Is it... Working?

The other day during school I found myself with a moment to breathe. I’d just finished up a math group and left the two learners in the group making math problems for each other. I looked around to see what fires needed to be put out or who needed help on a project but… everyone was… working.

This felt odd to me because I was the only adult at the time - there wasn’t our usual assistant. And yet… nobody was waiting for me to ask for help.

Two girls had their heads bent over a notebook while they busily worked on a script for another performance they wanted to put on. They wanted it to be a musical so they were writing song lyrics to go along with the story. They’d been working on this since they came in that morning.

Another two children were working on a book they were writing. They’d been working on this for weeks now and kept coming back to it. Two more students were transitioning from interviewing other students for the student-run newspaper and were settling into having a book discussion on the book they were both reading.

I couldn’t see two of the students, but I knew they were both in the quiet room. One was working on reading a novel and writing a list of questions so that she could lead a discussion around the book for younger students later in the year. The other student was diving into a history textbook since she’d set a goal of studying American history this year.

The computer with the noise meter was open on the table and occasionally a learner would gesture to it to remind people at the table to be quiet. Kids snacked as they worked, some eating their lunch and others just snacking. There was laughter and some “off-task behavior” but no teacher was needed to get them back on track. I watched as the boys working on the story finished up their writing for the day, put it away, checked their self-generated goal sheet, and got to work playing a math game.

I don’t want to create an image of a quiet classroom full of fully focused learners. It is not perfect. And yet - at that moment - and all day - everyone was meaningful working. This is what we wanted when we dreamed of our learning environment for this school. Learners take on their own projects, self-directing their learning, while accepting help and instruction from the adult facilitators when needed.