Jessica: Recipe for Learning

As we creep towards winter break, I have begun calling family and friends who I will be seeing on my days off. Several of my friends were in the process of buying ingredients for, or making cookies for, holiday cookie parties when I called. In case you haven’t been to one, a cookie party is where everyone brings a several dozen homemade cookies to a party. At the party, you taste everyone else’s cookies, and then you leave with a handful of new cookies, as well as new recipes to try out. I love these parties, but regrettably, I wasn’t invited to any holiday cookie parties this year. It’s not a big deal, though, because I’ve been waaaaay busier this year than in previous Decembers.

In addition to my regular job duties, I am the director for the winter program. For the past several weeks, I’ve been working with the entire student body on reading lines, singing songs, and making crafts and costumes for a winter program involving forest animals explaining the meaning of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. As I near performance night, I know there will be mistakes. The sound system may produce ugly feedback. Students may exit to the wrong side. Someone will probably forget their lines. But it is what it is. I have reached the point where I have fixed what I can and accept what I cannot fix.

Julia Childs wrote, “One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed.” One could take the word cooking out and replace it with directing, and find it equally helpful advice. Indeed, one could take out cooking, replace it with many a verb choice, and still find the words applicable: parenting, being married… teaching. Yes, teaching fits in nicely: One of the secrets, and pleasures, of teaching is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed.

Anyone who works in special education knows that there is more than one way to teach a child. Not everyone learns to read, write, do math, or process and apply information in the same way. One of the biggest responsibilities of a special educator is to identify how students with disabilities process and learn new information. Hence, it is extremely important for us to be flexible and know how to implement a variety of instructional strategies. I acquire my catalog of strategies and ideas to run an effective classroom by collaborating with other teachers. This is why, dear readers, I’d like to invite you to my own holiday recipe exchange. So I can replenish my teaching cupboard over the break.

Here’s my recipe for a supportive learning environment:

Ingredients:

• A good attitude – like flour, it’s the bulk of the recipe.
• A friendly smile – like sugar, it sweetens the experience for everyone.
• Organized lesson plans – like yeast, it helps the students rise.
• Art supplies  – like spices, what’s a recipe without a little hands-on fun?
• Improvisational skills – because sometimes you’re halfway through the mixing when you realize you don’t have any eggs, and who knew that banana would do the trick?

Mix well and often, and never bring to a boil. If you blend everything just so, the lesson will keep… forever.

Now it’s your turn to tell me:

What’s your recipe for a supportive learning environment?

Comments

[PearlineCooper]

wonderful ingredients for our special needs poulation. One ingredient that I find which is an absolute necessity, is the "sweetner", which I call patience,(is this what you call caring?, then we are on the same page). Without this ingredient,I would have missed the opportunity of putting "topping" on my "delicious cookies"

[Sarah]

Fantastic post! I think you have all the most important ingredients. My favorite of course was the improvisational skills. That's definitely the key ingredient in my job. I would add just a dash of patience...err, maybe make it a full cup :)

[Sherida Jones]

You are such a great writer, first off, Miss Jessica! It's funny that you tagged me; a friend and I were talking just the other day about "the trick" to a healthy classroom. My recipe is somewhat similar to yours:
A good attitude - like you said, is like flour; attitude is the foundation.
Respect - I think that once the teacher establishes respect for the student and the students establish respect for the teacher and each other, the classroom environment feels much warmer and safer.
Humor - because it makes the class fun for the students and fun for the teacher. I also find that my students tend to remember material when they have "That funny thing we talked about in class".
Organized lesson plans - like you said, they are the yeast, and they're like your recipe card; when we need to rein it in, always refer to your lesson plan to see where you need to be.
Improvisational Skills - You have to think on your feet.
Caring - I think you have to care about your kids in order to build a rapport with them and, once they see that you care about them, they are less reluctant to learn.