Lifelong Learners Should be a Top Goal

I spent the day at the Tomales Bay Oyster Company this weekend with friends and family, BBQ-ing and enjoying the perfect Northern California spring weather. If you haven't been to "TBOC," it's on the east side of Tomales Bay on Highway 1 near the town of Marshall. The convivial atmosphere is enhanced by the close proximity of the picnic tables and grills, and a person can't help but make new friends. 

While shucking Kumamoto oysters, I met J. Clay Tweel, a friendly, humble Los Angeles resident who has done a variety of work on several documentary films: directing, producing, editing, visual effects and animations, motion graphics, camera. You might recognize some of the films on which he's worked: "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," "Freakonomics," and "Make Believe."

As we talked, what struck me about Clay was that he never went to film school, nor did he imagine as a kid he would be making movies for a living. He graduated from the University of Richmond, Virginia as a history major. His first editing experiences were with iMovie. And he told me how he once created a bit of music for one of his documentaries using GarageBand. I had to pause when Clay shared this last bit of information with me. My students have used iMovie and GarageBand at home or in the classroom at various times. Could my 6th grade students be embarking on something within our classroom that might someday become a career? 

Clay is a great example of a "lifelong learner." This is something we teachers talk about instilling within our students, but I sometimes wonder if we ever stop to ponder what it might look like or what it might mean for us personally.

I like the Free Online Dictionary 's definition of this term: "The provision or use of both formal and informal learning opportunities throughout people's lives in order to foster the continuous development and improvement of the knowledge and skills needed for employment and personal fulfillment."

When I look back at my most memorable teachers, they were the ones who did more than graduate from a university and head straight to the classroom.  

Mr. Barnes was a Marine in Korea and worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad prior to teaching American history and government. Mr. DeRose worked on a dairy and was a Green Beret prior to becoming my ag teacher and Future Farmers of America coach. Mr. Schmaeling was in the Peace Corps in the South Pacific prior to teaching senior English. Dr. Preston worked on his dad's cotton farm before becoming a geography professor, and Dr. Evans served in the Peace Corps in Africa prior to teaching political science.  My dad was a meat cutter, a small business owner and performed ranch work prior to teaching 5th grade.

While I would never dismiss the importance of a college degree, I would argue it is critical that as educators we never forget the importance of doing more than just refining our pedagogical prowess as the primary means to reach and teach our students. 

By learning and doing things in which we are interested and passionate about, we become more interesting and engaging. Oftentimes when that happens, our students become interested and engaged in what we are doing. Student engagement is a key factor in student learning. And empowering students to learn is what our educational system is all about, right?

So, what was my take-away from this weekend and my conversations with a Hollywood director? 

As educators, we need to be passionate, lifelong learners in areas outside of the classroom.

It's my personal opinion that obtaining a masters or Phd. in education does not guarantee an improvement in pedagogical skills or student engagement and learning. I'm not saying it can't help, but it's not guaranteed. 

As educators we can fall into ruts.

Sometimes we spend a disproportionate amount of time playing the role of "accountant," becoming overly-fixating on grading papers, posting grades, checking off homework assignments rather than reflecting on the purpose of the work and if it is accoplishing a meaningful purpose? 

Sometimes we put blinders on and fixate on "covering" everything equally rather than teaching to our strengths and passions. That's not to say we should have carte blanche with the curriculum taught, but it does mean that we should try whenever possible to integrate what we must do with what we love to do. 

Over the past few years, I have developed a strong love and passion for filmmaking and project based learning. I've found that my interest in this can readily be applied to my classroom with my students researching, reading, and writing scripts (formerly known as "essays") and adapting them to film. 

What topics to cover? That's where the project-based learning part has come in for me. Recently we've been working with The World We Want Foundation on "social impact projects." It's incredibly powerful when kids get a chance to direct thir own learning and do something with it in a real and tangible way. Several years ago, I began using Project Citizen . This curriculum teaches kids how to monitor and influence public policies. It's about teaching kids that they have a role to play in our representative democracy. Both of these projects are about empowering kids to speak their minds in a polite and responsible way so that they might someday become more engaged citizens and improve the communities in which they live.

If I know anything it is this: what I do in my classroom will continue to evolve and change as my personal interests and passions evolve and change. I'd like to figure out how to get my students doing more animation on film projects. I'd like to figure out a way to get them podcasting...maybe create their own internet radio program. I'd love to build collaborative relationships with Capitol Public Radio or The California Channel to get student reporters writing news stories with professionals. I dream of someday partnering with KVIE and having students assist in the production of documentaries or local area interest programs. The list of things I want to learn and do with my students is...well, it's infinite. 

And all these things that I am interested in? They have strong connections to literacy, to critical thinking, to science and history and civics and a LOT of other academic standards that might otherwise be taught using nothing more than a textbook and computer. 

A personal zeal for learning things beyond school. We say we want it for our students. But do we as educators want it for ourselves, too?