The last week has been overwhelming at school- more on this later.
Among some academic concerns I’ve got, the wastefulness in the classroom has been driving me cuckoo nuts. Everyday I’m rescuing piles of paper from the trash to put in the recycle bin, or our clean paper pile. New packages of pencils disappear within hours, to be found in pieces around the floor. I only get one dry erase marker from the office at a time, because as soon as I lay it on the tray, the end gets jammed in.
Paradoxically, the same kids who have no qualms about turning in their work in slovenly handwriting on crumpled up paper turn their noses up at reusing any paper that might “have something on it”, say a stray mark in pencil that might easily be erased.
Waste, waste, waste and destroy.
SO. Yesterday I tried something new.
On Monday, we’re going to have a big vocabulary test. Their assignment yesterday and today is to come up with a game to help them remember the meaning of the words. They had to turn in an instruction sheet and materials list, and most groups got pretty far along in putting their game together. I told them that extra points would be awarded for either re-using materials that would otherwise be thrown out, or coming up with a game that required few new resources to be used.
About twenty minutes into the class period the light seemed to go off, and they started looking at the room in a new way. Empty cardboard box? Gameboard! Stack of tattered manila folders in teh recycle bin? Cardstock!
A baby step, but hopefully one in the right direction.
I’m excited to see what the finished product- after they’re all turned in, each class will vote on the best game, and we’ll use that to review for the next test.
I wish there were more teachers like you. This is a brilliant solution.