At a conference once, I heard a teacher during a presentation make this comment: “There comes a point when I am no longer needed. My students are engaged…I can sit back and watch….my goal is to have students who are confident and excited… the by-product is increased knowledge.”
This description of a teacher is my goal, too. Having a classroom buzzing with students , all engaged. Students confidently making decisions. I plan and model. I set out materials. Then I watch and listen, ask questions and offer feedback. My role is to be the catalyst. The students’ role is to be in motion.
Tomorrow, I plan to have my 6th grade students watch this video and then I’ll guide a discuss using these words – vicitm, perpetrator, bystander, upstander. I’ll ask:
Why doesn’t the bystander act?
How might the bystander have made a difference?
Then I plan to nudge my students to notice if any of the stories we read during our Social Issue Book Club Unit (using this resource by TCRWP) involved upstanders. I plan to end the lesson asking them to spend time being on the lookout for upstanders, asking friends and family to talk about upstanders they have known, and to think about how they, my students, might become an upstander in their family or community.
Tomorrow’s lesson is to set my students up for our the End of Unit Project. As a culminating project, I will guide my students to pick an issue important to them and to plan out a way to TAKE ACTION in order to raise awareness about this issue. Then, on the evening of March 12th, families will visit to view our Middle School Social Issue Fair.
My hope is that all next week, my classroom is a buzz of activity. Students will be researching. Students will be creating. Students will be collaborating and discussing. And I will watch and listen and offer feedback. And my hope is, there will come a point when I am no longer needed.
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NOTE: During March, I plan to revisit prior blog posts and revise. This post is a revision of this post, written on March 20, 2014
Writing Stories by Sally 
Yes – I can imagine your classroom running itself – students are engaged, helping each other. Truly #teachergoals. I think your lesson inspiring students to take action will get students excited about ways they can make change.
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I am going to head over to the links you’ve shared, Sally. I hope your fair goes really well and that your class doesn’t need you hardly at all!
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Thank you for all the ways you are an Upstander, as an advocate for young readers and writers, as teacher-leader, and as a researcher and writer. It’s so courageous of you to embark on a month of revision. I’m excited to see what happens!
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