Teaching is a great adventure in learning!

Last night I listened to Shelley Wright speak to a room full of educators and I was inspired.  Her journey from traditional teacher to project based passion teacher made me think of my own teaching practices.  My teaching style has always been hands on, active, play based, co-operative group learning but it has still been controlled by me.  In the past, I have put the students into literacy groups and have chosen the activities that they do.  I have done math centres where they rotate through the stations in an organized manner.  I have chosen the themes that we learn based on the learning outcomes.  This year I have been making small changes since September.  These are:

*giving  my students choice on where they want to work during seat work times, such as sitting on rocking chairs, pillows, comfy chairs, bouncy chairs, on the floor or standing.

*letting them choose whether to sit on the floor or at their desk during story time (letting them decide where the best spot for their active listening will be).

*moving my desk to face a wall and letting my students sit at my desk and on my chair during read to self times.

*encouraging my students to try different activities on the ipads and to teach me and the others how to use the various apps.

*letting my students during centres put up their own decorations (their own idea) and posters in the classroom such as Halloween decorations, birthday decorations and signs.

*this week I let my students choose their literacy centres.  They were very excited to put their name beside the literacy centre that they wanted to do.  The first day most students chose the computers, ipads and whiteboard but they were all engaged in the various activities.

*today with the encouragement of my wonderful teaching partner Lora Sarchet I asked my students to write down what they want to learn this year.  They were very excited and got right down to work.  They all had very different ideas about what they want to learn about, such as learning about sunsets, teeth, bats, animals, trees and leaves, how to bake a pie, make pancakes, how lego is made, science experiments, how people move, space, flowers and plants, how dolls are made, and fish.  Now to make their wonders become a reality.  Originally I had planned that I would choose one of their ideas each month and have all of the students learn about it but once I saw all of the different ideas I realized that they all need to learn their own topic and then share it.  It is hard to give up control of the classroom and to take a passenger seat.  I now know what my students really want to learn so I have to make sure that I make this happen.  How to go about it though has been on my mind most of today.  I have been thinking about trying monthly wonder afternoons where the students choose their topic and take control of their learning (let me know what supplies they need so that I can help).  Then they can blog about their learning but is that enough?  Does anyone else have suggestions on how I can fit into my day/year time for each child to learn about their own passions?

I want to learn how to make pie.  I want to learn about how lego is made.

I want to learn about bats.  I want to learn about making science experiments.

I want to learn about teeth (how to care for them, keep them clean, how they grow).  I want to learn about sunsets how they go down.

I want to learn about animals.  I want to know more about math and plants and flowers.