Time to Play

What resonated with you?

Having spent several years in the childcare industry working with very young children in a centers-based classroom model, I identified most with the discussion about role playing. This is an essential element to early childhood education and allows young children to act out the scripts of life they are familiar with – the home including cooking and eating and washing clothes, going to the grocery store, or even a trip to the post office – as well as new ones they are introduced to in class – such as being a scientist or artist. Now that I’ll be working with older students, I can apply this concept to my unique set of courses. The students will be role playing engineering careers, so I want to make the experiences as authentic as possible by simulating a work environment. I’m glad that organizational culture was addressed in the video too because it’s something I’ve been reflecting on recently with a reread of the Fish! Philosophy (see my blog post Going Fishing). The coincidence between the message in this video and one of the four tenets of this philosophy is not lost on me. There must be time to play which is necessary to getting the creative juices flowing.

What might you need in order to have the security to take risks and be creative in your classroom?

The video identified trust and security as being the number one factor to promote risk-taking and creativity. Building relationships with students instills trust, which will provide them with the security to do just that with their learning goals. But don’t I need this trust and security too? My goal is to build relationships with my colleagues and superiors to prove I can also take risks and be creative. Everything will be so new, I will have to experiment with a variety of methods to find the right one. I want to feel I have the freedom to develop my system and style.

How might engaging students in lessons with open possibilities, role play, and thinking with their hands bring more creativity and authentic learning experiences into your classroom?

The beauty of the classes I will be teaching is these ideas are exactly how I must implement my lessons. Students will be presented with problems that have open-ended solutions after which the students must design and build a final product. As for role playing, I addressed that above in the first question. I am committed to designing and facilitating meaningful and authentic experiences.