It’s only been six weeks since the school year started, but I was already feeling tired. On Friday, after a long and exhausting day, two birds flew into my classroom. It was comical and absurd. For 60 minutes, I watched high school students run around the room trying to catch these birds. Several times I had to chase after students as I saw them doing strange things like standing on desks, chairs, and window sills trying to catch them.
This situation was so hard to manage that I gave myself a day off for my next period. I thought they would use their cell phones to check out. Instead, I watched the children play the same clapping game. I watched them stare out the window, do other class work, or call their families. Even though I wasn’t providing direct instruction and my students weren’t working on achieving their learning goals for the day, I felt like I was seeing learning happening all around me. I felt it. After such a stressful situation it was a pleasant surprise.
Trying to make sense of what I saw that day, I looked up the definitions of play and learning. According to Oxford Dictionaries, play is defined as “engaging in an activity for enjoyment rather than for any serious or practical purpose.” Learning, on the other hand, is defined as “the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, learning, or being taught.” As I reflected on both definitions, I realized that the seriousness we associate with playfulness is at the heart of why playfulness is shunned as an approach to education.
Due to curriculum rigor, standardized testing, and the controlling nature of compulsory education, playful and unstructured time is considered detrimental to student learning. But what is learning? Why is play considered the opposite of teaching? What if we put playfulness and unstructured time at the center of our classrooms, even if they have nothing to do with the curriculum? • Part of learning is gaining knowledge through experience. If play is an experience, it also leads to the acquisition of knowledge.
Develop trust in learning services
Unstructured time and playfulness create a sense of trust and freedom between students and teachers in the classroom. Giving students the space to do what they need to do gives them the power to decide how they spend their time as human beings. As a high school teacher, this is especially important as many of my students are approaching adulthood. We need to believe that our students are growing up to be responsible people, giving them the opportunity to decide how to spend their time in the same way adults do.
In the past, I have been hesitant to offer a platform as a teacher of color due to the pressure of curricular expectations. Since I’ve given my students the freedom to decide how to use that free period, I’ve seen them respect: classroom agreement Easier. There is little need to interrupt the discussion or redirect students, especially during that period. It’s been a few weeks since we gave the free trial, and we’re seeing very high levels of results. agree. I have better emotional support because I can inspire my students to be their best selves, show them that I trust them, and in turn they can trust me. I believe that
This trust also leads to lower emotional filters. of emotional filter is a metaphor For students’ self-awareness as learners. It is typically used in the context of language acquisition for multilingual learners, but it also serves a purpose for teachers looking to create a safe space in their classrooms. A high affective filter means that students are reluctant to take academic risks because they do not consider themselves to be strong learners. When the emotional filter is lowered, students feel safe enough to take academic risks and make mistakes.
To lower the emotional filter, teachers need to inculcate it. growth mindset Create a safe classroom for your students and help them understand that mistakes are celebrated. If students do not trust their teachers, they cannot safely take these risks. And without taking academic risks, students may not reach their full learning potential.
Surprise your students
As I write this, I realize that an unstructured classroom is probably every teacher’s nightmare. But I’m not saying you should do this every day. Knowledge is not just content, but also knowing other human beings. When my students started playing card games with each other, it wasn’t just groups of students who already knew each other, they came together from across the room to participate. I watched my students laugh and jump with excitement with every move I made. Friends. In that moment, I saw them recognize and learn from how their peers approached UNO and changed their strategies. When I resumed classes the following week, my students were ready to learn.
School education is already compulsory. You don’t have to spend all your time teaching your students how to be, move, and act. In some cases, it’s helpful to trust them to decide how to spend their time. What they will remember most will be the moments in which they continued to build community with their classmates. Although concerns about academic content being neglected are real; Retaining information in times of anxiety or danger It’s impossible.
As teachers, we can learn a lot about our students by just letting them be. I saw students being young and cheerful and expressing people in ways I didn’t expect. I was pleasantly surprised that they enjoyed just being with their friends and didn’t default to their phones to kill time. It gave me hope for a future where screens are not the overwhelming approach to socialization for young people.
Why not give them more opportunities to enjoy each other’s interactions in the classroom? With everything focused on learning academic language, following the curriculum, and building cognitive endurance, it’s hard to do all that sometimes. I realize now that it’s okay to let go. The two birds that flew into my classroom taught me an important lesson. It’s about surprising students with who they are.
