How to make students (and teachers) want to go to school | Michele Freitag | TEDxYorkBeach

The speaker, a dedicated educator for nearly four decades, shares her enduring passion for education that began in childhood and has persisted into her career. She reminisces about her favorite teacher, Mrs. Erga, who despite personal challenges, inspired her students with her big heart and love for teaching. The speaker also reflects on her own family's varied experiences with school, highlighting the need for an educational system that accommodates different learning styles. She recounts a heartbreaking incident with a student who felt defeated by a reading assessment, which she resolved by connecting with the child and adapting the assessment to his strengths.

The speaker introduces the CRSSP strategies as a framework for effective teaching, emphasizing the importance of establishing relationships with students first. 'C' stands for 'choice,' allowing students to have a say in their learning to increase engagement. 'R' is for 'relevance,' ensuring the material is meaningful to students. The first 'S' represents 'strength-based learning,' focusing on students' talents to build their confidence. The second 'S' is for 'specific, honest, and positive feedback,' which encourages students to excel. 'P' stands for 'passion,' integrating students' interests into the curriculum. She shares an example of how she applied these strategies in a non-fiction reading and writing unit, resulting in students creating diverse and creative projects that showcased their learning.

The speaker recounts two instances where she empowered students to take charge of their learning through creative projects. In one case, a student who had been disheartened by traditional assessments was able to excel by researching a topic of interest and presenting it through a slideshow. In another example from 2005, third-grade students, inspired by the book 'Gooseberry Park,' embarked on a six-month project to create a stop-motion video of the story. This project not only engaged the students but also covered various educational standards, demonstrating that integrated learning can be both fun and effective.

The speaker addresses the imbalance in the current educational system, which is heavily focused on test data collection and standardization, often at the expense of best practices such as hands-on learning and student engagement. She criticizes the concept of teaching with 'fidelity' to a curriculum, arguing that it stifles teachers' ability to tailor their instruction to the needs of individual students. The speaker calls for a reevaluation of these practices to prevent teacher burnout and to empower educators to use their professional judgment. She advocates for a system that values and trusts teachers, allowing them to make meaningful choices in their classrooms that benefit their students.

In the concluding paragraph, the speaker reflects on the contagious nature of enthusiasm in education and the importance of making students feel valued and heard. She envisions a classroom where students are empowered and confident, engaging in their learning with purpose. The speaker expresses her hope that every student who enters a school would love being there, just as she has loved her 55 years of attending school and her 39 years of teaching. Her speech ends with a call to action for a more inclusive and passionate educational environment, eliciting applause from the audience.