Passion

We tried something new last week. Each adult in our building chose a passion. Each of our grade 1-6 students then chose to join one of those adults. The passions included street hockey, baking, film studies, robotics, guitar, yoga, Polish, photography, sculpture, watercolours, book clubs, drama and story writing.

The building was abuzz. For days leading up to the project, students were talking about where they were going, who they were going to work with and what they would be doing.

Students returned to their classrooms energized and inspired. A grade three boy who rarely speaks in class chose Polish and beamed at the end of the session. A grade two student, a new Canadian, told me he was going to golf but quickly added, “what’s golf?” Afterwards his eyes were wide as he demonstrated what he had done: the swing, the path of the ball, the distance even. The day following the project, a young student climbed off the bus clinging to the journal I had given her the day before.

We cannot measure the results of this project on standardized tests. We cannot measure the learning except through anecdotes. Was it worth the time and effort? Was it worth the coordination and logistics?

No question.