April is one of my favorite times of the year-for now. It’s not because it’s our anniversary or because it’s our nephew’s birthday, but because it’s the time of the year that my students get to begin working on their class-selected community service project.
In November, my students research charities that they care about and each write a persuasive essay to try to persuade their classmates that their charity should be the one that our class supports for that year. I intentionally plan that essay to be their project for November, because it ties in to their writing unit for the month-persuasive writing, and also because it aligns with the theme for the month-gratefulness.
I also intentionally plan for the month of April to be when the kids actually get to start working on it because in between November and April, they’ve had to complete a few other projects that allow them to build the skills that they’ll need to actually go to the depths that I’ll need them to for the community service project. Projects that teach them cooperation, accountability, how to showcase their creativity, etc.
I’ve always been drawn to project based learning. It provides children opportunities to choose for themselves. It can provide real-life scenarios and problems to solve. But the most important part for me has always been that the kids become more empowered because they’re actually DOING for themselves and that is where the real learning takes place.
They learn from the successes that they can see for themselves as donations start rolling in or as they start creating things for themselves. They even learn from their mistakes but by the end of it, they all can reflect and look back at something that they’ve done to help another human and if they learn how to treat other humans with compassion and love and to be proud of themselves for doing so, a large part of my long-term job is done.
Here’s a video that was a part of our donation ceremony last year that gives you a general overview of what can happen in just over a month. (Disclaimer: a tissue may be necessary if you’re a ‘softy’ like me.)
As we began our project for this year, I started thinking about how much MORE we’ll be able to do next year because so many of the restrictions will be eliminated.
The kids won’t get taxed on the funds that they raise. The kids won’t have to have the charity come to them for donations, we can actually go to them and make the human connection ourselves. It won’t have to last only a month if it’s something that they genuinely care about because we’ll be together for consecutive years. They could actually start their own business after they analyze their ‘market’ to determine what they’re going to create to sell. The list goes on and on and essentially rings true for any project that we’ll take on.
I know what you’re thinking, where’s the detrimental part?
The detrimental part for me is the cycle that I go through every year to simply get to this point.
Each year, I spend the first few months creating relationships, getting the parents and the students to know and trust me and my processes. I have to break down old barriers or preconceived notions and to establish positive relationships and depending on the back story of the child, family, or previous school experiences some take longer than others.
It’s tiresome but I know it’s necessary. I also know that it’s tiresome for my parents to have to explain… every year … the intricacies of their little ones or their lives.
Then I know that I’ll have to spend time clearing up unclear processes or ideas and to create the class community in the next few months and it usually takes until up to the holidays until I have the kids actually trusting and positively engaging in the learning process.
Then we break for the holidays and I have to spend the first few weeks in January reestablishing anything that may have been lost.
But don’t look now, it’s almost state testing time.
Then spring break and then it’s almost the end of the year.
Time to ship those kids off to the next grade and on to the next to repeat most of the above.
Don’t get me wrong, I do my best to go out of my way to create the relationships quickly. I’m also happy to go against the status quo and focus on real project-based learning opportunities vs. test prep as much as possible.
There are 2 large problems that I see with this ongoing cycle.
The first, is that some teachers simply wait until April before they even start exposing their students to this type of accountable, cooperative, and important type of student-directed learning. It’s the, “Well it’s after the tests, so we can x, y, or z” mentality. Remember, they won’t remember your worksheets anyway! (Refer to prior post: What Do They Remember?) Or imagine the middle or high school teacher who has 150+ students. The reality of one human being able to connect with and draw out that type of learning sounds cumbersome.
The second, is that all that was invested into the relationships and understanding between the families, the teachers, and the students are gone.
I KNOW my students by the end of the year. I know their families, I know their strengths, I know what makes them smile, I know the struggles that they face, and I know their learning styles and preferences. But after 180 days of doing the investigative work to get to that place of KNOWING, it simply gets wiped away and I have to start again. Imagine if my above group of students or any other for that matter, were able to keep adding on to this success?
Ask any teacher who’s looped with a class and they will tell you what a difference it makes. They don’t have to waste the time in the beginning of the year establishing processes. There’s already an element of trust and past positive experiences. They know how the families prefer to communicate. They know how the students prefer to work. There isn’t a ‘testing out’ period. And imagine this, we don’t have to waste time pre-assessing and understanding their academic skills. We simply get to keep moving forward.
Imagine if you had to hire brand new employees every year! It’s pretty much the same thing- ludicrous.
That’s another thing that I’m looking forward to next year. We will set the tone in the beginning of the year and we’ll simply need to adjust and modify as necessary because our cohorts will spend multiple years together.
We will always value self-awareness. We will always value each other’s differences. It will always be ok to make mistakes. We will always encourage creativity. We will always value problem solving and constant improvement. The list goes on, but when kids get exposed to similar philosophies across the board, that’s when genuine improvement both academically and personally will take place.
The process of learning is changing…well, the process of learning SHOULD be changing.
We have information at our fingertips. What we need to be focusing on is allowing our kids to DO for themselves and surrounding them with positive long-term relationships so that they can become a part of a cycle that creates trust, encourages creativity, and empowers our children.
Not one that operates from a place of simply, “making it until June” to simply start all over.
