Transcript

The Experienced Learner: Ariana Friedlander at TEDxFoCo

okay well thank you so much for having me here today it's uh truly an honor to speak at tedex voo uh and I'm here to speak with you as the experienced learner and I was wondering if uh everyone in the room that's gone to school could raise their hands that seems about right we're you know a pretty well educated Community uh I was wondering if you could take a minute to remember what school was like and I'm not talking about playing at recess or eating at the cafeteria we all know how socially awkward and traumatizing those periods can be maybe it was just me uh I'm talking about remembering the classrooms I'm talking about the way the chairs all faced uh kind of like you are now you know the in rows facing the front of the room with the teacher up front they're kind of like this autocratic figure telling you right from wrong remember the way we used to cover our textbooks and old brown paper bags from the grocery store we'd write on the spines of each of them one for history one for math one for science remember the way we used to take those multiple choice tests you have to Circle color in the circles just right with the number two pencil otherwise you wouldn't get any credit for it are you guys getting a good image in your mind of what I'm talking about what school is like I want you to hold on to that image I want you to hold on to it because we are going to paint over that picture of what I call the traditional classroom we're going to paint over it today because I believe that our education system is failing our kids and this is not news right we all know that our system is failing our kids and the best way for me to demonstrate how is by sharing my own story you see I had trouble learning how to read and I was in a special LED class at one point my teacher met with my parents and she said there was nothing she could do I was a lost cause my parents were infuriated I of course had the stigma of stupid attached to me that I spent most of my life trying to overcome and by the time I did finally learn how to read I was 8 years old and it was after my parents had hired a private tutor to work with me my mom was so thrilled to see me reading for the very first time by myself that she took a picture of me you can totally tell it's the 80s suffice it to say that school was off to a rocky start despite being an eager student I was a terrible test taker and after a while I realized it didn't matter how much I did or did not study for a test I pretty much got the same grade as long as I did my homework so I stopped really putting myself into my exams and then when I was in ninth grade my English teacher publicly criticized my writing in front of the entire class I was mortified ironically I wrote in my journal about how my dream of being a writer died that day and that is the problem with our education system as Seth Goden says we are stealing kids' dreams and we are stealing kids dreams because we are not adequately preparing them for life and work in the 21st century did you know that our national education system was founded in 1914 and it was because industrialists needed Factory workers that could do repetitive tasks had rudimentary skills and also we good at listening to Authority well the majority of jobs we have today did not exist 100 years ago yet the foundation principles of our education system remain the same today and this is a problem and this is why I want to encourage us to reimagine and re-envision our classrooms moving forward this here is Bloom's taxonomy of learning and this is also a very old concept these are not new ideas really uh but you can see that the bottom of the pyramid remembering understanding and applying that's the way our education system Focus today that's those rudimentary skills the listening to Authority but what we really need is the ability to analyze evaluate and create that's what our Workforce needs today we need people that can deal with complex problems make difficult decisions and come up with creative innovative solutions to the challenges that we are facing now unlike Danielle I'm an optimist at heart and I don't want to focus on the problems I want to focus on the solutions and clearly or maybe not I turned out all right despite the stories I shared earlier with you thank you uh and I don't want to share any more stories of how I overcame our education system although I will put a quick plug-in for my Amma moer Hampshire College because they were integral and making me become the person that I am today and I'm sorry guys I didn't go to CSU but I do love Fort Collins and I do love my community and that's why I want to share the stories of the things that we are doing right here in town this is Sarah Bayer's class at Lincoln middle school she teaches 8th grade science and she designs her curriculum for a year service learning program around Community issues and this year that I'm showing you the big Community issue at the time was uranium Mining and so she brought her students out into the fields and they did water quality testing of the impacts of uranium mining they talked to professionals that were working in the uranium mines they talked to people that were anti- it and it was an amazing experience this is what the kids had to say about it getting involved and actually doing something about the issues we were learning about has been amazing this same student recognized that they had never taken a class like this in their entire life it was profound for them the students then had this science Cafe where they brought together people from both sides of the issue and they explored the problem and what they realized was the root challenge the real root problem was not whether or not we should do uranium mining but it was about meeting our energy needs as a community and so the students shifted into learning about Renewables energy conservation and efficiency and waste reduction and some of the students worked on special projects that they identified they wanted to dig deeper in and other students worked on an energy audit of the school at this time Lincoln Middle School was the most energy intensive School in the district and the students went around and analyzed where energy was being wasted and used and came up with a solution to help the school reduce their energy use and you know what the kids had to say about it they said truthfully it was challenging having units that incorporated Service Learning gave you a goal or more of an incentive to succeed the was the most difficult class they had ever taken and they did not just sit back on their Laurels and go this is hard I can't do it it was because of the challenge that they strived for more and better uh experiences and outcomes in their education and what the students realized was that there was an excessive amount of Lights being left on unnecessarily in school and so they ran a campaign for four days for four days they turned off the lights in the school and they were able to save in that time $200 that's amazing that's almost half a teacher salary or maybe less because they don't really make that much maybe it's an entire teacher salary I don't really know uh but that's a lot of money that our kids our students were able to save our school system because they got involved and they did something about the problem and you know what Lincoln is no longer the most energy intensive School in the district they still have a ways to go but they were able to accomplish something great and the students recognized it they said I also really like the freedom they gave us the students were in charge of the projects and everything turned out really good again this was a unique experience for them that they had some autonomy and choice in deciding what projects they did and how they approach the subject that they wanted to dig deeper in and what's also really cool is that the kids got uh credit for these projects in science math and English it was truly an interdisciplinary experience for them and all of their hard work was paid off in the uh fair that their parents came to so there are three components of the reimagine classroom that I want you to take home today because as you saw in the pictures I showed you none of them looked like that traditional classroom we were all remembering of our childhood right they they were handson they were in the the community so the first piece of the reimagine classroom is the creative process and I'm not just talking about fun arts and crafts I'm talking about actually teaching kids the ability to Envision making something out of nothing to Envision the outcome that they want to evaluate where they are today and to combine that experience to identify the steps and the actions they need to accomplish the outcome they desire that's what the kids did with the energy audit in their school and the projects that they worked on the second piece of the reimagine classroom is to get rid of extrinsic motivation get rid of the rewards and the punishment of tests and grades and to instead use intrinsic motivation and there are a few different ways that you can encourage intrinsic motivation one is through challenge as we saw earlier students that were challenged that were doing something that was above and beyond what they' ever thought they were capable of doing before actually motivated them to succeed gave them an incentive this another way to encourage intrinsic motivation is through purpose giving our students the opportunity to learn through real life real Community issues gives them a sense of meaning in their education so they can recognize that they're actually working towards something that's important in life and not just taking tests and getting grades that they don't see a correlation between that and real life because they're right there isn't one and another way to encourage intrinsic motivation is through autonomy giving our students the opportunity to make some critical decisions in their own education we don't have to dictate everything for them to the tea if if our students never learn how to make decisions as children it's going to be that much harder for them to make smart decisions as adults so we really need to empower them and give them that opportunity to make choices based on what their interests are and what their abilities and skills are and the final piece the third piece of the reimagine classroom and this is really the foundation of it all is Meaningful relationships founded on mutual respect where we are not treating our students anymore like second class citizens but we are actually recognizing them as valuable members of our society respecting them as individuals and respecting their individual and unique needs and not trying to teach every kid like they learn exactly the same but teaching them in ways that they learn best and teaching them to take advantage of their natural skills and abilities and and cultivate those so that they can be the best people they can be so these are the three pieces of the reimagine classroom that I want you to take home today the creative process intrinsic motivation and meaningful relationships founded on respect and there are a few things that you can do when you leave here today one is that you can embrace your own lifelong learning and lead by example show our kids that the classroom that traditional classroom is not really where learning happens but it's in life and in the challenges we face every day are opportunities for us to learn grow and become better people another way for you to get involved is to open your doors and O Break Down The Walls that separate our schools from our community and create opportunities for students to learn through your work through your real experiences in the community because let's face it if our uh schools don't have the same kinds of financial resources to educate our students then the community needs to step in and to provide some support in that and the final way you can get involved moving forward today is to share this Vision spread the word of this re-imagined classroom and encourage your friends your colleagues your family to challenge they're thinking that the traditional classroom is the way School ought to be and to think of it in this new light in this new vision because I believe that at the end of the day we should not be graduating students that are good test takers and get good grades but to be graduating students that are experienced Learners thank you [Applause]