Now that school hallways are filling up and classrooms are bursting with new ideas. The key to keeping that early momentum is capturing that energy and weaving it into learning throughout the year. The way to stay energized in learning is to stay nimble, vulnerable in teaching and learning. That means that while you have a plan, a goal or objective, your pathway there is a bit unknown, leaving room for lived and learned experience from students, and from yourself as an educator. The unpredictable learning space is exciting and messy, just the right recipe for new inquiry and ideas.
Three ways to get Vulnerable
1. Engage with big ideas and questions.
Inquiry-based teaching and learning means we ask more questions, gathering knowledge through asking. Inquiry is not looking to land at a single answer but open up multiple streams of information, knowledge, and experience.
2. Learn everywhere else including, but not just at a desk.
What are some other spaces ripe for learning? Hint: outdoors, onsite, together with another class, on the floor, in a museum…
3. Be comfortable with not knowing, be curious, wonder.
Kids ask amazing questions. When talking about said subject, my kids are always pondering about life’s unknowns. And sometimes my answer is, “I don’t know, but let’s look into it.” I could shut down my kids’ questions and simply say, “let’s focus and only learn this,” or I could have them write down their ideas and add them into the learning process.
Students will be curious and wonder about things outside of the defined curriculum. Embrace that and allow for those wonderings. Even use that as starting points for learning outside the classroom and reserach. Allow students to learn said curriculum and wonder inside and outside learning objectives in and beyond the classroom walls. Home and other lived experiences by students are spaces where learning can be questioned, applied, tested, and refined.
The Possibility Space 