Tina called me from one of her classes today. Her kids were making posters (see links below). The feeling through the phone was happy kids. The theme Tina had assigned was “Babies Don’t Take Tests”. A kid in the class got on the phone and started lecturing me on the fact that babies don’t use books or take tests to learn a language and they learn perfectly fine. I told her I agreed with her.
I have to say something here. Doing that with those kids is bravery. Whether the posters go up or not, Tina has those kids thinking and saying in words what could become a war with anyone who walks in the room, some of whom she is already at war with. If that is not bravery, then can someone tell me what bravery is? According to vocabulary.com, bravery is “a quality of spirit that enables you to face danger or pain without showing fear.” Is that what our Tina is doing in her school this week?
And yet, are we as teachers not supposed to encourage metacognition and self reflective thinking in our kids? Are we not supposed to explain to our students the why we do it before we actually deliver the instruction?
Here are a few of the posters the kids made today:
