Written by Shirley Rinaldi. Cross-posted from Talking the Tech Walk
This week I realized that sometimes things just seem to fall into place and are meant to happen. This was the case with a new project that we tried in middle school this week, called Imagination Day. The first thoughts of something new began to emerge on Twitter last Wednesday, after I read a tweet and then a great blog post by Josh Stumpenhorst @stumpteacher. This post was all about the very successful Innovation Day that his school had just experienced and where students became teachers for the day. It sounded a lot like what we believe is important at PDS and what education should be all about…passion, creativity, flexibility and student led.
Here are the offerings…
| Room | Session 1 | Session 2 |
| G-26 | Fashion | Building Birdhouses |
| G-5 | Successful Revolution | Acting Improv. |
| G-15 | Juggling with Devil Sticks | Drawing |
| Media Center | Frame by Frame Animation | —– |
| Kitchen | Baking Brownies | Making Tacos |
| G-19B | Candle Making | Speed Writing a Short Story |
| G-20 | Sign Language | Origami |
| G-21 | Math Magic | Rise and Fall of Rome |
| G-22 | Speaking Chinese | World War II |
| Gym | Basketball Skills | —– |
| Outdoors | Soccer Skills | Baseball Skills/Running |
| Lower School | —– | Teaching in Lower School |
Meetings were set up so that the “teachers” knew the length of the workshops and what they should plan for. They then filled out planning sheets. Lastly, the sign up Google form went out to the rest of the middle school on Monday morning. Everyone was happy with their choices and we were all set to go.
Here are some quotes from some of our students…
“I’ve never left school so tired.”
“I learned that teaching is fun and that I like Tacos.”
“I was surprised at how well the class went.”
“I learned that teaching is really hard.”
“Learn from other people.”
“I think this could be done any place, any time.”
“It’s a great learning experience. Not only are we learning from other kids but we are learning about other kids.”
“I learned how to make candles and that lime is supposed to go on Tacos.”
“School should not only be about academics. I say let the students have fun and learn something new.”
Funnily enough, this article from The New York Times turned up about the same time as we were planning our Imagination Day. Let Kids Rule the School. So let’s pass the word and involve more schools in this kind of day.
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