Screens and Streams: Balance in Learning

 

Right now, I’m on my free period. The moment my class ended, I grabbed my computer bag and beelined it for the outdoors. I’m sitting at a picnic table behind the school in the April sun. There’s a nice, crisp nip of cool air blowing gently through the trees behind me. Birds happily chatter back and forth, and in the distance, I hear delighted children playing and exploring on this beautiful afternoon. 

For children, play is hard work! They’re moving, stretching their muscles, building strength, running, and balancing. They’re noticing sights and sounds, responding to their environment, and solving problems. They’re communicating, encouraging, and building relationships with their peers. They’re growing in body, mind, and soul. However, too often these days, we stay cooped up inside sitting in front of screens. Our bodies decline in strength and confidence. Our minds are spoon fed easy fixes and quick google searches. Our souls sit in isolation. We suffer from Nature Deficit Disorder. That’s at least how Miranda Anderson describes it.

This has become a real problem in society at large, including in many of our schools. Fortunately for my students, our school team sees and combats this tendency with intention. This past year, we opened a forest Kindergarten, not because it’s a trendy thing to do, but because it’s a good thing to do. So much research and experience points to a child’s need to be outdoors in nature, playing, growing, and learning the way I described above. Before teaching, I worked as a music therapist. Several physical and occupational therapists I have worked with have stated that children don’t even have the strength to sit up properly these days due to lack of movement in their lives. Not here! 

We are also make sure not to take away recess time from students as a punishment for poor behavior. Moving and playing is a right and a need, not a privilege. When behaviors start to become out of control, that’s my cue that my students probably need more time to ram around outside and more organic time to learn to solve their problems productively. Every day students get a PE period with specific, coordinated sports instruction as well as time to free play outside. While this active time is diminishing in many public schools, this is not the case at many Adventist schools, and I’m so glad we tend to prioritize this. 

Something that might be more unique to my school, though, is that every Wednesday for PE, our principal takes my classroom (grades 6-8) running outside. Not only do they get to enjoy nature - rain or shine - (mostly), but they’re bodies have grown in strength and endurance throughout the year. They challenge each other, encourage each other, and celebrate their newly achieved goals. At the beginning of the year, students would come back to my class rosy faced and beaming because they ran a mile or two. Now they come back excitedly chattering about how they ran four without stopping. One student is in training to run a half marathon! 

Technology is great in classrooms. Yesterday, my students simulated being an attorney in a supreme court case online. Today, we used our ipads to play games to study for our vocabulary and spelling test. Our advanced 8th grade math students worked on Algebra 1 through an online class we offer. We also watched part of the new movie Rule Breakers. These are all fantastic uses of technology in a 21st century classroom. But it’s important to remember that, with all great uses of technology, balance is always key. Part of being human is to shoot for the stars, explore, create, build, research, learn, wrestle, and shine. Technology is wonderful for these goals.… but arguably, the most important part of being a human is simply … being. (As they say, we're not called "human doings.")

Most technology was dreamed of and invented from the desire to do less and "be" more. Sometimes we forget that. Today, let’s remember.