Thursday, September 2, 2010

Culminations

Welcome back to school everyone! I am sure you have been busy preparing your children for school or preparing your classroom to receive new students. Bulletin boards are hung, curriculum has been planned, and nametags have been written. As part of your beginning of year preparations, I urge you to take some time to think about how you will celebrate learning with your students and families this year.

When I first started teaching, I invited parents into the classroom for everything. Every month we held an author’s tea and invited parents in to hear the writing we had done. Every time we ended a big project, we put on a show for parents. One year we studied the Olympics so we had a day when we dressed as the ancient Greeks did and held a party with traditional foods. Another year the students had learned some new dances in PE so we invited parents to picnic on the lawn with us and watch the new dances. Another time we had Book Character Day. Students dressed as characters from their favorite books. Parents came and read stories with us and we all tried to guess who the visiting characters were. I still have fond memories of those events. Parents loved them and students enjoyed them. It gave the students something to work for and livened up our routine.

It was, however, a lot of work. I began to wonder if all the time we spent preparing for these special activities might not be better spent on learning new things. When we practiced our dances for the 50th time, we weren’t learning anything new. We were perfecting our dances but we weren’t learning new steps. When we practiced performing our poems over and over for the author’s tea, we weren’t learning to love the language more or learning new vocabulary. We were learning to project and enunciate but was that worth the amount of time we put into it month after month?

In recent years I have done fewer and fewer big class events, preferring instead to push the student’s minds in new directions rather than perfecting known routes. I often found, also, that parents often didn’t see the genius that went into a story that was being shared or the amount of effort it took to get that sculpture to stand up. Those of us in the class knew because we had been there for the experience. It was more difficult to share this with parents who hadn’t been on the journey with us every step of the way.

Now that I am a parent, however, I see the deep pride on my child’s face as he shows me around his classroom during his school’s Open House. I see the excitement in his body as he prepares for his class’ Irish Dancing Performance for St. Patrick’s Day. I notice the sense of closure in the classroom as everyone closes up a chapter of learning and prepares to open another.

I sit in the audience and think, “What a wonderful teacher to bring this special experience to my child. Look at my child up there with all of his classmates. He will remember this.” I feel good that he has been part of this.

So, as you begin your year, be sure to plan in time for culminations. Celebrate all of the work you and your students have done together. Share your accomplishments with the parents, even if they don’t see the details that are meaningful to you. One teacher I know planned a “moon party” with her students complete with hot chocolate and telescopes to culminate her class’ astronomy work. Another teacher invited parents to attend the burial of a chicken her class had mummified as part of their study of Ancient Egypt. Another class dressed in period costume as they shared the work they did as part of their study of the turn of the century. How will your class celebrate their learning this year?