Silent quitters

 I was listening to my favorite podcast (No Stupid Questions) while taking a walk, and the topic was burnout.  At every school I have taught, at least one teacher would warn me about burnout. I have never really felt burned out, but the podcast episode brought up a Gallup Poll showing that 59% of the global workforce had become silent quitters. 

What are silent quitters? They are people who do just enough not to get fired. They are the type who punches in and out at the contracted time. Management is often irritated with them, and they are called lazy. 

What first came to my mind is, how many teachers are silent quitters? Then I thought, how many students are silent quitters? Usually, the bias is to blame the individual, but research has shown that it is more often the company that needs to be fixed. In my case, that means the classroom. 

Research says that these six variables promote a healthy work climate. 

1. Sustainable workload 

2. Recognition and rewards 

3. Choice and control 

4. Supportive work community 

5. Clear values and meaningful work 

One challenge we all face is to avoid falling into the trap of solely blaming the individual. We need to make sure that we put everyone in an environment where they can thrive. 

As always, your feedback is welcome. 

Meet Ego Nwodim

 

I was teaching in a school where most of our students stayed at home when they went to college.  To broaden kids’ horizons, a group of teachers tried to encourage students to go out of state for college.  So, you can imagine our excitement when Ego decided to go across the country to University of Southern California to become a doctor. 

Little did we know that becoming a doctor was her backup plan. She picked USC to become an actor, which would eventually lead her to join the cast of Saturday Night Live.

Ego majored in biology and minored in sociology, finishing in three years, but neither of these subjects resonated with her.  She took an acting class at USC, but that did not inspire her.  She finally joined a acting group outside of college.

As a service-oriented person, Ego wondered if she was being self-centered in pursuing an acting career.  One day, however, she was alone in her apartment and feeling kind of down.  She started listening to a comedian.  By the end of the show, Ego realized she was happy and that becoming an entertainer was about bringing joy to others.

A couple of agents recommended she try improv. But Ego did not think that was for her. She finally gave in, thinking that it would look good on her resume.  In two weeks, she totally fell in love with improv.  When I asked her what made that happen, her reply was, “I just knew I loved it.  It was what my friends and I did every day.”

What did she learn from improv?  How to adjust when pushed out of your comfort zone.  That there is a world of possibilities out there if you just take some risks.  Listening skills—you need to actively listen to what your partner is saying. 

Teamwork truly comes through in improv.  You need to take what your partner gives you and make it better.  And we all face situations in life that we do not like, but the key is turning them into a positive. 

The goal in improv is making your partner look like a genius.  This one truly resonates with me, and I now think about it every day.  So many of us worry about making ourselves look good instead of making those around us shine like stars.

Ego’s last piece of advice was [MS1] that students need to know that there is a wide range of possibilities.  Get out of your comfort zone and dip your feet in the water.  Finding out what you do not like is probably as important as finding out what you do like.  Eventually, you will find your passion.

Her goal this year is to bring improv to young people, and she plans to teach improv to teachers so that they can share these skills with their students.

I hope she inspires you as much as she inspires me.

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study tips

 In my previous blog post, I wrote about the importance of putting yourself in the best possible situation to be successful.  Now that you have put your phone out of reach, let’s discuss the best way to study for an assessment. 

The first myth I would like to expose is that reading over your notes helps you study.  When students go over their notes, they think they know more than they do.  Everything seems familiar, so they can develop false confidence. 

So, what works better?  Old-fashioned flash cards.  Trying to recall the information is a great way to study.  You can go through a deck of flash cards and keep in the deck the concepts that you are having trouble learning.   

When studying your flash cards, try to think of ways the material relates to your day-to-day life.  Any time you can relate the material to something in your life, you have a better chance of recalling the information—and more importantly, an increased understanding of the concept. 

Once you’ve mastered the flash cards, you are now ready to take a practice assessment. As a teacher, I provide all my students with a practice assessment to help them recall information and identify weak areas in their understanding.  If you do not have a formal practice assessment, you can look over your teacher’s drills, objectives, or study outline to test your mastery of the information. 

Finally, take advantage of the spacing effect.  It is best to study 15 minutes per day instead of cramming for 2 hours the day before the test.  While most students believe this is true, they still have a hard time doing it.  One easy way to get this done: When you are with a friend who is in your class, just ask each other what you learned that day in class.  After you are both done, check your notes to see what you missed.  If no friend is around, then do this by yourself. 

In the end, you must trust that keeping your phone out of reach and using these study tips will increase your mastery of the content.  At first, there might only be small gains, but by the end of the year, you should see good results.