Drive. It is a word that we use to motivate us. It is a word we use to describe how we get things done. It is a word that has many implications behind it. Drive is also something that students. Most of all drive is something that a teacher gives their students.
In the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates us by Daniel H. Pink he describes many ways to drive your students to want to succeed in school and in life. One of the analogies he uses is FedEx.
Now, FedEx is a well known delivery service, they give you everything you need. This is something a teacher must also do. A teacher must “package” a lesson so that the students have all of the resources they need to complete the task or lesson plan.
https://www.pinterest.com/tradford1195/chemistry-kit/
If you follow this link, you will find a pinterest board I made to show some examples of science experiment kits, which are a great way “package” your lesson so that the student has everything they need.
Packaging your lesson is sometimes not enough. Students need equity. In some instances one student may not have the same resources as another and therefore not be able to effectively complete an assignment. Equity, giving every student what they need to effectively complete a task, is the back bone of Pink’s idea of FedEx. Teachers need to do whatever they can to make sure a student has the necessary tools to engage in, learn, and retain a certain topic.
The idea of FedEx can apply outside of the classroom too. As a teacher, one can wear many hats. One of those hats sometimes needs to be friend, parental figure, or even sometimes an authority figure. It has an amazing effect on students when they build a personal relationship with a teacher.
https://twitter.com/ChrisPombonyo
https://twitter.com/ChrisPombonyo/status/913575539591479296
https://twitter.com/ChrisPombonyo/status/903976314444677120
Above there is a link to a Twitter account for Chris Pombonyo who is a teacher out of New York City and he shows us throughout his social media (specifically in the tweets I’ve included) the different roles a teacher can play. In the above examples he is playing the role of friend. This is something that Chris is doing extra for his students to help them relate to him, and maybe be able to learn material from him better because they have an established relationship. Mr. Pombonyo is a great example our teachers “FedEx” and package their classrooms and themselves so that their students can have as much success as possible in the classroom.
Equity and packaging your lessons like a FedEx box are very important things to have in your class. Each involves giving a student everything they NEED. This may sometimes be hard to do and time consuming. But when you see that high test score or great paper you can know that as a teacher that provided equitable resources, that you made that happen when it otherwise may not have. Equity is just one way teachers drive their students to be there best, and it also the thing that drives teachers to be their very best.
https://twitter.com/MrRadford_Sci here is a link to my twitter where I will be posting these blogs along with other science teaching related content!
Tom,
I love how many real-life examples you could include in this blog. It’s great to see this “FedEx” idea in practice, and your Pin Board is really helpful and can help others brainstorm how to package a lesson that is fun and gets students involved. Students don’t want to read texts or complete worksheets all the time. Even if FedEx days take up time outside of school, I think students would be more driven to complete the activities because they are hands on and fun!