…a quote from one of our students this week. We forget that life has become increasingly noisy and distractive. And we noticed noisy and distractive class habits developing already in this second week of the quarter. “What are we going to make today?” and other questions were becoming conversational ice-breakers, and it was easier to stop and talk with friends, or ask where something was, rather than applying one’s self to the task on hand. This is a default human tendency in general that I’ve seen in some of my most qualified new employees too.
In the workplace, conversation and communication can be two very different things and we were struggling with how to teach this in an active classroom (with sharp knives and hot surfaces). Requesting students to read a prep list wasn’t the answer either. Not only that, what if our students started asking questions non-stop while on a job shadow in a restaurant? That would not work.
So one day this week, we had a silent class. To make it more playful, we added music (thank you Greg, for the great playlist) and had a few instructional tent cards to provide lead in. We kept the tasks simple and safe, rolling dumplings, and were amazed by the efficiency and togetherness that the students created.