Learning Mosaic

In my after-school group, Digital Media Kids, I have 3 girls and 3 boys with 1 fifth, 1 fourth and 4 third graders. We’re a diverse group but all decided to join this activity. Being a teacher, my first thought was, now I have to plan something that will really engage them, all of them, and help them grow while having fun. My thought was writing/image based expression through a blog, podcasting and VoiceThreads towards collaboration within the group and globally.

But I have so many ideas and directions this group could go in that I became stalled in my planning. This morning I woke up with the solution; because it’s extra-curricular, we don’t have to be driven by curriculum or skill outcomes. The direction I need is to ask the group what they want individually and collectively from the experience and together come up with essential questions for the group that will guide us individually and collectively. If it was a snake, it’da bit me.  From that discussion and big question(s) will come our project- the collaborations and tools will fall into place.

So, tomorrow I plan to display my activity description that they responded to and pose the questions, what do you see us doing? What do you want to learn? What do you want to express? Who do you want as an audience? After we sort those out, then we can bridge, What do you want to express and how?

Sometimes I love Mondays.

BTW, fantastic video of Chris Lehmann found on a J.Utecht twitter post.