Play matters.

I feel very strongly that we need to be teaching our students how to be creative, self-directed, risk-taking learners.  However, we sometimes end up teaching in such a way that we limit the room for student creativity, initiative, and risk, therefore stifling some of their potential growth.  I don't want to dictate the process so much that the students are merely trying to replicate what I would do.  As a teacher I want my students to be better than me and do more than me.  If all I am doing is creating a mini-me, I don't think I am serving their best interests.  I really believe unscheduled and unstructured time can result in huge growth.  I think that there is such a push to cram in all the "needed" stuff that we take away the chance for our children and our students to explore, discover, and create.  


John Cleese said "If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play."
 
Even though I believe all that, I still have a hard time at school giving that time to my students without feeling guilty that I'm not "teaching."  This next week I will be teaching my students how to use Google Docs and will be allowing some time for them to just play on it and see what they can do.  I will give them a very simple direction or focus, but beyond that, they will just have the freedom to explore.  The problem is that I only get the students with me in the library for 30 minutes a week and I easily end up feeling like I just wasted one of the term's nine sessions.  How do I reconcile my beliefs about learning/teaching, the pressures of the grading term, the need for structure, and the need for exploration?


One thing I've thought about, is what will make me feel like the "playtime" is more justified?  Part of it comes down to having something to show for the time.  Even something as simple as taking pictures of the kids at work/play and interviewing them about what they did and what they learned in the process, makes it so that I have something I can put on our library blog.  Students can then be asked to read, reflect, and comment on the blog post, which takes the learning further than just what we did in class and involves a more metacognitive process as well.  And, quite simply, makes me feel more like I can justify our time; especially if I then follow up the next week with a more finished product that the students produce. 


So, having thought through this all as I write this post (very stream of thought, sorry), I guess for me as a teacher applying John Cleese's statement specifically to the classroom, I would modify it as follows:


If you want creative workers, teach them in such a way that they can discover; give them the direction and the means, but allow them to play, explore, and create.