My teaching team and I decided to end on a bang.
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| 5 of 7 teachers on my team, pirate-style! #6 was gone, and made it up the day she returned. #7... well... |
We set aside the ordinary, and spent the day playing Pirates.
The kids still practiced the skills we've been working on. They reviewed an informational poster about pirates "then and now," and practiced their comparative skills. They read an article about deep-sea archaeology and practiced inferring. They "played" archaeologists and "dove" for artifacts which they used to deduce the origins, destination, and purpose of a ship "Captain Calamity" had sunk. They sequenced. They sorted. They read maps. They looked at slavery as a business, and made judgements. They evaluated risk vs. reward in deciding whether "Pirate Pete" should attack certain vessels. They used SMART cannons to review number-sense. They practiced dividing the booty and dealing with remainders. They explored the way water distorts light. They dealt with issues of bullying and power; safety and responsibility; character and integrity.
They earned loot.
They laughed.
They had fun.
During our one-day adventure on the high-seas, my students worked harder and probably learned more than they had the rest of the week. And they loved it.
So did I. This is why I got into teaching. Because learning can be fun. Because facts ARE interesting. Because children need to be stretched, to grow and expand their world views, to learn to THINK through situations and actions.
Not to bore kids into submission.
Not to manage tests.
Not to spend so much time on data collection and analysis that I don't have time to plan.
Not to be buried in unconnected curriculum designed to "help" students meet each of a hundred individual learning targets through "carefully designed, explicit instruction."
People who expect "carefully designed, explicit instruction," to be crafted for each one of the myriad skills students have to master, haven't listened to a child lately. Kids see the world differently. They desperately want things to connect. To make sense.
Being a pirate for a day taught me that if we really want kids to learn, to enjoy learning, and to leave school with confidence, character, and competency, we may need some pirates to knock us off the course we've been sailing. There's treasure to be found.
Search for wisdom as if it were money. Hunt for it as if it were hidden treasure. Proverbs 2:4
