As you step into your classroom this school year, here's something to think about: your classroom is meant to be an alternate world.
When your students come through the door, they enter a kosmos — a good order, an orderly arrangement. It may be the arrangement of mathematical principles, or the order of history, or the realms of visual art, or the constellation of literary genres and themes and fictional worlds.
Whatever you teach, you've got to think of it as more than a subject. It's a world. A cosmos. A realm which, apart from the work you'll do with your students this year, they'll not be able to enter.
You, regular old you, when you teach a regular old science or Phys Ed lesson in your regular old school — you're doing something much deeper, tapping into something much more magical, than meets the eye.
So teach toward mastery. Guide your students to know and be able to do as much as they possibly can in the realm in which you teach. Push them, as all the best guides do, with warmth and authority.
Stoke the fires of zeal in your heart. Remind yourself that you're a guide to the cosmos of your discipline — a cosmos that, apart from your work this year, your students will not have access to.
Best,
DSJR
Theresa Wymore says
Your quote, “Stoke the fires of zeal in your heart. Remind yourself that you’re a guide to the cosmos of your discipline — a cosmos that, apart from your work this year, your students will not have access to.” describes my goal and passion as an educator. Creating a classroom that “is meant to be an alternate world” has lead students to say things like,
“You’re crazy! But I like it!” or “I can’t believe it’s May already-this school year has gone by so fast!” Infusing each lesson with creativity, technology, and the fun and wow factors, whether it’s science, American History, great literature, or Math, makes teaching FUN for me and my students. True even after 33 years in education. Thank you for your emails that truly “Stoke the fires of zeal” in our hearts as educators!
Theresa
Dave Stuart Jr. says
Theresa, I am glad I put my finger on what is true in your work. That is the job of a good writer, after all — to point at what’s true.
Best to you and may that passion of yours drive you even more this year, with gentle, inevitable strength.
Carmen in San Diego says
Brother Dave!
Our mutual friend, C.S. Lewis, did that with each novel he wrote, and so did Tolkien, each word designed to create the very atmosphere of each book. I never thought of my classroom in those terms but the thought ignites me! When kids come in and say “ahhh” as they sit down with a little smile, you have landed on what they are experiencing. So stoked to raise the intentionality of the environment, my word choices, each learning experience, and each encounter I have with these middle school young’uns. Thanks for this. You know I’ll be buying your book with my first paycheck of this next year.
Love, Sister Carmen San Diego
Dave Stuart Jr. says
That connection to our friend Lewis excites me, Sister Carmen — thank you for that. I think the comparison is perfect — we are world-crafters just as they were. It’s in our bones.