Election Day! An opportunity for us all to share our opinions with the world by casting our vote!  It is a right!  It is our civic duty! It is a privilege! Our vote counts and it is important to ensure that every voice is heard! Think about how it feels to be able to walk up to the voting booth and vote to ensure your values and beliefs are represented in those who have control over making the laws and ultimately determines our freedom as a nation.  So many men and women fought to ensure that ALL can vote!  The benefits to voting are great; we are heard, we are empowered, and we have freedom! If election day means so much…why do we get nervous when implementing the same concepts in the classroom.

One of the scariest feelings for a teacher is losing control of the classroom. I mean the teacher is supposed to have FULL REIGN in his/her classroom…right?!?! Well, it definitely seems as if the “Dictator” educators have better classroom management and don’t have to deal with as many behavioral issues. On the surface, possibly, but when you dig deep, you will find that students will rebel in a different way with these teachers, they exhibit behaviors that show lack of motivation, enthusiasm, and perseverance. They have given up because they know that anything they say will not persuade their “dictator” to do something different. So they settle for mediocre! Do you think the dictator sees their students eyes light up with the “Ah Ha” moments? Do you think the dictator takes the time to see their students as individuals and create an environment to support such? Do you think they get work products that are any different than the norm? I would argue that the answer to these questions and many more is NO!

My first few years of teaching, I thought I had to learn how to be a dictator. My teaching style and personality are so the opposite of that; however, it felt like I was failing miserably as a teacher because my students couldn’t control themselves in my classroom and I couldn’t reel them back in once they went off the deep end. I saw how teachers who were dictators receive ‘effective’ ratings on evaluations because they were able to keep their students “in check” and as such, they were able to complete all parts of their lesson. On the surface, they looked very successful, but were they?

I remember the day when the importance of student voice and choice became alive to me. It was at the beginning of the year and I had given my students a diagnostic exam. After the exam, I analyzed the data finding the questions in which the majority of the class answered incorrectly so that I could give immediate feedback and address the misconceptions in a class discussion. One of the questions generated a lot of buzz in the classroom, one student said they didn’t think it was possible, another said it was possible and we had varying opinions between the two extremes. As a result, we designed a long-term investigation in which that question was the tested.

My students were finally acting and thinking like scientists!  The buzz in the room as they investigated their interests was music to my ears.  There was a healthy competition amongst the students and they carefully documented all of their observations so that they could prove that their hypothesis was the correct hypothesis. The collaboration among group members was amazing!  They supported one another, they made sure that each member of the group understood what the data was showing, they researched together, every person had a role and they fulfilled their responsibilities for the greater good of the group.

I as the teacher found myself wondering what I should be doing because the students had taken over the class and I wasn’t doing my job…to teach….or was I?  (That’s a question to be answered in another blog!SMILE!!!)  What do I do?!?! This was a great question to wrestle with as an educator and it was then that I realized that the privileges of developing student voice in the classroom are very much like that of Election Day and voting…our students are heard and their voices are valued, our students are empowered, and our students are FREE TO EXPLORE!