It’s Happening!
Ok, first blog jitters. Is that even a thing? Apparently, it is. I have wanted to do this for so long and it’s finally happening. Hello, World! I am Stephanie Segroves – a current classroom teacher, a teacher coach, and now, a blogger! Summer vacation is here in Michigan and the sun on my face is making me reflect on the past school year. Can we talk about teacher classroom expectations?
Not the expectations that teachers have for their students in their classrooms, but the expectations put on teachers. It concerns me that so many of my colleagues have left the field of education. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am glad for them that they made the right choice for their lives and happiness but I’m concerned that it was necessary in the first place. Teacher classroom expectations are getting out of hand.
Students have changed.
Students are different than they used to be, they have different educational needs, and the traditional teaching strategies aren’t effective anymore. For many students, grades are no longer a motivator to do well in class. Testing is up, attendance is down, AI gives students all the answers without requiring thinking, and teachers, students, parents, and admin are all struggling to try to figure out the secret to teaching the modern student. Let’s just admit it, teaching is hard and teachers are frustrated.
Teacher frustration hit me about 6 years into my teaching career. I was working so hard to give my students the best educational experience that I could but it just wasn’t working. It was so frustrating and no one could tell me how to fix it. But my supportive administration did give me permission to experiment with different teaching strategies. Through trial and error (lots and lots of error) I developed a system of Gamification and Mastery Classroom strategy that skyrocketed student engagement.
You see, kids love video games.
I used my system of Gamification and Mastery Classroom to increase student engagement by making my classroom into a video game. Ironic, isn’t it? I’m the teacher who turned my classroom into a video game but (shhh! don’t tell anyone) I don’t like video games at all. To me, video games seem like a waste of time, I’d much rather be writing or creating something. But what I do love about video games is the psychology of the game that keeps students coming back, even when they’re frustrated with the game at that point.
Since I implemented my system, my student engagement has skyrocketed, my fail list has drastically shortened, and students no longer “pass” my class without knowing the basics. All because I hacked the psychology of video games for my students’ benefit.
I would like to help other teachers control the pressure of teacher classroom expectations.
While I was going through the teacher frustration, I took it very personally and I felt like a failure. This was my chosen profession and I could not seem to get a handle on it. I did everything the experts told me but they didn’t have a way to reach my modern students. I want to spare other teachers from that teacher frustration and give you the tools I discovered to empower both the teacher and the students in the classroom.
If you’d like to pick up some tips and tricks for Classroom Gamification, stick around, I’m excited to blog about them here. I hope that this blog will be helpful to frustrated teachers everywhere and the tools I share here will help us be empowered in our classrooms. Empowered teachers empower students and empowered students learn.
PS – After I arrived at my Gamification destination for my classroom, I made a roadmap to help other educators get there easier than I did. If you would like to download my free Journey to Gamification Guide, just subscribe to my email list here. I hope this guide will help you avoid the worst of the teacher frustration epidemic and go on to be an empowered teacher in your classroom.
