Student-Driven Learning is Nerve-racking!

Today was one of those mornings where I felt really insecure as an educator.

This year I have been emphatically trying to focus on empowering my students to take ownership of the learning process with the hope that they can increasingly view the world around them as moldable. Having the kids work harder than me sounds easy in concept, but that is far from reality.

Many educators that I know decided to pursue the career in college while already having a love for classroom organization, a desire to create exciting projects, and a skill for management. Add on 4-5 years of professors preaching the importance of organization of materials, detailed lesson plans, precise assessments and concrete classroom management, and letting go of the learning process becomes a difficult thing for many of us to do.

So why was I feeling insecure this morning?

Right now my 4th graders are using the design process to solve a real world problem that happens to live about 20 feet from the art room door.... the lost and found. (Picture from last year.)

After a quick design challenge to talk about the steps of the design process, students spent two art classes describing the problem, asking questions, and creating a Google survey that was sent to teachers to understand more about the problem.

Students then generated 4 main ideas that they will be prototyping and testing:

1. Reorganizing the lost and found to help students find their items.

2. Creating a website/newsletter that will help share what is currently in the lost and found throughout the year.

3. Creating decorative name tags that will be given to each student to label their winter jacket.

4. Creating signs at the playground entrance/exit to remind students not to forget their clothing items at recess.

Each of the four 4th grade classes then voted on which of the four ideas their class would tackle.

So now what?... GOOD QUESTION! This morning I felt so insecure because I really wanted students to take control of this project and decide the next necessary steps. That meant I was sitting in my classroom reviewing my lessons for the day and I truly did not know what my 4th grade students would be doing. The only thing I knew is that this class would somehow begin to create a website/newsletter. YIKES!

So as the students entered the room, they gathered in "the hive" as I explained to them that I was really hoping they would take control of this project, generate ideas for what should be done next, and that I was looking forward to see what work they would do today. So what did they do?

One group got out chromebooks and logged into Google sites, where they began to create a website that would house information about our project. They created a framework for us to show each item that is in lost and found and they even created an area to highlight "popular lost and found items!"








One group got out paper, pencils, and markers. After a conversation, they began to create unique logos that capture the essence of the project. When completed, they will present the ideas to the class, they class will vote, and the logo will be added to the webpage.









One group generated a list of decorative fonts on a Google Doc that will be voted on for the webpage's header. They also created their own fonts by drawing bubble letters on paper.











One group logged into their Gmail account and drafted an email to our assistant principal, Mr. Ritter, explaining the project and asking if he could add a link for our webpage to Chapman's website, allowing parents to also view the items in lost and found.









Finally, one group took paper and pencils out to the lost and found. They documented and categorized every item currently in the lost and found and began to generate plans for photographing the items.










Like many times in my career, the creativity and capability of children amazed me today. Every kid was engaged and elbows deep in using creative thinking to solve a real problem. Nerve-racking? Yes... but so worth it!