Creating a Reason to Celebrate

Years ago, I was watching Finding Nemo and ventured into the extra features on the DVD. One segment showed the animators as they would work through some part of the process. After days of struggling through a very difficult animated scene, the whole crew would celebrate its completion. The champagne would pop open, and you could see the real joy and sense of accomplishment of the animators because they had struggled and problem-solved through a really tough piece of animation.

As I watched this, I actually got a little depressed. I thought to myself...In my profession (teaching), there are very few moments where you can see the impact that you have had on students, very few milestones where you can celebrate with your students and say, "WhooHoo we did it!" Even though there are numerous objectives that we are asked to teach students, I don't think there is ever a moment in time where you can celebrate that you met it. I think that is unfortunate because it seems to me that the kind of celebration that the Nemo animators had is exactly what we need in education. Students need to see that they are learning, recognize when they've really accomplished something through hard work and perseverance. And when they have these moments we need to celebrate with them.

So I propose that educators think hard about how they can create units, lessons, assignments that aren't just designed to expose kids to content but are well designed with clear and measurable objectives that are difficult to attain. Although they must require a journey to that endpoint, they also most be clearly measurable so that everyone will know the moment that they are met. That way, once either each student or an entire class of students has demonstrated mastery, you can all celebrate together and know that what you have done in the classroom is meaningful, fruitful, and fulfilling.

Next post - how technology along with project based learning can help accomplish this goal!