Making a Lasting Impact on Your Students - Episode 33
00:00:00 Jon Bergmann: One student I'm thinking of right now, a few years back, he said the most meaningful thing that happened in all of high school was those words that you shared with me.
00:00:13 Jon Bergmann: Welcome back to the Reach Every Student Podcast. I'm your host, Jon Bergmann. You know, our topic normally has been related to AI and education, but today I'm in a melancholy mood. I want to talk about how we can make a lasting impact on our students' lives. But before we dive in today's topic, I want to put in a plug for your summer PD. I've created three online courses that will really up your game over the summer. There are flipped learning best practices in the K-12 version, flipped learning best practice higher ed, and making mastery learning a reality. These are asynchronous online courses that can be completed in a few hours. And I've trained thousands of teachers using this format and I've shared how it's, and many of them have shared how it transformed their lives. Just last night I had dinner with somebody who had read my first book, Flip Your Classroom. She was a fourth grade teacher in Brazil. And she shared just an amazing story about how she got a copy of my book online. A pirated copy. And as she, she read the book and she said, that's, I need to change how I teach. She changed how I teach and then she shared a story about a, about a student of hers who Created a love that she had created a love for art in there. And today now this student she had in the fourth grade is now twenty-four years old or something like that. And as a artist in Amsterdam, and it was just so powerful just to hear the story of how flip learning gratified me that that flip learning has made such a difference. And I think in the world of AI, flip learning is going to be one of the big answers that's going to help us To not stupefy our students as I've talked about before as we move ahead in this world of AI and what that's going to look like in education. So if you're interested in these courses, simply go to jonbergmann.com, j-o-n-b-e-r-g-m-a-n-n.com slash courses and you can register.
00:02:11 Jon Bergmann: But now let's talk about today's topic. How do you make a lasting impact, a long-term impact on your students? Now my guess is that each of you went into teaching because you wanted to make a difference in the lives of your students. That's why you became a teacher. And at some level that's why I became a teacher. What am I even talking about? How do you make a long lasting impact? Like that teacher last night who had transformed this student's life and said, And it changed their life. And so I have some things and I'm in a melancholy mood because I have just finished a project that I started doing, a thing I do every year. I started this in the pandemic year. That has significantly transformed how I teach. And I'm going to share about that in more detail in just a few minutes, but I want to also set this up. It's really about building. How do you make a lot lasting impact? Here's a couple thoughts. Number one, I would really encourage you to build a culture. This is something you have to start day one. So this is something to think about beginning of next school year. Build a lasting impact by building a community in your class. Now, I know I'm hired to teach science, high school science, and my goal is to teach my students high school science. Totally, that's what I do, and I'm good at it. And I want my students to learn science. But I also, more importantly, my heart is that my students become Good humans. That they learn how to thrive in the world. Yeah, obviously one way to thrive is to be a well-educated person, to understand how the world works, to understand the beauty of the natural world, all the things that I, I'm very passionate about those things. And so one thing I do to, it's a five minute commitment. Now I see my students every other day for like ninety or eighty-five minutes or something like that. And so we have like 180 days in school, but really it's ninety I have ninety touch points with my students. And so at the beginning of every class, every time, what I do is I do a couple things. Number one is I ask them a question of the day and I have hundreds of questions of the day. I just have sourced these. These are like just, you know, ice, icebreaker questions. A couple days ago, the question was, what's your favorite social media site? And sometimes I'll ask, what's your favorite cartoon? And the cartoon, or like, when you were a child, now, that's kind of weird when you say when you were a child. I'm teaching high school juniors and seniors. They're going back to when they were eight in, you know, some of us are older, much, much, much older than that. And when I was a child, it was a long time ago. I asked questions about, you know, what was your, did you have any kind of a favorite toy or what? Lots of questions like that. Or recently, yesterday, today, in fact, too, because I do every day. today's question is, do you have a storm story? And so I, I shared a story from my childhood where I, I, by the way, I always, always, almost always go first. And I share a story and I want to be a little bit vulnerable with the students appropriately vulnerable and share with them a story. I just shared a story about my me growing up and I we went and visited my grandmother and there was an ice storm. And then all the power went out and we had to live in the living room and things like that. And then they feel more comfortable just being who they are. So that's a strategy. Another thing I do is that I flip my class, and that may sound, well, how does that help build community and relationship? The answer is, is because I have more time to walk around and help kids. So I spend maybe seven minutes, ten minutes at the beginning of class doing Just a quick reteach or reminder of the things they learned in the pre-work, whether that was a video or a reading, and so I make sure they understand it, and then I give them an assignment, and it's active learning time. They're walking, I'm walking around as they're You know, solving physics problems or doing an experiment or whatever it might be. And then, ah, but the beauty of that is, is I don't always just Focus on the content. Sometimes I'll just say, man, that was a great game last night. You know, I saw them play football or something like that. Or I might ask them how the game went. These are things that I would encourage you to do. One thing I do, by the way, at the beginning of the year is I survey them and I find out what their big interests are and then I can start, when I do the roving, I have a list, a cheat sheet, honestly, Of what they are, what's their thing? What are they into? And then I have a, a, a means to get in and just learn who they are. And another thing I've also discovered as I've worked with thousands of teachers, it really matters that you like care about your kids. I've met teachers who don't really care to get to know their students. Maybe that teacher shouldn't be teaching. How do I say that nicely? I didn't, but that's what I mean. And now for the, I think the big idea, and this is why I'm in a melancholy mood, is I, I, this is a, A strategy that was born out of the pandemic. So during the pandemic in March of 2020, as many of you probably did too, we had to say goodbye to our students and we never got to see them again. And I was struggling because I wanted to build this relationship, so I wanted to speak into the lives of my students, and I thought, how can I do this? And so I started what I now call tribute videos. And this is where I take hours and hours and hours and I make an individual video for every student. This is not a low time commitment exercise. I've been doing this over the past week and a half and I would come in early and find time and I'd record seven videos and then I'd Do the next day and I come in and do ten I could usually get, like, in a day, half a class done at a time. And I, the goal of these videos is to speak life into my students. Now, what do I mean by that? I am utterly convinced that young people today are desperate for adults, older people, To give them direction. They want direction. They're struggling to figure out who they are. That's like the big idea in Gen Z, isn't it? Who am I? Who am I? And somebody used to say, I see this in you and I would encourage it. And so I would make these videos and I would start out with something like this, I would say. Man, it's been such a privilege to have been your teacher this year or in some cases over the last couple of years. And when you first came in, two years ago, I'm thinking of a student now. I'm trying to mimic what it has without divulging. I saw kind of a awkward, geeky young woman who didn't quite fit in. And now you've developed into becoming this beautiful young woman who's confident. And I'd say things like that. And I'd also sometimes, depending on how good my relationship with students, I might challenge them. So I've got some kids who sometimes don't turn in homework and don't do their work, and I said, man, You, you so often get in your own way, and I don't want you to get in your own way, I want you to thrive, and so here's some, you know, here's, I say this, here's some advice from this old man, and I give him some advice. In a nice way. Now, you've got to have built a relationship with the student to say these things, but then I do, and I teach at a Christian school and I believe in prayer and so I literally pray over every student and then I save it. I record these in QuickTime by the way and turn the webcam on and just, it's just me and In my room or wherever, sometimes I do it at home, and I just make these videos, I save into my Google Drive, and then once I have all of them done, that's when I send them out. And I sent them out yesterday. Before I sent them out, by the way, I sent another video out to all the parents telling them this is coming. Now, by now, I've done it for six years. Many of the parents know this is a thing that I do, and so And teachers, as you know, parents at a private school, they talk. Well, parents at every school, they'll talk. And so many of them probably knew this was coming. But I then shared with them Just what this is and that it's a video just for their kid and if the kid chooses to share the video with the parent then that is of course up to them and And then I send them out. And that takes a while, too, because I've got to send an individual email to every student. And I attach a link to their video from the Google Drive. And yeah, I send them out. And I, guys, I can't tell you how much... And how powerful these videos have been. I didn't know. I was just trying to say goodbye to my students during the pandemic and I didn't realize the impact it would have. And what I've seen over the years is that the students, they need to hear these words. One student I'm thinking of right now, a few years back, he said the most meaningful thing that happened in all of high school was those words that you shared with me. And it changed his life because I saw, I had him as a younger student and then he eventually graduated and he really was a very awkward, shy kid who didn't fit in. And then he stepped up. It was so powerful. A couple themes like this year I saw in a lot of my students is that I teach a lot of juniors in high school. And of course next year there'll be seniors, and I really encouraged a lot of them to step up into leadership. Some of them were quiet students who said, man, you have a lot to offer the world, and man, we'd miss out if you didn't contribute. And they need to hear that. They need to see that challenge in their life. And we need to believe in our students too. And at some level, it's also aspirational. They aren't there yet. I mean, they're sixteen years old or whatever. But they can become this. And so they need to have a vision. Maybe that's what I'm really doing. I'm giving them a vision that I see for their life. And I would encourage you to do something like this. It makes such a difference in their lives. And let me share with you a few of the responses that I've gotten. I sent them out yesterday. And this is what has been a few responses. From a mother here. Thanks so much for a great year. And then she mentions the daughter's name. Has thoroughly enjoyed being in your class. She showed me your video tonight, and I just want to say that I appreciate the time you took to send a personal note that lifted her up. Such and such has great grades, but she works hard to compare to others. She's grown to be a strong, driven person. Your love for teaching really teaches students to love learning. And I'm not doing that to just toot my horn or whatever, but it makes a difference. They need to hear that. Here's from a student. Mr. Bergmann, I'm so incredibly grateful that I got to be a student for the past two years. Watching the video made me cry happy tears. I really can't thank you enough for the ways you've helped me, not just with school, but in ways I can't describe. You've always been so understanding and kind towards me, and for that I'm so appreciative. Your class has always been something I've looked forward to, even though it can be hard sometimes. I still loved it. You made it creative and fun. And then she said, thank you for being my favorite teacher. another parent, he said, the father here, positive, specific, encouraging words have a tremendous impact. In particular, this will be a huge blessing. And he mentions the name of a son. We are in that zone as parents where we are really leaning in for him to develop the necessary skills and disciplines to be able to be successful and navigate the world ahead. In the midst of this, when you speak words of encouragement, He needs to hear it. And he goes on some more. And, you know, the kids need sometimes somebody else other than the parent. You know, ideally their parents are saying these words. And in many cases they are, and maybe you're a parent too, and I would encourage you to say these words to your own children. But sometimes, I'm a parent of three, my kids needed to hear it from somebody else other than me. And sometimes I would hear, you know, from my, I'm thinking in particular my son, he's now thirty-two he's at, actually thirty-one but he, He would, like, have this sort of revelation. I heard this from such and such. And it just really changed me. And I thought, yeah, I told that to you lots of times. You didn't hear it from me. But he heard it from this coach or heard it from this other person. And it's like, but... Hopefully I was wise enough to say, that's awesome. And so you as a teacher have such a great opportunity to have this great impact in the lives of your students. I would really encourage you To find a way to speak life, right? Words of vision into the lives of your students. So that's what I've got for you today. if you, if you like this podcast, I really encourage you to hit subscribe and also to, share this with your friends and, leave a review by the way. That really makes a big difference in the visibility of the podcast. And again, I'll encourage you if you haven't, but already, but take my online courses on flip learning. Flip learning really is going to be the way in AI forward. Listen to my other podcasts. I've been talking about this. I really think it's going to make such a big, bigger impact because if we don't, our students become stupefied. And AI is going to cause it's going to create bifurcation in our society. We've got to be careful. And so one way to, to combat that would be to get some training on how the best practices of flip learning. And I would encourage you to.
00:14:53 Jon Bergmann: Hop into jonbergmann.com, jonbergmann.com slash courses, and you'll find all that you need. And Jon, by the way, is J-O-N. Bergmann is B-E-R-G-M-A-double-N.com. So jonbergmann.com slash courses. Hey, it's been great chatting with you. Have a great day. One student I'm thinking of right now, a few years back, he said the most meaningful thing that happened in all of high school was those words that you shared with me.
