We started talking more about being ‘in your element’ (see previous blog post on this) in my class recently, which as been really successful. Here’s what we’ve done so far.
On the first day of term:
First we clarified what being in your element actually meant – when passion meets talent.
Then we wrote little paragraphs about when we were in our element. Children had to explain how they were passionate and talented at a certain thing, which we wrote of small pieces of paper and put on the wall, grouped after writing them into areas eg. mathematicians, gamers and writers. Evidently these talents didn’t have to solely reside within the confines of school!
We then used this to come up with teaching sessions, taken by the students that had talents in these areas. These would be attended by the whole class and every child had to take at least one lesson. They could choose whether this would be by themselves or in pairs.
The first week:
We had lessons on gymnastics, origami and character drawing, all of which were successful.
One week down, here are the students’ initial thoughts:
- Like getting to lead others.
- Like getting to boss people around!
- Everyone can try tricky/new things.
- There are a range of lessons, something for everyone.
- You get to suck up others’ goodness/talent.
- You get to know what others are good at/like doing.
- You get a buzz out of teaching others.
- You learn something new.
- It’s a good thing to add onto/enhance My-learning.
- You get exercise with some of the meetings.
- It’s fun!
- Shy people get to take center stage.
