Every single day I see something awesome on Twitter, on a blog, or from a colleague that excites me about learning. We are surrounded by awesome. Education is filled with a new energy that about sharing, creating, and learning. I know, it’s not really “new,” but it’s new to me. Past the canned programs and copied downloads is this one thing: Authentic learning. We all have a chance, right now, to make school more. And we can do it with less.
1.) Move the furniture. Lower Desks, take legs of tables so kids can sit on the floor to use them. Remove furniture, take desks out, throw in some beanbags, collect some ottomans. Make your classroom space flexible so that kids have a choice where, how, and when they sit, stand, or move. Empower them to choose how they learn best.
2.) Gather old technology. Take apart a keyboard, a mouse, a camera. What’s inside and what does it make you wonder?
3.) Collect the Recycle Bin: Newspaper rolled up for Engineering Challenges. K-Cups to make spheres. Cardboard to build 3d shapes and structures. Wood scraps to build, write poetry on, hang as art. Make trash the new treasure in the learning. A pile of cardboard is a pile of possibilities in the hands of a child.
4.) Office Supplies: Paper clips, index cards, staples, markers, glue, book binding glue, cardstock. Office supplies are raw, untouched, and there is no patter. If you want to build a house from your desk drawer? You have to problem solve, get creative, collaborate, and think about how that paper clip can make a door hinge or how those markers can be used to create a roof. Then? You can find the area, perimeter, and volume of your creation.
5.) Collect stuff. Legos? Building blocks? Marbles? Garage sales, friends with small children growing up, or even thrift stores. Look for sets that are open ended and provide possibilities – and then let the kids guide how they are used. You can also provide building challenges for your kiddos who love to follow a plan. Lego math patterns? Marble coasters on the wall?
6.) Step aside. The most important thing you can do as a teacher? Step aside. The cost is free and the action is truly freeing… free up their minds to dive into learning their way. Their creativity. Their ideas. Sure, you are there to guide and support, free thinking opens doors to solve, explore, and learn.
Sure the new technologies coming out are making creating awesome and creating new possibilities for making. But please don’t make the mistake of thinking you need a huge budget to revamp your classroom or school into a playground for the imagination. The only thing that needs to happen for making to come into your space, is for you to make the time, provide the space, and make the possibilities available. Your students will make the rest happen.
Maybe the things we truly need to give our students aren’t expensive devices and high end tools? Maybe the thing we truly need to give them is the permission to unleash their own creativity.
