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