When learning happens...

We continue to work on natural disasters. The seismographer is almost ready and we started to work on the anemometer. We actually built three different versions of the anemometer today to see which one moved better with the wind. Some of the girls got really interested when they saw me working on it, so they started to work with me.

I discuss this with the teacher. He has been spending a lot of time writing reports and documents for the end of the year and I worry that he is not doing the work with me and with the children. He is very interested and he comes to make sure he follows the work, but he is not taking an active role this week. I brought up how some of the most interesting learning experiences during these months have happened this way. When the children see me working on something, they want to collaborate with me and they naturally get engaged.

In the conversation he mentioned how children do the same at school. There are two or three students that have become sort of role models, once they figure something: a procedure, a way to change the windows settings and colors... all the others follow. I think this is all the result of a very open environment that allows collaboration and group work.

If I get the teacher to do the same I can have him reflect on what results he gets from the experience... for now, I have my own experience working with the children.