What They Really Love
It’s February so the ERG blog theme is one of love, of course.
This sounded like a great idea when we were mapping out the year but my deadline for writing came and went and I was totally uninspired. I could give you a litany of reasons, but at the end of the day my page was still blank. So, when I am out of ideas and feeling boring and dull as a writer, I turned to one of my “go to” inspirational sources: My Kids.
This interview is with two 3rd graders in public school:
Me: What do you love about school?
Lillian: Writing. I just love it. I love making up things, writing them and then getting to talk about it. Talking about it is the best part. It gives me more ideas.
Miller: Math & Lunch & Playpark. Math is really fun to do and I like adding numbers up and using them together. Lunch is on my list because I really like food and we have some good food at school. I like playing with the soccer balls and basketballs and playing tag on playpark. Most of the kids play tag and it’s fun to play with everybody.
Me: What do you think teachers love about school?
Lillian: My teachers love teaching us in the morning about math. My teacher always laughs when we get the correct answer and says, “how did you know that?” It’s so fun.
Miller: Surprises. My teacher likes to surprise us. One day she told us a special person was coming in. Turns out it was an author. It was cool because I learned about what she thought and what the characters were like. And my teacher kept it a secret until then!
Me: What is one wish you have for the grown ups in your school?
Lillian: For teachers to do funny things. I would like for them to dress up like on Halloween. It would make us all laugh.
Miller: That the adults who work in the cafeteria would be more patient with us. We never like it when we have silent lunch.
After I chatted with them I noticed a few patterns in these responses. If my kids are any indication of general student views, then what kids really love boils down to two things: belonging and fun.
Most of their responses reiterate the idea that relationships are at the core of our work in schools. The strong ones enhance the experience, the broken ones detract. In addition, the concept of fun matters. Fun can obviously look different for different people, but they are searching for it nonetheless, and they want the adults to have fun, too!
Fun and belonging are not explicitly part of most lesson plans. However, if you can embed these into your day, I can guarantee you will walk away with a smile on your face. And that is something we can all LOVE.