Changing Up Reflection

At the beginning of almost every inquiry meeting, we all spend a few minutes thinking and writing about the Through a Different Lens Project, things that we have tried, questions we have, thoughts about what is working or not working for our students, etc.

Last Thursday, instead of writing we used play-doh as the way to represent what was on our minds.  It was an interesting way of trying to encapsulate the ideas that we were thinking about.  Here is a sample of what we were thinking:
- the first picture represents the feelings of not having enough time to go into depth on some of the concepts that this teacher would like to pursue with her students... time gets disrupted and disjointed and this teacher wished for more time to pursue the ideas her kids are interested in.
- how grateful this teacher was that she had another pair of hands in the classroom to draw a few of her students out
- the table with 3 legs represented thoughts about one student who the teacher worries needs more social involvement, so the table is wobbly
- the forth picture represents thinking about strength based approaches; all the ways to help kids find their passions / interests and strengths
- and the last picture represents science fair and this teachers thoughts about her students who don't have the home support  to pursue the project.

It is good to try out new approaches with kids and adults - it exposes us to different ways of doing things, and different ways of thinking about teaching/learning. By doing this we might even help some kids find a new strength or passion.