After spending a morning shoving my face full of dumplings and going to a fish spa (yep, that's a thing here), I've settled into a lazy afternoon of programming and Notebook creation (and procrasti-blogging, it seems) which gives me a chance to start to organise everything for Term 2.
I'm pretty adjusted now to my school's style of programming, but when I met my prac student for the first time about a month ago, she looked at me with eyes the size of dinner plates when I explained how we develop our lessons.
"You don't use textbooks?!" she said quietly, panic registering on her face.
"Yeah, we're a hands on kinda school." I replied with sly smile on mine.
Why was I smiling? Because the exact same panicked thoughts ran rampant through my head when I first started at my school. I couldn't see how my kidlets would learn without filling in a worksheet or textbook page to 'consolidate their knowledge'. I was lost as to how making human sentences, or creating 3D shapes with play dough would support my student's understanding of the content. After all, that's what we're taught at uni and on prac.
Within the teaching of my first lesson, my view changed completely.
Why have students answering mentals style questions when you can have them physically modelling their understanding? Why write down answers in a book when you can show your knowledge creative manner? Who says the teacher's answer is the only answer?
This is the beauty of the hands on learning style my school takes - students spend time with the teacher, who activates prior knowledge and models the concepts, and then hands the reins over to students to experiment and explore the idea in a practical manner.
Keep in mind I'm teaching a 4/5 composite, not Year 1 students. There IS a place for hands on and play based exploration in Upper Primary. In fact, I'll go out on and a limb and say its absolutely crucial for students of all ages to learn through experience.
Its our duty as teachers to cater for all student's learning needs - and often these needs cannot be met through rote learning of concepts within a textbook. Our students are no different in this sense from kids 20 years ago, but we're just more aware of it now.
Where's the proof I hear you say? Why are there bookshops chockers full of books that tout they improve student understanding?
Because its easy. Its much less work to assign a page in a book, or copy a worksheet that to develop a hands on experience for a class - and we as teachers are INCREDIBLY time poor.
But I challenge you - give it a go. Chuck out your textbook! Burn your worksheets! Drag out those dice! Even if its just for one lesson, change it up and watch your student engagement soar.
Feel free to share your hands on experiences below :)
HI Brianna. I just had to sshare this on TRIO's fb page. Many thanks.
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