CREATIVITY IN PRIMARY
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Seeking the Bumps in the Road: Perspectives from a Constructivist

1/31/2018

29 Comments

 
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​As I reflect on my view of the Constructivism Theory, I thought about what it meant to me. Learning is supposed to be hands on, exploratory, and foster creativity. It's more about the journey of the learning process than it is about the destination. Did you problem solve? Did you collaborate and communicate well? Did you take a leap and try something new? What did you do when you came to a problem or got stuck? I immediately made the correlation to a road trip. Here are my thoughts:

Journey, Not the Destination
A road trip is usually planned because you want the experience. Would it be easier to book a flight and not think about all the logistics of traveling by car? Sure. Is it as satisfying when you get there? No way! On a road trip, some choose the take the interstate and get there as fast as possible. I relate these travelers to students who already have quite a bit of background knowledge on the topic. Some road trippers choose to take the scenic routes and go off the beaten path. It takes them longer to reach their destination, but the memories of the trip are far more meaningful than if they would've rushed past the scenic routes by interstate. These learners take longer to understand the concept being taught. They have to go down one road, then another, then another, before it "clicks". 

Bumps in the Road
Flat tire? Fender bender? Out of gas? Got lost? We all have those hiccups in learning. Do we give up and feel helpless? When students hit these "bumps" in their learning, they have to be able to problem solve. They have to be able to effectively communicate and know what to do when they're stuck. Different situations call for different things. If you get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, you might result to YouTube to teach you how to change it, or flag someone down to help. In learning, you might get stuck and need to result to resources (books, online sources, videos) or contact an expert (friend in class, teacher, online). When students problem solve themselves without someone telling them the answer, they've learned powerful lifelong skills that benefit them long term.

Reflection
When you pull off the side of a road to stop and take in the view, it can be very memorable and leave you in awe. In our learning we need to be intentional about taking time to pause to reflect on how far we've come as learners.
29 Comments
Mrs L.
2/13/2018 05:58:41 pm

I love your website! It did take me a minute to realize what I needed to do navigation wise since your blog is not the first page, but I do like it! The Twitter feed is interesting!

What you said about the Journey not the Destination really fits with how I view my students' work as well. We work a lot on strategies. Yes, you can use a multiplication chart or calculator and get the answer a lot quicker/easier, but does that teach you number sense? Do you understand the properties of multiplication? Do You feel that sense of accomplishment and learning? I do feel like students want the "easy way" and it's our job to see help them understand that getting there is half the fun! When it comes to bumps in the road, I am trying so hard to get my students to use other resources before coming to me. A few need so much direction that they will ask what button to click, when there's only one button, that button is lit up, and it says "Next" (true story). It's gotten to where, as soon as a student raises their hand, I tell them to read everything and try themselves for at least 2 minutes and then ask a neighbor. we're getting there!

Overall, I really like your visual metaphor and can identify with it quite a bit!

Your ThingLink is very ingenious and gave me some ideas of how I can use a ThingLink in my next blog post.

Reply
Alisha Knapp
3/3/2018 02:19:20 pm

Thank you for your comment, Kirstin! Your comment about "getting there is half the fun" is so true! Getting students to use their own resources can be tough. It can be exhausting at times with 25+ kids coming to you for every answer. Just last week we were working through a poem where they had to write a synonym of their topic. There were SO many questions, I ended up just stopping the lesson and doing a mini-lesson right there on using a Thesaurus (in my case: thesaurus.com). Sometimes I need to remind myself that I need to be sure I'm actually providing the resources my students will need ahead of time!

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Rae Hughart link
3/12/2018 02:46:45 pm

First off - LOVE your website. Very Cute!
You did a great job explaining the theory here and how it connects to your educational philosophy for the classroom. The analogy of a road trip was perfect. As you moved throughout the description, I continued to connect the Constructivism Theory to the realities classroom teaching has. I could not agree more that soft skills - reflection, collaboration, and communication - is incredibly valuable in the classroom. How do you make these relevant in your classroom daily? Do you also incorporate other skills such as a handshake, eye contact, or speaking skills?
Eager to hear more! You rock!

Reply
Alisha Knapp
3/12/2018 05:49:09 pm

Thank you for your feedback + kind words, Rae! So appreciated. I think teaching growth mindset is huge in a constructivism classroom environment. As my analogy states, it's not about the end result--it's about succeeding AND failing along the way. Having a flexible seating classroom makes collaboration with different friends regularly easy! Reflection is a piece I'm constantly working to get better at. I know I'm not as consistent as I'd like to be in this area.

I'm very passionate about communication skills in the classroom! One of our classroom jobs in second grade is the "Greeter". This student stands at the door and greets each student (w/eye contact) every morning and end of the day. Students are required to either handshake or high five, and greet the student by their name back. We also learn about a new country each month and learn how to say hello in that language, so they get to practice using that language in their greeting, too! It's definitely a favorite, sought after job in the classroom. :)

Thank you again for your thorough and kind feedback!

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