In My Element

I have just enjoyed the most remarkable week working with a diverse group of teachers in Sao Paulo, Brazil at Colégio Rio Branco.  The teachers are all participants in the TAMK 21^st Century Educators program and were just completing module 2 of the course and starting out on module 3.

What was refreshing and energizing was the passion and enthusiasm that these teachers shared, even though they teach different subjects and age groups in multiple campuses.  They were willing to contribute and to collaborate and share ideas and insights.   What struck me is that this is how teachers should work, develop and learn, yet so often today teachers are set up in situations where they are in competition with each other.   This is especially true in those places that have been most enthusiastic to adopt the neoliberal model of education as a business.  If education is to have the rules of economics applied then that requires that ‘customers’ (who are the customers?  That is another debate perhaps) have market information.   Market information requires metrics and measures and rankings and performance tables and before we know it the desire to share and collaborate is lost in the rush to be competitive.

But I digress, the main purpose of this post is not to have yet another rant about inappropriate market models applied to education but instead to focus on how much I felt “in my element” while working with what I now consider to be my new friends.  Sir Ken Robinson writes about this in his book of the same title and defines being in your element as “the place where the things we love and the things we are good at come together”.   

This is exactly how I felt for a good part of the week – in the zone, so to speak, where I was doing what I love and, to be honest and not too arrogant, felt that I was doing it well.  It is a great place to be, energizing, powerful and motivating.

I think many of the teachers that I was working with also felt in their element during the week, at least I hope that they did.  Sure at first I know they felt a little nervous, due to having to use a second language and move a bit outside of a comfort zone, but as we built our relationship as a group I think I felt that shift.   These were passionate teachers working and talking about being better at what they most valued, being a great educator.  Having the time and space and resources to do that really helped and their employer at Colégio Rio Branco and my employers at TAMK are to be praised for creating to opportunity.

Which inevitably leads me to student motivation and engagement and whether we can help our students to find their element?  When class activities and assessment are too narrow, formal and not authentic, how can we really expect students to be in their element, unless their element is sitting passively for hours on end listening to teachers talk?   I am happy to say that the projects and ideas that I saw presented by the teachers that I worked with in Brazil will encourage creativity and active learning in students.