Giving students more voice and choice - part 3

This morning I was in a meeting on our other campus when I got a couple of messages - one was via email and the other was on Facebook:

If you can swing by the 4th floor you should see what is going on.

I rushed back and up to 4th Grade and an amazing sight met my eyes.  All around the 4th floor students were sitting in pairs - some on the floor, some on tables, some at desks.  Every one of those students was completely engaged, even those kids who are usually quite easily distracted:  one of the pair was teaching the other a new tool and later on the roles were reversed, so the "teacher" became the learner.  It was calm, it was quiet, there was a lot of learning going on.  I asked one of the teachers "Two weeks ago, when you started this new model, did you expect it would turn out like this?"  He told me that he didn't expect it at all, this learning had already exceeded all his expectations.  I thought about this - had it exceeded my expectations too?  I've done things like this before so I knew that if we trusted the students they would amaze us.   I think what has exceeded my expectations is not the students but the teachers - the way they were very willing to let go and try something new.  I hope that the final products the students make amaze them too - especially all the students in their classes who will be making things using the tools that the teachers themselves don't even know.