It's All About Purpose

It’s all about purpose…

In the car and on my way to teach a summer college course, I reminded myself of the most important point that I wanted to get across to my students.  “Always discuss the PURPOSE of what you are asking your students to do…we so often leave this motivator out of our discussions!”  (And the purpose isn’t just because it’s in the standards!)  In recent years, there has been such a focus on learning targets, but I still don’t see enough emphasis on the WHY of those targets.  As adults, we don’t read and write without a purpose, and we shouldn’t expect our students to do that either.  Getting the WHY out in front puts the students needs first!  (side note:  My dear friend, Stella Villalba has started a new project focused on listening to the voices of our students.  Check it out at Love Letting Our Voices Expand. And now to my story…

It was going to be a long day, and I wouldn’t have time to get lunch, so I decided to go through the McDonald’s drive through to order an egg-white McMuffin for breakfast.  “The protein will keep me going”, I thought.  In my teaching, I always try to model the same strategies that I hope my students will use in their own classrooms.  Lots of engagement, hands-on learning and enthusiasm, and always beginning with the why, of course.  It was difficult to be energetic on an empty stomach!  I pulled up to the shortest drive-thru line, ordered, and then paid.  Back on the road, my thoughts again went to the sequence of the day.  How can I keep the main thing the main thing?  How do I impress upon my students the critical importance of keeping the WHY in the forefront for students?  Almost to my destination, I reached over to the seat beside me to grab my breakfast.  Wait a minute, where was it?  Must have thrown it in my purse.  I fumbled around, but still, no sandwich.  I pulled over into an empty parking lot where I searched some more.  It was then that a big smile, followed by a belly laugh, grew across my face.  In that moment, I realized that I had gone through all the motions but hadn’t gotten the sandwich!  The irony of this situation!  Here I was, thinking how I was going to get my students to discover that the purpose of a lesson needs to be kept in the forefront of their students’ minds at all times, and I hadn’t done it myself.  The main point of waiting in line, ordering and paying was to give my body sustenance so that I could make it through the day.  In an instance, I knew why this has happened…it would serve as a perfect example in my teaching today!

Lesson 2:  I then proceeded to turn around, wait in line a second time, and show the cashier my very-recent receipt.  I asked the young man if this happens very often.  He said, “It’s happened before, and I see why.  At Burger King (he pointed across the street), there is only one window where you pay and get your sandwich.  Here, you have to go to two windows.”  I smiled back at him thinking he would make a great teacher because he affirmed my mistake and didn’t make me feel stupid.

Here’s to keeping the WHY out in the front at all times!

Sharon Esswein