Superintendent’s Conference Day is an opportunity for teachers to explore new ways of teaching.
In mid-December, all teachers at Briarcliff School District participated in a presentation by Peter Liljedahl, who wrote the book “Building Thinking Classrooms.” One of the things Liljedahl shared was his research about students working in the classroom while standing as opposed to sitting, and how it can enhance their critical thinking skills.
Less than one week later, Briarcliff Middle School English Language Arts teacher Alicia Moraitis decided to implement this strategy in a class project with her seventh graders.
“Mr. Liljedahl told us that according to his research, when students are writing while sitting down, there is less engagement, but when they are standing, the engagement level goes up,” Moraitis said. “They are thinking critically, able to take intellectual risks, becoming more active, as opposed to just passively getting information. The classwork then becomes an active learning experience.”
Just before the holiday break, Moraitis’ students participated in a class project which is a part of their “Celebration of Light” unit and explored holidays around the world.
There were five tables in the classroom, each representing a different holiday: Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Lunar New Year and Winter Solstice.
Students were randomly assigned to a table and worked together in small groups exploring that holiday.
“I wanted students to learn about a new holiday or culture,” Moraitis said.
Students researched together about the specific holiday in that station. They used books, websites and QR codes to create a poster about the holiday. The QR codes led to various activities, such as prompts to play an online game of dreidel for Hanukkah, to take a video tour of some of India’s famous tourist sites, or to read an article to learn about traditional dishes of Kwanzaa.
Each poster that students made had to include symbols and decorations related to that holiday, a fun fact about the holiday, information on how the holiday uses light as a symbol of hope and celebration and how the holiday reflects the values and beliefs of the cultures that celebrate it.
“It is very important that you conduct all of the research and create the poster while standing,” Moraitis told the students.
Students went to the hallways and, while standing up for most of the time, researched the holiday. They later switched to research about a different holiday.
“How does the Winter Solstice holiday use light as a symbol of hope?” Moraitis asked the students when they returned to the classroom.
“It means there will always be a light, even on the darkest days, because it’s the shortest day of the year,” Nora said. “One fun fact that I learned about the holiday is that some people drink glogg, which is a type of drink.”
After the groups had the chance to go through several stations, students had a gallery walk and were able to view everyone’s posters.
