The school year is over, and this week, I have begun the task of cleaning out my classroom. After four years of teaching in this room, everything from art with preschoolers to advanced algebra and trig for college-bound high schoolers, with chemistry, literature and lots of history in between, I've amassed quite an interesting collection of stuff.
As I sort through the layers, deciding what to keep or toss, the memories come flooding into my brain at every turn. The used-up highlighters remind me of the high school girls who used to draw amazing neon doodles while listening to other students give reports; the box of wood scraps reminds me of the incredible 3D cityscape that my elementary students built across the tops of two long tables over the course of many weeks. All of these memories are precious to me.
But I'm finding that I have subconsciously left some of the most precious memories for last. Now that the classroom is almost empty, I can see that what remains are the artifacts of some of my favorite moments over the last four years. Let me share a few of them with you.
An American Bison
And I recall that when she shared her creation with the class, it was one of those precious moments when the teenage boys in the class dropped their swagger and we're-too-cool-for-projects attitudes and just marveled speechlessly at the amazingness of this creation. Truly a moment to treasure.
Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night
My elementary art students made this mosaic mural using a process that I've used many times over the years. I printed a full-page version of this painting, and cut it up into twenty squares. Then each student took one of those tiny squares and reproduced it on a larger square piece of paper. I let them choose what materials to use - oil pastels, chalk pastels, watercolors, colored pencil, ripped construction paper and tissue paper - and then sat back to enjoy the fun of watching them work.
My students spent several happy afternoons working on their squares. When all twenty bits were finally completed, my daughter helped the kids assemble them into the proper arrangement, and while the little ones looked on, drew some contour lines that helped tie the individual pieces into a greater whole. It was so fun to look on as they breathlessly watched her skilled hand work bring out the best in their united work.
The whole project was a smashing example of teamwork and community building and the good things that happen when people of all ages work together. We hung this finished product near the classroom door, and every time I pass by, I cherish the memory of those afternoons.
My longtime teaching partner, Heidi, and I are firm believers in the benefit of memory work, as long as it is embedded in a meaningful context of critical thinking and multisensory learning. So during our literature classes, we worked together to choose ten challenging words from each novel we read, and then memorized their proper spelling. Rather than a boring old paper-and-pencil spelling quiz, we decided to use the oral tradition of spelling bees to put our students to the test.
We made our poor students do a lot of weird things during our spelling bees. We fed them a spoonful of honey just before they attempted to recite their words, we all trooped outside to listen as they shouted the proper sequences at the top of their lungs for all the campus to hear, we even made a few of them climb up on top of a six-foot-tall cabinet and spell their words while huddled up against the ceiling.
But the most lasting tradition of our spelling bees was the donning of the bee slippers.
At the beginning of our competitions, we would ask our students to remove their shoes. The bee slippers would be ceremoniously placed at the front of the room. Then, as each contestant took a turn, he or she would come up, step into the slippers, and then spell the word.
Sounds simple enough, but I can't tell you how many laughs we had over the ridiculousness of this process. And I can't tell you how fantastic it is to make high school students memorize spelling words, and then laugh till your sides ache during the process of testing them.
This is every teacher's dream. Lucky me.
Felted Baby Owl
During our Hotspots class, which focused on the history, geography and current events in the Middle East, my students gave reports that often focused on the climate, geography or animals of that region. If you want students to understand the nuances of international geopolitics, it helps to let them first explore the flora and fauna that live nearby. It helps to make them care.
So one of my students told us about the sweet little owls that live in the desert climates, and she made this precious creature as a model: four inches tall, soft and fuzzy, completely adorable.
As I was adding this baby bird to our display area, I noticed a red U-shaped hanging device already attached to the wall. As you can see in the photo, the little owl's neck fit snugly in place and it seemed like a perfect mechanism for mounting this tiny specimen.
Does it look a little sadistic to have a fluffy baby animal hanging by its neck? Yes. It does. I admit it. My students gave me a hard time about it, we all had a good laugh, and three years later, I am still amused by the sight of that poor tortured desert owl.
Moammar Gadhafi's Head
During that same Hotspots class, another student decided to do a report on famous quotes by Libya's fearless leader, Moammar Gadhafi. In a moment of inspired genius, she elected to make a 3D model of Gadhafi's head, complete with stubbly beard and trademark sunglasses. In his open mouth, she placed strips of paper bearing some of his well-known words. As she presented this report, other students were invited to reach into Moammar's mouth, retrieve a slip of paper and read what he had to say.
Like I said, genius. Pure genius.
I should mention that this all took place three years ago, long before the Libyan civil war and subsequent death of Colonel Gadhafi. In fact, at the time we were studying about him, Moammar had recently visited in New York, given a long-winded diatribe of a speech to the United Nations assembly that caused several members to fall asleep, and stirred up a controversy over his desire to park his tent in Central Park.
Despite the volatility of his politics and serious nature of his crimes, we had a good-natured affection for Moammar, and this playful sculpture aptly reflected our mixed feelings about a very controversial man. I was impressed, then and now, with my students' ability to understand the many facets of a complex subject, and I'm very proud of their intelligence and maturity.
Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theater
After reading Shakespeare's classic story of ill-fated love, we asked our students to construct a model of the Globe Theater, the historic site in London where most of his plays were performed. Their interpretations were clever and interesting all the way around. But one student took her creation to a whole new level of detail by including little dolls representing the actors playing the death scene of the story.
Note the X-ed out eyes of death. Check out Romeo's tongue, drooping out of his poisoned mouth. Observe the dagger lying next to the fatally wounded Juliet. See the blood puddled on the floor.
When I look upon this scene, I also see an uncompromising attention to detail and sly sense of humor. And most important of all, I can tell that the creator of this masterpiece was having fun.
* * * * *
In fact, fun is the common bond between all of these projects, and the many more that I haven't shown you (yet.) The honest truth - the truth that drove everything Heidi and I did in our classroom - is that learning can and SHOULD be fun.
These artifacts have sweet meaning to me because they represent not only the great fun that we had with our students over the years, but because we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that our smart, clever, fun-loving students learned good and great things along the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please comment...I'd love to hear from you!