When I think about play combining passion, imagination, and constraint and how it works to help our learners learn and to create, I can see that I’ve been missing the mark quite a bit in the classroom. In the past several years I’ve taught Juniors and Seniors English at a comprehensive site. Going back in time and flipping through my catalog of lessons and experiences in the classroom with my students, I’m having a hard time pinpointing lessons in which my students used passion, imagination, and constraint together. In fact, I’m sad to say, I’m not sure that this has happened once. What a shame.
Passion in my students’ eyes isn’t really something I’ve seen happen often. There are some instances when we’re working on an assignment where students are free to make a lot of choices such as what the focus is, what they’re going to do, how they’ll be evaluated, and I’ll see more passion and imagination evident; however, most of the time, it’s a look of boredom and feigned interest for a grade. What’s even sadder about this, is the fact that at least half of them could be classified as reluctant learners as far as English is concerned. Instead of seeing passion and imagination from this group, I’ve seen that II’m all tapped out look. The one that says, I’ll do the bare minimum to get by and get the heck outta here.
This is something that must change. There is no written rule that says we cannot create learning environments where students’ passions and interests drive the learning and the learner. I think that this is key to engaging their imaginations and their willingness to view constraints with excitement and positivity versus feeling defeated and giving up. I’m excited to learn about how to create an environment that will enrich my students’ learning and allow for their passions and imaginations to be key components in their learning.
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