"I like a raucous classroom, one where we need to put our heads together to be understood, a place where children aren't always being shushed and warned about having to use their indoor voices."
His post got me to thinking about my "ideal" classroom. Here's what I concluded.
A classroom should be noisy. Noisy is the music of kids playing and learning.
A classroom should be filled with the hum of discussion. That hum means kids are sharing ideas.
A classroom should be flexible. Sometimes a table needs to move to make the room "work" for the day.
A classroom should be messy. That mess means investigation is happening.
A classroom should be chaotic. That chaos means kids are using their whole bodies to learn.
A classroom should be filled with play. Play is the work, the job, of the child.
A classroom should match the personality and interests of the child, not the teacher.
Once a cook on a cooking show spilled some of what she was mixing. "It's not a party until you've made a little mess."
That's what I think about teaching. It's not learning until you've made a little mess...and a little noise.
