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Changing the World One Student at a Time
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Mr. Kevin Bibo
Kevin Bibo teaches high school computer multimedia in Southern California. He holds a Master’s of Education degree and is currently a teacher credential program instructor. In addition, Kevin is the author of Cal Teacher Blog.
Most importantly Kevin loves spending time with his wife and five children.
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More articles from this author:
Kevin Bib | TheApple
How do you inspire students to learn? Do young people create better work when they are nurtured and primped? Will they respond more enthusiastically if Mozart or Beethoven is played in the classroom? Do they perform higher if they are a product of excellent teacher modeling and demonstration? The answer? None of these are perfect strategies for motivating students in the classroom. The success of our students, and by extension, the success of our world, is contingent upon the achievement of teachers in the classroom right now. Consequently, teachers are well served by observing the mother bird teaching her chick to fly. After ensuring that her pupil is well fed and feathered, Mother Bird simply nudges her precious baby to the edge of the nest, and then pushes.
The teacher and student relationship is more complicated then that of the mother and baby bird. Mother birds have no teaching standards to adhere to, no formative or summative assessments to give, and certainly no standardized test to proctor in the spring. Mother Bird has one giant test to give that can easily be scored as pass or die, and she takes this exam very, very seriously. The price of failure to Mother Bird is not a lower API, not the potential of becoming a program improvement nest, not even the loss of a job. So to be sure, Mother Bird works diligently to prepare her younglings for this ultimate test; she is completely confident before she assesses her pupils.
I am not suggesting that teachers do not take their jobs seriously, we all do. However, there are degrees of seriousness. The teacher who arrives moments before the tardy bell and leaves with the students upon the final bell would probably consider herself to be serious about her job. It is possible that teachers who practice this type of attendance pattern can be very effective in teaching their students. It’s not the appearance of seriousness that is important. What happens in the classroom with students between the bells is what counts. The best teachers are those who, like Mother Bird, are fully committed to the success of their students and who wholeheartedly believe that their students’ best work is forthcoming.
Mother Bird does not push her chick out of the nest if she does not have complete confidence that flight will ensue. Her belief is built on the hours she has spent observing the growth and development of her fledgling. There comes a natural moment in time when she recognizes that her pupil has matured and is ready to take on the world. The baby bird may not share his mother’s confidence, but that is not what is important. Mother Bird knows when the time has come once she is certain of her prodigy’s preparation and abilities. Just imagine what it must feel like to push off and then wait in breathless anticipation as the tiny bird opens it’s wings and soars into the sky?
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It’s not an easy push to make. With all of the confidence gained through thorough preparation there are still unknowns and uncontrollable factors that may restrict the pupils success and lead to an unfortunate and unpredictable ending. Although we want to protect our young ones from harm of all kinds, there comes a time when they must sink or swim (or fly). Teachers must have the required constitution to push and push hard when appropriate. It is possible that our young birds may fail and fall, and we will need to be ready to swoop down and pick them up before they hit ground zero. Fortunately, from their failure will come a new and better understanding of just how serious their challenges truly are.
Teachers don’t have to imagine how Mother Bird feels at that pivotal moment, we already know. Teachers know that the future is the hands of all of our baby birds that squawk around our nests every day. We are inspired because we get to witness their miraculous development and growth daily. We are confident that the future is bright because we know what our students can do, and we are encouraged because we trust in what they will do. Teachers carry this type of security into the classroom daily and use it to inspire and guide the instruction of our future world leaders. The students are most inspired by our undeniable belief in their potential and our enthusiastic investment in the development of their abilities.
