Whether you’ve taught for two days or twenty years, you’ve hit the same conundrum. How do we help youth foster a sense of personal responsibility? How do we inspire intrinsic, not just extrinsic motivation? In other words, how do you help young people care about things that we think matter and be accountable for their part in the dance of teaching and learning?
In this week’s podcast, hosts Toby Lowe, Kim Sewell, and Julie Rust speak with Anne Avery Boling (senior) and Tanner Purnell (fifth grader) about student accountability. From losing pencils to bullying to due dates on assignments . . there is a lot that can go wrong for youth in school settings. So how can we help each other work toward the best versions of ourselves? Listen to the full podcast or skip to sections of interest below:
Show Notes
6:07-8:10: What does accountability have to do with responsibility?
9:00-15:00: Our guests say the honor code and talk about its implications in relation to this theme of accountability.
15:03- 15:52: Tanner talks about the woes of losing pencils, and what ordering a whole bunch of extra ones from amazon has to do with accountability.
15:53-17:28: What role do students have in holding other students accountable?
17:32-19:30: We explore scenarios that demonstrate that making the right and honorable choice isn’t always as clear a path as we assume.
19:35-25:54: Students wrestle with what to do when someone misbehaves in the classroom and the teacher demands that someone speak up about who did it. . . and why it is far more preferable in these situations to speak directly to your friends, rather than the authority figure.
26:23-32:15: What about due dates, late assignments, etc?
33:00-34:42: Anne Avery’s advice to teachers/students as a key to success toward accountability and really all things: communication
34:58-36:48: Tanner’s piece of advice to faculty: publicly holding students accountable to know something can actually be painfully embarrassing in such a classroom setting. If they don’t know the answer, see if another friend in the class can help!