My granddaughter Baylee likes to run…I mean, she REALLY likes to RUN. Sometimes she’ll say to me, “Nana, I just want to RUN!” as she takes off across the yard. At three years old, she can’t always articulate what she wants, but she has made one thing clear: she’s happier when she’s moving…fast!
One night I watched her run around outside while her sister Taylor was inside her cheer gym at practice. The entire time I was there, Baylee was running outside that gym – a 50 yard dash to the fence, a moment to turn around and yell, “Don’t leave me!” and a 50 yard dash back. Then she would start over. I thought back to her sister at that same age; that child was happy to sit in one spot and just stare at people. But not Miss “I just want to RUN!”
Baylee doesn’t start school for two more years, but watching her now makes me worry about what I know is in her future: some teacher will repeat over and over to a room full of kids: “Sit down. Be quiet. Listen.” And how do I know? Because I’ve said it myself a million times: “Sit down. Be quiet. Listen.”
So often I’ve wished that we could figure out a way to enable students to learn without turning them into zombies trapped in their desks.
I’ve tried to do it myself in the past. I had Alton, a bright kid who just couldn’t sit still. I let him stand in the back, on the carpet in the middle of the reading center, and listen to my classwork directions. And even though I struggled as a first year teacher, I somehow recognized that my seniors, who had just completed research papers, were battling spring fever and senioritis. My writing assignment was an attempt to get students OUT of their seats; in fact, they had to use their student desks to make sculptures that they would then write about.
Memories from 1980 – I don’t remember all the essay titles, but the one describing this sculpture was called “Stairway to Heaven.”
But even with those attempts to teach outside the norm, to get away from the “teacher at the front of the room delivering direct instruction,” those were isolated attempts to get kids up and moving. Over the years, I also have incorporated music (singing and dancing related to a book or short story), I’ve assigned games of HORSE with a basketball (we spelled vocabulary words), and I’ve used my own rolling chair as an incentive – students will do anything to sit and spin back and forth in that thing while I’m teaching.
But what if we could change schools altogether? What if we could just pull all the student desks or tables out of the room and use the SPACE instead? I would love to see individual student white boards on the walls (I’d settle for chart paper!), high top tables for laptops that kids could stand beside, bean bag chairs and carpets (for when they do tire of standing or want a quiet place to read…) What if we could offer classrooms like that for our wiggle worms and rooms with rows of desks for those who learn the best in a traditional way? What if we could actually individualize instruction based on learning style and personality?
Look around the next time you participate in professional development. My guess is you’ll see some teachers sitting at tables intently taking notes. But you’ll see a handful of others standing in the back, maybe even pacing across the back of the room. Perhaps we should provide those same opportunities for our students.
In the meantime, share your ideas for getting students out of their seats. I’d love to read them below…
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I found a choreographed song about cells online. I took my class to the auditorium for three days. We learned cell parts in our seats and then practiced the parts of our cell song and dance each day. On filming day the kids were excited and nervous. So many students were so proud of their parts and loved watching the video afterwards. Even my reluctant learners/dancers participated. Days later you could hear then humming the song in the hallway. We had so much fun and learned ahout cells in the process!
Cell song! I love it, Julie!!