I'm aMAZEd by Learning!

These are all pictures from the Pumpkin Patch, when several students ran through the haybale maze first for fun, and then even more ganged together to try and beat a goal time. Even though not all the students participated, I feel like everyone was engaged in the event. Whether they were watching on the sidelines, taking pictures/video, or counting the time, it seemed like everyone had a job to do, and they were doing it. (With younger children however, this may have to be ordained to them instead of giving them the freedom to find it on their own.)

I observed that many of the people in our class were really gung-ho about and pumped to go through the maze. They barely hesitated to think if it was worth their time, or childish. learned that challenges are captivating, and when students are faced with a certain goal, even if given by the teacher, they are more motivated to accomplish it. Upon first arriving at the pumpkin patch, the students in our class were interested in the maze, and walked through it to get familiar, whereas once they were given a estimated time, the ones that had been interested were even more driven, and others that had not initially been involved, came out of the woodwork and became passionate.

Also, I noticed that the people that participated in the maze "race", developed a certain sort of bond, in doing so. There was definitely a sense of teamwork incorporated into it. Below is a picture of the "finishers" holding up fingers to represent the number of times they ran through. They held up their hands proudly, not in a selfish or bragging sort of way, but instead in a "I'm impressed with what I didn't think I could do, but did" way. Also, I love that the racers weren't competing against each other. They were instead forming a group effort to beat their own time. Because of that, all the pressure was sucked out and it turned into more of a fun game. That is ideal.
I think this event could be applied to what we have learned about active learning. Learning is so much more memorable when a student feels it first-hand, when they have the reigns and have a say in controling how they experience something. However...there are some limitations to that. For example, what if a student "chooses" to sit out of every learning experience the teacher sets up? Then what do you do? How much should a teacher be a facilitator, and how much a forcer? I struggled with this that day. I'm not sure if it was a good or bad thing that we were given a choice to take on the maze. I think maybe when I am a teacher, I will enforce that all students try something at least once. After that, then I will give them some ability to choose. Or, in a case like this at the pumpkin patch, some students may have not been athletically capable to complete the task at hand. Not all of us could have run at a high-speed for several minutes through a maze. However, we all could (and maybe should) have walked through it...This is not to say that students don't learn by watching others participate in active learning experiences. That being said...I do not want to let the same students continuously "cop-out", take the easy road every time, and never be challenged (or as Bobby says-PUSH) . So...how to remedy that? Well...

As a teacher, I ideally want all of my students to seize the moment and embrace opportunities to have active learning experiences. However...I am not insane. I am trying to be realistic and theorize what I will do what that student comes around that has little energy for my "stunts" and wants nothing to do with stretching their mind, exiting their comfort zone, and (heaven forbid!) LEARNING SOMETHING. With those students, I will have to think and plan very delicately. I think I will first try to subtley sneak in some incentives (i.e. a challenge, like recording the time of the maze-goers), which would get a majority of the students riled up and hopefully my unenthusiastic ones would not be able to help but feel the contagious spread of zest. Okay if that doesn't work, then yes I think I would have to tell them to do an activity. Even if that force would taint their ability to be openminded and optimistic about it at first, hopefully by the time they are doing it, they will realize they sincerely enjoy it themselves. I know for a fact though that I will need to be a good observer, reading all my students' "Enthuse-o-meters" and keeping up with not only who is and who is not learning, but also who is and who is not happy while doing so (which hopefully they all will be!).