Chaos in the Classroom: Every Educator's Dream

In class today, I was really taken by the idea of Process and Procedure versus Chaos and Discovery. This actually really helped clarify a lot of questions I have been having recently in all of our courses. This is the thing: I love taking notes. Sometimes, I find the prospect of sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture very calming. Sure, I love getting up and talking to/working with people, but often I feel that I am most inspired (and my learning is easiest to file away usefully) when it's happening in a more traditional, structured, lecture-style format. Recently, I've been thinking: "Hey! Well, maybe this is my learning style. And if it's my learning style, it has to be the learning style for some of the kids too, right?"

It was so helpful for me to learn that there is actually a shift that happens as we get older to move toward Process and Procedure learning. This helps me reframe how I even think about teaching. It's so easy to try to teach the way that makes sense for you as a learner, but sometimes that isn't the best way. Adults being more prone to Process and Procedure learning is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm also less integrated with tech than my students will be, but if I teach them the way I would want to be taught or the way I remember being taught, I won't be reaching them where they are. That doesn't do anyone any good. The same goes for thinking about students with different abilities or needs (connecting to our Exceptional Learners & Differentiation class). We need to try to get into the mindsets of our students and understand where they are and what they need. Our experiences can only get us so far. And since we only have our experiences, we need to gather more data. We need to try new things, check in, and ask the students to make sure we are creating classroom environments that feel authentic and work for them--otherwise, it's not working. They're the ones we are designing these lessons and classrooms for.

I did a bit more research to try and see what this Chaos and Discovery learning could look like. On the A Pass Education blog, Andrew Pass writes about the strengths of a "chaotic" classroom. To him, chaotic classrooms are so valuable because they mean that students are engaging in differentiated learning. Students are not all doing the same thing, and that's necessary for meaningful learning. This reminds me a lot of our reading for our Exceptional Learners & Differentiation class on Wednesday: one way to create a lesson that is differentiated for everyone is to make it something creative. Leave activities open for students to take them farther, and create different entry points for students who might need to be accessing at different levels. Our class today adds another layer onto those ideas--make lessons that are full of chaos and discovery. If you let the students lead their learning, they will be more engaged and they will take it to places that are meaningful for them. This will necessarily engage them at higher Bloom's levels, too. It's the educator's dream: high classroom engagement, instructionally-appropriate differentiation, higher-level thinking, and innovative learning, all naturally occurring in one lesson. I really appreciate having this new way of thinking about engaging lesson design, and I appreciate the new perspective for why this makes *the most* sense for students, even if it doesn't seem as natural for me. This is a perspective I will definitely carry with me when I start teaching, and I'm excited to think about ways to integrate tech into this chaos/discovery model. (Research stations, website building, online communication with students or experts in other places...are some ideas that come to mind just right now.)

Oh, and by the way, if you're curious, check out this classroom that's chaotic and where the kids are all clearly engaged. It's really fun to see how much they are enjoying and working through the material (probably more than if they were just reading at their desks)! I am excited to work towards creating a classroom atmosphere where the kids can all be this self-directed and this engaged.