Overall, I am very glad to have taken this course and truly feel like I have learned a lot about the importance of incorporating play into my daily classroom practices. I now see that students are able to focus so much more when given playful choices that engage them in independent learning and expression. Through each meeting, I was able to explore new ways to release academic choices of expression to my students and was excited to try this out across all academic subjects. In math, I was able to have students explore different manipulatives in order to practice adding and comparing numbers. I saw the engagement levels and positive emotional responses increase drastically when giving them a creative and fun alternative to learning the rote math material. In reading, I gave students the autonomy to choose words they felt stood out and were important, and then had them choose from a range of materials to share and express what they had learned. Students would have continued with this project for hours if there was enough time in the day, and this is an activity many students still talk about months later.
I am very impressed by the collaboration this course allowed and encouraged across the district. I was able to observe teachers across grade levels and schools and truly learn from differing practices. I know that I will take ideas from many of my colleagues and put them forth in my classroom in the years to come. Through the exploration of different games played in a small reading group, to different editing tools to help students show interest in editing their writing, I have learned from diverse reflective practices.
I look forward to sharing what I have learned through this course with other colleagues at Fox Meadow because I feel that a lot of what we learned from the Pedagogy of Play overlaps with the practices of Responsive Classroom, a collaborative approach to teaching social and emotional skills in order to create a safe, joyful and engaging environment. I know that with this as the backbone of my teaching students will thrive in a welcoming and openminded classroom.