If you can't go north, go east!

I'm ready to start my class. The video I want to show my kids is set, my plan is clear and my excitement high. This is going to be great!

The students start coming in. Slowly they start seating. When it seems they have found a place I make my first attempt.

"Morning guys!" Casual glances. Momentary interruption of conversations. Slight detachment from computer screens.

Second attempt: "Ok, so here's the plan!"

Third attempt: ---- abort plan!!!

What is it that I want? To show my students a video that combines the fronts we're working on. So, I just come to my computer and get the video going. No introductions. No guidelines.

Result? 18 pairs of eyes magically look at the board. Oh! It's Shakira. (Oxford Union speech...highly recommended). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yRm3GCZ2U4

Lesson? If you can't go north, go east! No need to get frustrated because you didn't reach your students verbally. Go for the visual approach! No need to follow your plan. Fulfill the objective.

And so we watched Shakira address the issue of education, and drew great conclusions about:

1. The message she gives.
2. Her public speaking skills.
3. The structure of her speech.

Creativity and flexibility. Love and understanding. Focus and prioritizing.

I love teaching!

I love my kids! Aka my students. I just finished class with my Year 4 students and what a beautiful class it was! Rich with smiles, laughter, flashes of inspiration, aha moments...

Where does it all start? What makes (or rather permits) this to happen?

1. A student-centered approach. Everything I think of doing is acknowledging that the students are the protagonists. As a teacher my role is to give general guidelines, transmit expectations and goals, motivate and support.

a. The students get organized however they feel comfortable: individually, in pairs, in groups. They are free to choose who they work with and can change.

b. I give instructions to the groups. I have found that this favors communication incredibly. I have one on one contact with each student. I can make instruction highly personalized. The students have the opportunity to ask questions. I am focussed on them, not on me.

c. We are reading "The Lost Symbol". Why? Because they like Dan Brown. We watched "Angels and Demons" a few weeks ago and some of them remarked, "We should have read that book instead of -----." (Gotta add here that we are oh so saving the planet as well! We're reading the e-book! More on this soon.) So, since the focus is them and not my plan, instead of getting "The Outsiders" out of the storage room I got on Internet and started rummaging around for "The Lost Symbol".

d. We plan together. I give them the broad brushstrokes, i.e. we have 5 weeks to read this book. I got a calendar projected on the video-beam and in groups they planned out how they would achieve this. They are going to pace themselves. (?!*&%! How could this not have occured to me before?)

2. Using technology. I used the video-beam to project the calendar and to show the quote that is at the threshold of the book. We used a classroom that has great wifi and many of the students had their laptops here, so they could get online to do research (their task was to find out as much as they could about the "Freemasons", once they had done their planning and interpreted the quote).

But, what is the underlying logic to all this? Love. Pure and simple. It is the care and affection for each one of the students. It is the eagerness to be here. The happiness of seeing them and sharing time with them.

Everything falls into place when as a teacher I have the willingness to go out and do my best. When I have the disposition to have a great class. And then, the inspiration will come. It just "happens".

* * * * *
Guiding principles:
1. Love
2. Flexibility: stick to the objectives, be flexible about everything else / be open, let the class be alive!!!

So, what was the content of the class?

1. Planning
2. Text interpretation
3. Research

Big conclusion...I love teaching!