Creating a Curious Classroom

5 Tips and Tricks to Creating a Curious Classroom

There are many issues we, as teachers, face in light of teaching digital natives. In reading Wendy L. Ostroff’s “Cultivating Curiosity in K-12 Classrooms: How to Promote and Sustain Deep Learning” (ASCD Book), there have been key points that I can either relate to within my class, or new tips and tricks to try out. The book states that these are for K-12 classrooms, so there were some things that were relevant and usable in my 9-12 classes, however, some were not. Another issue I find that needs emphasizing is that by the time the students get into high school, their curiosity flames seem to have been extinguished, and when asking them to become curious, creative, or even have fun with what they are doing, school no longer is “fun” for them, and they see everything as a chore. It takes persistence and consistency to develop a curious classroom, and finally, when you think you have it down, it is the end of the school year and you will get a whole new set of students that have lost their curious spark. From my reading and some of my own in-class activities, here are 5 tips and tricks in creating a curious classroom at the high school level.

1. Allow students to explore their interests. Everyone is curious. It’s natural. Pure development of the human capabilities in various fields shows just that, however, we are regimented into disseminating information, when the internet itself is the best dispersal of information that exists. Stand up for our children and become aware that they are hungry for knowledge, even if it’s not our own. Give them the freedom to wander through their own interests and afford them the experiences to value learning for learning’s sake, not for some test, exam, or curriculum. In my Biology classes, I asked students to determine what exactly about DNA and its uses in the real life interests them. They were to find at least one video or article regarding that topic and share with the class. I could just teach them information and lecture, however, let’s be real, that’s not what makes my class special. It’s the authority I give my students to develop, create, and explore things that would interest them. I am going to have them help develop each other's’ interests and help their classmates answer the questions they developed using information we find and discuss in class.
2. Allow students autonomy in their education. A little bit of unstructured time (I allow students to play games, look at different slides under the microscope, or just take a stroll outside in the form of brain breaks), allowing the students to choose their method of demonstrating learning (I’ve allowed them to choose to do live presentations, recorded videos, scrap books, posters, or anything else they come up with, the sky’s the limit) hearing their voices and choices (I allow them to tell me what they want to learn about and how they want to apply what they have learned), allowing them to self-assess (I allow students to create rubrics and assist them in following through with their expectations along the way), and working in groups can be powerful in giving students some of the reign in the classroom, holding them accountable for their actions and learning. In my Leadership classes, I have allowed the students to choose what they think we should create as a project after having read a book. I throw out my ideas to them, they either take and adjust it, or they throw it all out and create something even better. When they can choose how to show their learning, their product is so much better than what I could have envisioned. I have a collections of webpages that the students created using critical thinking skills regarding a type of -ism (racism, classism, etc.). This project, from the topic, to the product and the rubric all were creating by the students.
3. Allow students to question, everything. As a teacher with a required curriculum to get through don’t lose the focus of your class. To teach students about life. Too many times, students’ questions are stifled by the presumed limitation of time due to content breadth pressures. Students will learn more by the very act of thinking a thought that challenges their thinking and asking their questions. I have a space on the wall that when a student asks a question that I cannot get to at that moment, I put it up on the board, or have the students write questions on the board, and either answer them later, via email, allow students to answer each other's’ questions, or allow students to ask more questions that came up. There are digital ways of doing this as well such as padlet.com (insert link) and many many more collaborative websites. Allow students to ask their questions, and answer what they want to know. That is the true spirit of developing lifelong learners. Allowing them to continue questioning everything.
4. Allow students the time to work on their passions within your realm of study. Time is the root of all evil in the eyes of a high school teacher. Class time is limited, students’ absences are a burden, and will all this missing time, how do you make the difference you wanted to make when you first became a teacher? Time. Learning is not linear, especially cross-subject learning. So many subjects are intertwined, and by limiting our classrooms with single subject linear learning, we are doing our students a disservice of seeing applicable relevant content to their lives. English, Science, Math, History, Language, it is all intertwined. As adults, we don’t work in a single box as listed above so why do we teach that way? In Finland, with a leading educational system, the focus on a class period dedicated to a year-long student-centered phenomenon-focused project-based curriculum is being implemented. Students work collaboratively with each other and with a team of teachers to assist in directing their own studies in a school year.  Take me to Finland! Time is allotted for students’ passions on cross-curricular content. We should take note, and allow time in our classrooms for such things.
5. Allow students the physical space to enhance curiosity. Every year I come into school a week early to an empty classroom to begin decorating. I usually decorate it with a theme, and this year decided to make interactive boards where students get to practice concepts that we have learned in each quarter by using magnetic strips to label a cell, complete a punnett square, label the path of protein-synthesis, and label evolutionary charts. I thought that I was being creative and novel so that my students had more interactions with their space. What I’ve realized is that I did not leave any room to find out the needs of my students in what will allow them to learn best. Google, Pixar, and others are creating collaborative, open, play-friendly work spaces. Tables in rows and chairs are meant to build conveyer belt employees, which are not the future employees this world needs. We should take into consideration the student’s creativity and allow them to structure a multifunctional, multivariable classroom where spaces can change for efficiency of the activity. I like the idea of beginning the year with allowing students to have a say in the space. Questions we can ask can be the following: Can we make moveable/multifunctional spaces? How? What spaces do we need? What furniture or materials do we allow in the classroom that will add value to our learning? Can we make low cost furniture or repurpose furniture already available? How do we create spaces for independent work, group work, experiments, writing or computer space, reading space, creative space, or an open-material space? What do you need to help you learn better, bright spaces, not so bright spaces, background music, no music, soft floppy chair, a medicine ball, a hard chair? What activities that you see yourself doing in a classroom need different environments? How do we create those environments within the given space and materials?

I’m excited to hear your thoughts on how you create a curious-filled classroom. Please comment below.