A Quiet Classroom is not Always a Creative Classroom

from NBC News

  Being inundated by testing, testing, testing, and more testing is becoming the norm in most school systems. Some administrators are going as far as thinking that if the classrooms are quiet, then they are learning. No, if the classrooms are quiet, they are not processing the learning in the way that the student learns! The only time a classroom should be quiet is when they are taking tests.

I have always encouraged using a variety of resources, teaching styles, and management skills to promote teaching to the way students learn. I also promote creative programs and ideas that encourage progressive classrooms. I am not saying a creative and learning classroom is more chaotic than Grand Central Station in New York. What I am saying is that classroom management is even more important in a creative classroom. Here are some common misconceptions about “noisy” classrooms:

§  Talking means that students are not learning. On the contrary! These students are using their verbal and interpersonal intelligences to communicate. Students who learn creative communication skills are more apt to be business leaders and problem solvers!

§  Students are not learning if they are out of their seats. Depends on what they are out of their seat for! Most of the time, especially in a science classroom, students are getting materials to work on their experiment for that day. Movement in a classroom does not indicate lack of control.

§  If students are laughing, they are causing trouble or disrupting the classroom. Really? When has a child or student’s laughter made you feel bad? Having positive feelings around a subject is bad? Laughing, the last time I checked, reduces stress and anxiety levels.

§  The teacher should be the focus of the classroom. This one gets to me more than the statement above. Teachers are not poorly paid actors. They are not paid to stand in front of a classroom to entertain you. They are paid to be your learning coach and your education guide. Classrooms should always focus on the student and their engagement of the material. If they are not engaged, they are not learning.

§  Good, dynamic teachers reach 100% of the students all the time. Once again, too much focus on the teacher, not the students. No one teacher can reach every single student. There will always be students in the classroom who refuse to be engaged. This is where the Special Needs teacher is supposed to step in and work with the student. Why? They might have a learning disability, problems at home, or any other variety of things that are keeping them from being engaged.

From Active Classroom UK: Do you have a Smartboard yet?

    The point is that if we hold on to these misconceptions, we will continually hold our classrooms back from being progressive and student-oriented.