Play\u00ading IS Learn\u00ading: How Play Leads to Bet\u00adter Class\u00adroom Management <\/b><\/p>\n
The whole world is wor\u00adried about the kids. What did the pan\u00addem\u00adic do to the kids? How does social media affect the kids? Are the kids grow\u00ading up too soon? Did they fall irrepara\u00adbly behind? <\/span><\/p>\n And while we\u2019re wor\u00adry\u00ading, the kids are lis\u00adten\u00ading. They hear every word of it. It affects them. <\/span><\/p>\n Then also, imag\u00adine being the teacher of all of those kids. The lone adult in a room of 20+ chil\u00addren to bat\u00adtle the neg\u00ada\u00adtive input they bring with them to school. To ease their nerves, the ten\u00adsion and anx\u00adi\u00adety that exists even before the con\u00adtent is intro\u00adduced, a teacher must devel\u00adop a rap\u00adport with each kid and the group as a whole. Before they can learn, they have to be present to learn. <\/span><\/p>\n Talk about a challenge! <\/b><\/p>\n Dis\u00adrup\u00adtive class\u00adroom behav\u00adiors most often exist because of things we don\u2019t con\u00adtrol in our class\u00adrooms; yet, we still have to con\u00adtrol them in our class\u00adrooms. That\u2019s class man\u00adage\u00adment. That\u2019s what teach\u00aders do. Before they teach any\u00adthing, teach\u00aders man\u00adage their classes. <\/span><\/p>\n It starts with relationships.<\/b><\/p>\n A sure way to get the atten\u00adtion of a room full of chil\u00addren is to invite them to play. Kids love to play. Regard\u00adless of their age, they love to play. Some of them love the idea that they\u2019re get\u00adting away with some\u00adthing by play\u00ading instead of doing seri\u00adous school work. <\/span>Let them think that.<\/b> They don\u2019t need to know what they\u2019re learn\u00ading \u2014 yet. They don\u2019t even need to know that they\u2019re learn\u00ading any\u00adthing. Yet. Well, except the game.<\/span><\/p>\n Play is how ani\u00admals learn. Watch tiger cubs, or the pup\u00adpies, or bear cubs. They learn by doing, feel\u00ading, falling, fail\u00ading, get\u00adting up, and doing it again. Dif\u00adfer\u00adent\u00adly next time. Watch\u00ading more care\u00adful\u00adly. Learn\u00ading the rules of the game. Learn\u00ading to crawl and to walk and to do all of the things. All of that learn\u00ading hap\u00adpens dur\u00ading play time. Play is how chil\u00addren learn, too.<\/span><\/p>\n Play builds pos\u00adi\u00adtive, healthy rela\u00adtion\u00adships. Work\u00ading toward a shared goal in game play builds cam\u00ader\u00adaderie and a pleas\u00adant work environment.<\/span><\/p>\n Sev\u00ader\u00adal years ago a student\u2019s grand\u00admoth\u00ader came to his par\u00adent teacher con\u00adfer\u00adence. The child\u2019s par\u00adents were incar\u00adcer\u00adat\u00aded and unable to attend. Grand\u00adma open\u00adly didn\u2019t want to be rais\u00ading kids again, but she also didn\u2019t want them going to the state. \u201c\u2026\u2019s being bul\u00adlied.\u201d She <\/span>want\u00aded me to do some\u00adthing about it. I added it to the list of rea\u00adsons her grand\u00adchild didn\u2019t read: too many oth\u00ader con\u00adcerns that had real life and death reper\u00adcus\u00adsions for him. Read\u00ading was low on his pri\u00ador\u00adi\u00adty list. It was high on my list. I knew for sure I could teach him to read, but first I had to get his atten\u00adtion. <\/span>(And he wasn\u2019t the only one. They nev\u00ader are. We teach\u00aders have class\u00adrooms full of kids with big needs. We rarely have all the ways to meet those needs, despite our deep desire and best efforts.)<\/span><\/p>\n I did all the things a sec\u00adond grade teacher does. I kept him close. I sep\u00ada\u00adrat\u00aded him from the kid that scared him. I gave him the extra atten\u00adtion he craved. We worked on all the strate\u00adgies of decod\u00ading and phon\u00adics. His com\u00adpre\u00adhen\u00adsion was on tar\u00adget (once some\u00adone read the text to him). And we played. He liked to play. We played read\u00ading games and math games and Mrs. Harris\u2019s* Cir\u00adcle Games. <\/span>I thought play\u00ading could help. I\u2019d been play\u00ading with my stu\u00addents for sev\u00ader\u00adal years, and I knew it was a great way to get to know a new class.<\/span><\/p>\n That year we played a lot. I had a group of kids with big needs that year. I was get\u00adting divorced, so often it would be my big needs \u2014 I\u2019d be edgy. I\u2019d feel myself start to explode and real\u00adize I\u2019d bet\u00adter do some\u00adthing before it got ugly. I\u2019d stop what we were doing and play a quick some\u00adthing \u2014 usu\u00adal\u00adly Zip, Zap, Zoom or Machine, games my kids liked most. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>The more we played, the more we got to know each oth\u00ader. At first they played like goof-balls. There would always be some\u00adbody mess\u00ading up the game with pur\u00adpose and intent. Then the group mind decid\u00aded that wasn\u2019t accept\u00adable any\u00admore. The kids would play around the unwant\u00aded behav\u00adior until it stopped because it wasn\u2019t fun\u00adny any\u00admore. Over time, the games mor\u00adphed into a dif\u00adfer\u00adent ver\u00adsion of what I taught. Props became a guess\u00ading game. They played Zip, Zap, Zoom (not Zop \u2014 who cares?) <\/span><\/p>\n Around Jan\u00adu\u00adary, it was clear that the sec\u00adond graders were run\u00adning the games. Grandma\u2019s kid real\u00adly liked play\u00ading and was good at play\u00ading by the rules (not impor\u00adtant to me, but it was to him). What\u00adev\u00ader game we played, he\u2019d make sure every\u00adone remem\u00adbered how to play before they start\u00aded. C, the kid that he said was the bul\u00adly, was real\u00adly good at get\u00adting the class cir\u00adcled up and focused on start\u00ading a game. Then play\u00ading. Nicely. <\/span><\/p>\n I noticed oth\u00ader things. I saw pat\u00adterns of who stood by whom when we cir\u00adcled up. Kids who had chal\u00adlenges with putting one thing away and tran\u00adsi\u00adtion\u00ading to the next thing didn\u2019t feel rushed, nor were they an annoy\u00adance to the rest of us. They joined in when they\u2019re ready. And the game spurred them on to move faster than they did with\u00adout the game. <\/span><\/p>\n Teach\u00aders are asked to do the impos\u00adsi\u00adble and improb\u00ada\u00adble each and every day. (If you doubt me, go on a field trip with any class on any day.) We should encour\u00adage all of them to play more to make the impos\u00adsi\u00adble more like\u00adly and the days more joyful. <\/span><\/p>\n *Lisa Poskanz\u00ader was Mrs. Har\u00adris before she was divorced. <\/span><\/p>\n Play\u00ading leads to bet\u00adter class\u00adroom man\u00adage\u00adment! You\u2019ll engage kids, build rela\u00adtion\u00adships and help ease their dai\u00adly stress\u00ades and anx\u00adi\u00adeties \u2014 and yours! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":1251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[58,57,55,52,56,59,32,54],"post-type":[48],"yoast_head":"\n
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