In life, I am definitely not a super organized person. My husband can attest to this by pointing to the pile of clothes on top of my hamper. In my classroom, however, I have systems for my systems. My shelving system has labels and sub-labels. Which was why when my district began to push for student driven classrooms, I pretty much balked at the idea. "How does that even work?" "How will I get anything done?" "What if they choose things that don't work, or are not what I'm looking to accomplish?"
I decided to take it slow. Boldly, I deleted a word or two in rubrics I had created. Then I gave students two topics to choose from in an opinion writing assignment. Little by little I started to let go. Something pretty cool started to happen... my kids began to care more. My kids were aware of what was expected of them. My kids were more engaged. This fueled my fire. Eventually my students were creating their own rubrics. They were coming up with their own research projects and writing informative essays. The more power I gave my students the more innovative, creative, and authentic their learning became. This led to some amazing things.
My kids redesigned the classroom based on this new way of learning, considering their learning needs. They started to notice things that needed to change in their world and used class time to change them. Opinion writing changed from a guided curriculum to the creation of a presentation to the principal on why she should purchase garbage bins for our playground. This led to number sense of costs, research on health problems, and lessons on public speaking. Students were curious about coding and computers so they took things apart. They learned about coding systems and how to get into the field of computer science. Most importantly, this was all going on at once. Different kids were working on different things throughout the day. Normally, this would make my anal brain go nuts. But the kids really directed themselves!
Fundamentally my perspective on teaching had changed. I used to think about what we needed to cover and how to incorporate students into it. Now, I harness their interests, passions, and curiosities and then see what curriculum can fold into them. Is it harder? ABSOLUTELY! But I cannot tell you enough how much it is worth it. I literally don't have behavior problems anymore. Differentiation is inherent in the lessons because kids drive their own learning. Learning is authentic.
I will admit that I am still learning. But, I must say, I am truly enjoying being a partner of learning. It's time we let kids show what they can do in their own way. It's time to test the limits and break through. No right, no wrong, no rules for me I'm free! Let it go! I'm glad I did.
If you got that joke you should definitely follow my blog...
Comment below with other ways you have let it go in your classroom!
