Waiting for Permission to Learn

Today, we are into week 2 of self-directed learning. Please see previous posts for context.

Part I

Students entered class raring to go. What I found fascinating was the number of truly creative learning projects students are undertaking. It's as if a switch has been turned on. Once students realized they could spend a second week learning anything, the creative side, which has become sorely neglected in our current school structure, emerged. (Yes, students take art and music, but do they ever actually have time to create something out of nothing with no explicit guidelines? Where the only determiner of success is their own? Not in school. Well, not in most schools. A few schools are beginning to develop Maker programs, but the trend has not yet arrived in my board.

One student, who has a very traditional model of what constitutes school and learning has chosen to learn origami. This surprised me but I was so pleased he challenged himself with this task. He might not be aware of all the math and language expectations that are being met by selecting this topic, but I certainly am and it will be part of our conferences.

As students explained their topic selections, I began noticing a language pattern.

"Is it okay if I do ..."
"Is it okay if I work with ..."
"Is it okay I learn about ..."

and then an expectant look on their faces as they waited for me to give the ok or a no.

These kids are so used to being told what to do next, they were asking for permission to learn something they were interested in and to self-organize in order to meet their own goals. I had to keep turning the question back to them, "I don't know is it okay that you chose ...?" "Is it okay if you work with a partner this week? This is your learning, you are in charge. What do you think?"  It's not that I don't think students need boundaries and guidelines, it's just that it became so obvious how much control we continuously and unnecessarily remove from students. After the first few times students and I began to laugh as we realized what was happening.

Tomorrow we will take some time to journal on the idea of waiting for permission. We are also going to use a tool from Integrative Thinking to gain better understanding of why they think they need permission. Thank you Nogah from Rotman's for all you help and suggestions as I work my way through this.