Encouraging Self-Expression
By Peter Barnes

Our school counselor sits quietly for a moment, tears trailing slowly down her cheeks. "No one has ever done something like that for me before," she says. "I am truly moved."

Three of my students have just finished singing a song they wrote for her, celebrating her retirement from the National Guard. They practiced the performance for nearly two weeks whenever I let them. Yes, they missed quite a bit of silent reading time to practice something non-academic, but the song was important to them and I decided not to stand in their way. I believe strongly in allowing my students to express themselves whenever I can find time in our crowded daily schedule.

True colors
Trust me, I know what you're thinking. Standardized test preparation, curriculum goals, school assemblies...when do I have time for students to share their personal interests? The only answer: whenever you have 10 minutes to spare.

You can't abandon your lesson plans to teach a three-week unit on rap music or the films of Freddie Prinze, Jr., but you can save 10 minutes before lunch for kids to share their rap CDs or their Freddie Prinze, Jr. photo collections.

Letting students express themselves sometimes means giving up some control in your classroom. It's easier to squash anything students do that might become a distraction, but it's worth the potential headaches to allow your students to be themselves once in a while. My students read poems, share artwork, tell jokes and update one another on their favorite sports teams during our periodic sharing sessions. Their true personalities come out and they become more comfortable with one another as the year goes on. Even better, since they know there will be structured times to share, they are less likely to pass their newest comic strip around during my math lesson.

The weird and the wacky
Unfortunately, you might not always enjoy your students' personal interests. Several years ago some of my students formed a singing and dancing group called the Cheetah Girls that performed routines during recess. My disdain for pre-teen pop music was irrelevant; the performances were important to the girls and well-received by the class. I learned my opinions weren't always important.

We work hard during class time and take learning seriously, but my students and I also enjoy expressing ourselves non-academically and value the results of our weird and wacky self-expressions just as much as our educational gains.

Peter Barnes teaches fifth grade in New Albany, OH.