Empowering Moments (1st in an Occasional Series):

We are all familiar with the expression “teachable moment” that refers to those times in class when something happens that offers us an opportunity to impart a valuable lesson to our students. Recently, I first heard the expression “learnable moment,” which basically refers to these same opportunities, but focuses on what the children are gaining, rather than what the teachers are sharing. I love both of these expressions, but I have to say that I prefer the latter because of its emphasis on the student’s perspective.

In this blog series I introduce the expression “Empowering Moment.” An Empowering Moment is a classroom occurrence that affords teachers the opportunity to develop character, foster independence, and build students’ capacity for the future.

Wrapping Up This Blog Series:  Over the past couple months I have described various ways in which I try to establish a sense of purpose with my students so that they understand why committing themselves to academic pursuits matters and so that they find their work meaningful and relevant to their present and future lives. Specifically, there are four main tools I use to try to establish purpose.