"F" is for Facilitate
This week's post was difficult to develop and I struggled with the letter "F" when thinking about education. Then, while I was driving to school this week it came to me; we have to facilitate learning for our students, not bestow knowledge upon our students!
When examining the definition of the word "facilitate" it is not a word, by definition, that seemingly pairs well with education. Yet, as educators our goal is to bring out the best of our students and through growth and knowledge make their lives easier. How can we facilitate learning that will be lasting for our students?
In order to make many parts of our lives easier repetition is required. I love to cook; so after I completed my doctorate, I asked my wife for the pasta attachment for our mixer to make homemade pasta. My first attempt was a challenge; I read several recipes, explored the mechanics of the machine, read about the various flours and their purposes, and then I gave it a try. Well let's say it was edible, but there was room for improvement. I then repeated the steps over and over, read the recipe, measured, and used a timer; and now, I just throw it all together without any of those steps, why? Well through repetition of a step by step process, things are made "easier." In education, we sometimes call this "fluency," where we require our students to repeat a process until they are fluent; and therefore, we allow our students to facilitate a new larger fluency.
In making things easier and attainable for our students, we then have the opportunity to see them at their very best. I hope all of us have had that "ah ha" moment with our students... the moment that they realize their own capability, they light up, and in that very moment they can achieve anything because they feel that they are at their very best! (It's an amazing moment) What if we could do this each day with our students? Truth is that this is a hard moment to achieve because it requires practice, repetition, and growth; however, if we develop lessons that provide a step by step process to scaffold our students' learning, then perhaps we can achieve small "ah ha" moments which can lead to a larger "ah ha" moment.
If we follow the facilitating steps:
Go out there and facilitate!! Our students deserve to be their best and we have the ability to impact their lives and future lives by facilitating great learning!
When examining the definition of the word "facilitate" it is not a word, by definition, that seemingly pairs well with education. Yet, as educators our goal is to bring out the best of our students and through growth and knowledge make their lives easier. How can we facilitate learning that will be lasting for our students?
In order to make many parts of our lives easier repetition is required. I love to cook; so after I completed my doctorate, I asked my wife for the pasta attachment for our mixer to make homemade pasta. My first attempt was a challenge; I read several recipes, explored the mechanics of the machine, read about the various flours and their purposes, and then I gave it a try. Well let's say it was edible, but there was room for improvement. I then repeated the steps over and over, read the recipe, measured, and used a timer; and now, I just throw it all together without any of those steps, why? Well through repetition of a step by step process, things are made "easier." In education, we sometimes call this "fluency," where we require our students to repeat a process until they are fluent; and therefore, we allow our students to facilitate a new larger fluency.
In making things easier and attainable for our students, we then have the opportunity to see them at their very best. I hope all of us have had that "ah ha" moment with our students... the moment that they realize their own capability, they light up, and in that very moment they can achieve anything because they feel that they are at their very best! (It's an amazing moment) What if we could do this each day with our students? Truth is that this is a hard moment to achieve because it requires practice, repetition, and growth; however, if we develop lessons that provide a step by step process to scaffold our students' learning, then perhaps we can achieve small "ah ha" moments which can lead to a larger "ah ha" moment.
If we follow the facilitating steps:
- develop a lesson with step by step activities that can be easily repeated (fluency),
- then the repetition of all the steps as a process to make the lesson "easier" to develop a larger-fluency,
- and with this new found fluency our students can be at their best to achieve an "ah ha" moment!
Go out there and facilitate!! Our students deserve to be their best and we have the ability to impact their lives and future lives by facilitating great learning!
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