Lemonade Stand School

This is a picture of two of my daughters and two of their neighbor friends doing a lemonade stand on a sunny and warm April weekend.  It might be their favorite thing to do.   They sit there and yell about their lemonade and sometimes they walk up and down the street telling people about their lemonade. To them it is play.  They are having a blast.  However, if you watch closely you will see that something else is going on they are learning.  They are learning a lot.  They learn math when they sell stuff or when they have to go to the store for more supplies or fractions when they make the recipe.  They are learning speaking and listening skills as they interact with people in the neighborhood.  They are learning how to work together to set a price, pick the right spot and make a sign.  They learned they needed a trash can after a number of people asked the first day.  I would day say that my 4th grade daughter learned more "playing": lemonade stand this weekend as she will learn in school this week.

This should not be a surprise to educators but I think it is. We are asking the wrong question-- "What is the best way to teach?" Instead of asking "what is the best way kids learn?"    Research tells us that kids learn best while playing, yet we continue to take recess away from in kids in search of test scores.  Research tells us that when we teach things to kids at a stage in their life when the concept is irrelevant most kids brains will dispose of the knowledge as soon as possible, yet we keep teaching fractions to 2nd graders via worksheets.  Research tells us that a kids attitude toward school is a primary indicator on how well they will do in the later grades but we still do school in a way that turns students off (especially boys) to school at a young age.

I know we can't all have kids do lemonade stands everyday, but we can use things like lemonade stands as a model of how we can try to teach.

1. Engaging-  As an educator we all have those lessons or those days that we know are not engaging.  We have to pull the kids the through the lesson.  I taught a lesson last week that I could just tell was bring my kids as I taught it.  I think sometimes we think that we have to have days that like to make sure we are covering the objectives, but I think we need to rethink that.  The fact is that for the most part if kids are not engaged and do not see the information as important they store every thing in short term memory.  In our school they call it summer learning loss.  It is not really summer learning loss it is the brain's way of getting rid of useless information.  I am at the point in my profession where I believe if I teach something in a way where the kids are not engaged I am wasting everyone's time.  We need to start realizing that time spent in a lesson for no other reason then to engage the kids in what they are going to earn is time well spent, not time wasted.

2. Peer Driven-  You should have seen these girls try to solve problems together, especially the two older ones.  They would talk to each other and listen when the other one was talking.  It something I would love to see in my classroom.  It took them longer to figure it out on their own then me just butting in and telling them but them figuring it out on their own is what learning is about.  I but in way too fast in my classroom.  Usually for the sake of time, I end up showing my students how to do something.  

Teachers have a huge role in a classroom like this but it not telling the information like in a traditional classroom.  As I watched them I was amazed at all the chances I had to as an educator to help them process something or to challenge them to think deeper about something.

3. Real life-  When you are dealing with real money all of sudden math becomes very important.  They were doing math and they enjoyed it.  It mattered.