Getting Engaged (P2)
This week, I wanted to outline some fabulous (and simple) ways to tie in experiential learning into our classrooms. We live in a day and age where being a creative teacher can be stifled by administrative policies, required curriculum, budget, classroom sizes, etc. My aim is to provide a list of some ideas that can jump start creative minds at the beginning of the school year. With that said, we’re starting off with my favorite!
My husband and I cook 90% of our meals, and we both love baking desserts. We even started making our own bread recently to cut back on commercial waste. While cooking isn’t for everybody, it’s a simple and fairly inexpensive way to make all sorts of amazing connections in reading, writing, science, and math in the classroom.
When I taught G1, we would make applesauce during our nonfiction how-to unit. I already had a crock pot, sugar and cinnamon at home. All I needed to buy were apples and lemons, which amounted to only a couple of dollars. We would spend time discussing what the ingredients would be used for (inferring), the steps to preparation (sequencing), measuring ingredients (math), and predicting the taste (opinion citing evidence). We started making it in the morning, so by the time it was lunch we could smell the sweet aroma of apples and cinnamon. We described what we smelled and eventually what it tasted like (adjectives)!
There are a tremendous amount of low prep, no bake, healthy recipes that require only a handful of ingredients. One of my favorite cooking blogs, The Big Man’s World, is full of recipes that I’ve used in the classroom quite a few times.
Cooking is a simple way to make amazing connections in reading, writing, science, and math in the classroom.
The last school I worked at had a nut ban due to some students having severe allergies, which eliminated a lot of the no-bake treats I planned on making as most of them involved using nut butters. Schools I went to growing up banned food brought in that wasn’t store bought and pre-packaged. Before attempting anything like this, check with your admin for district policies regarding food and beverages. International schools like the ones I work at tend to be more lenient than schools in the states that are run by huge districts, but it’s still imperative that you see what types of cooking activities you can do.
How many times have you been studying geography, plants, animals, or world famous countries and wished that you could actually GO there instead of just talking about it? With more widespread access to tech in the 21st century, you can bring experiences around the world to the classroom with a few clicks of a button. With a little research, you can explore video feeds of monuments (social studies), science labs and wildlife reserves (science), and view cities on Google Maps to explore on your own (sequencing with directions). With programs like Skype and Google Hangouts, you can even have a live tour of places like the Shedd Aquarium. You can also access free virtual tours of places like NASA’s science labs and The Museum of Natural History in NYC.
You can bring experiences around the world to the classroom with a few clicks of a button.
Timing would be the biggest issue for live feeds of parks and zoos. For instance, a live feed of the San Diego Zoo wouldn’t be accessible in Chiang Mai because of the time difference. Live virtual tours would pose similar issues with timing. These live virtual tours also come with a price tag as well. A solid internet connection and a projector would be needed to view the virtual tours at optimum quality, but a way around that would be to reserve a space where these tools are available.
Many teachers may disagree with this, but video games can be an excellent classroom tool if used correctly. Many games, especially those that are cooperative, can emphasize both content material and classroom community by having students work together to solve problems. My G3 Co-Teacher used a Tetris game on his Nintendo Switch last year during a lesson on area and arrays. They had a “Tetris Party” where one group of students competed on the game while the other group did a separate math activity addressing the same standards. The kids loved it, and it was a great way to close out a unit that they worked so hard for! Minecraft even has an “Education Edition” that’s specifically tailored for classroom application. Students can apply mathematics skills, create building plans, and creatively solve problems with simple coding tools.
Doing a simple internet search yields thousands of online games to assist students in any content area. Teach Your Monster To Read is a popular game choice at my school for kids during their computer lab time, and Storybird is a great program to use for creating your very own picture books (not really a “game”, but I think it loosely fits the genre).
Not everyone plays games, so the learning curve can be steep for those who have never used games or consoles before. Also, gaming is expensive, so unless you own them already it’s not worth buying anything for a single lesson. It’s also important to remember to keep it simple; games are a great resource to extend learning and for practice, but no form of tech should be used as a replacement for learning. Balance is key, and sometimes incorporating complex tech simply isn’t worth the time, effort, or money when you can accomplish the same goals and engage students with different tools.
My husband and I worked at the same school for two years (where we met). He taught G9 English, and I was a G1 homeroom teacher. We decided to combine our classes for five periods across a week to address my science standards and his public speaking standards. The way we did this was by having his freshman class teach groups of my G1 students about recycling. We both graded the high schoolers on their presentation, and my kids got a formative assessment created by his G9s. In short, it was amazing and the kids ate it up.
Our collaboration was so successful that we decided to share it with other staff during a PD session. We surprised attendants by pairing them up randomly with other teachers (some of whom they have never met!) and asked them to compare standards to see if they could come up with some ideas for getting classes together. One G4 teacher and an film teacher ended up collaborating on a project that involved filming student narratives!
We sometimes feel like our classrooms are little islands separate from one another. I’ve gone entire school years not knowing teachers names because we simply did not interact with one another. However, each teacher brings a unique set of knowledge that can be utilized in creative ways outside of our four walls. Working with other teachers across different grade levels (and even different schools) is a fantastic way to create a truly memorable community experience for students that also aligns with content standards. Many local establishments like farms, wildlife reserves, police departments, and animal shelters love taking time to visit schools to teach students about what they do and how they give back to the community.
Timing can be a huge issue when collaborating with other teachers or businesses. My husband and I had to work through some timing hurdles ourselves, but eventually both of us were able to compromise to make it work. Also, administrative policies could prevent teachers from connecting with others and may require forms or a special request that could make the process more time consuming.
Each teacher brings a unique set of knowledge that can be utilized in creative ways outside of our four walls.
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Sometimes we get so caught up with the standards that we forget who we’re teaching; children. Children thrive off of hands on learning and experiences that they can transfer into the classroom. Whenever planning a unit, I try to take a step back and reflect; “What can I do that goes beyond the standard? How can I take the standard ______ and stretch it out to engage students in a meaningful experience?”. I hope some of these points give you some creative ideas to start off the year!
