Helping Students Find Their Passion is a guest post by Stephanie Green (no relation) that agues for the idea of giving up at least part of the structured curriculum so that students can explore their passion. She also encourages teachers to spend more time helping students determine just what they might be passionate about. Modern instructional technology can be a big help here. This approach has been missing in many schools so be sure to check to see what your school is doing along these lines.
Helping Students Find Their Passion
- How many times did you hear the phrase, “If you only put that much effort into school” or something similar while you were growing up? What if that aspect of life could be the key to engaging students to continue their education or take matters in school more seriously? In the world of education, engaging an ADD child could include using their own passions to capture continued curiosity. This isn’t saying that all children are ADD, but if it works for those who have this medical condition, then why wouldn’t it excel with children who are able to better focus their attention?
- As long as the educational value is legitimate, why not incorporate children’s passions in order to help them succeed? Education doesn’t have to be merely from books that are “assigned” by the district. In fact, home schooled students whose parents have found materials on the Internet generally score much higher than those within the brick-and-mortar system. How can we engage the students in traditional schools to at least meet the productivity of those whom are educated at home?
Finding Their Niche
- One of the first things that needs to be done is to help students find a current niche that they are interested in. While some may have an idea as to what drives them, many others don’t know where their interests lie. This is perfectly fine. However, as a teacher, you should be helping the child discover what they like to involve themselves with. If you’re creative enough, you could encompass any passion into an educational experience – including gaming if that’s what drives them.
Dissecting the Niche
- Many students could be interested in a particular niche because of the glory that is on the surface. By helping your students dig deeper through educational practices, you could help shape their opinions by digging deeper into their area of interest. As in the example above, even video games have a deeper solution to them before players can be successful. A great deal of story development, computation, programming, graphic design, science and more can be incorporated to help your student develop a working video game. The same can be said about any topic once the niche is dissected.
Creative Curriculum
- Here is where your own imagination comes into play. Developing a curriculum from the dissected niche may be quite difficult to accomplish on your own. Although you may have some ideas, why not allow the student to help you develop what needs to be accomplished? As a teacher, you are aware of the levels the student needs to be at during their time in your class. If the student is willing to help you determine what his or her next step should be for exploring their niche, then why not allow them to do so? Once a topic is boiled down to its core elements, a customized curriculum can be developed from the pieces. For example, spelling comprehension and writing skill can be demonstrated by the gamer in the form of the script for his or her “perfect” game. You could even encourage the student to use weekly words to develop his or her plot line.
Importance of Engagement
- One of the biggest reasons why students fall asleep in class is because of the boredom that ensues from some teaching methods. Classrooms that engage students are less likely to have those who catch a few “Zs” in the middle of what could be an important lesson. In order to engage the mind of a student, we have to practice methods that the student can relate to. The material needs to be shrouded in a context that the student finds appealing. If a student is truly drawn to their specific niche, any information about that topic could solidify his or her interest in order to learn more. Putting what the student has learned into practical use in the classroom can keep them be more focused on the task at hand.
- While some teachers may be against methods that are non-traditional, I believe the logic of this approach will work for many students. The same information can be shared with the student if it can be wrapped up in a niche that he or she finds more appealing than lessons from a text book. If the end result is the same, then why not encourage a child to embrace his or her interest and build a lesson plan accordingly?
Stephanie Green
- Stephanie has many years of experience as a nanny. She has always loved children and has continuously been involved in childcare activities. Currently she is one of the writers for HoustonNanny.Com”. If you want to get in touch with her, you can email her at stephanie.Houstonnanny@gmail.com.
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