I have been watching The Walking Dead from its very first season. Its one of the reasons that I think that the Zombie apocalypse is going to happen, much to the dismay of my wife. She doesn't understand why I need to stock up and buy a crossbow. After watching the latest episode of The Walking Dead, I know that there are some of you who think that the quality of the show is not as good. However, I think that there are some important lessons on teaching that can be gleaned from The Walking Dead.
Attack The Head
No, no, no I don't mean stabbing the students in their heads or any form of decapitation. Unless they turn into a pack of Zombies. If they do, you lock that classroom door and fight them off. I meant attacking the head in a completely metaphorical sense. I remember speaking to a teacher of 45 years. I asked her what was her biggest takeaway from teaching. She said get into their heads and mold their attitude. She said once you get that part right, teaching becomes easy.
To elaborate, she was referring to first understanding how the students think, react and respond to challenges. Once the teacher is able to mold and encourage them, teaching them the right attitude in learning, the teacher will not have to spend too much time dealing with disruptive and off-task behavior.
The teacher can also aim to change the perspective of the students by focusing on the benefits of something that they don't like doing. For example, if the students don't like doing homework, it is likely they are focusing on the hardship and not the potential benefits of homework such as persistence, tenacity and the value of hard work. All this can benefit the child in the future and its all a matter of perspective.
We All Are Negan
Ahhh... Negan, by far my most favorite character of the show. He makes everyone say that they are Negan and while they are different theories to why he does so. One of them is that by acknowledging Negan as a system and by acknowledging that they are Negan, they serve the system and not the person. Some even claim that Negan as a form of cult or religion and that everyone who claims that they are Negan swears by the religion.
While I do not want my students to go about saying that 'we are all Mr Alvin' (despite it having a rather good ring to it), I think the lesson from Negan is how he makes everyone focus on the one singular goal of surviving. In the classroom, that can be used for inspiring collaboration and striving for the one goal of succeeding academically. In most classrooms, there will be a mixture of excellent, average and poor students and while it is a teacher's job to help all of the students succeed, it is much more satisfying to see all of them helping each other to succeed together.
I see this in my college class where everyone adopts a no man is left behind attitude. If one fails, they will spend time tutoring that one student who is weak. This starts by first inspiring them daily and telling them that they are all in this together. Thus, while I may not have students who would go around saying 'I am Mr Alvin', I will have the whole class going around saying 'We have all graduated together.'
That makes me proud.
Small Groups Are Better
Time and time again, we see how Rick and his band defeat enemy after enemy. Sure, you could attribute it to their skills and talent. However, I would also link their effectiveness as a team to the size of the group. In a small group, all it takes is for everyone to work in sync and together. You will be surprised what can be achieved even if the odds were against you.
The same goes for the classroom. The situation for most of us teachers are rather different. We don't have a small group of teachers trained in some special teaching tactics to handle hordes of students. Its one against 30-50 students per class. I have even seen a teacher deal with 78 screaming children in the class. That being said, one way that I would handle larger classes would be to divide the class into smaller groups and just like The Walking Dead, assign them each a role. Each of these students will be a specialist in a particular area of a task. As long as everyone has a role to play and are clear with the task at hand, they should be able to learn as effectively as how Rick and his band slay Zombies.
Conclusion
While I am thankful that I a not up against a herd of Zombies in my daily life, a lot of my job requires me to manage the students' learning and attitude. Of course, I do not necessarily draw inspiration from The Walking Dead, some of the leaders in the show did manage the survivors in a fairly effective manner. I may not go as far as making my students say that they are me and take away their individuality, but if you watch the show, I am sure you were as curious as I was. A quick research would reveal the psychological reasons behind it and some aspects of it can be applied in the classroom.
I hope you have found this post entertaining. What's your favorite part of The Walking Dead? Could you apply it in your work? Do let me know in the comments below.