EDUC-TED Talks-Ramsey Musallam: 3 rules to spark learning

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Transcript:




I teach chemistry.

(Explosion)

All right, all right.So more than just explosions,chemistry is everywhere.Have you ever found yourself at a restaurant spacing outjust doing this over and over?Some people nodding yes.Recently, I showed this to my students,and I just asked them to try and explain why it happened.The questions and conversations that followedwere fascinating.Check out this video that Maddiefrom my period three class sent me that evening.

(Clang) (Laughs)

Now obviously, as Maddie's chemistry teacher,I love that she went home and continued to geek outabout this kind of ridiculous demonstrationthat we did in class.But what fascinated me more is that Maddie's curiositytook her to a new level.If you look inside that beaker,you might see a candle.Maddie's using temperature to extend this phenomenonto a new scenario.

You know, questions and curiosity like Maddie'sare magnets that draw us towards our teachers,and they transcend all technologyor buzzwords in education.But if we place these technologies before student inquiry,we can be robbing ourselvesof our greatest tool as teachers: our students' questions.For example, flipping a boring lecture from the classroomto the screen of a mobile devicemight save instructional time,but if it is the focus of our students' experience,it's the same dehumanizing chatterjust wrapped up in fancy clothing.But if instead we have the gutsto confuse our students, perplex them,and evoke real questions,through those questions, we as teachers have informationthat we can use to tailor robustand informed methods of blended instruction.

So, 21st-century lingo jargon mumbo jumbo aside,the truth is, I've been teaching for 13 years now,and it took a life-threatening situationto snap me out of 10 years of pseudo-teachingand help me realize that student questionsare the seeds of real learning,not some scripted curriculumthat gave them tidbits of random information.

In May of 2010, at 35 years old,with a two-year-old at home and my second child on the way,I was diagnosed with a large aneurysmat the base of my thoracic aorta.This led to open-heart surgery. This is the actual real emailfrom my doctor right there.Now, when I got this, I was -- press Caps Lock --absolutely freaked out, okay?But I found surprising moments of comfortin the confidence that my surgeon embodied.Where did this guy get this confidence, the audacity of it?

So when I asked him, he told me three things.He said first, his curiosity drove himto ask hard questions about the procedure,about what worked and what didn't work.Second, he embraced, and didn't fear,the messy process of trial and error,the inevitable process of trial and error.And third, through intense reflection,he gathered the information that he neededto design and revise the procedure,and then, with a steady hand, he saved my life.

Now I absorbed a lot from these words of wisdom,and before I went back into the classroom that fall,I wrote down three rules of my ownthat I bring to my lesson planning still today.Rule number one: Curiosity comes first.Questions can be windows to great instruction,but not the other way around.Rule number two: Embrace the mess.We're all teachers. We know learning is ugly.And just because the scientific method is allocatedto page five of section 1.2 of chapter oneof the one that we all skip, okay,trial and error can still be an informal partof what we do every single dayat Sacred Heart Cathedral in room 206.And rule number three: Practice reflection.What we do is important. It deserves our care,but it also deserves our revision.Can we be the surgeons of our classrooms?As if what we are doing one day will save lives.Our students our worth it.And each case is different.

(Explosion)

All right. Sorry.The chemistry teacher in me just needed to get thatout of my system before we move on.

So these are my daughters.On the right we have little Emmalou -- Southern family.And, on the left, Riley.Now Riley's going to be a big girl in a couple weeks here.She's going to be four years old,and anyone who knows a four-year-oldknows that they love to ask, "Why?"Yeah. Why.I could teach this kid anythingbecause she is curious about everything.We all were at that age.But the challenge is really for Riley's future teachers,the ones she has yet to meet.How will they grow this curiosity?

You see, I would argue that Riley is a metaphor for all kids,and I think dropping out of school comes in many different forms --to the senior who's checked out before the year's even begunor that empty desk in the back of an urban middle school's classroom.But if we as educators leave behindthis simple role as disseminators of contentand embrace a new paradigmas cultivators of curiosity and inquiry,we just might bring a little bit more meaningto their school day, and spark their imagination.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)