This Teacher Council Member Keeps Learning From BRI
<p><em>By Anne Hester</em></p>
<p>What impact has the Bill of Rights Institute had on my teaching career?</p>
<p>As a career teacher, I also consider myself a lifelong learner. Like many of us, I love to learn new things from both students and my peers. I also feel fortunate I can attend BRI events and learn from their online resources. To me, BRI is an invaluable tool for honing my craft as a teacher and a student. I grew because of the materials and the ability to learn from both experts in constitutional matters and peers who have amazing insights into how to more effectively use what we are given.</p>
<p>BRI affected me in more ways than simply just giving me nifty tools to use in the classroom. It practices what it preaches – when I go to a one-day program about civil discourse and how to use it with our students, that approach is also modeled by the facilitators and the presenters. The other participants and I learn by doing it and experiencing it ourselves with the same methods we use to teach our students.</p>
<p>We are given guidance in reading with essential questions and by discussion, and we use those questions and applications that we need in the classroom but are rarely taught outside of the university setting. We are shown how to use the questions and get help with how to use those to lead civil discussions in our classes. Speaking as someone who needs to see, hear and do in order to learn, I can’t tell you how much this helped me with staying focused with my students and how to keep them engaged in whatever it is we are discussing.</p>
<p>Do I sometimes find the readings or the topics somewhat hard to understand at first? Of course! That’s really the point of teaching and learning, isn’t it? You start off with something that may present a challenge, and you work through it with someone who is more educated or familiar with the material than you. You develop understanding through discussion, reading, study, application, and the ability to really dive into what it is you want to learn.</p>
<p>BRI does that, and I can’t say enough positive things about the programs I attended or the materials I use with my students. BRI doesn’t just give you resources and send you on your way. They show you how to use it, foster discussion regarding interpretation and application, and help you find ways of using their resources with your students. They help teachers become the students so we can return to the teaching role better prepared to answer questions and show students why we go to these extra classes and why we continue to learn – so we can help our kids learn more deeply and thoroughly than we could have by ourselves.</p>
<p>So what impact has BRI had on my teaching career? BRI reminds me of the struggles of the learning process and that there isn’t always just one answer to a question, and also how to break things down into more comprehensible parts. BRI supports me when I have questions about a text or a method, and when I need something for a given part of my curriculum. They help me with keeping myself and my students focused on specific questions designed to grow skills and understanding.</p>
<p>In the end, BRI impacted me by giving me opportunities to improve, which I can practice and then use to help my students improve themselves.</p>
<p><em>Anne Hester is a teacher at East Lee County High School in Leigh Acres, FL, and is a member of the Bill of Rights Institute National Teacher Council.</em></p>