Let it go!

This chapter is all about Sal’s background as a student and how his experiences shaped his journey to becoming the founder of Khan Academy. Being in my second year out of college, this chapter resonated with me in a different way. Normally, I’m reaching forward to more years of teaching but I took a step back and embraced my new-ness to the field. I thought very critically about Sal’s point in mentioning that massive lecture halls do not promote active learning. I know I spent my fair share of time sitting bored out of my mind in lectures that weren’t engaging before cramming and teaching myself the content right before the test. Yet, after all of that I didn’t retain anything. Obviously, I’m not spending 3 hours lecturing 7 and 8 year olds, as we know they can’t sit like that, but what made us think it was good for college age students? Or how about for teachers in graduate school after a long day of work?

As teachers, we learn so much about making our lessons interactive but who is to say that students can’t teach each other or teach themselves? Personally, I love finding out which of my students already have understanding of the content and letting them support each other. They become these mini-teachers that relate to their peers in a way that I never can. Watching those interactions is absolutely magical. Why not prepare the students who already have understanding and let them support one another? Why not provide them with videos they can use to help themselves, following the lead of Khan Academy? Why not empower them? I have found that I always learned more by learning from my peers and teaching them so why are we as educators so hesitant to give our students the same opportunities? Universities that are known for being forward thinking are missing out on teaching teachers to release learning to their students. I know that my wonderful university missed that point completely.

In end of this chapter, Sal writes “We can reach more ambitious goals if we are given the latitude to set goals for ourselves” (Khan 189). Upon reading this, I reflected on our work with the Leader in Me and letting our students set goals for themselves. I need to make sure that students set goals that push their academics rather than guiding them to goals that I feel they should meet. I need to let them take ownership and push my expectations for them to their highest potential. Why not let them learn about reading nonfiction books by choosing something they’re interested in and finding a book? What if you let your students learn about measurement by building and exploring real world examples? How about letting students learn about animals by researching their favorite and comparing it to their classmates favorite? What do they already know? What do they want to learn? Imagine what could happen if you took your content standards and found a way to let students learn them in a way that interests them. Let them take control of the classroom and guide them to the knowledge they need. What do you think they could accomplish? Imagine what you could learn from them by letting go of some of the responsibility…