I like what John Dewey said, “The world is moving at a tremendous rate. No one knows where. We must prepare our children not for the world of the past, not for our world, but for their world, the world of the future!” We have to prepare the students for jobs that haven’t been invented, prepare them for changes that haven’t happened, for technology that hasn’t been invented. We have to teach these students about the ever changing real world.
In the video it mentioned about a one room schoolhouse. My grandmother and grandfather were teachers long time ago…. Probably in the late 20’s. My grandmother had the lower grades and my grandfather had the upper grades and coached the sports. The room was small and sometimes where were only one or two students in a grade level. They were in a small town area and so they didn’t need a large school.
I remember doing some hands-on activities in kindergarten, but not too many after that. I remember Ms. Conley loving to cook so whenever she could, she had us cooking things. I think she did most of the work, but we “helped” by stirring etc. I remember making Christmas ornaments that were salt, flour, and water (I think) and my mom kept those for many many years, until they basically fell apart.
One other activity that comes to mind was a macrame pot holder we made in fifth grade. My mom bought the necessary items and we learned how to do it at school. The teacher showed us how and we were able to work on it when we finished our work. It inspired most of us to focus and finish our work so that we could work on this project. It was lots of fun and we sat in a group and were able to be creative. I remember mine was blue and had butterfly accents. My mom loved it. She loved plants and had a bunch on our back patio. She hung this up and put one of her plants in it. She kept it there for many many years, until the weather caused it to deteriorate.
One phrase they used in the video was “learning by doing”. This is what we are doing in Pre-K. They are learning by doing the activities, hands-on engagement. We have different centers in our classroom. They are math, writing, construction (Legos), technology, creativity, dramatic play, alphabet, library and sometimes “floor” which is usually a puzzle. Each center has different activities and they are learning by doing. I wish that all grade levels would do this kind of thing.
In order for students to learn by doing, they have to be invested in what they are doing. I took a boring Biology class in high school. Of course we had to dissect a frog. Luckily I had a boy partner who was okay with touching the yucky frog. I wrote the reports. I knew right then that I didn't want to touch things so that eliminated several career choices for me. I have been on many job interviews in my life and none of them have asked me if I knew how to dissect a frog and none of them have asked me to actually do it.
I know why teachers don’t have more centers, because administration doesn’t always see the value of hands-on activities. They are so blinded by the test, getting ready for the test, the test, the test, the test… they “can’t see the forest for the trees” so to speak. If other grades are doing money in math, why can’t they have a “store” and pretend to buy and sell things? Look at how many other skills they would be working on while doing their “math lesson”. I think that teachers would be willing to step out of the box more, if administration were always “breathing down our necks.” They are always nitpicking on things.
We now have “power walks” in our district. (The coaches go to all day trainings on these things.) Any “coach” can come in at any time and see if you are in the "power zone", doing critical writing, having purposeful talk, if your lesson is “framed” and on the board, and doing recognize and reinforce. They claim that it is a “snapshot” but it’s really not. It is a “gotcha” most of the time. They “collect data” and then have these little “talks” with you about what you did and what you didn’t do. Teachers are scared to do anything out of the norm, scared to be creative, and scared to venture off at all because someone will say something. They are so worried about “staying on schedule”. To me real teaching is those moments when you get side-tracked when a students asks a questions that takes you down a different path and you need to spend a few minutes venturing down that path. This is when students become invested into an idea or thought. This is when students start to develop a true interest in what is happening in the classroom.
Teachers hands are tied when they try to do new things in the classroom. The teachers that do want to change aren’t always allowed to make changes. It is exhausting to fight a battle that you know that you aren’t going to win. People talk about wanting to make changes, but they aren’t making them in the right way. Just buying technology isn’t going to help. We have to know what to do and how to do it. We (classroom teachers) have to be given the freedom to make a change, take a chance, and given opportunity to show the results. It seems like administrators wan things right now and sometimes “right now” isn’t how things happen.
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