This year I took some time to reflect as a teacher about what made my grade 4/5 students sparkle, curious, creative, and joyful as learners. I noticed that my students really enjoyed learning, and took a lot of ownership when it was playful, imaginative, when they had a voice, choice, an active role in their learning, when they were engaged and motivated about a topic. I noticed that my students strengths were being imaginative, as well as they learnt to collaborate and build on others ideas. So with some inspiration from my students to teach my next unit by incorporating imagination and play and a little help from a couple student sidekicks, I turned my classroom into a Airport for the day and then began a 2 week Mathematical Inquiry about time and travel. Please see post for pictures from my classroom, information about how this event unfolded, and the resources to help you if you are inspired to try something like this in your class. In this post I also tried to weave in my new knowledge from my Masters course on Cultural Perspectives on Learning and Development. Enjoy!
http://smilesandsel.blogspot.com/p/this-year-i-took-some-time-to-reflect.html
