Right now there is an aspiring teacher who is working on a 60-page paper based on some age-old education theory developed by some dead education professor wondering to herself what this task that she's engaging in has to do with what she wants to do with her life, which is be an educator, change lives, and spark magic. Right now there is an aspiring teacher in a graduate school of education who is watching a professor babble on and on about engagement in the most disengaging way possible. Right now there's a first-year teacher at home who is pouring through lesson plans trying to make sense of standards, who is trying to make sense of how to grade students appropriately, while at the same time saying to herself over and over again, "Don't smile till November," because that's what she was taught in her teacher education program. Right now there's a student who is coming up with a way to convince his mom or dad that he's very, very sick and can't make it to school tomorrow. On the other hand, right now there are amazing educators that are sharing information, information that is shared in such a beautiful way that the students are sitting at the edge of their seats just waiting for a bead of sweat to drop off the face of this person so they can soak up all that knowledge. Right now there is also a person who has an entire audience rapt with attention, a person that is weaving a powerful narrative about a world that the people who are listening have never imagined or seen before, but if they close their eyes tightly enough, they can envision that world because the storytelling is so compelling. Right now there's a person who can tell an audience to put their hands up in the air and they will stay there till he says, "Put them down." Right now.
Upravo sada neki nadahnuti nastavnik radi na šezdesetostranom naučnom radu na osnovu neke stare obrazovne teorije koju je razvio neki preminuli profesor, i pita se šta taj zadatak na kome radi ima veze onim što ona želi da postigne sa svojim životom. A to je da podučava, da menja živote i podstiče magiju. Upravo se sada neki nadahnuti nastavnik nalazi na pedagoškom fakultetu i gleda kako profesor brblja i brblja o angažmanu na najneangažovaniji način koji postoji. Upravo sada kod kuće je profesor novajlija koji prolazi kroz plan lekcija i pokušava da razume standarde, i način ocenjivanja učenika, dok u isto vreme govori sebi, iznova i iznova: „Do novembra se nemoj smejati“, jer su je to učili tokom svog školovanja. Upravo sada neki učenik smišlja na koji način da ubedi svoje roditelje da je veoma, veoma bolestan i da sutra ne može u školu. S druge strane, upravo sada neki fantastični tutori dele informacije, informacije koje se prenose na tako lep način da učenici sede na ivicama svojih klupa, čekajući da kap znoja padne sa lica te osobe kako bi mogli da upiju svo to znanje. Upravo sada, neka osoba drži pažnju publike, i ta osoba ispreda moćnu priču o svetu koju ljudi koji slušaju nikada nisu zamišljali ili videli ranije, ali ako zatvore svoje oči dovoljno jako, mogu da zamisle taj svet jer pričanje priče toliko podstiče maštu. Upravo sada neka osoba koja može da kaže publici da podigne ruke uvis i ostane tako dok ne kaže „Spustite ih.“ Upravo sada.
So people will then say, "Well, Chris, you describe the guy who is going through some awful training but you're also describing these powerful educators. If you're thinking about the world of education or urban education in particular, these guys will probably cancel each other out, and then we'll be okay."
Ljudi će potom reći: „Kris, opisuješ tog čoveka koji prolazi kroz užasan trening ali takođe opisuješ te moćne tutore. Ako misliš na svet obrazovanjam konkretno na urbano obrazovanje, jedan će poništiti drugog, a potom ćemo biti u redu."
The reality is, the folks I described as the master teachers, the master narrative builders, the master storytellers are far removed from classrooms. The folks who know the skills about how to teach and engage an audience don't even know what teacher certification means. They may not even have the degrees to be able to have anything to call an education. And that to me is sad. It's sad because the people who I described, they were very disinterested in the learning process, want to be effective teachers, but they have no models. I'm going to paraphrase Mark Twain. Mark Twain says that proper preparation, or teaching, is so powerful that it can turn bad morals to good, it can turn awful practices into powerful ones, it can change men and transform them into angels.
Istina je da ljudi koje sam opisao kao stručne nastavnike, stručne stvaraoce priča, stručne pripovedače, da su oni daleko od učionica. Ljudi koji znaju veštine podučavanja i angažovanja publike uopšte ne znaju šta je nastavnička diploma. Možda čak ni nemaju diplome da bi bili u mogućnosti da bilo šta zovu obrazovanjem. To je meni tužno. Tužno je zato što su ljudi koje sam opisao veoma nezainteresovani za proces učenja, žele da budu kvalitetni učitelji, ali nemaju modele. Parafraziraću Mark Tvena. On kaže da je dobra priprema, ili podučavanje, toliko snažno da loš karakter preobrati u dobar, lošu praksu u moćnu, da promeni ljude i transformiše ih u anđele.
The folks who I described earlier got proper preparation in teaching, not in any college or university, but by virtue of just being in the same spaces of those who engage. Guess where those places are? Barber shops, rap concerts, and most importantly, in the black church. And I've been framing this idea called Pentecostal pedagogy. Who here has been to a black church? We got a couple of hands. You go to a black church, their preacher starts off and he realizes that he has to engage the audience, so he starts off with this sort of wordplay in the beginning oftentimes, and then he takes a pause, and he says, "Oh my gosh, they're not quite paying attention." So he says, "Can I get an amen?"
Ljudi koje sam ranije opisao dobili su dobru pripremu za poučavanje, ne na nekom fakultetu ili univerzitetu, već prostvim boravkom na istim mestima na kojima su i angažovani nastavnici. Pretpostavljate koja su to mesta? Berbernice, rep koncerti i najvažnije crnačke crkve. Uokvirivao sam tu ideju pod nazivom pentekostalna pedagogija. Ko je odavde bio u crnačkim crkvama? Nekoliko ruku. Kada odete u crnačku crkvu, njihov propovednik počne da propoveda i shvati da mora da angažuje publiku, pa počne s nekom vrstom igre rečima, u početku često, a potom pravi pauzu, i kaže: „O Bože, oni uopšte ne prate." Pa kaže: „Mogu li dobiti amin?"
Audience: Amen.
Publika: „Amin.“
Chris Emdin: So I can I get an amen? Audience: Amen.
Kris Emdin: Mogu li dobiti amin? Publika: Amin.
CE: And all of a sudden, everybody's reawoken. That preacher bangs on the pulpit for attention. He drops his voice at a very, very low volume when he wants people to key into him, and those things are the skills that we need for the most engaging teachers. So why does teacher education only give you theory and theory and tell you about standards and tell you about all of these things that have nothing to do with the basic skills, that magic that you need to engage an audience, to engage a student? So I make the argument that we reframe teacher education, that we could focus on content, and that's fine, and we could focus on theories, and that's fine, but content and theories with the absence of the magic of teaching and learning means nothing.
KE: I odjednom, svi su opet budni. On udara u propovedaonicu da privuče pažnju. Jako utiša svoj glas kada želi da ga ljudi razumeju, i te stvari su veštine koje nam trebaju za najangažovanije učitelje. Zašto obrazovanje nastavnika jedino pruža teoriju i teoriju, zašto se samo priča o standardima i svim stvarima koje nemaju nikakve veze sa osnovnim veštinama, sa magijom koja je potrebna da se publika angažuje, da se učenici uključe? Stoga, dajem argument za preuređivanje obrazovanja nastavnika, da bi se fokusiralo na sadržaj, što bi bilo u redu, da se fokusira na teoriju, što je takođe u redu. ali sadržine i teorije bez magije podučavanja učenja ne znači ništa. Ljudi često kažu:
Now people oftentimes say, "Well, magic is just magic." There are teachers who, despite all their challenges, who have those skills, get into those schools and are able to engage an audience, and the administrator walks by and says, "Wow, he's so good, I wish all my teachers could be that good." And when they try to describe what that is, they just say, "He has that magic."
„Pa, magija je samo magija." Postoje nastavnici koji, uprkos svim svojim izazovima, te veštine poseduju, dolaze u škole i mogu da angažuju publiku, a direktor prolazi i kaže: „Baš je sjajan, voleo bih da su svi nastavnici tako dobri." Kada pokušaju da opišu šta je to samo kažu: „Ima tu magiju."
But I'm here to tell you that magic can be taught. Magic can be taught. Magic can be taught. Now, how do you teach it? You teach it by allowing people to go into those spaces where the magic is happening. If you want to be an aspiring teacher in urban education, you've got to leave the confines of that university and go into the hood. You've got to go in there and hang out at the barbershop, you've got to attend that black church, and you've got to view those folks that have the power to engage and just take notes on what they do. At our teacher education classes at my university, I've started a project where every single student that comes in there sits and watches rap concerts. They watch the way that the rappers move and talk with their hands. They study the way that he walks proudly across that stage. They listen to his metaphors and analogies, and they start learning these little things that if they practice enough becomes the key to magic. They learn that if you just stare at a student and raise your eyebrow about a quarter of an inch, you don't have to say a word because they know that that means that you want more. And if we could transform teacher education to focus on teaching teachers how to create that magic then poof! we could make dead classes come alive, we could reignite imaginations, and we can change education.
Ali ja sam ovde da vam kažem da se magija može naučiti. Magija se može naučiti. Magija se može naučiti. A kako to naučiti? Pa tako što ljudima omogućite da uđu na ta mesta gde se magija odvija. Ako želite da budete nadahnuti nastavnik u urbanom obrazovanju, treba da napustite granice univerziteta i da odete u "kraj". Idite tamo i družite se sa berberima, da idete u crnačke crkve, i treba da gledate te ljude koji imaju snagu da angažuju, i samo zapisujete šta oni rade. Na časovima obrazovanja nastavnika na mom univerzitetu, ja sam započeo projekat u kome svaki student koji dođe treba da odgleda rep koncert. Posmatra način na koji se reperi kreću i govore svojim rukama. Uči način na koji reper ponosno hoda po sceni. Slušaju metafore i analogije i počinju da uče te male stvari: dovoljno vežbe jeste ključ za magiju. Uče i to da ako samo pilje u učenika i podignu obrvu za oko pola centimetra ne moraju reći ništa jer učenici znaju da to znači da žele više. Ako bismo mogli da promenimo obrazovanje nastavnika da se fokusiramo na podučavanje nastavnika kako da stvore tu magiju, desila bi se eksplozija! Mrtvi časovi bi oživeli, mašta bi ponovo bujala, a obrazovanje bi se promenilo.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)