We could spend a career finding answers to this. It is the heart of the art side of teaching and worth pursuing for the lifetime of a career. In my opinion it changes over time with the nature of the student, the learning, the context, the technology of the times we live in. For starters, it starts in the heart of the teacher.
I think that we as educators need to remember that there are many lessons and skills learned during play. SO many educators I have met think play is a waste of time. As an Ex-Kinder teacher....I have to say that there is a WHOLE lot to learn through play....kinder is where my heart will always be and I am amazed as to the significant changes in the expectations for the young kiddos. If you recall at our visit to the TEA, I asked, when are we going to stop testing and assessing and allow for time to teach......their response was....that is a good question (or something like that)......I love what the Professor says....it starts in the heart of the teacher. If we educate teachers as to "What" they are learning during play...they can use that as the justification for allowing the play.....I even have cue cards....lol
Great question, Jason. So many of our students think that work = boring! We have to find creative ways to bring learning to life. My oldest son loves history, which is interesting to me because I used to think it was the most boring class in the world. Now as I think back on what Matt used to tell me about history class, I remember him telling me that he had a history teacher in high school who would play his guitar in class and make up songs to go with the lessons! :) Wow! I just remember reading that huge text book and doing worksheets...
Good question, but my dilema is the opposite...How can I get my students to take school seriously? This has been a problem I have never seen until I came to my current school. Lutheran schools are somewhat stereotypical to your generic private school, i.e. tougher academics, higher expectation, more rigorous. However, when I arrived in Texas I found a school that had no rules for the students behavior; no policy for student work expectation; and academics that were seriously low.
Everything was funny to them and they thought school was just that: a joke. Worse still, I had teachers who really didn't know or care that our students were scoring, on average, in the 50th percentile (very uncharacteristic for a Lutheran school).
So far, it's been a long journey toward an increase in over all higher expectation. Worse still, is that I have teachers who are trying to crank up the expectations by cranking up the worksheets. Not a step in the right direction!
You are right, there must be a balance between fun (excitement) and work in school. I remember the wise words of a good friends of mine who has taught for over 40 years, "Work when you're going to work and have fun when you have fun." She always had a classroom full eager students who loved school for the learning and for the fun.
I think is important that as educators we try to construct learning experiences that engage students in a rigorous manner. Teachers should incorporate a variety of learning styles and differentiated activities to include play. At my campus we have extensive character education program that is infused throughout the day into the core curriculum. It includes a number of games and team building activities that appear to be play. These activities have to be well planned and very deliberated interrelated to the learning. Coming from a background of rooted in elementary after school program management, play was the order of the day. I have seen many successful learning environments constructed with a play element integrated into the learning. Kids respond well when they feel the learning is fun.
5 comments:
We could spend a career finding answers to this. It is the heart of the art side of teaching and worth pursuing for the lifetime of a career. In my opinion it changes over time with the nature of the student, the learning, the context, the technology of the times we live in. For starters, it starts in the heart of the teacher.
I think that we as educators need to remember that there are many lessons and skills learned during play. SO many educators I have met think play is a waste of time. As an Ex-Kinder teacher....I have to say that there is a WHOLE lot to learn through play....kinder is where my heart will always be and I am amazed as to the significant changes in the expectations for the young kiddos. If you recall at our visit to the TEA, I asked, when are we going to stop testing and assessing and allow for time to teach......their response was....that is a good question (or something like that)......I love what the Professor says....it starts in the heart of the teacher. If we educate teachers as to "What" they are learning during play...they can use that as the justification for allowing the play.....I even have cue cards....lol
Great question, Jason. So many of our students think that work = boring! We have to find creative ways to bring learning to life. My oldest son loves history, which is interesting to me because I used to think it was the most boring class in the world. Now as I think back on what Matt used to tell me about history class, I remember him telling me that he had a history teacher in high school who would play his guitar in class and make up songs to go with the lessons! :) Wow! I just remember reading that huge text book and doing worksheets...
Good question, but my dilema is the opposite...How can I get my students to take school seriously? This has been a problem I have never seen until I came to my current school. Lutheran schools are somewhat stereotypical to your generic private school, i.e. tougher academics, higher expectation, more rigorous. However, when I arrived in Texas I found a school that had no rules for the students behavior; no policy for student work expectation; and academics that were seriously low.
Everything was funny to them and they thought school was just that: a joke. Worse still, I had teachers who really didn't know or care that our students were scoring, on average, in the 50th percentile (very uncharacteristic for a Lutheran school).
So far, it's been a long journey toward an increase in over all higher expectation. Worse still, is that I have teachers who are trying to crank up the expectations by cranking up the worksheets. Not a step in the right direction!
You are right, there must be a balance between fun (excitement) and work in school. I remember the wise words of a good friends of mine who has taught for over 40 years, "Work when you're going to work and have fun when you have fun." She always had a classroom full eager students who loved school for the learning and for the fun.
I think is important that as educators we try to construct learning experiences that engage students in a rigorous manner. Teachers should incorporate a variety of learning styles and differentiated activities to include play. At my campus we have extensive character education program that is infused throughout the day into the core curriculum. It includes a number of games and team building activities that appear to be play. These activities have to be well planned and very deliberated interrelated to the learning. Coming from a background of rooted in elementary after school program management, play was the order of the day. I have seen many successful learning environments constructed with a play element integrated into the learning. Kids respond well when they feel the learning is fun.
Post a Comment