Be Like Ollivander
to determine where magic will happen for our students
Teaching is a magical experience. The impossible occurs every day in classrooms across the word. It takes only one remarkable teacher to make connections with students that can change the course of the child's destiny. In the famous TED Talk, Rita Pierson said, “Every kid needs a champion,” Tod Nesloney and Adam Welcome have written that in regards to students, teachers should, “Be their cheerleader.” Ryan Sheehy expressed,“Be the One.” I agree with these sentiments, but I prefer to think that all teachers should be like Garrick Ollivander, the world’s best wand maker in Harry Potter.
Ollivander matches the right wand with the right wizard. He patiently allows wizards to try out new wands to make the magic happen. The wand maker says, “It’s really the wand that chooses the wizard.” He creates wands that are unique and one of kind. To me, teachers are Ollivander, the wand is the pedagogy and students are the wizard. Between the three is where the magic happens. The teachers should make the magic happen for every student. Each student is unique and requires a different wand.
We need to steadily determine what will make the magic happen for every student. Not just one kid. All kids. Be Ollivander.
My Teaching Philosophy
School should be fun and engaging. An outstanding teacher can deliver any curriculum if they have the desire to find the lightheartedness that many adults left in childhood. You would be hard pressed to get students to learn from a teacher they do not like. If you don’t like kids, then you are in the wrong career. When I became a teacher, I vowed to never be like my teachers growing up that had neat rows of desks and just lectured from a podium. There was no magic. Definitely, there was no effort to understand me as a student.
I was actually hauled into the hallway by my senior English teacher to be reprimanded about my poor penmanship. She informed me that no professor would read my papers if I didn’t improve. I replied that I had a typewriter. Let’s just say that statement didn’t go over very well with her, and I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. Consequently, it turned my views on her. Here I was reading French historical novels like The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas for pleasure, and her feedback to me was that I was pronouncing the names and words wrong. She made no effort to know me as a student, or any other students for that matter. Where was the magic in that? She definitely was not a champion, a cheerleader or an Ollivander.
Classroom Engagement
Engagement is key in my classroom. I am willing to try unusual and zany approaches to boost engagement with my students to make the magic happen. I am by no means an educational rock-star, but I try to make learning fun while reaching all my diverse learners. I have created several mini classroom transformations.
During nonfiction text structure signal words, I transformed my classroom into an operating room. I contacted a local hospital and arranged to have medical gowns donated for our “surgery.” The students donned gowns, gloves and masks and were tasked with saving their patient by transplanting signal words on the appropriate appendage.
We had a poetry coffee house that parents attended so the students could showcase their original poems all while sipping hot cocoa and eating biscotti. We have been known to read by the pool on inflatables to help gear them up for summer reading that ties in with the spring book fair.
It is not a far cry to find Tex, the t-rex, visiting our classroom to encourage students to read because dinosaurs did not read, and now they are extinct.
Students need to know that what you are teaching or doing has relevance in their lives. Ollivander type teachers keep up with the trends and interests of students and youth in general. The students know a genuine teacher from impostors. I strive to be the teacher that every student enjoys learning from while stretching their minds to places they never dreamed they could go. I believe in work hard, play hard. My personal teaching style could be classified as progressive. I try new things in the classroom that I have learned through professional development or my Professional Learning Network (PLN). I embrace technology and understand I must speak the same technological language as my students.
This is my third year utilizing a flipped classroom concept. Many lessons are delivered via video. By placing the core concept on a video, it allows my diverse learners the opportunity to view the video as many times as possible to connect with the topic. A quick entrance ticket helps me determine which group the students need to be placed in for the day. They are sorted into enrichment activities or small groups according to their needs. The flipped classroom concept frees up time so that I can work on what is truly important for each student. I wish I could recall one time when I worked in a small group with a teacher when I was in school. There was no “Be the One” for me. No magic.
I believe every student needs to be able to code because it will become a necessary skill just like using Microsoft Office. I use Scratch.com through MIT to teach my students to code in ELA. I introduce coding while we are working on dialogue in our fiction unit. I guide my students on how to create characters, a story line with dialogue and then get it coded in Scratch to create a program that runs their creation. They snap together code like Legos to build their program. You can also find me in the computer lab hosting the coding club during our campus enrichment time on Monday and Friday teaching students to code video games.
We use Flipgrid to create videos of our thinking and speaking. Through author Jarrett Lerner with the #KidsNeedMentors program, our classroom was partnered with M.G. Velasco, author of the upcoming novel to be published August 6th, Cardslinger. We create videos for the projects that Mr. Velasco creates. We share our projects and thoughts with him through Flipgrid. A fun project he spearheaded with the kids to aid in character development was to have the students create character trading cards. It was a great success. It brought out the creativity in the students that often gets lost in the day to day grind of teaching. The students love having direct access to a professional writer. The kids were honored when they were asked to interview him for his upcoming cover reveal. Now, that’s some magic.
Classcraft has revolutionized my classroom. Classcraft is an online Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) role playing game (RPG). It builds community and collaboration in the classroom. In addition to supporting a positive classroom environment, it allows me to differentiate content when I create online quests within Classcraft. The students love the formative assessment tool, Boss Battle. Teams battle each other for the correct answers to earn points. My classroom runs efficiently because of the built-in randomizer, stopwatch and countdown clock. Our class starts with a bit of fun each day with the Random Event. Recently, I have earned the honor of becoming a Classcraft Ambassador. I believe that Classcraft is as close to real magic as it gets. It is amazing. I feel like Ollivander.
Be Ollivander
I believe teachers should be held accountable for the outcome of their students. Our students are our products. In the private sector, if you are unable to produce your part of the process to create a product, you are relieved of your duties. Yes, teaching is hard. Yes, there are many external factors that play into the success of the students like family life and economic standing, but it is still our job as a teacher to reach each student. If there is no accountability, how can you measure the performance of the student and the teacher?
The instruction and classroom environment within my room is 100% in my control. I must model what kindness looks like. I must model what hard work looks like. I must model what tolerance looks like. Teachers that seek help from administration to solve their problems, should first look at themselves and stop being the victim. Those are the teachers that just want a job and a paycheck. I am a teacher that wants to be held to high standards because I have the most important job in the world. My profession creates every other profession in the world. We shoulder a huge burden, and we must be held accountable for the sake of our students and our future. It is my responsibility to make magic happen. We must be Ollivander to reach each and every student. Remember,“The wand chooses the wizard…”
Editor’s Note:
If I could apparate myself it would be to Ginger’s classroom. I love her ideas and how she has evolved as an educator to reach her students and make their journey more engaging. She is unafraid to use technology and create magic, something different for every student, something unique that the student needs. Let’s all strive to be like her! :)
References
Classcraft (2019). Login to Tools. Retrieved from http://www.classcraft.com/.
Flipgrid (2019). Login to Educator Login. Retrieved from https://flipgrid.com/
Nesloney, T & Welcome, A., (2016). Kids Deserve It. San Diego, CA: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
Rowling, J.K., (1997). Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.
Scratch.mit.edu (2019) Login to Create. https://scratch.mit.edu/
Sheey, R., (2018). Be the One for Kids: You have the Power to Change the Life of a Child. San Diego: CA: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
YouTube.com (2013). Every kid needs a champion (Rita Pierson). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw.
