I’m Excited to Go to Work Every Day!

by Bas Assaf

Hello, my name is Bas Assaf. I am an 8th grade science teacher at Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon in Las Vegas, Nevada. I remember as I was getting closer to graduating, I was able to truly understand what teachers have to experience inside their own classrooms. Oftentimes, new teachers talk about their college courses compared to their first real experience in the classroom. Personally, I can say that what I learned in school did not prepare me for what I experienced in the classroom. During my student teaching, my mentor teacher was promoted to a new position that entailed responsibilities of an administrator. As a result, I found myself alone with 30 students and many different struggles that college didn't prepare me for. Yes, this did lead to a few mental breakdowns, prepping lessons well after contract hours, and wondering if I’m truly cut out for this job. Needless to say, for a semester I got “through it.”

Going into my first official year as a licensed teacher I knew something needed to change to better my teaching and more importantly my mental health. At our school I was first introduced to Kagan Cooperative Learning during my year as a student teacher and thought to myself, “ I won’t need this; boy was I wrong." Our school had an assistant principal named Michelle Bain who was trained by Dr. Kagan for many years and wanted to bring that knowledge to our staff. As we started implementing Kagan into our lessons, I found that cooperative learning was a perfect fit for me as a new teacher struggling with engagement, classroom management, and creating the environment that best suits me as a teacher. With that knowledge, I took the jump and integrated Kagan into my classroom whole-heartedly. At first it was a bit overwhelming but I knew that our students needed something fresh. There is so much information to be learned when implementing Kagan Cooperative Learning but from personal experience, I would endure this struggle again and again after seeing the amount of change and confidence I have inside the classroom as a brand-new teacher. Of course, there have been naysayers claiming that I am a bright-eyed bushy-tailed new teacher. This backwards idea that being excited to go to work every day was because I haven’t truly experienced what being a teacher really is about. This created so much doubt. Is it just because I’m excited? New? Some teachers may say yes, and I’m here to say, I am excited to go to work every day and see my students excel because Kagan has helped me create the environment I have always wanted inside my classroom. Feeling happy and excited is contagious and my students mirrored my energy when it came to engagement, content understanding, and most importantly a safe classroom environment!

After implementing Kagan into my classroom, I found that the engagement caters to students in ways that teachers sometimes don’t consider. There are many students that dread presenting and reading in the classroom, yet we still have them do this for “practice.” However, only one student is truly getting the practice while possibly being in a living nightmare and the other students are doing a variety of different things retaining no information. I was well aware of this cycle of anxiety and sheer boredom; I couldn’t bear having my students become regurgitating robots only to wipe its memory card after the test. After our school completed Day 1 of Cooperative Learning, it was time to put what I learned into practice. The next day I implemented a few key management tips (as I didn’t want to overload my students) and used my first structure. I started with the PairShare structure as it was the simplest. It was immediately given push back from my students as they had to converse with people they don’t talk to. Although there was some resistance, I showed my students the first teambuilding question, “If you had a superpower, what would it be and why?” When my students realized that it was not an educational question, the atmosphere changed. My students seemed excited to see what powers their peers were choosing. At that moment when I saw students talking to people they would never talk to, I knew this was something to build on. I started implementing more teambuilders and classbuilders which gave my students and myself more practice with the structures. That led to me easily implementing the structures into the lesson, as the students would only need a quick refresher on how to perform the structures. I was sold whole-heartedly, when I found students that were quiet, not engaged, or even some with behavioral issues completely invested in this fun and new way of learning. While the students started to look forward to my class, I noticed that scores started to increase and the students were retaining the information long after the test.

When I was in college completing my education degree there were always recurring questions that I had to answer. The most common was always, “what is your teaching pedagogy?” and my response was always the same in every paper I wrote throughout college, “I’m not sure yet.” I was never sure of how I wanted to teach but I was always sure that I wanted to have a class where the students enjoyed and felt safe. Since I was sure about wanting a strong classroom community, I took the time to make connections with my students. As I started learning more about the students, I started finding out why this student can’t sit next to this person. The structures slowly started pushing students to venture out of their comfort zone as they would perform the structures with classmates and teammates—not just their friends. With the consistent schedule of teambuilders and classbuilders, my students began to not worry about who they were working with and started to care about completing the work together. It is a surreal and joyful moment when you find your students who were absolutely resistant, engaged in the lesson, structures and even perform as my students say, “The Cringe Cheers.” I am grateful to have built a classroom where I, as well as my class, felt comfortable enough to try with no fear of “looking dumb” if they get an answer wrong. By the end of my first year, I had my first encounter of the true value of building a strong classroom community. I had two students of complete opposite sides of social circles that would argue in class constantly. At one point the best decision would have been to keep them at opposite ends of the class but instead I decided to pair them up during our classbuilding structures. I explained to them the importance of valuing each other's differences and I can honestly say that I was not expecting the results. By midway through the school year, they were able to work together which was all I really was seeking from them. What had caught me by surprise was when they began to ask me if they could work together and even stay teammates. This moment truly solidified in my mind that Cooperative Learning does work.

As an advocate of Kagan Cooperative Learning, I’ve found so much value in teaching using Kagan Structures and methods, and I truly believe it works. There have been many teachers or colleagues who have had their doubts and I realize that what may work inside my classroom may not work for others, which is fine. There is more than one way to teach, however when it comes to finding a new way to help students learn, Kagan will continue to be my pathway to success. I truly value my classroom environment and hope that it continues to be the place for students to learn in a safe and positive environment!