The Teacher Experience 1

What do teachers do?

Megan Powers, co-founder and designer of Design 39 Campus, a four-year old public K-8 school in the Poway, California Unified School District wrote this:

“…the role of a teacher today is shifting.
No longer is the focus of good teaching
mainly on delivering content.
Rather a good modern teacher is
a designer of experiences.”

Power, M. (2019, July 1), Teamwork by Design. EL, Educational Leadership, 76(09)
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/jul19/vol76/num09/Teamwork-by-Design.aspx

Teachers design and facilitate educational experiences.

What is an experience?
I think of it as this:

Student engagement can be found anywhere in this diagram of course, in an amazing activity (action), in a powerful exchange between student and teacher or student and student or student and curriculum (interaction), by engaging in powerful ideas (ideation), or just by being in the woods (environment), but get all four to work together and you set the stage for truly powerful engagement. Diminish just one of these factors, with an engaging exercise with a charismatic teacher in a hot, airless classroom for example, and just watch the engagement dip.

How can we support teachers in designing and facilitating engaging learning experiences?

We can support teachers by offering them the trust and autonomy to work their magic, by establishing a workplace culture of collaboration, and by building environments designed for student engagement.

Your thoughts on this journal post are highly valued, as I continue to build and refine my perspective on schools and the school environment. Please share your own experiences and perceptions of the school environment below!