August 23, 2023 • 27 mins
In this episode of #TMBS, I give some tips to further combat student apathy by adding some feeling.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hello, everyone, Welcome to theshow. A couple of days ago,
a couple of days ago, Iwatched a movie that wasn't my kind of
movie. I you know it wasit was it was a love story.
I'm more of an action kind ofguy when I was growing up Jean Claude
(00:27):
Van Damn, that was. Itwas one of my favorites. So I
was, you know, I'm aI'm an action movie kind of guy.
And I was convinced to watch aChristopher Reeve movie called, uh, it
wasn't called Superman. I've seen those. Unfortunately I saw the third and fourth
(00:54):
Superman. Shouldn't have done those.Those were a huge mistake, a huge
mistake. But the movie that Iwatched starring Christopher Reeve was called Somewhere in
Time. Somewhere in Time, that'sthe name of the movie. And spoiler
alert. I mean, this moviecame out in nineteen eighty so if you
(01:15):
haven't seen it yet, you should. You should have seen it. I
should have seen it before just acouple of days ago. Anyways, it's
a great movie. It's a greatmovie, and you know, you know
it's a good movie when you findyourself trying to stop yourself from crying at
(01:38):
the end of it. That's that'show good this movie was. That's that's
how much this This movie pulled meinto it and it What I really like
about movies like Somewhere in Time isI like the way that it leaves you
(01:59):
afterwards, like those movies that youwatch the movie and then you feel something
by the end, and then you'reyou're thinking yourself, wait a second,
I gotta I gotta watch this again. I gotta I gotta go back,
I gotta see. Okay, whatdid I miss? Oh there was a
clue right there all along. Ishould have known it. I wasn't paying
(02:20):
attention that first time. And thosethose Yeah, Somewhere in Time, I
recommend that movie. It's a great, great movie. Anyways, I won't
get I won't go too far intodetail, but it's it's a love story
and it's got an ending that willuh it'll it'll you know, it'll.
(02:49):
It'll make you do the best thatyou can to hold back tears if you're
not in the mood to cry.Because when I watched it, I just
I'm not in the mood to cry. I I don't want to cry,
so I'm not gonna cry so Iwilled it. I willed it to be
so, but I'm sure and someother multiverse. You know, I cried.
I cried at the end of Somewherein Time because that's just how good
(03:13):
that movie was. It's just howgood the story was, and that that
movie is based off of a book. And you know this to be true,
as in when you have movies basedoff of books, there are so
many details that you know you justcan't put in the movie. You just
(03:35):
don't have enough time, or youjust maybe it just won't look good in
a movie. But anyways, themovie Somewhere in Time is based off of
a book. So you had awriter, they sat down, they they
planned it out, and they theydeveloped these characters, named the characters.
(03:55):
What was gonna be the what's gonnabe the adding, what's going to be
the drama, who's my antagonist,my protagonists, all those different kinds of
things. Those they're planned out specificallyto really paint that picture, to get
to draw you in so that youhave those feelings by the end of it.
(04:19):
You know. It was another moviecalled that I used to show when
I taught us history, and Itaught this during World War two, during
that World War two unit, andit was called Life is Beautiful. My
Life is beautiful. And I'm sayingthis as as a principle. I like
(04:42):
showing full movies in the class.I like showing full movies in the class
because sure, there are those timeswhen you know what, I need a
break, and there were also thosetimes where I felt like, I really,
I really believe that it's important thatthe students experience and that word is
(05:03):
going to be important as we movealong. I felt that it was important
that the students experience this film.You know, when you show a full
movie in the class, you gotcall it it's a film. It's an
educational film. But I felt thatit was important. So Life is Beautiful.
(05:24):
Here's another spoiler alert. You shouldhave seen the movie. It came
out of ninety seven. But anyways, this one, I'll go onto a
little bit more details. This oneis this really interesting, really interesting.
And the movie is controversial as wellbecause it was a comedy, like it's
World War two, but it wasa comedy and it was told from the
(05:45):
perspective of a Jewish man who wasultimately taken to a concentration camp along with
his son and in order to shieldhis son from the horrors of what was
happening in the concentration. Concentration camp, he told his son that it was
(06:08):
a game we're playing. We're playinga fun game, son, and everything's
okay, all is good. Buthe knew that it wasn't. And as
you watch this movie, as youwatch this movie, you realize that you
(06:28):
know this. This movie is aboutthe love that a father has for a
son, the sacrifice that the fatheris willing to make for his son.
And you you like that character.You you loved that character. You loved
that father. You loved him becausehe loved his son, and just he
(06:51):
didn't make it. He didn't makeit out of a concentration camp. And
I remember there was a scene where, well, first of all, the
movie it's it's kind of you gottakind of push through. It's a little
slow at the beginning, and plusthey were it's a little slow, and
(07:14):
then you have the accent of theactor. But we pushed through that.
I had to help my students pushthrough it. But once they got to
the part at the end when theywere just kind of wondering, Okay,
what's gonna happen? Is is acomedy the father loves his son. And
then they see that moment where thefather, well they don't see it,
it's off screen, but you hearthe gunshot. And like as soon as
(07:38):
that that gunshot ran, you know, from the from the movie echo through
the room, a student's like,no, I love that guy. No,
not him, not him. Yousee, because there was a there
was a connection, there was aconnection there. They they they felt something,
(08:03):
they felt something there when I whenI taught world history, When I
taught world history, you guys aregonna think that I did nothing but show
movies, show movies in class,which is not the case. Which is
not the case. But I'm gonnatell you about another movie that this one
(08:24):
I had to I had to editto make it make it appropriate, so
I skipped scenes and whatnot. ButThe Joy Luck Club, The Joy Luck
Club. That's that's another That's anotherfilm that I showed to my students and
segments and you know, it justtells the story of a mother. And
(08:54):
I'm really condensing this story, butit just tells the story of a mother
who just goes through a lot,goes through a lot during World War Two
and separated from her children for decades. Separated from her children for decades.
And you know in this movie,it talks about other other women during that
(09:20):
time because of the war that theirtheir struggles. And then ultimately, like
I said, at the end ofthe movie, you have one of the
mothers from that movie. She sheshe's reunited with her daughters. And I'll
never forget that. I had onestudent was just like she was just crying,
(09:43):
like she had to take she hadto take a moment before she went
to her next class because she wasjust so emotional, because that story really
connected to her and she was ableto really dig into the facts and information
behind World War Two because she sawit happen through the eyes of just real
(10:07):
people. And so I say thatto say, as we're on our journey,
we're talking about how to respond toseemingly apathetic students, we're given we're
given some suggestions here, we're givensome suggestions. Now in the first episode
of this series, I just thefirst thing I submitted that we need to
(10:31):
do is we need to show studentsthe purpose. What is the purpose of
from the student's perspective is what isthe purpose of me getting out of bed,
breakfast clothes, just all those thingsgetting on the bus, rain,
sleet, snow, coming to school, coming to school, engaging in these
(10:56):
lessons, doing the things teachers areasking me to do, while knowing that
there are just so many other thingsthat I'd rather do. There's so many
distractions out there that I wouldn't mindyielding my attention to. So I talked
about in that first episode, andI encourage you to go back and listen
to that or watch that. You'vegot to help them understand the purpose of
(11:18):
school. What is the purpose ofschool? I believe. I believe very
few things are universal and education,but I believe that that is something that
everyone needs to have an understanding of. They need to know what the purpose
is because the purpose is going tohelp them. It's going to help them
move forward when things get tough,when there are distractions, when there are
(11:43):
obstacles, when things don't work out, when that math problem, when it
doesn't come easily. You make thesemistakes. You've done all this work,
but you make this one mistake,and it just it blows everything up.
When you know the purpose, ithelps students fight through that frustration and keep
trying to problem solve. Today todayI want to talk about I want to
(12:11):
talk about feelings. Let's talk aboutfeelings. Let me read to you a
little bit from this dissertation, andI'm gonna I'm gonna cite the author and
link this in the description sections soyou'll have it as well. Listen to
(12:31):
this. The author says there isanother dimension to the apathetic attitudes and lack
of effort displayed by many students asa consequence of prescribed curricula. Okay,
so it goes on to say Lounsburynineteen ninety one states that underachievement is not
(12:52):
the result of deficiencies in the headso much as it is the result of
deficient sees in the heart. Deficienciesin the heart. What are we talking
about here, Let's read on.The current curriculum is efficient and imparting facts,
but it does not connect to one'sbasic humanity. Cone from ninety one
(13:18):
points out the pervasive lack of attentionto caring and feeling for oneself and for
others in the current school environment withthis emphasis on academics and the amount of
knowledge acquired. Now this is youknow, these citing research from ninety one.
So it's a little bit older,but I still feel like it's it's
(13:41):
compelling. Now you can make theargument that that we've we've come along way
in terms of in terms of humanity, acknowledging students, celebrating, celebrating differences,
affirming students. We've come a longway. But let's listen to this,
listen to this final point. Devoidof feeling, devoid of feeling.
(14:09):
The required work gets done or itmay not get done, but it's value
eludes the inner nature and humanity ofthe child. That last part is interesting,
but it's value, the value,the purpose, the why eludes the
(14:30):
inner nature and humanity of the child. That's important. That's important right there.
So I want to give you.I want to give you three three
things that this is. This istelling me three things that can perhaps I
(14:52):
submit to you, can can helpyou to better help your students get connected
with their feelings, to the contentto your lesson things that you can possibly
do to to to touch their heart, to touch their heart and cause them
(15:15):
to maybe give a second look,pay a little bit closer attention because of
the way that because of the waythat made me feel. Because I'll tell
you what that movie somewhere in time, Touch me right here, touch me
right here, the last scene wherewhere the main character he just dies of
(15:37):
a broken heart because he can't bewith the love of his life ever again
because she's from a time way backin the past. Oh. But the
last, the last shot, thelast the last thing that we see before
they go to credits is just theimage of heaven and his and he's his
(16:03):
beloved is just looking at the camerawith their arms stretched out. And then
as a camera pulls back, wesee the main character. He comes to
her, grabs her by the hand, and he didn't kiss her, He
just he just looks at her andhe's got the smile on his face because
he's just so happy because he's foundheaven and he's with the love of his
(16:26):
life. And it's just still itjust stops right there fate to credits.
Wow, that's it right there.And I tell you I wasn't interested.
I really wasn't yet. I don'twant to watch a love story. But
I mean, just like it touchedme right here. So how can we
(16:48):
how can we get some of thatin the classroom, that's the question,
that's the question. I mean,we're trying to respond to student apathy.
We're doing what we can. Wegot to be creative here. So creative
is a really good word, becausethat's my number one that's the number one
tip that I have here. It'sjust just be creative because and that's easier
(17:11):
said than done. I get that, I get that. But you know,
sometimes, you know, we wantstudents to to wonder, to contemplate,
to to to really think about things, to inquire. We want that,
right, that's what we want studentsto do. But sometimes we have
(17:33):
to compel it because they're just notgoing to do it. They're just not
going to do it. And andthis is work, that work that takes
place up here in the minds ofthe student. Like we we cannot we
can't force it. That's that's adecision that the student makes. But we
can with a little creativity, weperhaps we can create an experience in the
(18:00):
classroom that causes them to wow.I mean, you're hitting me right here,
like I'm familiar with that. Ohyeah, that my mom does that.
Oh yeah, we have that traditionat our house. Oh yeah,
yeah, that's a tradition in myculture. Oh you're engaging me about about
(18:21):
the country that I'm coming from.Let me tell you about the country that
I'm that I come from, andthat begins with who are your students?
And I know that you're you're alreadydoing this work, but I think perhaps
it takes a little bit more leaninginto it. And it's always a good
reminder because sometimes we can get caughtin that the pacing guide. I gotta
get this, I gotta get thisdone. This this is I gotta and
(18:44):
there's just not enough time. Andyou know, perhaps your administration they're not
you know, administration is administration sometimesand they're not making the best decisions and
you're having a fight through fight throughthat as well, and I get it,
I get it. But this,these are these are good things to
(19:06):
keep in mind. Who are yourstudents, what are your what are their
interests? And weave that into yourlesson plan. And as always, you
know you can you can research.You can do the research yourself. There's
a lot of research out there.I'm sure there's a lot of research in
your library, and you can checkout blogs or they'll condense that information,
(19:29):
check out podcasts like this one,or we'll condense that information for you as
well, and then you could alsoborrow from your fellow teachers. Creativity,
don't neglect creativity, And I thinkall of that starts with keeping your students
in mind who they are, withtheir interests are. I remember when I
went to travel to Milwaukee and wewere looking at a couple of schools how
(19:55):
they implement personalized learning, and therewas this one one classroom, there was
a English classroom and the topic wasdungeons and dragons. Now, obviously that
that would be really nice, thatwould be really nice to do it on
that level. But you know,as I know that that takes a lot
to get everyone on that same page. But I thought that that was a
(20:18):
great idea. All those students inthe class who were interested in dungeons and
dragons. For sure, it's notgoing to take a whole lot of energy
to get them to read a bookon dungeons and dragons because they love this
stuff. But what can you do? What can you do to create that
kind of experience in your classroom?Given all that you've got limitations that you're
(20:40):
working with, But what can youdo? You can do something. Secondly,
I think originality. When we wereresponding to student apathy, it's going
to take originality. Now, keepin mind, there's nothing new there is
there is nothing new out there.The information I'm sharing with you. You
said, you're probably saying, yeah, yeah, I've heard that before.
(21:03):
I've heard that before. But butthere are lessons and strategies out there that
everyone is familiar with, but theyhaven't been taught by you. Like when
(21:25):
you when you are executing that lesson, there's something different. Many of them
have been taught, but they haven'tbeen taught by you. There's something special
about you. There's something unique aboutyou. There's something that you can do
with that that can really make itspecial, really make it pop. That's
(21:48):
why I never liked when my administrationwould give me, you know, for
our I guess you can call ithome room time. I would never I
never liked when they would just giveus a binder and say here, do
this. I was just like,ah, you just put me in a
box, and you're not giving meenough time to put me in this.
Like I'm not feeling this because Ican't make it an original thing. I
(22:14):
can't make an original lesson. It'snot me. I'm gonna give you a
quote. It is better to failan originality than to succeed in imitation.
Once again, it is better tofail an originality than to succeed in imitation.
(22:37):
What I believe that you can dois you can take something that was
that seemingly oh everyone's doing this orthis won't work. I want to challenge
you to take that, find away to put your spin on it and
make it something special for your students. I think that you can do that.
(23:00):
And I think that when you whenyou have that, when you approach
things with that mindset, you canreally come up with with something special.
You can make something, you canimprove upon something. And I think that
you'll you'll find that pretty refreshing thatyou're able to take something put your spin
(23:22):
on it, and man, looka look at this, look at what
we have here. I think it'llit will give you some some added energy
because you were able to you wereable to use your create your your own
creativity and craft something new from somethingold for your students. So originality,
(23:45):
originality. What can you do toreally spice this up? Keeping your students
in mind and and and being yourauthentic self and putting your putting your magic
touch on that lesson? And thethird thing I want to submit to you,
the thing I want to submit toyou is it's a journey. It's
a journey. Now, what doI mean by that. I mean that
(24:07):
coming into your classroom, coming intoyour classroom, there there is something there
that is waiting to be discovered.When I was a teacher, I had
a sign on the outside of myclassroom that said interseeking, and on the
inside above the door said leave withknowledge, interseeking, Leave with knowledge.
(24:30):
Going back to what I talked aboutin the previous episode, there's a purpose.
You gotta there's there's gotta be areason. There's got to be a
reason that you come to school.There's gotta be a reason that you come
to class. And for my students, I wanted them, I wanted them
to interseeking. You got to belooking for something. And if you're looking
for something, that that means you'reinvestigating, you're inquiring, you're you're asking
questions, you're doing all these things. And I believe that that does is
(24:53):
it changes a mindset and it compelsone to think differently. And if I
can compel them to hold that thinking, that different thinking, it's gonna it's
gonna change their actions. It's goingto change the way that they feel about
being in the classroom. What I'min the classroom, I'm supposed to be
seeking. I'm supposed to be seeking. Well, why am I supposed to
(25:15):
be seeking? What's the purpose?I remember, before we get to that,
I've given them the purpose. AndI talked about the purpose in the
previous episodes, so please check thatout. So today we talked about creativity,
encouraging students to be creative. Butin order to do that, we've
got to understand who our students are. We've got to find that hook to
(25:36):
bring out that creativity. And thenwe also talked about number two. We
talked about originality. You being usingsome originality in your lesson planning? Is
what's that special touch? What's thatspecial thing that you have? What's that
What's something that you can add onto something that is old and make it
new and make it unique because youare unique? And then number three,
(26:00):
it's a journey. So come youknow, convince your students say, Hey,
this is a journey. There's athere's a reason you're coming here.
You're looking for something. And whatI what I believe is that as students
experience that, they they they acceptyour your language that hey, this is
a journey. They understand that,oh, I'm coming here to get something
(26:22):
I'm coming here to move closer tomy goal each and every day. If
I engage, if I if Iinvestigate, I inquire and all those things,
and I do what's being asked ofme in the classroom. So those
are three things that we can doto respond to student apathy and connect connect
(26:48):
with students, touch their heart,get them there. All right, Well,
thank you so much for watching,thank you so much for listening,
and until we meet again, pleasedon't forget that teachers are leaders.
Hello, everyone, Welcome to theshow. A couple of days ago,
a couple of days ago, Iwatched a movie that wasn't my kind of
movie. I you know it wasit was it was a love story.
I'm more of an action kind ofguy when I was growing up Jean Claude
(00:27):
Van Damn, that was. Itwas one of my favorites. So I
was, you know, I'm aI'm an action movie kind of guy.
And I was convinced to watch aChristopher Reeve movie called, uh, it
wasn't called Superman. I've seen those. Unfortunately I saw the third and fourth
(00:54):
Superman. Shouldn't have done those.Those were a huge mistake, a huge
mistake. But the movie that Iwatched starring Christopher Reeve was called Somewhere in
Time. Somewhere in Time, that'sthe name of the movie. And spoiler
alert. I mean, this moviecame out in nineteen eighty so if you
(01:15):
haven't seen it yet, you should. You should have seen it. I
should have seen it before just acouple of days ago. Anyways, it's
a great movie. It's a greatmovie, and you know, you know
it's a good movie when you findyourself trying to stop yourself from crying at
(01:38):
the end of it. That's that'show good this movie was. That's that's
how much this This movie pulled meinto it and it What I really like
about movies like Somewhere in Time isI like the way that it leaves you
(01:59):
afterwards, like those movies that youwatch the movie and then you feel something
by the end, and then you'reyou're thinking yourself, wait a second,
I gotta I gotta watch this again. I gotta I gotta go back,
I gotta see. Okay, whatdid I miss? Oh there was a
clue right there all along. Ishould have known it. I wasn't paying
(02:20):
attention that first time. And thosethose Yeah, Somewhere in Time, I
recommend that movie. It's a great, great movie. Anyways, I won't
get I won't go too far intodetail, but it's it's a love story
and it's got an ending that willuh it'll it'll you know, it'll.
(02:49):
It'll make you do the best thatyou can to hold back tears if you're
not in the mood to cry.Because when I watched it, I just
I'm not in the mood to cry. I I don't want to cry,
so I'm not gonna cry so Iwilled it. I willed it to be
so, but I'm sure and someother multiverse. You know, I cried.
I cried at the end of Somewherein Time because that's just how good
(03:13):
that movie was. It's just howgood the story was, and that that
movie is based off of a book. And you know this to be true,
as in when you have movies basedoff of books, there are so
many details that you know you justcan't put in the movie. You just
(03:35):
don't have enough time, or youjust maybe it just won't look good in
a movie. But anyways, themovie Somewhere in Time is based off of
a book. So you had awriter, they sat down, they they
planned it out, and they theydeveloped these characters, named the characters.
(03:55):
What was gonna be the what's gonnabe the adding, what's going to be
the drama, who's my antagonist,my protagonists, all those different kinds of
things. Those they're planned out specificallyto really paint that picture, to get
to draw you in so that youhave those feelings by the end of it.
(04:19):
You know. It was another moviecalled that I used to show when
I taught us history, and Itaught this during World War two, during
that World War two unit, andit was called Life is Beautiful. My
Life is beautiful. And I'm sayingthis as as a principle. I like
(04:42):
showing full movies in the class.I like showing full movies in the class
because sure, there are those timeswhen you know what, I need a
break, and there were also thosetimes where I felt like, I really,
I really believe that it's important thatthe students experience and that word is
(05:03):
going to be important as we movealong. I felt that it was important
that the students experience this film.You know, when you show a full
movie in the class, you gotcall it it's a film. It's an
educational film. But I felt thatit was important. So Life is Beautiful.
(05:24):
Here's another spoiler alert. You shouldhave seen the movie. It came
out of ninety seven. But anyways, this one, I'll go onto a
little bit more details. This oneis this really interesting, really interesting.
And the movie is controversial as wellbecause it was a comedy, like it's
World War two, but it wasa comedy and it was told from the
(05:45):
perspective of a Jewish man who wasultimately taken to a concentration camp along with
his son and in order to shieldhis son from the horrors of what was
happening in the concentration. Concentration camp, he told his son that it was
(06:08):
a game we're playing. We're playinga fun game, son, and everything's
okay, all is good. Buthe knew that it wasn't. And as
you watch this movie, as youwatch this movie, you realize that you
(06:28):
know this. This movie is aboutthe love that a father has for a
son, the sacrifice that the fatheris willing to make for his son.
And you you like that character.You you loved that character. You loved
that father. You loved him becausehe loved his son, and just he
(06:51):
didn't make it. He didn't makeit out of a concentration camp. And
I remember there was a scene where, well, first of all, the
movie it's it's kind of you gottakind of push through. It's a little
slow at the beginning, and plusthey were it's a little slow, and
(07:14):
then you have the accent of theactor. But we pushed through that.
I had to help my students pushthrough it. But once they got to
the part at the end when theywere just kind of wondering, Okay,
what's gonna happen? Is is acomedy the father loves his son. And
then they see that moment where thefather, well they don't see it,
it's off screen, but you hearthe gunshot. And like as soon as
(07:38):
that that gunshot ran, you know, from the from the movie echo through
the room, a student's like,no, I love that guy. No,
not him, not him. Yousee, because there was a there
was a connection, there was aconnection there. They they they felt something,
(08:03):
they felt something there when I whenI taught world history, When I
taught world history, you guys aregonna think that I did nothing but show
movies, show movies in class,which is not the case. Which is
not the case. But I'm gonnatell you about another movie that this one
(08:24):
I had to I had to editto make it make it appropriate, so
I skipped scenes and whatnot. ButThe Joy Luck Club, The Joy Luck
Club. That's that's another That's anotherfilm that I showed to my students and
segments and you know, it justtells the story of a mother. And
(08:54):
I'm really condensing this story, butit just tells the story of a mother
who just goes through a lot,goes through a lot during World War Two
and separated from her children for decades. Separated from her children for decades.
And you know in this movie,it talks about other other women during that
(09:20):
time because of the war that theirtheir struggles. And then ultimately, like
I said, at the end ofthe movie, you have one of the
mothers from that movie. She sheshe's reunited with her daughters. And I'll
never forget that. I had onestudent was just like she was just crying,
(09:43):
like she had to take she hadto take a moment before she went
to her next class because she wasjust so emotional, because that story really
connected to her and she was ableto really dig into the facts and information
behind World War Two because she sawit happen through the eyes of just real
(10:07):
people. And so I say thatto say, as we're on our journey,
we're talking about how to respond toseemingly apathetic students, we're given we're
given some suggestions here, we're givensome suggestions. Now in the first episode
of this series, I just thefirst thing I submitted that we need to
(10:31):
do is we need to show studentsthe purpose. What is the purpose of
from the student's perspective is what isthe purpose of me getting out of bed,
breakfast clothes, just all those thingsgetting on the bus, rain,
sleet, snow, coming to school, coming to school, engaging in these
(10:56):
lessons, doing the things teachers areasking me to do, while knowing that
there are just so many other thingsthat I'd rather do. There's so many
distractions out there that I wouldn't mindyielding my attention to. So I talked
about in that first episode, andI encourage you to go back and listen
to that or watch that. You'vegot to help them understand the purpose of
(11:18):
school. What is the purpose ofschool? I believe. I believe very
few things are universal and education,but I believe that that is something that
everyone needs to have an understanding of. They need to know what the purpose
is because the purpose is going tohelp them. It's going to help them
move forward when things get tough,when there are distractions, when there are
(11:43):
obstacles, when things don't work out, when that math problem, when it
doesn't come easily. You make thesemistakes. You've done all this work,
but you make this one mistake,and it just it blows everything up.
When you know the purpose, ithelps students fight through that frustration and keep
trying to problem solve. Today todayI want to talk about I want to
(12:11):
talk about feelings. Let's talk aboutfeelings. Let me read to you a
little bit from this dissertation, andI'm gonna I'm gonna cite the author and
link this in the description sections soyou'll have it as well. Listen to
(12:31):
this. The author says there isanother dimension to the apathetic attitudes and lack
of effort displayed by many students asa consequence of prescribed curricula. Okay,
so it goes on to say Lounsburynineteen ninety one states that underachievement is not
(12:52):
the result of deficiencies in the headso much as it is the result of
deficient sees in the heart. Deficienciesin the heart. What are we talking
about here, Let's read on.The current curriculum is efficient and imparting facts,
but it does not connect to one'sbasic humanity. Cone from ninety one
(13:18):
points out the pervasive lack of attentionto caring and feeling for oneself and for
others in the current school environment withthis emphasis on academics and the amount of
knowledge acquired. Now this is youknow, these citing research from ninety one.
So it's a little bit older,but I still feel like it's it's
(13:41):
compelling. Now you can make theargument that that we've we've come along way
in terms of in terms of humanity, acknowledging students, celebrating, celebrating differences,
affirming students. We've come a longway. But let's listen to this,
listen to this final point. Devoidof feeling, devoid of feeling.
(14:09):
The required work gets done or itmay not get done, but it's value
eludes the inner nature and humanity ofthe child. That last part is interesting,
but it's value, the value,the purpose, the why eludes the
(14:30):
inner nature and humanity of the child. That's important. That's important right there.
So I want to give you.I want to give you three three
things that this is. This istelling me three things that can perhaps I
(14:52):
submit to you, can can helpyou to better help your students get connected
with their feelings, to the contentto your lesson things that you can possibly
do to to to touch their heart, to touch their heart and cause them
(15:15):
to maybe give a second look,pay a little bit closer attention because of
the way that because of the waythat made me feel. Because I'll tell
you what that movie somewhere in time, Touch me right here, touch me
right here, the last scene wherewhere the main character he just dies of
(15:37):
a broken heart because he can't bewith the love of his life ever again
because she's from a time way backin the past. Oh. But the
last, the last shot, thelast the last thing that we see before
they go to credits is just theimage of heaven and his and he's his
(16:03):
beloved is just looking at the camerawith their arms stretched out. And then
as a camera pulls back, wesee the main character. He comes to
her, grabs her by the hand, and he didn't kiss her, He
just he just looks at her andhe's got the smile on his face because
he's just so happy because he's foundheaven and he's with the love of his
(16:26):
life. And it's just still itjust stops right there fate to credits.
Wow, that's it right there.And I tell you I wasn't interested.
I really wasn't yet. I don'twant to watch a love story. But
I mean, just like it touchedme right here. So how can we
(16:48):
how can we get some of thatin the classroom, that's the question,
that's the question. I mean,we're trying to respond to student apathy.
We're doing what we can. Wegot to be creative here. So creative
is a really good word, becausethat's my number one that's the number one
tip that I have here. It'sjust just be creative because and that's easier
(17:11):
said than done. I get that, I get that. But you know,
sometimes, you know, we wantstudents to to wonder, to contemplate,
to to to really think about things, to inquire. We want that,
right, that's what we want studentsto do. But sometimes we have
(17:33):
to compel it because they're just notgoing to do it. They're just not
going to do it. And andthis is work, that work that takes
place up here in the minds ofthe student. Like we we cannot we
can't force it. That's that's adecision that the student makes. But we
can with a little creativity, weperhaps we can create an experience in the
(18:00):
classroom that causes them to wow.I mean, you're hitting me right here,
like I'm familiar with that. Ohyeah, that my mom does that.
Oh yeah, we have that traditionat our house. Oh yeah,
yeah, that's a tradition in myculture. Oh you're engaging me about about
(18:21):
the country that I'm coming from.Let me tell you about the country that
I'm that I come from, andthat begins with who are your students?
And I know that you're you're alreadydoing this work, but I think perhaps
it takes a little bit more leaninginto it. And it's always a good
reminder because sometimes we can get caughtin that the pacing guide. I gotta
get this, I gotta get thisdone. This this is I gotta and
(18:44):
there's just not enough time. Andyou know, perhaps your administration they're not
you know, administration is administration sometimesand they're not making the best decisions and
you're having a fight through fight throughthat as well, and I get it,
I get it. But this,these are these are good things to
(19:06):
keep in mind. Who are yourstudents, what are your what are their
interests? And weave that into yourlesson plan. And as always, you
know you can you can research.You can do the research yourself. There's
a lot of research out there.I'm sure there's a lot of research in
your library, and you can checkout blogs or they'll condense that information,
(19:29):
check out podcasts like this one,or we'll condense that information for you as
well, and then you could alsoborrow from your fellow teachers. Creativity,
don't neglect creativity, And I thinkall of that starts with keeping your students
in mind who they are, withtheir interests are. I remember when I
went to travel to Milwaukee and wewere looking at a couple of schools how
(19:55):
they implement personalized learning, and therewas this one one classroom, there was
a English classroom and the topic wasdungeons and dragons. Now, obviously that
that would be really nice, thatwould be really nice to do it on
that level. But you know,as I know that that takes a lot
to get everyone on that same page. But I thought that that was a
(20:18):
great idea. All those students inthe class who were interested in dungeons and
dragons. For sure, it's notgoing to take a whole lot of energy
to get them to read a bookon dungeons and dragons because they love this
stuff. But what can you do? What can you do to create that
kind of experience in your classroom?Given all that you've got limitations that you're
(20:40):
working with, But what can youdo? You can do something. Secondly,
I think originality. When we wereresponding to student apathy, it's going
to take originality. Now, keepin mind, there's nothing new there is
there is nothing new out there.The information I'm sharing with you. You
said, you're probably saying, yeah, yeah, I've heard that before.
(21:03):
I've heard that before. But butthere are lessons and strategies out there that
everyone is familiar with, but theyhaven't been taught by you. Like when
(21:25):
you when you are executing that lesson, there's something different. Many of them
have been taught, but they haven'tbeen taught by you. There's something special
about you. There's something unique aboutyou. There's something that you can do
with that that can really make itspecial, really make it pop. That's
(21:48):
why I never liked when my administrationwould give me, you know, for
our I guess you can call ithome room time. I would never I
never liked when they would just giveus a binder and say here, do
this. I was just like,ah, you just put me in a
box, and you're not giving meenough time to put me in this.
Like I'm not feeling this because Ican't make it an original thing. I
(22:14):
can't make an original lesson. It'snot me. I'm gonna give you a
quote. It is better to failan originality than to succeed in imitation.
Once again, it is better tofail an originality than to succeed in imitation.
(22:37):
What I believe that you can dois you can take something that was
that seemingly oh everyone's doing this orthis won't work. I want to challenge
you to take that, find away to put your spin on it and
make it something special for your students. I think that you can do that.
(23:00):
And I think that when you whenyou have that, when you approach
things with that mindset, you canreally come up with with something special.
You can make something, you canimprove upon something. And I think that
you'll you'll find that pretty refreshing thatyou're able to take something put your spin
(23:22):
on it, and man, looka look at this, look at what
we have here. I think it'llit will give you some some added energy
because you were able to you wereable to use your create your your own
creativity and craft something new from somethingold for your students. So originality,
(23:45):
originality. What can you do toreally spice this up? Keeping your students
in mind and and and being yourauthentic self and putting your putting your magic
touch on that lesson? And thethird thing I want to submit to you,
the thing I want to submit toyou is it's a journey. It's
a journey. Now, what doI mean by that. I mean that
(24:07):
coming into your classroom, coming intoyour classroom, there there is something there
that is waiting to be discovered.When I was a teacher, I had
a sign on the outside of myclassroom that said interseeking, and on the
inside above the door said leave withknowledge, interseeking, Leave with knowledge.
(24:30):
Going back to what I talked aboutin the previous episode, there's a purpose.
You gotta there's there's gotta be areason. There's got to be a
reason that you come to school.There's gotta be a reason that you come
to class. And for my students, I wanted them, I wanted them
to interseeking. You got to belooking for something. And if you're looking
for something, that that means you'reinvestigating, you're inquiring, you're you're asking
questions, you're doing all these things. And I believe that that does is
(24:53):
it changes a mindset and it compelsone to think differently. And if I
can compel them to hold that thinking, that different thinking, it's gonna it's
gonna change their actions. It's goingto change the way that they feel about
being in the classroom. What I'min the classroom, I'm supposed to be
seeking. I'm supposed to be seeking. Well, why am I supposed to
(25:15):
be seeking? What's the purpose?I remember, before we get to that,
I've given them the purpose. AndI talked about the purpose in the
previous episodes, so please check thatout. So today we talked about creativity,
encouraging students to be creative. Butin order to do that, we've
got to understand who our students are. We've got to find that hook to
(25:36):
bring out that creativity. And thenwe also talked about number two. We
talked about originality. You being usingsome originality in your lesson planning? Is
what's that special touch? What's thatspecial thing that you have? What's that
What's something that you can add onto something that is old and make it
new and make it unique because youare unique? And then number three,
(26:00):
it's a journey. So come youknow, convince your students say, Hey,
this is a journey. There's athere's a reason you're coming here.
You're looking for something. And whatI what I believe is that as students
experience that, they they they acceptyour your language that hey, this is
a journey. They understand that,oh, I'm coming here to get something
(26:22):
I'm coming here to move closer tomy goal each and every day. If
I engage, if I if Iinvestigate, I inquire and all those things,
and I do what's being asked ofme in the classroom. So those
are three things that we can doto respond to student apathy and connect connect
(26:48):
with students, touch their heart,get them there. All right, Well,
thank you so much for watching,thank you so much for listening,
and until we meet again, pleasedon't forget that teachers are leaders.
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