#futureclassroom

Future Classroom:

             Tension has come to a slow boil as Hamlet now understands the gravity of his situation: He must either forfeit his life and love or avenge his dead father at the cost of his own life. Die for what has been done, or live for what is yet to be. This is the plague of the modern thinker stuck in a world of one-sided thought. Revenge must be had. Old rivalries are new rivalries. Hamlet draws his weapon against Laertes, a friend and a fellow slave to revenge. There is no path that leads to the future of Hamlet. The blades are poisoned. Fate is sealed.

*Students watch from the crowd. Hamlet and Laertes cross blades. Only the students know the blades are poisoned. “Don’t do it!” they cry with a faint voice that doesn’t escape the crowd. Moments later the characters that students have watched for three acts lay dead on the floor. The simulation is terminated, and students truly feel the gravity of Hamlet’s position. The stone court of King Claudius is slowly replaced by the neon classroom. Students are left with their thoughts as they disconnect from the Shakespeare server.

“What did you see? What happened?” I ask the students.

“Hamlet was killed by a poisoned blade,” they reply.

“So, why did Hamlet choose to avenge his father rather than live for himself? Did he ever have a choice?”

Students ponder what was just seen. Plays are meant to be watched, lived, and felt. The elephant and the rider take equal interest in the events. Emotions are high because the story has been told.

             Alright, enough with the theatrics. I want my students to virtually enter the world of Shakespeare, and feel the full emotional gravity of the play. While we may be far off from virtually reality that is immersive and graphic enough to capture a student’s attention, I think it would be an awesome experience to live through a play as an era-specific observer (hopefully complete with garb and all). I picture the future classroom as a space where emotion meets practice. Dirksen continually emphasizes the importance of making a lesson personal in terms of feelings using storytelling. Even though I do enjoy plays, sometimes era specific language is a distraction. I only notice this when reading, however. Something about visualizing a play really brings it to life. The language that was once unintelligible becomes everyday banter. I definitely see where emotion has a very large role in uniting elephant and rider.

           Speaking for myself, sometimes it’s hard to believe that I even have a rider. The elephant is hardcore. Like, seriously, I want to have fun all the time. I want to use writing to create vivid new ideas versus hashing out what someone may or may not have meant in their writing that they wrote over eighty years ago. Students are likely to feel the same way, even if they don’t even have the tendency to want to write. When I’m emotionally invested in a subject, I find it is easy to pay attention. It is challenging, however, when I couldn’t care less about what I’m learning. For example, we just finished a reading a play titled Top Girls in my literature class. It was a drag through the mud because I wasn’t invested. Personally, I care more about the fates of Lego’s fictional Ninjago characters than these largely unlikable fictional characters from the play.

Dear future classroom,

Hi, Hello, we haven’t met yet, and I sadly do not know when exactly we will meet in person but I wanted to say a few things before we get formally introduced.  First off, Hi! How are you? My name is Amanda, currently I am 26 but that will not be the age that I enter into you. I could be 30 before I get to call you mine, Lord knows I’ve been waiting 3 years and I haven’t had the opportunity to call you my own.  

I wanted to write to you in regards of what you can expect from me, and sadly it isn’t a lot of promises. I can’t promise you that the last name that I have will be the one that is shown bright on your door, some crazy fool might want to marry me, BUT I can promise you that my name will remain Amanda.  I can’t promise you that your paint will stay nice, and that your floors will not get dirty.  I can’t promise that your door might not break, or a light might not go out.  I can’t promise that the room wont be loud, and that you wont see tears and struggles.  I can’t promise you things will stay perfectly neat and organized, you might get dirty and beat up, I actually cant promise you much of anything, for I cannot predict the future. But even though I can’t promise you a lot, there are some things that I can indeed promise you.

I can promise you, that along side all the curriculum posters, ABC’s and 123s your walls will also be covered with artwork made by students in art class and free time.  I can promise you decorations that come and go with the seasons, and most importantly your walls will showcase the students achievements and milestones.  I can promise you that the loud noise will be students laughing, asking questions, engaged in deep discussions, and friends catching up on what they did over the weekend. I can promise you that the shouting will come from students because they couldn’t hold it in their heads anymore. I can promise you a classroom with eager to learn students and an even more eager teacher to show them what the entire world as to offer. I can promise you a class that will respect you and love you just like I have grown to love and respect you.  I can promise you that even though you will see struggle along with some tears, you will also see students overcoming obstacles and children shooting for the moon and landing among all the stars. I can promise you that you will see a student finally understanding something, and you will never be able to forget that smile he or she has across their face.  I can promise you that you will see students who believe that they can do anything if they set their mind to it, and a teacher that will always support them in their endeavors.  

 I can promise you that you will see a teacher that not only will come in early but also will stay late. I can promise you that you will see a teacher that loves her students, and will do anything to see them achieve any goal. You will see a teacher that yes may yell at times, but also act silly and dance to the beat of her own drum. You will see a teacher that not only teaches a class but also learns from her own students because they will teach me more than I will ever learn.

Classroom, I wish I could write you everything that you will see, but I don’t even know that. I just know that throughout the many years I hope to call you mine, you will see good days, and you will see bad days for life isn’t perfect and rainbows. I promise that no matter what type of day it is, that WE will get through it and that we at the end of the day will be ok…I promise!  As the years go by, there will be time for me to move on from teaching but there are just a few things I want you to remember. Remember that you mean the world to me, and I am oh so very thankful that you allowed me to share such a wonderful safe happy space. Know that I will have enjoyed every second of everyday entering and exiting your door. I thank you for all the good times and memories you have given me. I only ask one thing of you, be nice to the new teacher that may enter your room, for he or she is petrified and probably new. Show them the ways, and remember, in time they will show you more than you could ever dream of.

Sincerely,

Within the classroom, it is obvious to observe that students learn in different ways. Their styles, or how they learn, is different from their ability to learn. The average student is capable of learning certain subjects, however, the way in which they do is can differ from their peers. I agree with these statements, as clearly each individual is different from one another. But accommodating these learning styles to each student seems rather impossible to me.

I believe that it is important to not change the way of teaching, but in fact to bring out the best abilities in each student. In other words, teaching the class in one united flow would be most helpful. Instead of worrying about meeting the need of each individual student, teachers should worry about which concepts work with the best style of teaching. Some concepts are best taught hands on, while some are best taught through lectures and group discussions. Each student may grasp these concepts in different ways, and some may be better at these things than others, but if the material is taught well, the students will understand based on their ability, not on their style of learning.