreams of becoming famous as a “YouTuber” (without the ads or distraction of YouTube) while focusing on academic topics and deepened learning. Tech and Learning has a nice guide to get started with FlipGrid.
Utilizing an interactive presentation approach can also shake up the learning environment, giving every student an opportunity to respond at key points within a lesson. This approach greatly encourages engagement as every student is interacting with questions posed by the teacher, writing or drawing on the presentation, sharing an idea within a post-it/whiteboard tool, or manipulating interactives, depending on the tool you choose. The real benefit of this pathway is that teachers will find many of these tools easy to learn, and widely adaptable to a wide variety of lessons. This gives teachers a new skill that can be regularly used daily, but that never quite feels old and worn out to students. Some of the best places to start with this type of tool might be Nearpod, or SMART Learning’s Lumio (if your district has SMART Notebook, you likely already have Lumio available in your licensing that the district owns). Both tools will make you wonder how you taught without them, and they will add a level of interactivity to mini-lessons and focused instruction that teachers and students will enjoy.
Embrace Creativity and Content Creation
Focus on creation as a means of students demonstrating learning. While teachers already identify “create” as a top level Bloom’s Taxonomy verb/descriptor, often we do not consider all of the benefits creation can offer in classrooms. Deepened learning, which is a requirement of academically focused creation, means more time on task, more focus and attention to detail, more problem-solving and critical thinking, more collaboration with peers, and more consideration of the best ways to communicate ideas. Creation can leave students mentally exhausted, and that is exactly the kind of task that can help us grow, change, and find joy.
Additionally, creation infuses fun. There is nothing predictable in how a student will choose to present ideas when given enough room to be creative. It allows the student to explore their own understanding in fresh ways, offers the teacher opportunities to partner with students as learners and coach them as content creators, and invites other classmates to engage with their peers’ ideas. Creation generates a buzz in the classroom that is both palpable and contagious. It leaves students and teachers smiling, as well as thinking deeply about the learning experience, and that naturally generates the joy that is desperately needed to overcome the slump educators are in right now.
Depending on the tools available in your classroom for student use, you may be more focused on creativity tools for the Chromebook or the iPad. With my own focus on iPads in the classroom, I strongly recommend teachers consider the Apple Teacher program as a starting point for learning more about the creation tools that are already built into the iPad. This resource is particularly useful for learning to use a wide range of the Apple apps that are already built into the iPad. Additionally, the Everyone Can Create eBook series from Apple (free) is an amazing starting point. This series is aimed at Apple users, but is definitely worth a look for non-Apple classrooms as well just to spur some creative ways to think about how to teach any subject with greater creativity.
For Chromebook users, I might suggest Common Sense Education’s article on some of the best web-based Tech Creation Tools. The key is finding tools that are primarily web-based, and thankfully there is no shortage of high quality tools available at a low or no cost for classroom use.
FIND JOY IN TRYING SOMETHING NEW
Many factors can make teachers feel as if they have little control in their classroom: curricular demands, standardized testing, team commitments, administrative expectation, parental expectation, pacing guides, just to name a few factors. However, the reality is that educators are rarely told exactly how to teach every subject throughout the day. As professionals, we often have choice in how we deliver instruction, challenge students, or tailor learning to best meet student needs. While one curriculum may dictate a specific delivery model, another subject may offer more freedom. Seizing those opportunities as places to push ourselves and try something out of the ordinary will help you and your students begin to find the joy needed to keep doing incredible, inspiring work. Shake off the desire to return to “normal” in your classroom — normal was never that interesting anyhow. Instead, be bold enough to take on a new challenge. The challenge is what makes the hard things worth doing!
