Safe and Sound: Project 180, Day 123

Everyone arrived safely. With 128 student drivers at the wheel, we safely and successfully navigated parallel structure last week. I gave them the keys and a rough map of their destination, and they did the rest. I simply sat beside and enjoyed the view.

Here are some of my observations from the passenger seat.

Leaders emerge. This does not always happen immediately, but with me out of the way, kids had to settle into the seat, and take the wheel. It was interesting to observe the group dynamics. It was fascinating to watch kids, who I’d thought would not, take the wheel.

Kids are creative. Though the few pictures I remembered to take, will not do the necessary justice, the kids came up with some creative ways to teach parallel structure. One had to be there to truly appreciate the clever ways kids taught material that they had just learned themselves. Wish I had an easy to share the videos I took.

Kids are conditioned. Of course, not all found creative inspiration. Some, to be frank, bored the socks off us with definitions and examples. Oh, they were not bad, but they paled in comparison to some of the engaging ways others approached the task. But I blame not the kids. They are accustomed to and conditioned for such things. Makes me think of how many such lessons they have had to sit through over the years. Guess there is some truth to “we teach how we were taught.”

Teaching is learning. It is certainly not a new idea. I think Seneca gets credit for it from umpteen years ago, but there was and is truth to the notion that if you want to learn something, teach it. Still true today. So, I let the kids teach so they could learn, and though I am not through the entire stack and though we will take our future learning further, most have demonstrated learning on their performances. They are successfully identifying correct use of parallel structure as well as revising sentences with awkward, not-parallel structures. They taught it. They learned it.

Learning is messy and time-consuming. If one had observed (by the way, you’re always welcome, except you Mom) my class last week, they would have found themselves in the middle of a noisy, messy affair that lacked conventional structure. I had purposefully faded into the background, relegated to a glorified timekeeper, occasionally reminding kids how much time remained. I had to “disappear” a bit. I can’t give them the keys and the wheel and ask them to drive if it’s not real. So I let them get messy and noisy. Did I want to take control? Of course. That habit will die hard. And I will likely never fully give it up, but in these designated “Teach-Me” moments, I will let it go. I will let them go. It’s the whole point.

Of course my experiments with “Teach Me” have not resulted in perfection, but it has given me more to learn from and tweak with, as I chase better ways to help kids learn. So, I will take what I learned and try to do better. Always better.