Letting Go of Teaching Practices That No Longer Serve Students

It was a chilly spring Saturday morning when I walked out on my driveway with a cup of coffee in hand and saw my children’s old crib set up with a $50 price tag attached to it. Next to that was my wakeboard from high school, a painting, and a pair of my old boots. 

My wife was in purge mode and decided to hold a garage sale. 

I nearly spilled my coffee. “Honey! You can’t sell this painting, we bought it in our first year of marriage! We can’t sell the crib! Our babies lived in that thing!. Not my wakeboard, I got that in high school! I swear I'm going to pick it back up someday!”

But my wife, always the voice of reason, replied, “We bought that painting 16 years ago. It doesn’t match our style at all anymore. The crib takes up space and the kids have been in beds for years. And what do you need a wakeboard for, we don’t even have a boat!”

She had a point, but parting with these items still stung a bit. I had an emotional connection with these things, even if I didn’t need them anymore. Parting with objects that used to serve a purpose for us can be difficult, especially ones that have stories tied to them.

Bring Certain Teaching Practices to the Garage Sale

There are practices in education that once served us well, or made sense when we were students ourselves, but no longer meet the needs of today’s learners. Yet it’s not easy to part with tradition, especially when they are comfortable.

Take for instance the 45-minute lecture.

This was primarily how I was taught from middle school through college. The teacher was the giver of knowledge, and I was mostly the receiver of it. And even though I usually hated sitting in those classes as the teacher droned on at the front of the room while I either took notes or pretended to, this is what I thought teaching was supposed to look like. Naturally, when I started teaching, I gave a lot of lectures.

And to be honest, I’m was pretty good at it. I love storytelling and explaining and have no problem talking for 45 minutes straight, especially when I’m interested in what I’m talking about. But I saw time and time again, no matter how great (I thought) my lecture was, after about 15 minutes kids would start to disengage. Keeping a student's attention for longer than that without changing the pace can be incredibly difficult. Especially with the proliferation of technology and distractions, it’s nearly impossible to captivate students for long lectures. And there is ample research to prove that. 

So even though I had a history with— an emotional connection— to giving long lectures, I had to set them out at the garage sale--- or at least certain aspects of them.

Finding Better Alternatives to Ineffective Teaching Practices

Lectures are not inherently bad, but ones that are too long without any brain breaks are not nearly as effective. So I needed to update the practice.

This meant shortening direct instruction and adding in more reflection and discussion time. It also meant doing more collaboration and discussion-based learning, projects, more student-ownership-- less Trevor/Teacher-ownership of the learning. I still used direct instruction, but now it was more intentional and always shorter.

And you know what happened? Students started learning and engaging more. By getting rid of an ineffective practice, I was creating space for ones that actually worked. Just like how the walls of my house now have more space for newer, fresher artwork.

What Teaching Practices Need an Upgrade?

I want to challenge you to think about what in your teaching practice needs a garage sale. Maybe you’re grading too much because you’ve always been told to grade everything students submit, but it’s burning you out. You can’t deal with the piles of papers on the weekend anymore, and you also have a sneaking suspicion that grading everything isn't actually helping anyone. And so maybe it’s time to garage sale that practice and be more selective of what you grade.

Maybe there’s a lesson or activity that just isn’t working like it used to, and you’ve known this for a while now, and it’s time to retire it.

Maybe you’ve set your room up a certain way for a long time, and the arrangement is creating problems, and it’s time to try something else.

Maybe you need to garage sale that pressure you put on yourself to be a perfect teacher, because that just isn’t working anymore either and you need to put that energy into more useful areas.

Creating Space For Better Teaching Practices

Educators are so often given new ideas and strategies to get better at what they do, but usually don’t have space for them. There needs to be room to grow, and sometimes that means making room by discarding practices that aren’t working like they used to, or never worked and you are finally realizing that.

So here's a litmus test to determine whether something needs to go to the curb or not:

1. Does this teaching practice enhance student learning?

This is the foundational question. The primary purpose of school is for students to learn so they can thrive now and in the future. They're in school to learn important subject matter, social skills, work ethic, confidence, and the other essential competencies to live a fruitful life. Therefore, our teaching practices should be centered on that purpose.

If you're hearing that whisper in your ear that something you do or use has run its course, first ask “what it is doing for student learning?”

Does that shiny ed tech actually help students learn math more, or is more time being spent figuring out how to use it? 

Do students need to read that same novel you've been teaching for twenty years, especially when you know fresher books that students might actually be excited to read can teach the same themes and concepts?

Does this essay still effectively assess their learning, or is it too easy to just have AI write it? 

2. Do I have capacity for this teaching practice anymore?

For several years I had my students interview actual World War II veterans and create documentaries and artwork based on the veterans' lives. At the end of the project, we held a huge event at a public theater and invited the whole community to watch the student films. It was glorious and usually the highlight of my teaching year. But one year when I was about to start that project, my wife gave birth to my daughter. Suddenly I couldn't muster the energy to lead this massive school event while rocking a baby half the night. 

And so I canceled it. My students still interviewed veterans, but instead of holding an event, we wrote their stories and mailed them to the vets and their families. Even though this wasn't as grand as the other project, I had capacity for this one. It's too easy for teachers to overcommit and overextend themselves in the name of student learning, only to run so low on energy that they are unable to do their work well. Not only does this cause the joy for teaching to wane, but also negatively affects the learning experience for students. 

Making Room for Better Teaching

Tidying expert and author Marie Kondo says “Discarding is not about getting rid of things. It is about choosing what to keep.” When we run our practices and technologies through the litmus test, we are not dishonoring our past or admitting failure. We are simply choosing what deserves to stay. Just like that garage sale, letting go does not erase the memories or the impact those practices once had. It acknowledges that seasons change and we have to adapt accordingly.

It’s okay to say “This worked once, but it is not working now.” When we release what no longer serves students or ourselves, we create space for clarity, creativity, and energy to return.

All that being said though, I do still miss that wakeboard.