But if you close your eyes...
This week and the past few weeks I've spent a lot of time thinking about teaching before NCLB and RTTT.
My students opened a restaurant once. We had to do all the math to determine the supplies needed for the pasta, bread, etc. Each of the children applied for jobs at the restaurant. They filled out job applications and we had job interviews. We got creative with marketing our restaurant, creating our menu, and more. We went to the grocery store and we shopped for the supplies for our restaurant and interacted with our community. We had to determine how to use the restaurant space and organize creatively. We cooked and had to make our own pasta noodles from scratch. We worked with the cooks in our school to time everything according to the restaurant schedule the students created, in order to open the restaurant to all of the parents and family who wanted to attend. I am sure the teachers reading this right now are beginning to create a list of the many many skills embedded into such a project. But really what I want to talk about is how confident my students were - how articulate - how creative - and how engaged they were in making sure that every last detail of our restaurant and our work was ready for the authentic experience (audience) of opening day - how they had to problem solve together - on-the-go - to solve problems because our restaurant was OPEN and we had to be professional and be ready for business.
I also recall getting a grant to allow my sixth grade students to work at a nursing home for a semester. We wrote about our experiences with the residents of the home. We became friends with them. We planted flowers in their flower boxes as we worked alongside them. We created a performance for them with songs, a play and more. We built relationships. My students had compassion and empathy. We loved the men and women who looked forward to our visits every week.
I recall having an entire day of learning outside - just because. We decided to make it a creative "outside" day. We would write sitting under the trees. We would play games, read, and just enjoy the feeling of