Going into my first year of teaching, I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted my students to walk into our classroom thinking, “This is the best place ever! I never want to leave!” How naïve was I? I did my best to create a physical environment that made my students feel this way. As you can see in Figure 1, I had perfectly color coordinated EVERYTHING, tables organized by colors, a book nook with a couch, fun chairs to sit in, and to top it off: a super cute puppy theme…how could they resist puppies? Figure 1: My classroom set up for my first year of teaching (2017). Photo by: Hayley Justin Along with my perfectly organized physical environment, I had perfectly organized plans. I would greet each student every morning with either a hug or a high five – their choice! Then they would come inside to do their morning work (some sort of packet). After morning work, we could do calendar and our morning meeting. We’d proceed with my lesson plans for phonics, spelling, reading workshop, and writing workshop before lunch. But after lunch, oh boy, this was when I was going to let them EXPLORE! Each table would get a chance to explore one exciting math tool for 5 minutes at a time! How cool was I?! I spent so much time worrying about everything going smoothly and my students having fun that I practically planned their own exploring for them. #epicfail. My mindset was this: If I have structure, my students will feel safe. My job is to keep them safe, I have to give them structure. Simple as that! I had heard from so many mentors, “Structure is key!” Although I do believe structure is important, looking back, I think I took it too far. By purposefully planning out each and every little piece of our day, I took away my students’ freedom to truly explore, to create, to make, and ultimately, to understand. Luckily, my school was in the process of exploring some new approaches. At the start of my second year of teaching, my principal offered me the opportunity to attend multiple Design for Deep Thinking sessions. These sessions focused on creating cultures of thinking and making thinking visible in our classrooms. I jumped at this chance to soak up all this new information and ideas that I put to the test in my classroom. Design for Deep Thinking pushed me out of my comfort zone to let go of my strict planning when it showed me actual evidence from other classrooms of children benefiting from making their thinking visible. This sparked a major shift in my classroom when I went from strict plans to letting my students’ thinking and creating guide my lessons. Making Thinking Visible did not provide a fixed set of lessons to teach students how to show their thinking, but rather a collection of routines, called thinking routines. According to Ritchhart, Church, and Morrison (2011), thinking routines allow for students’ different ideas to be expressed, documented, discussed, and reflected upon. Thinking routines are considered tools to help students make their thinking visible. More than anything, these routines allow for thinking to be at the center of our lessons, not content. This reminds me of the learning theory constructionism. Constructionism “suggest(s) that we can’t just pour our knowledge into a learner’s head, but really they have to build their understanding of whatever we’re communicating to them” (Udacity, 2000). In both ideas, making thinking visible and constructionism, teachers are providing students with the tools to learn, as opposed to handing them the information. See Figures 2 and 3 below for examples of making thinking visible and constructionism at work in my classroom.
Just as my students are, I am still exploring who I am as an educator and what I think is valuable enough to be implemented in my classroom. You can see a reflection of who I am as a teacher today in the infographic in Figure 4 below. I believe I will always be exploring new ways to present material and engage my students as both education and students are constantly evolving. I will say, however, that I feel I’m on the right track now. Having a principal and colleagues that support creating a culture of thinking and allowing our students to be makers in their own right is the reason my classroom has evolved to where it is today. As I am starting out my journey as a student in the Master of Arts in Educational Technology program at Michigan State, I am excited to say that the research I am doing on constructionism, failing, and making are all aligning with the direction I feel that my school, and my classroom, are heading in as well. Here’s to an exciting journey ahead! Figure 4: Infographic documenting who I am as a teacher in July 2019. Photo by: Hayley Justin Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & Morrison, K. (2011). Making thinking visible: How to promote engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners. Udacity. (2016, June 6). Constructionism. [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qsiqetMlCg
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