The Learning Spark

I had a lot to do today so sitting down at the close and writing couldn't be more relaxing. I had appointments to make, office visits to complete, homework due, and a puppy to treat train! I plan on taking a break from my frenetic, college lifestyle for the weekend. I will be driving five and a half hours north to my hometown early Thursday afternoon. It will be nice to see my family and take a deep breath. Maybe then I can get ahead on some crocheting.

By the end of the day I am so beat that I have barely enough energy to brush my teeth (of course I muster the energy because not brushing your teeth is atrocious).  I am not as chipper as I normally am tonight, but I have my cup of peppermint tea at my right hand ready for my beckoning at any moment and I am going to pull through this like a champ!

So…

Do you know what a spark is? Yes, the bright little surge of energy that has the potential, if fed, to become a flame. A burning blaze of energy, mass, and passion. Everyone has a spark inside of them. (Okay, that was really cheesy. My apologies!) For blog reasons we’re going to narrow down to the topic of a learning spark.

“What’s a ‘learning spark’, Carly?”

A learning spark is that insatiable desire to learn; to eat and devour knowledge like a delicious chocolate cake. If you’re not into chocolate then it’s vanilla with raspberry filling or carrot cake or red velvet cake… You get the picture. Moving past my analogy, it is the desire to learn and to continue learning. We all have this spark within us. In some it is stronger than in others but the important thing is that it is still there. At a young age it is what drives every sense, every instinct in our bodies. Somewhere along the way people let that spark dwindle and salary paying jobs take the place of using their brain to think outside of the box. I’m not here to insult those workers, but our society today has lost their spark to learn. It is a sad but evident truth.

Some lose their spark early on in their high school days before adulthood and some even in middle school. Now my job one day will be to return that spark. One key way to improve the learning spark within individuals who have lost the ability to feed the flame is help improve their motivation. There are so many excellent ways to improve an individual’s drive in the classroom. A couple for starters are genuine interest in the topic, rewards, challenges, or positive reinforcement. If a student is interested in his or her topic they are more likely to complete that task or homework assignment.

In my TCE (Teaching and Counseling Education) class, we often do what is called an ARJ or an Active Reading Journal. We have an assigned reading for that week and we do what our professor calls, “interacting with the text.” It’s a way for her to see that we understood and completed the assigned reading as well as thinking outside of the textbook.  Today we did one in our required text of Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice Volume 1. This text is very interesting and worthwhile to check out. It has different articles and stories of true events that happened to teachers within the classroom setting. It’s a good way to help me think to different perspectives and to learn from those who have “been there and back” essentially. We were assigned an article about a teacher who doesn't grade her papers. I know, ludicrous right? Her explanation is that she can teach her students all they need to know in a way that is relevant to them,  a lesson is something that they find important and interesting, as well as meaningful. (She is an English teacher) She has the students write on a topic formed around a lose idea. She enables her students to write about things that they are passionate about (she’s feeding their spark) and in doing so the result is her students pay attention more and are highly involved. They enjoy sharing something that they felt was important not just completing math problems that they believe they wouldn't even be using in the future. Her assignments were relevant.

At least for me in high school that was one of my biggest struggles; why am I doing this and how is this pertaining to me now as well as my future?

Instead of grading and scribbling all over essays with red pen, this teacher created what she called a “read-around” (A circle where students would take turns reading and giving input on each other’s writing). By creating this ingenious tool, this teacher was able to give her students feedback on what made a good essay without the students even knowing it. She could tell them what made a respectable introduction paragraph without telling them that their work was wrong. This motivated the children to learn because they didn't feel like they were being ridiculed. They felt empowered as well as feeling that what they had to say DID matter. Every student just wants to feel like what they bring into the classroom or what they are doing is important. As teachers it is our job to validate that need within students.

We have to feed that spark so that later it will continue to burn.

As far as not being an educator goes, initiating that spark within someone can be a daily activity. My teacher has said to us multiple times that the magical question is, “WHY?” You can ask anyone that on a regular basis. That one simple question can engage deeper thinking. Just watch as you helped to relight that learning spark within them. You can probably even see it on their faces!

Now go out into the world and light some fires!

Peace.