You’re reading Part 2 of our guest post contributed by Classcraft Ambassador Joshua Ducharme. Read Part 1 here.
Twenty years ago, teachers used to stand in front of a class lecture and write on the blackboard, with CHALK! Today, the classroom looks drastically different.
There is a paradigm shift taking place in education, and teachers need to see the value in what it offers. I’m talking about a complete pedagogical transformation of how teaching is actually done—with more of a focus on personalization, collaboration, innovation, and creativity.
So how can we “reinvent” the classroom experience?
Allowing failures to become successes
Students live in an age where video games are a huge part of their daily lives. One of the key aspects in video games is that when you play the game, you usually get to continue to try to master the level, no matter how many times it takes. Each time you try, you learn what worked and what didn’t — what route to take now instead of the other one you took.
This mastery of learning is an important concept in how we need to approach learning. Children need the opportunity to redo assignments until they have mastered the material. So many times, teachers (I know I’ve done this before) just move on because they have to get to the other material. Teachers need to use these moments as opportunities for students to reflect on their failures, learn from them, and turn them into successes.
An example that comes to mind is the image of an Olympic runner. Imagine the pistol firing, and the runners are off. They are racing with all of their might, and one runner crosses the finish line in fourth place.
There is no medal for him. Does this runner get to try again? Not at this level. But think about how many dozens or even hundreds of times prior to today’s race that he did. The same goes with students. There are numerous times in my classroom where students may not do well on a math test and have opportunities to improve their score by fixing their mistakes with a thorough breakdown of their errors and a reflection. As a teacher, this provides a whole other layer of formative assessment to help me gauge mastery.
Give students time to work on a project of their choosing
Giving students choice in their learning is powerful. It was my mission to give students an opportunity to research something they were passionate about, develop a TED-style talk, and let them see the project to fruition. I originally adopted this particular idea from the Google Science Fair. The premise of the project was simple: “What do you love? What are you good at? What do you want to change?”
Giving students 10-20 percent of their class time to work on a project of their choosing gets students more excited about learning because it becomes something they are passionate about. Students were given time every other Friday to pull out their “Project Innovation” journals and work on their projects. I met with various students along the way to provide mentoring and many times helped to facilitate discussion about how they could improve and enhance their project, and how it would change the community or the world for the better.
Are these all the ways to “reinvent” your classroom to better meet the needs of students? Heavens no! Reinventing your classroom really is a change in pedagogy. It does not happen overnight. Try these tips: Start small, create some guidelines and expectations, and be willing to relinquish complete control. Take lots of pictures of the engaged learning, and do not fear messy or boisterous noise. This is when true learning is taking place.
Joshua Ducharme is a Technology Integration Specialist at the San Diego County Office of Education and has also been a 2nd grade teacher and a 5th grade teacher at Literacy First Charter School in El Cajon, California. He has been teaching for a total of 10 years and is always looking for new and innovative ways to bring the classroom to life. He also regularly consults schools and teachers in many areas including technology integration, divergent thinking, brain-based learning, and gamification.
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