Things That Work
The ordeal of my fall was only trumped by the excitement of my return to school. I took a big tumble back in December on a school field trip to a roller skating rink. Skating is a hobby of mine and I thoroughly enjoyed the annual trip, being able to skate with my eighth graders and see them have playful fun with each other.
The fall happened: I sustained a broken knee cap, sprained wrist and torn shoulder followed by the winter of my discontent. Spring is here now and I am grateful to be walking and clapping my hands again. (You can’t clap with one hand.) My time off for recovery from surgery gave me time to heal as well as time to think. What do I do in my classroom that works? What do I need to change?
I reviewed many of the practices that made up my lessons and started to weed out, at least in my mind, the things that actually worked. College professors would call this instructional effectiveness. Teachers call it, survival.
For example, any learning activity where students worked in collaboration with each other works. It is sometimes tricky to engineer but it works. Students solving problems together is effective because they own the issue, there is a timeline for completion, and they have can talk it through with each other to solve. Planning is essential and every year I revise my plans to get this to fly but I like the results because they are working hard and it seems like I am barely working (which is not exactly true considering all the planning) but there is definitely learning taking place. It’s palpable.
Another thing that works for me to have students move around the classroom. They are so full of energy this time of year. I set up stations using desks pulled together and then label each station with a topic or challenge. Then they move in carefully constructed ways. For example, if the table has four students, I may move two clockwise to the next table so that I mix up the groups. This works well because students who would not normally sit together end up with each other and the mix can be more productive.
Students are social creatures, just like their parents. They like to hang out and be a part of something big. The wise teacher knows that this can work to our advantage when the hanging out includes an exciting task to complete, and oh, they get to learn something in the meantime. This is just engineering human nature, harnessing natural tendencies and teaching knowing how to manipulate all the circumstances to a best learning advantage.
My classroom is not a prison! We are there together and it is my job to make that experience not just effective but enjoyable. Who says you can’t listen to music and write an essay? Who says you can’t play a game and learn some facts? Who’s the winner? We all win!
