Staying inspired can be difficult for teachers faced with the same curriculum year after year. The Teacher’s Academy 18 hours professional development course, Inspiring Ideas for the 21^st Century Classroom, gives teachers an opportunity to explore lots of different ways to stay motivated and strategies for keeping their students interested in learning. The resources offered in this course can help teachers reflect on what it means to be an inspiration to the next generation of learners.

How can teachers stay inspired?

Here is a quick clip from our course, Inspiring Ideas for the 21^st Century Classroom.

The truth is, teaching can be restrictive, repetitive and of course, draining. Through changing laws in education, standardization of learning, and constant budget cuts, teachers must navigate these new restrictions while maintaining a positive attitude and learning environment. For example, our education system has become so dependent on test scores that we forgot there is a whole child sitting there that has much more to offer our society. After years of pressure and frustration, the joy and happiness that was once prevalent in teaching may be hard to find. The irony is, studies show that students learn more effectively when they are having fun, playing and being curious- isn’t that true for teachers as well?

Most people learn more effectively when they are having fun, playing and being curious. As we become adults, the fun, play and curiosity usually take a backseat to our grown-up obligations.

As teachers age through this profession we tend to grow more guarded and less creative.  In many cases, through no fault of our own, we specialize and teach the same concepts over and over again. This can lead to stagnation and boredom. It is time to bring the fun, play and curiosity back into adulthood and back into our classrooms. Creativity happens when we are curious. Play is the medium for having fun and provoking all that dormant curiosity. Laughter gets us on a path to healing and will hopefully be more prevalent in all of our lives. How do we bring the magic back into the classroom? It starts like any success story begins, building solid relationships…

Projects for this course:

• Interview Question
• Happiness Activity
• Curious Activity
• 3 Activities for the Classroom
• Inspiration for Teachers
• Tezuka Analysis
• Dream Big Building or Classroom Design
• Personal Reflection

What are the top 3 strategies for inspiring students?

1. Build relationships with your students. Children will not learn from people they do not like.
2. Trigger curiosity by designing lessons that solve real world problems, apply skills learned, require collaboration and are project-based.
3. Offer your students choices.

What is an example of a lesson that inspires curiosity?

In 7th grade, my science teacher put a box of items on each of our lab tables and asked us to go through them. There were all kinds of crazy looking colorful plastic shapes in the box. We talked and joked about what they could be. A few of us tried to attach pieces together, others started pulling them apart. One of my peers held a cylindrical shape up to the light and could see something inside. We all watched closely as he pried open the pink plastic softball-size container. Inside was a slimy gel with yellow jelly-bean shaped pieces as well as purple strings flowing throughout and tiny blue Styrofoam ball. We all started grabbing the “slimy” softball pieces from the boxes to pry them open and see the stuff inside.

“Yikes!” My teacher yelled. “You are spilling out the cytoplasm of that animal cell. The nucleus won’t be able to perform all of the functions if the mitochondria and ribosomes spill out on the table.”

This was his introduction to a unit on living things. That lesson took place in 1983. To this day, jellybeans look like mitochondria (to me). I cannot remember how I did on the test or if I even took a test, but I can tell you that I did learn about the function of cells and almost 40 years later, that lesson is still fresh in my mind.

Strategy: Relevance

Honestly, animal cells did not mean anything to me before this lesson in 7th grade. They would have had less meaning if the activity hadn’t sparked my curiosity. My teacher totally nailed the intro by igniting our curiosity with slimy plastic pieces and letting us discover the stuff inside. He kept us interested by making it important to us.

Student: “Why do we have to know this?”

Teacher: “Because it is going to be on the test.”

If your students ask you this (and mine have), what they are really asking is, why is it relevant to them.

Think about the answer to this question before you design your activity. Why is it important? Then make sure your students know that not only is it important, but it is probably the most important thing they will ever learn. (Until the next topic you teach them of course.)

Back to 1983…

My science teacher answered the question something like this:

“Cells are the basis of all life on Earth. Wouldn’t it be cool to find cures for diseases and help people who are sick with cancer or diabetes? We must understand how healthy cells function and detect the sick cells to be able to create effective medicines. This is what scientists and doctors are working on, in their labs today. Does anyone in this classroom know someone who had cancer? How about sickle cell disease? Has anyone ever broken a bone? How do bone cells heal? By better understanding cell function, we will be able to discover the answers to these questions someday.”

These comments and questions connected with us. We did know people with cancer, broken bones, sickle cell, diabetes, Parkinson’s, etc. (Personally, I didn’t even know there were different types of cells for different parts of the body! Bone cells?) We also felt privileged to be learning stuff that adults were learning in the real world. He made the information relevant by connecting the content to things that mattered to us.

What are effective resources for inspired teaching practices?

Resources:

• Ted Talk: Rita Pierson: Every Kid Needs a Champion
• Ted Talk: Shawn Achor: The Happy Secret to Better Work
• Ted Talk: Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud
• Ted Talk: The Best Kindergarten You’ve Ever Seen.
• Edutopia
• Smithsonian
• Discovery Education
• The Library of Congress
• Ted Ed
• PBS Kids
• Curious World
• National Geographic for Kids
• Animotica for Education

Who is The Teacher’s Academy?

The Teacher’s Academy provides professional development for teachers who are currently in the classroom, retired or working in different industries and are looking for a quick, easy way to maintain their licenses. Our courses are written by teachers, for teachers. Most of the coursework can be customized to fit the needs of the teacher taking the course. For example, many teachers use the information in the course to create lessons and activities to be used in their own classrooms, the next day.   We understand the time constraints placed on teachers and we also understand how ineffective professional development wastes precious time.   Our courses are downloadable to any computer and can be completed from anywhere. The content is relevant and useful so teachers can apply what they learn and in turn, have a direct, positive effect of student achievement.

Browse our Course Catalog for more professional development options and see other inspiring ideas for the classroom.