Teaching Tip #154

Teacherscribe’s Teaching Tip #154

One of the books from my summer reading list a few years ago was Generation iY Tim Elmore.

In his book, Elmore clearly loves acronyms, which might just turn off every single teacher who reads his book, but if you can put up with them, they really are interesting and worth your time.

One of his acronyms that applies to this generation is “EPIC.”  Emore states that this is an EPIC generation in several ways.

Here is how that breaks down.  I’ll also look at how each term has implications for us as teachers.

P - Participatory

This generation has grown up participating in nearly every aspect of their lives.  Take television, for example. Generation X consumed hours upon hours of TV every day.  Yet it was a strictly one-way experience. It was all passive. That isn’t true for either the millennials or Gen Z.  You can’t watch a reality TV show without having to call, text, or tweet to see who remains on the island. Thanks to DVRs, my kids can gloss over every single commercial, having total control over the shows they watch.  Furthermore, if you have Netflix, you can choose to watch an entire season (or entire seasons) of shows in one sitting.

How can we strive to have students take active roles in how they participate in our classes, other than sitting and passively scribbling notes.  I’m not saying that’s always bad. Some passivity is necessary. However, if that is the bulk what is happening in your class, you’re missing a golden opportunity.  Worse yet, other teachers are allowing students to participate more and more in their classes, so you are falling even further behind.