E=mc2

Education is my passion. Creating an equitable, creative, engaging, motivational and inspirational education for all my future students is something I continually strive towards. I want to be able to help my students. Not help them do their history homework or teach them how to get A's in University or College, but to truly help students discover who they are, who they want to be, and how to achieve their ambitions.

A family friend and mentor passed a video on to me earlier last week. She is an educator in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, where I was both educated myself and plan to educate others. The video is of a young male student, named Sam Barringer, delivering a speech to the Board of Directors for HWDSB. His words inspired me and truly got me thinking about my personal pedagogy.

Barringer presents his concept of E=mc2 in the 21st Century classroom. E standing for engagement, M for motivation, and C for connection. He suggests that in order to engage students in their learning, teachers must motivate and connect with them as well as other school administrators and teachers (hence the squared). Barringer emphasizes that "without a connection, motivation can't be there. I believe that when connection and motivation are present, that student engagement is the happy result. In other words, when students feel a stronger connection to their teachers, they will be more motivated to learn and will become more engaged in the process." Therefore, engagement, motivation and connection are inseparable, interrelated and essential in all 21st Century classrooms. Barringer also touches upon the importance of teachers as the guiders of technology and the internet. I won't simply summarize his ideas, but instead analyze and build up his conception of what our classrooms should look like.

In our education classes so far, we have learned a lot about the theories of student engagement, motivation and connection. AfL and AaL are important educational concepts which we have discussed more recently. But these educational theories can never be effective in practice without E=mc2: engagement, motivation and connection. I believe Barringer's interpretation of these theories are an essential contribution to our understanding of how to integrate them all into the classroom in order to create a positive and effective learning environment.

AfL, assessment for learning, and AaL, assessment as learning, are two important tools for teachers to create a positive and effective learning environment in their classrooms. The purpose of assessment for learning is to make learning visible. Teachers provide formative feedback, without assigning grades, in order to allow teachers and, especially, students to actually see their learning improve. Visible learning is an essential concept for 21st Century classrooms because it allows teachers and students to understand and recognize the student's strengths, areas of confusion and areas for improvement. AfL encourages the teacher and student to establish a "mutual commitment as collaborative learning partners." (17)

Assessment as learning is also a form of formative feedback, but it more significantly emphasizes the need for student-directed self-assessment. Self-assessment and metacognition (thinking about how you think) are essential features of AaL. Students are encouraged and responsible for "reflect[ing] on their successful achievements, identify what they have not yet learned, and devise and implement learning strategies that are effective for them." (17) In the 21st Century classroom, teachers are increasingly utilizing AaL in order to foster student-driven learning, student autonomy, the student voice and an effective learning culture.

Assessment, however, is not only a tool to give students feedback and encourage self-direction, but also to create an engaging environment, a motivation to learn and a supportive connection between all levels of the school system. Without engagement, motivation and connection, AfL and AaL cannot hope to help students succeed. Students must connect with their teachers, peers and administrators.; students must be motivated to learn and self-direct; and students must be engaged in their environment and learning. Without E=mc2 in the 21st century classroom, AfL and AaL can never be effectively achieved.

E=mc2 in connection with AfL and AaL will foster character and professional development for both teachers and students as they work collaboratively to creating a learning culture in the classroom. Barringer emphasizes that "In a hyper-connected world, teachers and students have the unique opportunity to connect face-to-face in person in the same room on a daily basis." Teachers should optimize that opportunity. A collaborative and mutual connection, motivation and engagement between teachers and students is fundamental in creating an effective learning culture.

Barringer suggests "to teach me, you have to reach me." In order to reach students, you have to create "daily meaning connections" by engaging, motivating and connecting with them. You truly have to understand and respect who they are not only as students, but as people. You must know your students.

I encourage everyone to watch Barringer's video at the bottom of my post. It is an important video, not only because of what he says, but of who he is. He is a student, yet his teachers, administrators and all of us could certainly learn a thing or two from him.

Let it be,
Emily RS