'We need to balance how we teach,' Teacher of Year says

GIFTED TEACHER: Michael Geisen, the 2008 National Teacher of the Year, gives a presentation at La Grande Middle School Friday. Geisen is a science teacher at Crook County Middle School in Prineville. The Observer/DICK MASON

With more kindergarten, school dropout rates would plummet and student achievement would rise.

Need to be convinced?

“Kindergarten should be a model for us in how to teach kids,’’ Geisen said during a presentation at La Grande Middle School Friday.

Geisen, speaking to teachers at a math and science symposium, “Inquiry Outside The Cube,’’ made his case by noting that almost everyone has fond memories of kindergarten.

“We dived right in to singing and games. It is like living in a musical, it is crazy ... Kindergarten is a happy, happy place,’’ Geisen said.

Bored kindergarten students are as rare as slide rules.

“They are not learning despite all of this (fun kindergarten activities). They are learning because of all this.’’

The problem is that the music often stops, metaphorically and literally, after kindergarten. Singing, games and other fun, educational activities that promote learning do not continue, for the most part, past kindergarten.

“School is so much fun. Then we slam the door behind them (after kindergarten),’’ said Geisen, who teaches at Crook County Middle School in Prineville.

School after kindergarten in the United States often places too much focus on the analytical and factual rather than the creative and the practical, Geisen said. Students who are more creative and practical than analytical may struggle, their intellectual gifts unrecognized.

“It is terribly misguided that schools focus so intently on the analytical,’’ Geisen said. “Culturally we don’t think of creativity and practicality as intelligence. It is overlooked as a valid form of intelligence. Students who are creative and practical are overlooked.’’

Many of these students end up leaving school.

“The reason for our high drop out rate (in the United States) is that there is no place for students with creative and practical skills,’’ Geisen said.

The problem is getting worse for these students because programs they excel in are being cut in schools due to funding constraints.

“Kids do not get to dance, draw and participate in theater like they used to because of budget cuts.’’

The focus on the analytical and factual over the creative and practical is producing students not as well equipped to excel in today’s society as they could be.

“It doesn’t prepare you for the real world where you have to use your whole brain,’’ Geisen said. “Ultimately, we need to balance how we teach. We are not there yet.’’

Geisen tries to provide a balance in his science classes at Crook County Middle School by having students do things like play the role of protons, electrons and neutrons, almost like a theater project, when studying physics.

Geisen also encourages his colleagues to recognize the intellectual strengths of their students, even if they are not quantifiable like analytical skills are. Recognizing this is as simple as rephrasing two common questions.

Instead of asking, ‘How intelligent are you?’ we should ask, ‘How are you intelligent?’ Geisen said.

With concern to creative energy we should ask not ‘How creative are you?’ but ‘How are you creative?’

Geisen is the 58th National Teacher of the Year and the third from Oregon. The National Teacher of the Year program is a project of the Council of the Chief State School Officers and sponsored by the ING Foundation. Geisen received his award from President George W. Bush at a White House ceremony.

“It was surreal. It was such a great honor,’’ Geisen said.

Geisen spent the 2008-09 school year serving as a full-time national and international spokesman for education, something everyone who receives the National Teacher of the Year award is asked to. Japan and Switzerland are among the overseas places he made presentations.

He describes his 2008-09 experience as essentially a sabbatical. Geisen said that returning to teaching has been difficult.

“It is hard work, especially after being out of the classroom for a year,’’ Geisen said.

“I feel like I am a first year teacher again. I have as much to learn as anyone.’’

Geisen, who has been teaching about eight years, began pursuing an education career after working several years as a professional forester. Geisen left forestry to enroll at Southern Oregon University where he earned his master’s degree in education.

Less than a decade later he was at the White House receiving the 2008 National Teacher of the Year award.

The “Inquiry Outside The Cube,’’ math and science symposium Geisen spoke at was put on by the Oregon Council of Teachers of Mathematics.