Life has been busy, to say the least, so I took a couple
month hiatus from Twitter. While on
winter break, from teaching, I decided to “slowly” get back into the swing of
Twitter. That quickly changed when I
discovered #rechat this past Saturday morning (9am EST), a chat with a goal to “rethink,
reflect and re-imagine” education. The
focus for this particular chat was the role of play in education. We were encouraged to blog our reflections
about play in education and any experiences that we would like to share. I guess that means I am “slowly” getting back
to blogging too!
This has been a topic that I have spent a great time
reflecting about since the chat on Saturday.
I am not a fan of learning something just because it’s a standard
required to be taught. One of my biggest
complaints about higher education is that I feel like I am completing so many
projects and requirements just for the sake of earning another fancy piece of
paper. I do not want my students to have
that experience and those thoughts about their education experience. I want students to be able to explain how the
information they are learning can be applied to real life experiences. Students need to be able to know that
mistakes and errors happen and how to identify and learn from them. Infusing play into education is one way to
help student learn how to apply learning to real life situations.
What is play? That
was a question that was widely discussed during this chat. I think play can be defined in multiple ways,
depending on the age of the learner. For
kindergarten students play could be something as simple as Legos or a sensory
table. Middle school and high school
student’s play might look more like inventive play where they are required to
create and revise a certain product, depending on the content being
taught. I also believe that adults need
play to be able to relate to the experiences that students have within the
classroom. I was given that awesome
opportunity in two separate settings this past November, thanks to my
wonderful, innovative principal!
The first setting was during a full day teacher in-service
where all my co-workers and I went to Priority Designs in Gahanna, Ohio. We were given a tour, which was like watching
play in progress. We got to see the
beginning stages of products, product revisions and then the final
products. The best part of the
experience was being able to talk to the designers about their educational
experiences. The majority of the
designers had some kind of learning disability and did not have a positive
educational experience. Too much of the
learning required of them was reading and writing and not enough was hands-on
learning. They were required to find the
correct answer, but never taught how those answers applied to everyday
life. Now they are required to find
multiple correct answers, many of which will be revised or completely ignored,
which is perfectly acceptable to them.
Revision and reflection was something that was never taught in school,
second chances in learning did not happen for them. However, that is how many of the products we
use and depend on every day are created, by second or tenth chances. After reflecting on this mandatory day of
play I realize that, in the world of standardized education, students are not
given enough second or tenth chances. I
appreciate being given second chances to improve a grant, IEP document and
behavior plan, so I should afford my students the opportunity of second chances
as well.
Now on to the second, and more uncomfortable, setting of
play. The day after our Priority Designs
tour we had an after school staff meeting.
Instead of talking about the latest cafeteria issues or what the math
RTI model looks like for our building we were allowed to play with paint. Anna Kuenzli from the Creative Art Studio in
Bexley, Ohio brought her art studio to our school and taught us how to make
concentric circle paintings. Secretly, I
was ready to show the staff I am truly an artist in hiding. Unfortunately, that artist is still in
hiding! How hard can it be to make a
concentric circle painting? I was
allowed to decide my own color scheme and circle sizes, so it can’t be that
difficult. Oh my gosh, I was so stressed
while painting! Something that I secretly
had confidence about, like so many of our students might about their
comprehension after reading or creation of a poem, quickly disappeared as I
walked around the room and look at the other paintings. I started to think about the students and how
their abilities vary so widely within a classroom, similar to the art
experience of the teachers in the room.
Yet, we are quick to compare students to the same baseline, no matter
what previous or lack of previous experience they bring to the classroom. Overall, I was proud of my masterpiece (it’s
proudly hanging in my classroom), but that was the first time ever painting on
canvas so I wouldn’t want it compared it to my good friend’s painting whom has
been doing art for years. I think we
need to remember this when educating students.
Some students come to us as avid readers, writers, mathematicians or
questioners, so we need to teach them how to extend their thinking. However, many students never read, write,
compute or question unless it is within the walls of the classroom. We also need to positively encourage these
students, and refrain from comparing them to their peers who have had more experience
in these areas. It is through my own experience
of play that I have been able to have conversations with students who are quick
to say they are stupid or not as smart as another peer, and explain to them how
much progress they are personally making.
It is important to teach students that just because they may not get
something correct on the first attempt doesn’t mean that they didn’t try their
hardest. Students need to be taught how
to reflect on mistakes and first attempts, and then use those reflections to
improve on every attempt after that.
As the New Year gets under way my goal is to be more
reflective about my how I purposely plan for play within my teaching. I learned more about myself as an educator
during that in-service and staff meeting than I ever have at a previous staff
meetings. Students need to know how what
they are learning applies to everyday life, and also that mistakes are a
necessary part of life. I believe that
incorporating a sense of play into learning will help students to achieve both
of those goals.
