“I shouldn’t have to entertain my students.”
“I don’t have all day to lesson plan.”
“I can’t compete with video games and social media.”
These are common teacher frustrations. I’ve heard them a million times.
And they’re all true.
But here’s the thing: You don’t have to play along with any of them. There is a better way, an alternative path, a secret workaround that avoids these frustrations while leading to lessons students actually love.
Let’s take a look at each one separately, and slowly reveal this better way.
Entertainment
Don’t even try. While in school, students shouldn’t be entertained. If you buy into this notion, you’ll fail. You’ll never be able to do it better than what students have at their fingertips 24/7.
Attempting to will only highlight how boring your class is in comparison. This isn’t to say that you can’t sprinkle your lessons with humor or dress up like the captain of a Spanish Galleon.
You can. However, your focus can never be to entertain. Instead, it must be to—this is critical and the one thing that consistently and reliably works—be interesting.
Time
Capturing interest doesn’t take a lot of preparation. You don’t have to plan out exactly what you’re going to say. You don’t have to have a physical example or video clip to show (though it’s fine if you do.)
You don’t have to be cutesy or whimsical or clever. You must have a clear objective, of course. You must know what you want your students to be able to know or do, of course.
But beyond that, the most important thing you need—that takes no planing time and which happens to be what nearly all struggling teachers don’t have—is expert content knowledge. You have to know your stuff.
Competition
Never try to compete with the online world. You’ll get crushed. You must offer something different, special, real. This isn’t a disadvantage, mind you. It’s a great advantage.
Because you have something they can’t get anywhere else. You are a living and breathing expert in your content area. Which means you can highlight the nitty-gritty details that students can’t get enough of.
You can elucidate, act out, and story-tell endlessly about the curse of the Egyptian Pharaohs, the hidden world of Planet Nine, the mind-blowing mysteries of Gobekli Tepe, or the beauty of fractals.
The Way
You’re doing it wrong.
It’s not about the “hands on” materials you must ready. It isn’t the creative activities or your loud and fake enthusiasms or big reveals. It isn’t the soul-crushing promise of rewards for paying attention.
It’s about teaching something cool your students don’t know much about. That’s it. And it only needs to be more interesting than a daydream.
It’s not about entertainment. It’s not about prepping for long hours. It’s not trying to compete with anyone or anything.
Put all of that out of your mind.
The secret to great lessons is in what you know and what they can’t get anywhere else.
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