Excited first-year teacher John Velasquez, 25, told his professional learning community that his plan to engage his students in active learning is “just being real with them.” During the PLC, Velasquez explained to his fellow veteran teachers how they, too, can revolutionize classrooms from boring prison cells into playgrounds for the mind through keeping it real.
“Kids can tell when you’re being fake. If I feel like I need to end the lesson early because I’m just not feeling it, I’ll do that. We can just talk about life and chill for a bit. I’m going to be honest about everything, finding ways to relate everything we’re learning to our own experiences. If my girlfriend is trippin’, my class is going to hear about it. They’re not the only ones with relationship drama.”
He continued, “Everyone learns differently, and some are kinesthetic learners. Some dude from TED Talk taught me that. We’ve all experienced racism. So, during our unit on slavery, I’m going to have some kids be the slaves and others the slave owners – they’ll really remember the atrocities of slavery because we’re actually doing it! It’s going to blow their collective minds.”
At press time, Mr. Velasquez was seen silently sobbing in his car after some of his 11th graders passed around a petition to “Get Mr. V. fired because he sucks.” “They just don’t listen. I don’t get it.”
By Emily Sanchez