If the idea of teaching in the moment immediately sends you plummeting into the depths of teacher insecurity, you are not alone. With 45 percent of current teachers having fewer than 10 years of teaching experience, it is not surprising that many teachers cannot realistically conceive of such an educational epiphany in the classroom (Ingersoll, 2014). For many teachers, "teaching in the moment" conjures up images of Robin Williams standing on a desk in Dead Poets Society elucidating human perspective and voice. Many teachers find their strengths in being prepared, planning for lessons, and then communicating those lessons or facilitating them with flair. However, many teachers don't see themselves as teacher-of-the-year candidates oozing with the fearless spontaneity of, say, educator and millennial Renaissance man John Green.
The good news? Teaching in the moment does not require spontaneity! Of course, we hope for those magical moments when our students' interest, our subject matter expertise, and our ability to choose appropriate learning activities all align in a mystical meant-to-be moment. Sure, those do occasionally occur. But is there a way to design learning for such moments to occur? If there is, how can teachers design instruction in way that leads to more of them?
Create Opportunities for Curiosity
This summer, after being inspired by the National Archives learning center in Washington, D.C., I planned my own "Amendments in the News" bulletin board for my middle school civics classes. I designed the board with teenage curiosity in mind. One of the articles I chose was about a man in Florida who was arrested because an officer mistook flakes of Krispy Kreme donut glaze in his car for methamphetamines. We were two weeks into the school year when one of my students said, "Mrs. Casey! Why are there Krispy Kreme donuts on your board?" "You'll never believe this!" I said, and then led into a discussion of our rights, the Fourth Amendment, and whether or not it applied in this instance. I had the full attention of an entire class of 8th grade students. According to developmental and cognitive psychologist Wendy Ostroff, once a student has become curious, teachers can work their magic and sustain student engagement in focused, authentic learning (2016). This interaction may have seemed spontaneous to the students, but it had been my hope for weeks that this very moment of learning would occur.
Be Flexible
It wasn't time to cover the amendments. We had not even covered the basics of the U.S. Constitution yet! But in five minutes, my students had an opportunity to scaffold some scant knowledge of the Bill of Rights based on what they may have learned about the Constitution in elementary school. This new knowledge will now make my future unit on the constitutional amendments a little bit easier for my students to understand. One relevant pause to teach "in the moment" might result in more actual learning than in the eventual two week unit! Constructivism has taught us that learning is something learners must do for themselves. Without gaining students' interest, we, as teachers, only educate them. We can check the box of having transferred information, but have our students really learned? With many teaching paradigms designed around educating students—rather than facilitating learning—teachers often feel that they can't afford to interrupt the agenda for moments like these. The truth is, we can't afford not to.
Embrace the Unknown
Many teachers, especially less experienced ones, fear inquiry-based learning because they are afraid that they won't be able to answer every question students may ask. This doesn't need to be a handicap! In an age where the amount of knowledge that is available has increased exponentially, it is unreasonable to expect our teachers to be walking search engines. However, it is quite reasonable to say to students, "I haven't looked at that in a while, let's look it up together," or "I'm not sure I've studied that, let's look it up before we move on with the lesson." These responses allow our students to see that learning is a lifetime habit, not something they get to escape at graduation. Learning, or the need to learn, isn't something that students (or teachers) should fear.
Don't wait for spontaneity—create it. When fearless educators fashion opportunities for curiosity, the result is relevant, interesting, and on-time learning. Designing opportunities for students to learn in the moment should be the responsibility of every motivated educator.