Meme:Passion Quilt

I am grateful to be a reader of Tricia’s Miss Rumphius Effect because her dedicated writing gives me the opportunity to know her better–and to learn all kinds of great things about books and poetry! So I am answering her “tag” here, happy to be a part of such a wonderful quilt.

What am I passionate about teaching my students? Well, everything I know about learning I learned from my own children, so my picture for the quilt will let me tell a bit about that story:

My kids, like all kids, loved big, empty boxes. They would make me cut holes in them for doors and windows, and they insisted on painting them. They also loved costumes and pretending. It all came together one day with a large discarded window treatment and a case of the stomach flu. With both parents laid out on the couch, the boys were entertaining themselves (read:making a big mess) when they had an epiphany: Mom and Dad need us to make them feel better! They started to bring together the things they loved, making a kind of puppet theater in which they were both costumed actors and puppeteers. They told goofy, disjointed stories that had us holding our sore tummies and laughing. I could see on their faces how proud they were of themselves–they had created something effective and teh laughter they heard was all the “grade” they needed!

What I learned from that day has shaped the way I teach. I try to remind myself that the most amazing thing happens when I give people a reason to do something new, and then get out of the way. What I am passionate about teaching my students is that they have it in themselves to DO things, to LEARN things and to CREATE things. But what makes me a teacher is that I know that telling them this message is not the same thing as teaching them about this! Here is how it works out in my classroom: students read or write outside of classtime. Then, during class time, they work in small groups to come up with something new related to what they have read and written (a question, an answer, a picture, etc.). Then the small groups offer what they have come up with to the whole class. I try to facilitate a “learning community” because I think we learn best when we can work together to solve problems. It is important to me that they get back in touch with their “inner learner” who did this learning thing so naturally as a child, and connect the new stuff to themselves and to real life. I want them to know that they have the power to do this already–inside themselves.
And the interesting twist is that they seem to do this best when there is a real life product involved, when they feel that someone needs them and that what they create matters. I have written before about what I think of as my most successful class ever. I will never, never forget how I felt when I saw what had been a rag-tag bunch of flip-flop clad students with a “messy” project show up in suits and dresses to give the most amazing ,active presentation I have seen, demonstrating a deep understanding of the composition theory and pedagogy. Really–that presentation was better than most I have seen at professional conferences, and because they presented to real folks from Richmond and Henrico County, there are now middle and high school writing centers in operation in our area! Their work was real, it mattered, and I got out of the way and let them do the whole project themselves, with my only role being: designing the project, gathering an audience, and trying not to act too nervous while I paced around their group meetings like a sheep dog circling an unruly herd.

So now I will tag some educators who I would like to have add to the quilt.

Gardner
Tom
Steve
Reverend Jim
Jeff

* Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
* Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
* Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
* Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.