Imagine your students, in firmly pressed suits and colourful dresses, standing next to their re- constructed models of ancient civilisations, articulating in detail to a room full of adults reasons why they fell.
Imagine their work being so impressive that a local museum curator asked to feature it in an upcoming exhibition.
This is the kind of work Linda Amici (@LindaAmici), a fifth grade teacher gets 10 year old gets students to produce in her co-created and co-designed classroom. In her classroom, students choose how they work, who they work with, and what they work on.
I sat down with Linda to learn how she creates this kind of co-designed space, and how teachers new to this kind of learning can make the shift as well.
In this short interview, Linda teaches us how to:
Develop and deepen student questions
Gently guide without overpowering
Save ourselves time and headaches by letting go
Set up simple routines to help students direct their own learning
Get students to produce work that makes adults’ jaws drop
Get access to this shift and start making the shift to a student- centered classroom below: