One Idea To Rule Them All

I've often mused that if we could teach one idea per course per year, that would be enough. How many courses - years of study - have you gone through, from which you cannot recall learning anything in particular? Is there a class you carry with you that inspired you; a course that you still carry with you in daily life?

Our idea to teach one thing to each student started organically. A student's parents were coming in to check on their daughter’s progress. In our staff meeting, I suggested that as a group we should decide on one phrase, one idea, to help her education. I figured that it would be best, if we all decided on that idea and then shared it independently from one another. It worked well. The parents left with one thought in mind - support their daughter to relax at home.

Then we applied that approach all our students. We sat together and decided on one thing to teach each student through the year. We came up with phrases like consider the grey area, see the good side of things, take notes, look outside yourself for inspiration, socialize and participate. We shared the list amongst the staff and are excited to see how it goes. This exercise emphasizes our goal as educators to teach students about themselves.