Teach Like a Jedi Master

I am a geek. I love everything Star Wars and tech; as, I am sure you can tell from the title of this blog post. I love to incorporate these elements into my teaching style to make things fun and engaging for my students. We “Write Like Jedis” in my class, use Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader to help explain difficult grammar concepts, and “travel” to the planets Hoth, Tatooine, and even the city of Coruscant. As I dig deeper into the meaning of the phrase, Teach Like a Jedi Master, I have stumbled across a much deeper meaning that I feel educators should ignore no longer.

I would like to believe every teacher wants to be the best he can be for his students; which is why we attend professional development sessions on our days off, participate in webinars and Twitter Chats, and read up on all the latest sound instructional practices. In order to make the connection between teaching like a Jedi Master and our current roles as teachers, I believe I must first focus on what a Jedi Master is and what his capacity is in the life of his students.

A Jedi Master is a Jedi that has earned his right as a Master after demonstrating a variety of skills; including teaching. One of the important skills a Jedi Master must experience is the success of his or her students. Some take several Padawans on at a time; while others take on one specific student to teach wisdom and skills to. This is a process that takes time, patience, and a tremendous amount of coaching. This is the heart of what Jedi Masters do. Coaches have caught on to this important skill; so I ask, why is it we don’t run our classrooms as coaches coach their athletes?

Educators can learn so much from the coaching style. In most situations, coaches first demonstrate a particular skill, have the athletes practice it, then the athlete will demonstrate his ability to the coach. The coach then makes the necessary adjustments and the athlete tries again. Some of the best learning happens when trial and error is the norm and correcting oneself is allowed to naturally happen. I see the same benefits in gamification in the classroom (but that’s another post for the future).

Jedi Masters we must be; maximum potential we must reach. When creating your plans for the week, be sure to include ways for students to learn from their errors to reach their potential. The best learning comes when we move out of our comfort zones. Luke learned valuable lessons from Yoda on Dagobah; most of which he initially failed. Yoda coached him and helped him realize his true talents. He saw the potential within Luke; he just needed to help Luke realize it himself.

May the Force be With You!