Just One More Day

I felt a panging last week, one I didn’t expect. Afterall, I’m glad to be retired. I’ve not missed high-stakes tests and staff meetings and 4:30 A.M. alarms. But the morning I read about the walking classroom, I wanted to teach again.

Why hadn’t I thought of this idea?

It’s not like I didn’t have the theory. In college, I read John Dewey, who said students learned by doing. In graduate school, I studied Howard Gardner, who said there were multiple ways to learn, one of them using the body. And at a conference on brain research, I saw proof that brains work better when bodies move.

So I tried.  

I broke study sessions into chunks with exercises breaks. And when I saw eyes glaze over, I invited the class to stand up, breathe deep, and shake it off.

This helped. The exercise instantly woke the sluggish. It got their circulation going, moving blood from legs, where it had pooled, up into brains, where it could do some good.

But the conceivers of the walking classroom take it further. Instead of alternating moving and learning, they bring the two together. It’s a simple pairing of an old-fashioned walk with modern technology.

Through buds in their ears, students listen to podcast lessons as they walk. The part of the brain that makes the body move also brings about learning. So on this listening walk, double the neurons are popping, and brains are flooding with feel-good chemicals.

Students don’t know all this, of course. They just think it’s a fun way to learn. And, on test days, they appreciate how these lessons stick.

I’ve long known that, for some students, movement is a must. But the walking classroom recognizes that it matters for all.

If only I could have one more day in the classroom . . . but without a 4:30 alarm.