In the mad rush toward intense academic achievement and standardized tests at the pre-school level, whatever happened to the fun of going to school? It's not as if this idea is revolutionary or complex: if students love coming to school, they come more often. The more they attend school, the more they learn and, honestly, can we grudge eight-year olds a little play-time? Regenia L. Williams is but one in a long line of teachers who firmly believe that happy students are better students and that in order to be happy, they need to have fun sometimes. She believes that lectures can only go so far but cooperative learning, group discussions, and hands-on activities engage students more fully and allow more learning to occur. An added bonus is that children with behavioral problems really respond to this approach and as their behavior increases so do their grades. Regenia's success turning bad students into good students and good students into great students with nothing more than a little classroom fun earned her the 2004 Virgin Islands Teacher of the Year Award. Of course school can't be all fun and games, but Regenia has created a unique and successful program of subject integration-- mixing lessons together and then turning them into games. Kids enjoy these topsy-turvy "lessons" and learn from them at the exact same time. What could be better than that?
In the mad rush toward intense academic achievement and standardized tests at the pre-school level, whatever happened to the fun of going to school? It's not as if this idea is revolutionary or complex: if students love coming to school, they come more often. The more they attend school, the more they learn and, honestly, can we grudge eight-year olds a little play-time? Regenia L. Williams is but one in a long line of teachers who firmly believe that happy students are better students and that in order to be happy, they need to have fun sometimes. She believes that lectures can only go so far but cooperative learning, group discussions, and hands-on activities engage students more fully and allow more learning to occur. An added bonus is that children with behavioral problems really respond to this approach and as their behavior increases so do their grades. Regenia's success turning bad students into good students and good students into great students with nothing more than a little classroom fun earned her the 2004 Virgin Islands Teacher of the Year Award. Of course school can't be all fun and games, but Regenia has created a unique and successful program of subject integration-- mixing lessons together and then turning them into games. Kids enjoy these topsy-turvy "lessons" and learn from them at the exact same time. What could be better than that?