TEDxPhilly – Chris Lehmann - http://bit.ly/LsLWcU Reaction

I am becoming more aware of the impact that Chris Lehmann has made on the field of education; not only as a teacher and principal, but as an educational reformist.  His ideas are simple, yet profound:  Make learning fun, make it meaningful, and make it about the students.  The skills the students will need out in the world now, outside of the classroom, are not the skills that have been taught in the past.

Mr. Lehmann's public speaking abilities allow him to energize current teachers to transform their classroom instruction and to rethink the skills they are teaching their students.  He energizes you with his transformative ideas, he makes you see more clearly what you were already thinking, but maybe afraid to say out loud – the current system of education IS NOT WORKING.  The needs of our students are changing and we have to change the educational system for our kids to be successful.

His name is being discussed in pre-service teacher classrooms, amongst practicing teachers, in blogs, on Twitter, and via podcastes.  He is everywhere.  His ideas are being shared and discussed and the change is being made.  

Within this specific podcast of his, what struck me the most was when he shared what teachers should be saying instead of “You are learning this because you might need it someday.”  He said, they should be telling students, “THE LIVES YOU LEAD MATTER NOW!” 

Wow – that’s a major shift.  How empowering that simple statement is.  In one sentence he is  changing the way teachers view students, students view themselves, and together, how they view the world.  Personally, if I had heard that statement regularly while growing up, I wouldn’t be a 35-year old woman still trying to “learn how” to make a difference.  I would have been making a difference doing what I love all these years. 

I have personally felt like I wasn’t ready, that I had more to learn, that I wasn’t one of the “experts” yet so my opinion didn’t “qualify” as important.  I could hear my inner critic asking, "Who am I to talk about an educational topic, I am not yet a teacher?"  "Who am I to talk about theory; I do not have a PhD?"  When I was raised there were the adults, the experts, and then the children, the recipients of knowledge.  We were just supposed to sit there passively and listen to the adults. 

But now the shift is to show the students that they are the creators of knowledge.  They are the ones who can make a difference – right now- right where they are – and with the tools they are using on a daily basis already.  How amazing!

By teaching students that THEY ARE the experts already and by teaching them how to use the tools and resources they are already using, such as social media, their voice can be heard and they can make a difference in the world.  What they have to say matters!  We have to help the see that their perspective is valid and what they are seeing and learning should be shared beyond the student/teacher relationship.  If we provide this opportunity for our students, we as the adults will be amazed at what the students can create. 

We have to remember that students respond best to students (their peers).  So why not empower them within the classroom and beyond to express themselves, their ideas, and to acquire the skills to use the tools available to collaborate with others?  The way we learn best is by teaching, so why not let them teach each other through meaningful, purposeful, engaging, and problem-solving projects. 

The field of education is changing.  We are no longer the “experts” as teachers.  We need to teach students how to use the tools around them to research, thinking critically, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, produce, share, collaborate, and problem-solve.  As Mr. Lehmann put it, we need to “teach students how to learn” rather than what to learn. Then show them how to use that knowledge to communicate and make a difference NOW!