Learn Create Share - Reflection 1

As well as recording the week by week learning, I'm going to put some more personal reflections here.. This isn't addressed to the DFI specifically, but it will include thoughts that come up in response to some of the material we are covering on the course about the pedagogy. I love the ethos, but I feel like I keep slamming into walls that aren't being addressed or even mentioned sometimes. And if I don't get it out of my head somewhere my head will explode. 

So here's my big question for today ...and I don't think there's an answer right now, because the answer is bigger than one teacher in one classroom. 

I love to create.

My students love to create.

However... so many of them are scared to share what they create. Or to be seen creating. 

How do I fix this?

Because there are a minority of students who spearhead efforts to destroy what other people create. And they are often the ones who DON'T create. Who choose to opt out, and put their efforts into tearing other efforts down.

With negativity. With crude comments. With graffiti. With sneering. With cynicism. In short ... with bullying. And while it's a minority that spearhead this, there are a sigificant number who follow behind them, giggling and egging on - because they are afraid of being the next target. 

And nobody is exempt from this. I make displays for my classroom, for my hallway, and it makes my heart sink to see them ripped, turned upside down, damaged, the letters of things rearranged when I'm not looking into negative and abusive comments. I'm not immune to the disappointment and it makes me feel like I don't want to bother creating any more if people aren't going to respect and appreciate it. So if I find that difficult, then I absolutely understand why my students are fragile and sensitive to it. 

That, at the moment, is my biggest barrier to overcome in terms of embedding Learn-Create-Share. The fear factor.

When my students make wonderful stuff and I say 'Let's show people ... let's put it on the wall... let's blog it... let's perform it in assembly... let's show the world what you did...' and their faces fall, and the names are scrubbed off to anonymise it, and the work disappears into their own folders, or bags, and is removed from view, and they're afraid... 

And I can't tell them they're wrong to be afraid because I see what happens to my own efforts. 

Even on a smaller level, when I invite people to share fantastic comments they've had in group discussions in class, or contribute ideas and facts that I know they know, and that are correct, and their eyes go wide, and they sink in their chairs, and their tears well up and the head shakes and they are silently begging you 'please don't put a spotlight on me' ... and you KNOW that they're developing competence and showing understanding and able to do things, but they don't want to SHOW that to anyone...

How do I fix this?

I follow the school processes.

I tackle the comments when I hear them.

I remove the graffiti, where I can.

I put my posters back the right way.

I try to encourage students and tell them that negative comments should be reported, and don't matter anyway.

I do my best. But I'm not always there and the work, once displayed, is on display constantly. 

What else do I do to fix this?

At the moment I have no idea.