2 F’s and 2 C’s
I suppose it isn’t everything that needs to get reduced to viewing through the eyes of some arbitrary filter. “2 F’s and 2 C’s” is the title of this post, and it immediately brings to mind grades on a report card–maybe that’s not a surprising assumption in an education blog. But Fs and Cs is just a cute allusion to a world view, the world of grades at school, and that’s not really what this post is supposed to be about.
No, this is about the 2 F’s and 2 C’s that, at least at this stage of the game for me, are vital to the learning process. The 2 F’s and 2 C’s are what drive me in the classroom, that drive whatever activity I have on the web, and–it occurs to me–what drives most educational processes, including the the heady mix of pleasure and pain that occupies the minds of my students most of the time. Understand these, and you the whole learning process becomes clear.
2 F’s and 2 C’s
1. Content
I don’t want to go into any great length about this, but it’s clear that for anyone’s class, website, or learning experience to be of any value, there needs to be *some* sort of content contained therein. Otherwise, we’re just babysitting. The form of the content varies wildly, of course–from learning the names of colors and the alphabet, to throwing a ball, to learning Riemann sums, to dancing–but there’s always some sort of content being explored, and new neural pathways being formed. This is what we do.
2. Fun
It’s important, though, that this learning experience have some degree of fun associated with it. A colleague of mine a few years ago, Mel Schram, was especially successful with at-risk, hard-to-teach students because he was willing to sacrifice a little of his content for having a little more fun in his science classroom. “If I can get them to have some fun in the process, then maybe I can teach them a little something along the way. But if they’re not having any fun, well… I’ve lost them from day one.” I thought that was a remarkably profound thought, but then again, he established his authority at the beginning of the school year by taking a large club and smashing a hole in one of his classroom tables, so… take maybe his advice should be taken with a grain of salt.
And maybe not all classes have to be absolutely “fun,” but they certainly need to be rewarding in some way. Otherwise, what’s the point?
3. Feedback
Everyone needs feedback: evaluation, comments and notes on what one is doing well, and what one needs to alter or improve. We get this in our daily lives from hundreds of places, but as teachers, the most obvious feedback comes in the form of our students’ reactions to us in the classroom. Facial expressions, whining, laughter, test performances, all give us indications of how we’re performing for our students in the classroom.
And of course, our students rely on us for feedback, and they, too, receive this in lots of different ways. To my way of thinking, it’s vital that students get feedback from us, early and often. Name your process–class discussions, homework, quizzes, essays, portfolios, tests, presentations–and that’s where the evaluation (and thus, the feedback) happens. Without that feedback, learning becomes random.
4. Coffee
Okay, maybe this is just me, but none of this happens without serious doses of artificial stimulant. I don’t know if you’re doing betel nuts, mate, coca leaves, or Coca-Cola, but caffeine has become a fact of life for me and for a surprising number of my students. I’m not saying this is a good thing, but I’m not much use to anyone in the morning without a mug of Peet’s desperately clutched in one hand.
That’s just the way it is, that’s all I’m saying!
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