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Empower
What Happens When Students Own Their Learning
john Spencer
A.J. Juliani
Empower
© 2017 by John Spencer and A.J. Juliani
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing by the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. For information regarding permission, contact the publisher at [email protected].
This book is available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for use as premiums, promotions, fundraisers, or for educational use. For inquiries and details, contact the publisher at [email protected].
Published by IMpress, a division of Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017944259
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-946444-43-1
eBook ISBN: 978-1-946444-42-4
First Printing: June 2017
Contents
1. A snapshot of student ownership and a teacher who changed the world
4. Chapter 4: Student choice is the heartbeat of ownership and empowerment.
6. Chapter 6: Student ownership is a mindset.
7. Chapter 7: Every student is a maker.
8. Chapter 8: Assessment should be fun. No, really, we’re serious.
10. Chapter 10: The system should fit the student instead of the student fitting the system.
11. Chapter 11: Stories are empowering if we own them.
12. Chapter 12: The starting point for empowering your students
13. Notes
Recently I was listening to a teacher talk about their more “traditional” view of education and how “compliance” wasn’t a bad thing for students. He even went a step further, saying students should be “obedient.”
I cringed a little.
Okay, maybe a lot.
First off, let’s look at the definition of obedient:
Obedient—complying or willing to comply with orders or requests; submissive to another’s will.
Is this what we really want from our students? That they are simply submissive to the will of their teachers? Do we want to develop generations of students that will challenge conventional ideas and think for themselves—or simply do what they are told?
I do not know many teachers who would want to be “obedient” to their principals. We teach the “golden rule” to our students; we must follow it ourselves.
So let’s look at the word compliant.
Compliant—inclined to agree with others or obey rules, especially to an excessive degree; acquiescent.
Is compliance a bad thing to teach in education? Not really. In some ways, people have to be compliant. Think of tax season. You have to be compliant with the rules that are set out by your government.
As educators, there are times when we have to be compliant in our work as well. You have deadlines that you have to meet (i.e., report cards).
Compliance is not a bad word, but it should not be our end goal in education. My belief is that we need to move beyond compliance, past engagement, and on to empowerment.
These ideas are not separate but, in some ways, can be seen as a continuum.
Let’s go back to the word compliance. Has that really ever been the end goal of schools? Maybe as a system overall, but I think the best educators have always tried to empower their students. They know that if you are truly good at your job as an educator, eventually the students will not need you.
That is why “lifelong learning” has been a goal in education forever. If our students are truly compliant when they walk out of schools, they will always need someone else’s rules to follow. To develop the “leaders of tomorrow,” we need to develop them as leaders today.
Focusing on empowering students is seen by some as “fluffy;”
