The PLACES Project

The PLACES Academy

This is the story about Alice – a schoolteacher who used the PLACES Academy to change her teaching

Welcome to Storytelling in the class room

Alice is a schoolteacher. The school day is over, and she’s sitting alone in the classroom. It’s quiet, and she’s tired.
Out of the window, she can see her fellow teachers walking by, heading toward their bikes and cars. They’re talking and seem genuinely happy, as if they’ve had the best day ever.
Why doesn’t she feel the same? Right now, she feels like the day has been tough—especially the last class. She couldn’t crack the code. The pupils didn’t want to cooperate, they were arguing, and one of the boys even tried to hit another boy.

Why are there just some days when things don’t work out? Is there something wrong with her?

Do you think there’s something wrong with her? We don’t think so—just take a look at this video about how some teachers and pupils experience life in school. Insights we’ve uncovered in the PLACES project.
Alice slowly gets up. She walks out into the schoolyard towards the bike racks. Right in the middle of the schoolyard stands a huge tree.
It’s autumn, and the first yellow leaves are starting to mix with the dark green ones. A small autumn breeze touches her cheek. Some of the yellow leaves break off in the wind and descends slowly to the ground. She follows them tiredly with her eyes—then suddenly opens them wide. The leaves are falling in a very specific way. As if they’re forming a pattern—or words. She walks over and looks down. It says “Play-2-Learn.”

On impulse, she pulls out her phone, opens her browser, and types in Play-2-Learn.
She’s taken to a short video.

English

French

Greek

Danish

Italian

Stories? Playful learning? Active Participation? It sounds exactly like something that could help her crack the code and create something new in her teaching. Suddenly, she feels happy and motivated and quickly heads home on her bike.

That evening, she sits in her cozy living room with a warm cup of tea and keeps exploring the Play-2-Learn platform. There are exciting stories, videos, guidelines, and teaching materials—all things she can use right away to plan the next day’s lessons.

She doesn’t even notice how time flies, and suddenly it’s well past midnight. But now, she knows exactly what she wants to do tomorrow when she’s back at school. So she goes to bed happy and relieved.
The next morning is a lovely autumn morning. On the way to school, she hears birds singing, and the people she passes smile at her.
She arrives at school before anyone else and immediately grabs scissors and paper. When the students walk into the classroom, she’s already cutting. The desks in the classroom have been rearranged into groups, and she sits in the middle. There’s a whole pile of small paper pieces on the table.

“What are you doing?” ask the pupils.

“I’m making dragon scales,” Alice replies.

“Dragon scales—what’s that?” they ask.

“Help me cut some out.”

And before she knows it, they’re all cutting together. They watch the story about the Dragon Dancers, and afterward, they work together in small groups.

This is just one story of how a single teacher can use the materials from the Play-2-Learn platform—but there are many more stories of good practices, about how teachers and schools have used resources that we have developed in the PLACES project.

After class, the pupils rush out into the schoolyard. They’re talking and laughing. The story still lives in them. They’re discussing what they learned and how fun it was to work together in a new way—and to be more active together with their teacher.

Later, they have math class. At the end of the day, the math teacher says to Alice:

“What are you doing?” ask the pupils.

“They’re all talking about something they did together with you today. They say they’d rather work the way they did with you. What did you do? Is it something I can do in math too?”
“Yes, absolutely,” replies Alice and adds;
“I think it’s something we can all work with.”
And then she shows her colleague the Play-2-Learn platform.

“It’s actually pretty easy to get started with.”

From that day on, a different, lighter atmosphere slowly begins to spread at the school. The teachers start sharing how they work differently with their students and exchange great ideas and materials. Parents talk about kids who want to go to school on Saturdays if they can learn in this new way.

Did you hear that? On Saturdays—that’s amazing!

They even talk about it at the next staff meeting, where the principal says; “I think this is something we should work on across the whole school. We need to prioritize time so that we can all become good at working with stories and playful learning. It fits perfectly with the strategic direction our school is moving toward to achieve better outcomes for our pupils.”

And that’s how Alice helped create positive change -for herself, her pupils, and her colleagues. Do you also want to create change in your everyday life as a teacher?

 

If so, visit the PLACES Academy at: www.play-2-learn.eu