Moving & Learning in the Elementary School

My classroom.

My classroom is the magic hat that magicians wear on top of their heads.  It contains a limitless supply of wonder and amazement.  I invite my students into a world unlike any they have ever experienced, where even mundane learning expectations are transformed into magnificent spectacles of intriguing information. I truly believe I am transforming students from passive learners to engaged lifelong learners. 

I was thinking about all the things I do in my class that makes learning active for my students and thought of telling you about how I incorporate movement into my lessons to get my students out of their seats and engaged in the lesson I am teaching.  Where my lesson on using the standard algorithm to solve multiplication problems starts with a dance to make a lesson that some students fear, be about how easy and no threatening math can be.  Also learning how states of matter change through their different forms after heat is added and subtracted becomes a game on the basketball court where my students and I form a solid by huddling together we add heat and move farther away while moving around each other and more heat is added and we are all running around excited like the gas molecule we are pretending to be.

Instead of talking about any of that I decided to speak to you today about what active learning means to me.  I feel that in order to get my kids to want to learn from me it is I who has to be active.  I have noticed that if your students trust and invest in you as their teacher they are more motivated to work and learn for and from you.  I try to be as engaging as I can when I walk into my school, and not only to my students but all students that I come in contact with because I want to build that bond before they ever get to fourth grade, because it makes my task easier.  I have met some truly amazing teachers in our district and others that are active teachers and I learned that Active Learning starts with me and flows through my students.  As educators we are charged with sculpting the future and I for one want to be actively engaged in what future I will one day see.

Mack

My name is Eric McMahan I am a fourth grade Math and Science teacher at Sunnyvale Elementary.  This is my 6th year teaching and I am blessed to be apart of such an amazing community and district.