Term one has flown by and we're on the home stretch to Easter holidays!
Join us as we reflect on rejecting worksheets and pulling a hands-on lesson out of nowhere. Plus, a little reflecting on the exciting things to come next term at the Learning Hub.
Naomi
How can we make learning feel concrete and relevant?
How can we create opportunities to get hands-on and to make real-world connections that bring the learning alive?
If this approach isn’t already built into the planning at your school, then yes, it is more work to make it happen.
But it is soooo worth it!
Last week was too busy for words - by Friday it felt like it was just a matter of getting through to the end of the day. 3D shapes were on the timetable for the afternoon and my co-teacher had told me quite a few students weren’t grasping the topic.
The pressure was on to quickly come up with a lesson. The quickest solution by far, would have been to trawl the internet for a worksheet and do a lesson based around that. But I would have found it hard to teach; Teaching a 3D concept in 2D?
It would have felt just wrong.
Not doing it!
I had a free lesson beforehand to catch up with marking but I had an idea I wanted to try.
The skyscrapers of Perth CBD are made up of a combination of different 3D shapes that we’ve been learning about. So why not try to recreate one? The next 30 minutes of my marking time was spent drawing out nets of various 3D shapes at 100mph.
I gave the class a collaborative challenge to build the Rio Tinto building, Central Park. They needed to construct their shape and label it with its name and properties: number of faces, vertices and edges.
Now, it wasn’t the perfect lesson.
If I’d had time to pull together twice as many resources, it would have been better so we could have worked in smaller groups. But it was high on engagement and enjoyment (for both the students and myself), and hopefully gave them a stronger connection to the shapes in the world around them. When we put together the final structure, the students were buzzing and wanting to take pictures.
We all know it’s not always feasible to pull a brand new lesson together at the drop of a hat, but when you can, give yourself a chance to look out at the world and see where the learning could connect out there. I’d love to produce a downloadable resource for this lesson, so watch this space…
Shona
Last Friday was the end of term for us at Foothills Learning Hub and it was a doozy.
I was not surprised to look up later that night and see a full moon after spending lunch time with the kids literally howling around the table! Everyone was a little tired and emotional which - I won’t lie - definitely included me. On reflection though I can see that we have made great improvements from week one and I feel like we’re ready to bring out the big guns and start focusing on the learning habits with an inquiry focus.
So here’s what I’m thinking for next term using the habits as a framework.
Collaboration - For kids who are used to a very flexible homeschool background and have the challenges of neurodiversity to navigate, it’s been a rocky road to figure out how to collaborate with others and get used to a routine, but there have been glimmers of hope!
Breaking out the large floor puzzles in the morning when the kids arrive has encouraged sharing and working together to achieve the common goal of resurrecting Bluey and his family or completing the animal alphabet. It's a valuable time that teaches so much and will continue next term as I go forth and hunt for more puzzles to increase the challenge.
For great ideas around teaching with a focus on collaboration head to the book Powering Up Children by Guy Claxton & Becky Carlzon.
Discipline - I want to encourage our kids to reflect critically as often as possible on what’s working and what’s not, when they work on a project. I’d also love them to develop a sense of pride in what they do and aim for high quality effort. Educator, Ron Berger’s work is great for this, especially his Youtube video Austin’s Butterfly. I intend to show this to the kids to show them how important it is to get feedback from our friends and try more than one draft to get better at what we do.
Persistence - this is another one that some of our students really struggle with and is definitely on my radar to help them stick with difficulty without giving up or becoming super emotional. We’ll make sure they know that failure is a positive path to learning in our space and that there is more than one way to do almost everything.
See if you can get your hands on a copy of the Epic Fail Game to play with your kids or even just as an idea generator to adapt for your classroom.
Imagination - can’t wait to have some fun with this one and I think something I personally need to work on too. I look forward to making some out-of-the-box connections and having the time to explore the intriguing ideas the kids come up with. I know they are great at finding alternate ways of thinking already!
Try some divergent thinking with Naomi’s whiteboard activities from last week’s post or play some games like creating an oral story in a group, one person and one word at a time.
And lastly…
Inquisitive - I want to challenge assumptions they may already have about the world and themselves. Encouraging endless wondering and questioning with a wonder wall of their questions is high on my agenda too. I highly recommend looking at work online by Trevor Mackenzie or checking out his book Inquiry Mindset.
And - wait for it!
The subject our kids chose to work on next term… drumroll please….
SPACE!
We’re all excited about this one and I feel like the kids will probably know more than me in some areas already, so time to brush up over the holidays!
Make sure to subscribe here and find out how we go next term, as well as picking up some creativity focused ideas and resources for your own classroom.
Until next time ... stay curious!
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