{"id":4593,"date":"2022-09-22T13:24:37","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T17:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/?p=4593"},"modified":"2022-09-22T13:24:37","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T17:24:37","slug":"margins-in-the-classroom-the-unsung-harmony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/2022\/09\/margins-in-the-classroom-the-unsung-harmony\/","title":{"rendered":"Margins in the classroom: The Unsung Harmony"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Can you imagine a song without any harmonies? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">How boring would that be? No one would even listen to it, but we create that same environment in our classrooms. We can discover <em><strong>harmony in our classrooms<\/strong><\/em> when we <strong><em>explore the Margins<\/em><\/strong>.  The <em>Variations, Creativity, and Beauty<\/em> created by going to the margins are echoed throughout the entire classroom environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/files\/2022\/09\/image-9.png?resize=670%2C494&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4597\" width=\"670\" height=\"494\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-9.png?w=560&amp;ssl=1 560w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-9.png?resize=300%2C221&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-medium-gray-color has-text-color has-background wp-block-heading\" style=\"background-color:#a5f9ca\"><strong>What are the Margins? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The margins are the <em>unpredictable <\/em>moments in teaching when we vear off the main teaching methods we have traditionally used in teaching. In the Margins, we teach our students they have the ability to think deeply and critically. We also teach them that they have power in what\/how they learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">This is where <em>New Variations<\/em> of what we think our classroom should look like are created. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"612\" height=\"525\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/files\/2022\/09\/image-10.png?resize=612%2C525&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4598\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-10.png?w=612&amp;ssl=1 612w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-10.png?resize=300%2C257&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 612px) 100vw, 612px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>We discount the margins in everyday classrooms because they:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-list\"><li>Encourage the release of control from the teacher to the students<\/li><li>Can seem chaotic and unpredictable<\/li><li>Are seen as distractions or moments that are &#8220;off-topic&#8221;<\/li><li>Build an environment where students and teachers are working together as equals.  <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\" style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:500\">The reputation of the margins is built on the<strong> power struggle <\/strong>of traditional teaching. The<strong> fear of losing control<\/strong> in the classroom overshadows the benefits of having student-centered classrooms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-background wp-block-heading\" style=\"background-color:#a5f9ca\"><strong>What are the benefits of diving into the margins??<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Allowing students to control their own learning can build self-confidence, critically thinking, and creativity. Releasing the power from the teacher to the students &#8220;gives students ownership over their learning&#8221;.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>The Margins Promote:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-list\"><li>Individualized thinking<\/li><li>The value of one&#8217;s voice<\/li><li>Collaborative learning <\/li><li>Readiness for real-world experiences<\/li><li>Passionate life-long learners<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"976\" height=\"548\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/files\/2022\/09\/image-12.png?resize=976%2C548&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4601\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-12.png?w=976&amp;ssl=1 976w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-12.png?resize=300%2C168&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-12.png?resize=768%2C431&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 976px) 100vw, 976px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The Atlantic investigated Pittsfield Middle and High School in rural New Hampshire. Pittsfield is the first school in the area to adopt a student-centered method. The results are amazing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-list\"><li>The students enjoy classroom discussions and contribute excitably. <\/li><li>Significant increases in test scores, graduation rates, and college acceptances<\/li><li>Students are taking on the responsibility of their own learning<\/li><li>The students get instant feedback from the teachers <\/li><li>The grading system is based on competencies, each student is graded on how they master the skills and knowledge for each class. <\/li><li>The student&#8217;s strengths and passions are explored while their weaknesses are supported.  <\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/education\/archive\/2014\/10\/what-happens-when-students-control-their-own-education\/381828\/\">https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/education\/archive\/2014\/10\/what-happens-when-students-control-their-own-education\/381828\/<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-background wp-block-heading\" style=\"background-color:#a5f9ca\"><strong>How can we take our classrooms to the margins??<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-medium-font-size\">Teaching in the Margins is not losing control, it is relinquishing power to the ones most impacted by the decisions made. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Margins bring amazing opportunities for our students to explore their passions, dive deeper into the topics, and create meaningful connections with the material. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The best way to explore the margins in our classrooms is through inquiry learning. Allowing students to break down in-depth questions, build stories, or discover something new through their own critical thinking skills is a great way of teaching to the margins.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/files\/2022\/09\/image-14.png?resize=1024%2C683&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4607\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-14.png?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-14.png?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-14.png?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Mrs. Kayla Delzer explains how her classroom is not traditional in her TED talk on <em>Reimagining Classrooms: Teachers as Learners and Students as Leaders<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-list\"><li>Instead of desks, she has round tables low enough to sit on the floor and a large carpet area. <\/li><li>She does not give students worksheets or boring mundane activities but instead focuses on student-teach-student activities<\/li><li>She prioritizes technology and uses it to transform her classroom by:<ol><li>Virtual field trips to historical sites, zoos from across the country, or even classrooms in other countries.<\/li><li>Recording students reading books to allow the students struggling with reading to follow along. <\/li><li> Creating a Twitter account for the classroom and allowing the students to tweet with other classrooms to &#8220;compare and share their learning&#8221;.<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Reimagining Classrooms: Teachers as Learners and Students as Leaders | Kayla Delzer | TEDxFargo\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w6vVXmwYvgs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Why should we continue teaching the same way our great-grandparents were taught? The world of education has evolved and we need to catch up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-background has-medium-font-size wp-block-heading\" style=\"background-color:#a5f9ca\"><strong>Can we use travel to the margins in every activity??<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Like every great song, there is at least one harmony, but there is also a melody. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The melody in teaching is the center, teaching in the traditional sense. We have to have the material and knowledge of the center in order to appreciate the amazing contrast of the harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"> This does not mean we can not bring inquiry or student-centered learning into the center. This means that to appreciate those times when we dive deeper into the subjects with discussions or hands-on learning we must first walk into the shallow end and understand the basics of what we are teaching first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-background wp-block-heading\" style=\"background-color:#a5f9ca\">Releasing power is inducing chaos! <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Teaching in the margins can be scary. Understanding that the conversations are unpredictable and that you will get off-topic is difficult. The best way of taking this dive into the margins is to put yourself in the shoes of your students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><em>Would you enjoy your class? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><em>What life skills are you developing by being in your class? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Many teachers don&#8217;t care to take a step into the unknown to explore what and how the students want to learn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">We are not inducing chaos, we are giving the students the blank sheet music and allowing them to write the song themselves.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/files\/2022\/09\/image-16.png?resize=543%2C376&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4609\" width=\"543\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-16.png?w=347&amp;ssl=1 347w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-16.png?resize=300%2C207&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 543px) 100vw, 543px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">How did you feel about school? Was your voice heard? Did you feel like you had any control over your learning? Check out my blog about giving control back to the students and exploring the margins in the classroom!<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KvWnTpT7WU\">https:\/\/t.co\/KvWnTpT7WU<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NSTA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NSTA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Education?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Education<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ScienceTeaching?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ScienceTeaching<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/EDT431?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#EDT431<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Ms. Smith (@MsCellfie) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MsCellfie\/status\/1572993409463222273?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 22, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"771\" height=\"579\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/edt431-531\/files\/2022\/09\/image-17.png?resize=771%2C579&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4610\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-17.png?w=771&amp;ssl=1 771w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-17.png?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/files\/2022\/09\/image-17.png?resize=768%2C577&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">I hope this blog gave you an insight into how important the margins are and how you can implement some of these amazing techniques in your own classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Thank you so much for making it this far! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Until next time,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Trinity Smith<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Can you imagine a song without any harmonies? How boring would that be? No one would even listen to it, but we create that same <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/2022\/09\/margins-in-the-classroom-the-unsung-harmony\/\" title=\"Margins in the classroom: The Unsung Harmony\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6667,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[34,11,237],"class_list":["post-4593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc","tag-edt431","tag-science-teacher","tag-teaching-in-the-margins"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6667"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4611,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions\/4611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/exemplary-science-teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}