Carpe Diem: How to Take Charge of Your Education
When I first began teaching, I modeled the same sort of education I received as a student. My classroom was, admittedly, run from the top-down. I lectured, making little time for true dialogue with my students, and carried a red pen in my pocket. I could sense my students’ lack of engagement and distinctly remember feeling as though my classes were characterized by memorization, not genuine learning.
Sound familiar? A lot of today’s educators grew up and were trained in an academic environment that values numbers over results. Too often, tests are a measure of a student’s ability to recite facts and figures, rather than her ability to demonstrate critical thinking. Between our tendency to practice what is familiar and the pressure to comply with legislation like the No Child Left Behind Act and the more recent Common Core initiative, it becomes a challenge for teachers to break away from what are generally outdated and relatively ineffective modes of teaching.
A few years into my teaching career, I began to look for innovative approaches to classroom management. I wanted to build an environment that captured my students’ attention and fostered meaningful conversations that mattered. In
