Holy Shift

This post was inspired by a question posed on the PLP Ning. A fellow PLPeep is finding herself grieving the shift that is happening in her teaching. I can relate. I have a theater background, so at the beginning of my teaching career I loved to have the rapt attention of my students as I disseminated information in a highly entertaining way. I loved the way they asked questions of me- the bearer of all truth. It felt so good to be "on stage" in my classroom, glowing in the approval of my audience. As I have begun to shift, the spotlight has been warming my students, not me. I miss the laughter after a well-timed joke and the earnest conversation that would continue during the break as I explained a concept further to one of my "disciples". The fact is, I haven't gotten the high I used to get after a terrific lesson. What defines terrific these days has very little to do with me. In fact, today one of my students literally took the dry erase marker out of my hand and began to teach her peers. I stood to the side as this morphed in to 25 minutes of students sharing their own methods of remembering the information- songs broke out, there was a dance, and I clapped along at the end, an observer of the learning that was happening. Sigh. . . But as I type this, I realize I'll gladly give up the high in exchange for the looks of joy and satisfaction I saw on all of their faces. Shifting is simply the right thing to do.