Learning THROUGH Experience

                   Reading the article about situational learning through the empowerment model by Powell and Davidson took me back in time because I experienced a similar learning experience in second grade.  My teacher had designed his classroom to function as a mini-economy.  As students, we received a paycheck each week for completing both our homework and our designated jobs (e.g. board-eraser, line leader, attendance-taker, etc.).  Our pay was based upon merit so we had to do the job and do it satisfactorily to be paid.  Because a paycheck really has no value if there is no money, we had a bank in addition to bank books.   Your check could be cashed to spend at the general store that was located in the classroom or put into a savings account.  The benefit to putting your money into savings, of course, was that it would accumulate interest.  As a student, it was your responsibility to keep track of your money and your savings account.  As I mentioned, the general store was there for the purpose of purchasing little knick-knacks or school supplies.  The added benefit to saving your money was the auction at the end of the year, where books and other educational items were auctioned off.  All businesses within the classroom were student run! 

                By learning in this environment, math was made practical to students because we were learning through experience, and our teacher would refer to the status of the economy by integrating it into his lessons.   This real-world application model has always been something that I have wanted to integrate into my own classroom.  Prior to reading this article, I had always focused on how I could further capitalize teaching math through this experience.  But Powell and Davidson helped me to realize how I could take my project a bit further by taking advantage of all the literacy that is inherently incorporate, but I have just overlooked in the past!  I could easily include real-life paperwork processes and have the students look for patterns in the words that they write like those described in the article! 

                Overall, I am just more excited about implementing this kind of project-based learning into my class!  Any suggestions or critiques that you have for this kind model of situational learning is welcomed!