How Do You Inspire Students through Difficult Content?

There are topics as teachers we love to teach. A unit where our passion and interest floods in like a gasp. Students feel the energy and enthusiasm as you talk about it. The activities are authentic and engaging and students enjoy the topic because you do. They are interested and curious about the topic because you make it inviting and inspiring. Then there are the topics that you dread. You struggle to find a way to make it innovative and interesting. These are where we struggle, these are where we get exhausted before we even enter the classroom.

I have incorporated various tools to help myself find these topics more palatable and even find ways to find the passion and creativity I have with my favorite topics. Podcasting is the first thing I incorporated into my classroom. 1-minute expert segments where students share their ideas about the topic. Being only 1-minute, students do not feel intimidated about talking & sharing their thoughts. I listen to them and choose the most interesting takes, and share them on the blog/Canvas for all to hear.This has enabled even my most introverted, shy students to participate.

Blogging through @seesaw has brought student voice to the forefront of my classroom. Students reflect and collaborate through the blog. After modelling positive critique and constructive feedback with students they become quite adept at commenting to each other and helping each other narrow down topics, re-write essays, and even create activities and labs for the class. Allowing students to share both in writing and verbally through podcasts has put them at center-stage under the spotlight and me in the audience, which is where I want to be.

Finally, a makerspace, the best thing for me this year, has proved time and time again a fantastic creative space for students to design, create and innovate. I do not have a 3D printer or any fancy equipment just hands on materials and supplies for them to use to discover new ways of explaining things. What was started as a simple drawing turned into a artistic endeavor when students took initiative to use the makerspace.

Students created giant cells and organic compound posters. My students surprise me daily with their ingenuity and creativity. I assign a simple task and they take it to the next level all on their own. I give them a question or a problem to solve and they not only step outside the box they dismantle it and use it to create something new. That is what a makerspace is for. To spark inspiration where stagnation may have crept in. I find myself excited for every topic now because I know that through podcasting, blogging, and makerspace design, that all units are transformed into journey's of exploration and discovery and uniqueness. Every student finds their own road to traverse because they have so many choices to show their creativity.

Be passionate, be a pioneer, a risk-taker, a voice on inspiration and encouragement and students will follow your lead. they will find even the most mundane of topics fascinating and accessible.