In the wake of loosing a division and possibly my teaching partner, I had the most amazing and fulfilling morning with my students. The experience caused me to reflect once again on how and where learning happens and that flexibility and spontaneity are key to connecting students with their world.
The morning’s activities actually began the day before when a student brought an interesting seed pod into our class. It looked weird: long with round, red bumps that broke open to reveal orangish seeds. We spent some time observing and discussing what it might be but with no conclusive answers.
The next day, during our in-motion walk, we discovered that there were many, many seeds pods hanging on the trees along the path! I sensed the student’s excitement and decided to draw them into an inquiry.
Our question: What kind of trees grow these seed pods?
As we finished our walk, we met a number of parents standing outside of the school. Our first stop was to inquire of them: did they know anything about those trees or the pods? No one knew.
In our class, we took turns asking questions of each other, trying to make some connections with our own knowledge of trees. We ruled out several options (i.e. it wasn’t a maple tree because the leaves did not look like the maple leaf on the Canada flag) and came to the conclusion that we needed more help.
We were very fortunate to have our EA, Mrs. Lamirand add some insight to our investigation. We were surprised to learn that Mrs. L’s son was an arborist. She was able to Facebook him with a picture and our question. Meanwhile, I sent a group of students to the library and gave another group some iPads to continue the search.
I need to note here, that my class was very motivated to find the answer to our question. There were no behaviour issues and everyone was on task. I was not the expert, I did not have the answer. My job was to direct the students to ways that they could explore and investigate. The students took initiative and had control of their learning. There was ownership and team building in the searching.
I finally went to visit the group in the library. They had been successful in locating the non-fiction section but needed some help with book selection. I pulled a wonderful tree book and sat down with the group. I can’t explain the cheering and hi-fiving that took place when we turned the page and saw an exact replica of the seed pod we were holding.
The trees lining our school path are called Cucumber Trees and are part of the Magnolia family.
We “ran” back to the class and shared our information with the others, stopping on the way to inform our principal of this important news.
Shortly after that, our new arborist friend responded back and confirmed our findings. We were able to add to his knowledge too. I told the students that this was called “collaborative networking”.
What a fun morning! Learning about the place we live. Making sense of our world through questions and discoveries. Searching and sharing information with others. Making new friends. Celebrating our success. That is what learning – and perhaps life – is all about. And that is why I love being a teacher!