Entrance Slip: October 14

The article for today's reading, "Dancing Teachers Into Being" was an interesting and artistic read to help me open my view about the type of work that the Orchard Garden is geared towards, both in developing teachers and students. 

I think that some of my own hopes and concerns in the profession of teaching were addressed in the article, mainly in the ways how I can provide an alternative learning experience for students and the types of "disruptive education" that I might enjoy providing in the classroom. By disruptive education, I mean learning in a way that disrupts the students' idea of what learning physics or science needs to look like. I think it's an idea that I've been playing around with a lot this year as we have so many inquiry-focused or demo-based lessons. For me, learning physics in high school and beyond was a pretty standard recipe: stand-and-deliver, maybe watch a demo and talk about it, test. Since my interests don't actually lie in theoretical physics, it's encouraging for me to see research and discussion about other effective ways to be able to engage students in science and natural phenomena.

I love the image of people napping in the garden as part of a class, and I also really loved the flax grid. I think the idea of taking time away from a classroom environment is something that is really different from the typical learning experience. Napping is also such a fascinating way to do this because your mind really does get a chance to be somewhere else. I am hoping that I can figure out some kind of way to blur the time constraints of my classes and have students feel separated from the confines of 'clock time'. The flax grid was a beautiful visual and I loved the dance described in the article, more than just trying to make kids sit down in class, we continue to try to put them in boxes of "scientist", "auditory learner", "class clown", etc instead of allowing them to grow and flourish outside of those boxes. As the flax was growing outside of its grid, it was also budding flowers, changing colours, etc! Such a beautiful metaphor for releasing students from their own box.

I am still exploring the idea of being able to effectively teach curriculum in a more creative way. Learning this course in the garden has really opened my eyes to the idea that curriculum can look different than the textbook, and to the value that this learning experience adds for students who think that every day at school looks the same. I can truly differentiate every class we've had in the garden, but find it a little blurrier for the classes where I'm just sitting at a table listening to the professor. One of my core beliefs is that people should be doing something every day that is different; I think getting stuck in routine is one of the quickest ways to not be present in your life. The world changes quickly around us and I think that continuing to push yourself outside of routine gets harder as we grow up, gain dependents, have other responsibilities...high school is one of the times in your life, where you are gaining independence even though mostly still living with your guardians...you should not be feeling mundane, but instead playing or doing parkour with the world and the limits around you.