Launa Ellison
This was a fairly interesting book to read for me, because it was written by my teacher during a sabbatical she took while I was in her class. I’m sort of surprised I’m not mentioned more then the time or two I was, lots of my old friends are in there. Regardless, it’s really interesting to go back and read about two of the best years of my education ever from a very different perspective.
The book glosses over an amazing amount of material related to how the author runs her class of fifth and sixth graders. How the brain works should be the chief determinant of how a classroom is run – allowing for maximal learning to take place for each and every student.
Personally, I absolutely loved the two years I spent in Launa’s class. Even today, six years later, it feels like I’ve never learned as much in a classroom as I did as a sixth grader. I remember being a productivity machine – I would never procrastinate! Now I wait until at least 8pm the night before I have a paper due, and if I have a smaller assignment I usually defer it’s completion to the morning it’s due. The environment in Launa’s class was always friendly, supportive, and charged – with people talking, working, and learning.
The setup was very open. There was a big couch, some nice comfortable chairs, tables set up in different corners of the room, nooks and crannies to isolate along with a large communal circle in the front of the room. The room was thoroughly furnished, tall bookshelves (stuffed with books), plants at the windows, it was an entirely comfortable place to listen, talk, read or write.
A lot of the comfort I felt in that class can be attributed to Launa’s direct efforts to ensure a familial atmosphere within her walls. In her book she explains how the room was set up to encourage the exact feelings I remember. Everyday in class I was truly excited to learn, or at least to get all my work done so I had lots of time left to play.
I remember that I would get the weeks allotment of work done on Wednesday often, leaving half of the weeks work periods to read my own books, draw, or play games on the Mac LCII. There would always be a competition to see who could be the first two finished so they could go out into the hall and play Magic The Gathering or throw their favorite yo-yo around.
I seriously wish that my experiences in grades 9-12 had remotely compared to my younger years of education. When I left Launa’s class the Uppers (7-8) program at the same school was a breeze, and when I left Barton my new High School was even easier, and ever since my dedication to school and interest in coursework has waned.
Now as a Senior in High School I need to make my decision whether I really want to go right off to college or wait a few years or put it off indefinitely. If I could just find a post-secondary institution that could recreate the learning environment and instill the passion I used to have in learning, boy would I be set in life.
