Push it to the Limit

I think sometimes I forget how much fun learning can be. Now that might sound weird, being a teacher and all, but hear me out. Growing up I remember even in 1st grade sitting at our desks that were in rows, reading from a text book to learn. FIRST GRADE! I remember a lot of reading homework assignments, I remember working hard in class and at home. There were certain things that I did not mind doing in class, but even at such a young age I felt like I did assignments because it was what was expected of me, not because it was something I wanted to discover or learn. As teachers it is so easy to get caught up in making sure student get the information shoved in their heads. But what we forget is that they are still children, and if they associate an idea with the word meaningful and fun, that's when they are going to learn the most. Today we did similes. We did activities, games, and even had students write their own similes about themselves where they drew a picture to represent it. They got it. Yeah it wasn't, "Repeat after me: A simile is..." maybe that's effective to someone, but it is not for these children. I've seen classrooms in foreign places where this is how it is. And they are successful countries, but having a friend from one of those places, learning for her became something that had to be done, not something that she wanted to do. If the results are the same, why not provide students with opportunities to love learning and growing and challenging themselves to the limits.