Learning with wonder even in pandemic times
hello
i’m indra i have the joy and privilege
of leading a school with the finest set
of students and teachers that walk the
planet
they keep me so happy and young at heart
they fill my soul
today’s idea that i’d like to share with
you began as a simple experiment last
year
that has served us brilliantly this year
in a virtual school
zone the
idea was simple it just needed
a spirit of adventure and a buzz that
keeps going round and round in your head
all day perhaps all night it began as an
effort to stir the pot
in middle school and raise a few magic
spells
i asked the teachers can we set aside 10
marks
to test this plan let’s try and make the
textbook come alive
let’s try and push that lesson one step
outside the framework
all you need is imagination
the love of your subject and the love of
children
this digital year we’ve really had to
push that idea
and it has held us steady through the
learning teaching processes
we abruptly closed in march 2020
and june when school began within 10
days
the government shut down grades one to
five
because of huge screen time concerns i
remember thinking to myself this can’t
be happening
we cannot go down on our knees we cannot
and my teachers very strongly agreed
we cannot stop the learning for our
little ones what can we do
so we stretched that middle school
experiment into primary school
where we linked learning to life
before i share more details about this
idea
a reason for this experiment
i believe that classroom memories
survive
a person’s lifetime school memories
can be the most cherished or the most
cringeworthy
and i believe that as educators it is
our job
to build the happiest and the most
empowering
of school memories for our students
we need affirmative classrooms where
children
feel a sense of accomplishment a sense
of achievement
no child needs to feel a sense of fear
about
a wrong answer and every child’s view
must count in classroom discussions
let me share two memories of my school
days
i was in grade two it was an english
class
and the teacher was teasing us with the
spellings
of irregular verbs so we came to this
verb
die it’s funny how the memory hasn’t
died
and she asked us can you spell the verb
in its continuous form off we went
playing with the letters and the sounds
d
i e i n g no
dying d a i n g no we
there was a cacophony of words and
letters and sounds playing across the
room
and suddenly i blurted out t-y-i-n-g
yes she said for a seven-year-old
that moment of joy and success
has never gone it’s there and it still
has a warm glow inside
cut this to a grade five math class
it was a lazy hot afternoon after lunch
she had set her some work to do and she
was pacing the floor
and then she began generously using her
knuckles on hapless student heads
over careless calculation errors
that moment has never gone her temper
her rebukes
and it makes me reflect very deeply
today
about the power of a teacher over
class well-being which brings me back to
my
idea my only request was
can we try and push the learning and the
thinking
to make it upbeat and transformative
this is all i want you to do teachers
can we create one good
question from a lesson one
good think and wonder question
that can generate a hundred different
responses
but all correct all valid
who says we need to test the same way
all the time
nobody thinks the same way normally
process is learning the same way
so who says we can’t throw that lesson
open to a class
and ask them what they think and who
says
we can’t applaud every opinion
that comes up with its unique slant
i think there was a shockwave that ran
across my middle school teachers
they looked at me and said are you
serious i mean what exactly are you
looking for
there was this teacher who said i’ve
done this poem on peace and i don’t feel
very peaceful inside miss indra
messendra i can’t do anything great with
leaf venetian
came another group tell me what to do
about the periodic table
what can i do that’s creative there i
think they were stunned
here was me throwing open the canvas to
them to paint in their own colors
and they were shocked at the freedom
they were used to a fixed template
perhaps
and they were treading new ground very
tentatively
all i said to them was look at this
through the eyes of the child
tease them tickle them make them catch
their breath
make them fall in love with your subject
you are the qualified brad ambassador
for your subject
who knows one day when they are
taking away that nobel prize they’ll be
thanking you
for what you triggered in their middle
school class
so the grade 17 came to meet me about
leaf venetian
and we bounced ideas about
how do we work a game into this lesson
how do we store laughter and learning
imagination love of the subject
love of children they hatched a
brilliant plan the teacher brought
a whole lot of leaves and laid it out on
her table
all colors all shapes all sizes and she
announced to the class
pick any leaf that you want from here
that catches your eye
stick it on your paper and look at it
i want you to look at it with new eyes
and imagination
study the form study the shape
look deeply is there anyone hiding
inside that leaf
a bird perhaps an insect i’d like you to
try that example yourself
pick up your sketch pick up that pencil
draw around it draw with it draw along
alongside it
and pull out that personality that only
you can see
and we want to see too
the class was off in a flash i think
once they took ownership for the
personality of that leaf
writing about the venetian of that leaf
was just nice
and easy and i hope
i always hope that at least a handful of
those students who took that test
stopped by the next time they see a leaf
pure at it and say who’s hiding inside
that
the grade 8 team began there
brainstorming about the periodic table
who says chemistry needs to test
chemistry
why can’t we link it to personality
taste and choice
and we had another lovely test an
open book test on the periodic table
this was the question thrown to them you
have a new car
you can design a new number plate
read the periodic table and the elements
identify the elements
that you connect with that describe you
write them down and then
design your number plate with the
elements that best
reflect your personality tell us why
one-of-a-kind responses learning
objectives achieved
learning with wonder achieved
the grade six poem on peace
took it to another level they made it a
group
activity work in groups of five
brainstorm together write us a recipe
for peace what ingredients will go into
that
how you’re going to cook and serve it up
wow that was my first thought wow
a lifetime’s emotional intelligence
captured through an
english poll tested in 40 minutes
and definitely ensuring group
collaborative memories
that will last a lifetime
how has this gone down with the students
yes
it’s pushing them hard but it’s made
them realize
that there’s more to learning than just
the textbook
how did we push this idea in primary
school
during the sudden shutdown i think we
were very clear
we had just got 10 days it was a new
academic year
there was only prior learning that we
could tap
we decided to develop a whole team-based
set of worksheets for each level that
connected to their
previous learning we knew that we
could build conversations in covet times
around the home family around the
students themselves
around the kitchen around the garden
and off we went for a grade one
they had just come in from the
pre-primary and we wanted to get to know
them
we decided the first set of worksheets
were going to be all
about me and in english
math and environmental studies it was
all about
information that we wanted to draw from
the child best friend
best book there was me with numbers
there was me and my timeline we didn’t
let music and dance stop we had
baby shark and we asked them to learn to
dance that with their
their family members we also had library
and art
put into it and there was this
delightful story of a chameleon that
visits the zoo
and wanted to be every animal he saw
there and then realized
he was perfect as he was we flipped that
on its head
and we told the children tell us one
good thing you like
about yourself write a few lines and
tell us
i thought that was such a fabulous
trajectory we had gone
from all the outside information to the
soul of the child
we did the same with seasons and grade
three
in english they played with riddles in
math
we pushed them to talk to family members
and ask them which was their favorite
season and do a survey pictograph
in computer science we made them play
with ms paint and draw faces
that represent each season in french we
push them into research
to look at a dictionary and learn new
words that covered the season
i think the two weeks of closure whizzed
by
in great creative frenzy the teachers
enjoy themselves and i bet the students
enjoyed themselves at home too
i think we’ve realized that the wonder
question approach is here to stay
it gives us time for pause
in all that frenzy of a class routine
the wonder question gives time for pause
i would go as far as to say it is that
wait
time magic spell that brilliantly
validates
the teaching learning process
suddenly the teacher receives an
outpouring of responses
that makes her catch her breath
she sees her child in an all new
perspective
here is a sentient being
telling her life story on the pages of
that notebook
and as you can see as these responses
from a grade one child
who worked with numbers and herself
each statement has a beautiful little
story to tell
so the teacher catches fascinating
heartwarming insights
that make her fall completely in love
with her class
she knows each one of them is nobel
prize worthy
why do we need to continue with this
practice
because i believe that every child needs
to be heard a lot more
every child needs his or her work
affirmed to them much more
and the wonder question approach can do
just that
it’s a simple idea
it brings the focus back to the child
i think it’s made my teachers extremely
happy
and very proud at the body of work that
they are building
it’s made our students happier
and i think it’s made their parents
happiest
thank you