Bask in the beautiful chaos

I sometimes feel like the primary grades student teachers are plotting against me.  I see them down in their first floor hall, talking and laughing, sharing "something" that must be very funny, and just collaborating in general.

Then there's me, all alone up on the second floor, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper (+2 nerd skill points if you remember that show).  The advantage of being the lone intern upstairs is that I am asked/ allowed/ called upon to hop into other classrooms from time to time, which is cool.  I get to see similar teaching techniques and styles used in different ways.  Here are a couple of those educational nuggets:

In our classroom the "turn & talk" is used in multiple ways, but mostly as a means of creating a full table group discussion (and also creating noise).  This is one of my favorite moments, when the silence of direct instruction explodes into 26 different voices and ideas.  The room saturates with the thoughts of the students.

Yet across the way, I have seen it used mainly as a tool for quiet partner sharing.  Still the same number of ways of understanding being expressed, but more calm.  It all has to do with the teacher comfort level with bringing the kids back, and how well they know their kids can handle the freedom of open discussion.

Then there's the gathering on the floor and lining up for the halls.  One of the classrooms nearby is very structured, and those kid have assigned seating in the front of the room for gatherings and designated spots in line.  Yep, all lined up in rows, perfectly designed for efficiency.  This does work well, but it has removed all choice from the students - and in turn all sense of ownership and responsibility for making good decisions.

We roll a little different in 205.  Kids can choose their arrangements, but know to make a good choice of where they are - "Are you going to be able to keep quiet and stay focused by this neighbor?", "Is this a good place for you?".  It sometimes requires 10 seconds of rearranging on our part, but I think that the students becoming self sufficient and learning about putting themselves in positive situations is a valuable life lesson.  There won't always be adults around to do it for them.

Seeing the different strategies used by the teachers I am with makes me realize the my CT does certainly induce situations that are more "messy", but life is very chaotic and by exposing the kids to these situations and giving them the tools to learn how to handle it themselves, I feel we are better serving them in the long run.