Launch, Explore, Discuss

You know what a great feeling is? When students discover learning on their own. It just feels so good. If every teacher could do this, we would be out of a job! No, not really. Something I learned today through using the Launch, Explore, Discuss method of a lesson plan we have been doing in math is that these students know more than they think they do. It is really neat to see them discover ways to solve a problem that perhaps you would have never thought of before, but works better than maybe even the method you've been using all these years. Although this lesson plan might seem like the children are doing the learning on their own, as teachers I've realized that our job is to, again, not shove information down their throats, but to provide opportunities to learn, experiment, and discover. This is hard. But it is possible through asking effective question, keeping all your students engaged, and making sure your students are able to make connections to what they are discovering to the real world. But when it happens, it is a beautiful thing.