What a great example of student success. Relevance is key to any student's success. In order for something to be relevant it must be cared about. For the first time ever our middle school is hosting a Student Achievement night. This evening is open to our small, rural community to showcase what our young members of the community are accomplishing in school. We are trying to give our students a sense of accomplishment and celebrate their hard work. I often think that students don't get the recognition they deserve. Many disciplines are focused on project based learning and we have noticed that achievement increases when our students are working together in self discovery. Through the use of technology and collaboration with their peers, our students are really caring about their end product, but more importantly they care about each other and the whole learning process.
I am a language arts teacher and have found through the years that when my students are thoroughly engaged in what they are doing, the end result is one we are all proud of. But to be engaged they must care about the work. This is no easy task, though. I recently had a high achieving student state to me that he was glad he had to interview his grandfather about the Great Depression for a project we were doing because it was a special time in which they cried together and really connected. This was no longer an assignment, but rather a piece of his life that he really cared about. Needless to say, this will be his Showcase Project for Student Achievement night.
Children, by nature, are social, and I have noticed that when I do collaborative project based tasks they become relevant to the students. But I have learned through experience that my students care about things that they see me care about as well. Building a sense of community within a classroom or school is difficult to do. It takes a lot of teacher collaboration, which is sometimes difficult to get accomplished with all the day-to-day realities of the job.

As an elementary school teacher I found the activity in this posting to be inspiring. The impact of this public debate opportunity on those students is priceless. Relevance is the key to learning. As I introduce the objectives of the day to my students I always ask if they have a question about the learning. I want to let them know why they are going to be required to learn, the skills to be mastered, and what activities we will be doing to help facilitate the learning. I love for my students to ask why they have to learn the skill. Earlier in the school year when I taught and reviewed skip counting to my first grade class, some really had a hard time counting past thirty by fives. When I explained that we must first learn to count by fives to one hundred before we could learn to count nickels my students got so excited. They no longer perceived the learning as counting by fives for the sake of counting. When I made their learning relevant to daily uses and furthering the use of counting I saw the light come on and success prevailed.

Teachers sometimes demonstrate their caring in an unhealthy way. Caring can become an obsession but at the same time caring is a natural part of teaching. We "care for" our students but we cannot always "take care" of them (Kottler, Zehen, Kottler 2005). It's important for our caring to be genuine (Kottler, Zehen, Kottler 2005). As was pointed out by Karl Hartung, one of the ways to do this is to celebrate success publicly. In order for a student to obtain success our caring must provide the "the appropriate amount of support, structure, and expectations they need to be self-directed, responsible learners (Kottler, Zehen, Kottler 2005). I would also like to add that it's important to note that the caring must not only be from teacher to student and vice versa. Caring needs to extend from student to student as well. If you listen carefully to your students can you see this happening?

Kottler, J. A., Zehm, S. J., & Kottler, E. (2005). On being a teacher: The human dimension (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

There are many reasons children do not care about school. For example, they may not feel a sense of belonging or accomplishment. Also, they may not see the relevance in their learning. It is crucial for teachers to incorporate relevant learning into the curriculum. If students do not understand a connection between their learning and real life, they may accomplish the task, but it will not be meaningful to them and therefore not genuine learning.
I feel the most important component to true learning is care. A caring, secure environment must be established in our classrooms for children to truly learn to their fullest potential. Nel Noddings addresses this issue in her book, The Challenge to Care in Schools (1991). She discusses the importance of a foundation of care that learning can be built on. This care must be displayed in student-teacher, student-student, teacher-administration, teacher-parent relationships. In order to build such a caring community, teachers must build relationships with their students, the students' parents, and their colleagues. Trust and honesty, along with care, must be cultivated. Part of caring is also recognizing students' interests and differences. Upon this foundation of care, genuine learning can be built.

Noddings, N. (1991). The challenge to care in schools: An alternative approach to education. New York: Teachers College Press.

I was inspired by this blog. The activities that the students participated in were so relevant to their every day lives. Shouldn't all school activities be this way? Kottler, Zehm and Kottler (2005)said that students desire for their learning to be relevant to their every day lives. Didn't we all want that when we were in school? Sometimes I forget how it was to be a student.
I know that when I provide my students with information and activities that they are really interested in, they perform better. Last week, I was teaching my third grade group of students to use adjectives to their writing to make it more interesting. It seemed that nothing was working. The students would always choose color words to describe rather than expanding their use of adjectives. The group consisted of four, very active boys. I reflected on how I could present this concept in the most relevant and exciting way. I decided to allow the group to choose what they wanted to write about. After much brainstorming, they chose race cars. I then told each of them to write about their race car in a way that would really make their audience visualize it. Their writing had the most interesting adjectives. They thoroughly enjoyed writing, and the goal of adding adjectives to their writing was met. I am a firm believer that student learning should be relevant and meaningful.
Another wonderful thing I learned through reading this blog was the idea of publicly celebrating students successes with parents, other teachers, and students.
Thanks so much for your blog.

Kottler, J. A., Zehm, S. J., & Kottler, E. (2005). On being a teacher: The human dimension (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

I found this article very interesting and I agree with Bob Lenz in that not all students know how to care. Children grow up around older siblings and parents who a lot of times express or demonstrate a lazy or apathetic attitude and children catch on to this. Children absorb everything they see and hear; so, if they are observing this sort of unmotivation, they are likely to do the same. I love the idea of creating projects in school that allow students the chance to succeed and to share their successes with the community.
I teach first grade and each of our classes have put on a Readers' Radio. We choose a topic that we have been studying (for example Presidents) and each reading group reads a book at their level. After a couple weeks of practice (so their fluency should be perfect) we have a day where we present to the other first grade classes and to parents. Each group goes up to the front and the kids get to share the facts they've learned. They get so excited for this event and all of them feel so proud of themselves. I believe it's been a great way to show the students how to care. They are responsible for their script and they take it home each night to practice... They love this!
Teaching children to care is a huge step, but it's probably the most important. I can't imagine a successful classroom where the students didn't care.

Krystal,
I enjoyed reading your posting. I also teach first grade and it was neat to read how your students became excited about counting by fives when you explained why they needed to master that skill. I completely agree with you, students must know the reason they are learning the skill in order to care about it. It is true, success will come only if the students care about what they're learning.
Thanks,
Jenna

Christine,
I really enjoyed reading your post. You made some excellent points! Your observation about how achievement increases when students work together in self-discovery reminded me of some reading I was doing this week for my Masters course. I was reading chapter two of On Being a Teacher: The Human Dimension by Kottler, Zehm, and Kottler (2005). The differences between schooling and learning are pointed out in this chapter. Schooling is compulsory and involves acquisition of curriculum, but genuine learning teaches students how to make decisions, solve problems, and express themselves. Inquiry based learning is one of the best ways for children to learn. Kottler, Zehm, and Kottler (2005) call schooling an "outside-in" approach to knowledge, and genuine learning an "inside-out" approach. Thank you for your insights and examples.
Danee'

Jenna, I loved your idea of the Reader's Radio. I teach first grade as well, and we do some small plays in the classroom and we put on a big play at the end of the year for parents and students. The students really love being in the spotlight and your idea really ties the curriculum in too. It is truly motivating. I usually find it pretty easy to motivate young children, like first graders, but have talked to 3rd grade teachers where this is much more of a problem.
I really feel it is the parent's responsibility to instill in their children the importance of school and doing your best, but the reality is that these responsibilities are, more often, falling on the teachers. I never considered the idea that the students may not know how to care, and I'm not sure how to go about teaching this. I do know that students will be motivated if we make learning more fun. After all, we are teaching children, and what child doesn't want to play and have fun?

This article was meaningful to me because I think students have to care in order to do any learning. I liked the idea of the debate. I teach 12th graders. I see the debate as an opportunity for students to do research, take a stand, and have successes at the same time. That sounds like genuine learning to me. Recognizing their accomplishments is essential.