Top Five

I was thinking I was going to be like a kid in the candy store when I read this assignment.  Five ingredients that will help create an active learning environment, wow, so many cool things to choose from, was my thinking.  When I sat down to begin to put my thoughts on paper I realized that I had been thinking of way too many things and yes most of them would aide in supporting an active learning environment but the hard thing is to try and keep things simple. Of course, in my head this might work for my imaginary students, but in an actual classroom environment things might have to get tossed from the list and another top five might have to be formed.  

1. Willing interactive participants.  I would like my classroom to be filled with willing interactive participants.  Students who actively participate in the class, whether in classroom discussions, helping one another out, or doing the work assigned.    
2. Structure.  This seems to be bad word to many of the theorists that we have been reading.  That to rely on structure we can then not let students finish work or deviate from a plan but this is not what I mean by structure.  I want my classroom to be a stable environment.  I want to be the constant in each of the students lives since many of them do not have this stabilizing force in their world.  
3. Play.  I want play to be incorporated into the learning process in my classroom.  I would love kids to be messing about with science, art, reading or writing and having fun with it.  I want them to see play can help them learn.
4. Teacher/Learner.  I want to be a teacher/learner in my classroom.  My students need to see that learning never ends, we are always capable of learning new things.  I want to foster that desire in each and every one of my students.
5. Community.  I want my classroom to be a community.  I would like to promote the notion that by being apart of the classroom we can then learn how to be apart of the community that surrounds us.  Whether each student gets a job to do in the classroom or if we have check in meetings with one another to see how we are doing during the week or a combination,  I can then set the tone that the we all have a part in making the classroom a place to care for.  By caring for the classroom we then are actually caring for the people that make up the classroom.
   

I believe that children have the innate desire to learn.

I believe that teachers should be professionals in their job and have the energy to create dynamic learning environments for their students.

I believe schools should have more classrooms, more teachers and more resources.