"The 1st graders run the entirety of the business, which includes marketing, shipping, and creative teams. Students craft their own social media posts, grow their own herbs, distill their own essential oils, and calculate profit margins.

Ashley incorporates all subjects and standards into the business – art through marketing, geography through shipping, math through accounting.

“"I’ve never been a big believer in teaching to a test. Indeed, since my first year in the classroom I’ve used a project-based model with my science and social studies classes. On the first day of school I issue my fifth-graders a PASSPORT (which stands for Preparing All Students for Success by Participating in an Ongoing Real-world simulation using Technology). The school year is a simulation of adulthood where students work, create, and learn about personal finance and entrepreneurial skills. They experience real-world situations and gain insights into global affairs.”

John Holt’s How Children Learn shows his anecdotal stories about his students, nieces and nephews, which reveal the true nature of children, especially on learning. He mentions several arguments about school practices and ways to improve them. His assertions are powerful. It has moved me to reflect on my teaching strategies and ponder on ways to make them better. All for the love of kids and for the love of learning. Here are some of my reflections from the book:

Thinking always comes out in the form of words - either through talking or writing.

This means if children are not given enough opportunities to talk or write much (either in school or at home), then they don’t think much as well.

And when I say talk/write, it isn’t just through the question-and-answer method. They need to practice having real conversations. Do they get lots of these in school? Who get to have most of talking practice? We know all the answer. They’re lucky if they have parents or caregivers who spend time with them and speak with them just about anything. If not, then don’t expect your kid to be fluent.

Talking is also related to reading. Lack of conversational skills would mean lack of reading skills. A competent reader would always enter into a dialogue with the author. A not so good reader is passive. Just taking everything in without even asking questions and looking for answers.

Children deserve to get the social part of what the school deems important. Let’s make them do most of the talking as it has myriad of benefits. Cooperative Learning Tasks, Differentiated Instruction, Working with a Partner are just some strategies we can use inside the classroom. Here, the teacher’s role is just the facilitator, which is less exhausting that doing the talking the entire day. Definitely a win-win situation.

Setting aside time for kids to have free period when they can do and talk about anything they want with each other is also be very useful. There can be restrictions like using proper voice levels, but no control over the topics they would want to discuss.

I hope to find more methods.

You can’t say you’re creative, when you haven’t done anything at all. Creativity is applied imagination, Sir Ken Robinson said. Our Unit Head even introduced the term “imaginaction” to refer to it. She emphasized that it’s not a noun but a verb because it must be put into action. During her talk, my mind ruminated on the value of imagination. I realized that it is the root of all human achievements. How did the early humans discover cooking? How did Einstein come up with his famous theories? How did The Beatles compose their songs? How did Steve Jobs help create indispensable gadgets? The list could go on, but there is only one answer - they imagined it first. Thus, if we want to achieve something, we have to nourish our imagination before anything else. The question is…how? Well…take all opportunities to put your imagination to work. As teachers, we’re fortunate to have lots. As in LOTS. Lesson plans, visual aids, dance presentations, bulletin boards, ways to manage a class, techniques to motivate students, strategies to appear calm even if you’re really panicking, and so much more! Oh, we could look at those tasks as merely exhaustive, but now…I believe we can consider all of those as chances to improve ourselves. We can see those as mediums that enhance our imagination that will make us better teachers whom our children need.