The Day a Paper Airplane Became a Bridge

Sometimes it’s my job to teach students to write a sentence, and sometimes it’s my job to teach students that there is a time a place for goofiness and fun and a time and a place for work. And that is what I felt like I was doing one day when I allowed my students to make paper airplanes and discuss which design was best. This is how it came about: I was doing some work at my desk while my students worked during their seminar class. One student came to get a sheet of paper. Nothing was abnormal about that. I watched him turn and start to fold the paper (I had an idea of what he was up to at this point). Then, he drew back his arm and he let that paper airplane fly...about three inches. Then it fell flat. I looked at him and said his name. He looked terrified--probably because he had just thrown a paper airplane in my class. I told him, “That was the worst paper airplane I’ve ever seen! Surely you can do better than that!” He grinned. This led to my class (and me) folding paper airplanes and figuring out which ones flew farthest and why. It was a fun, chaotic day in class.

That day with the paper airplanes, which I felt guilty about because I didn’t feel like I was doing my job, became a day my students remembered fondly in my class. It became a day that showed them that their teacher can be fun and that their teacher can be goofy and that we could have fun together in the classroom. I am a firm believer that relationships set the tone for what will be learned in my classroom and I don’t want to feel guilty for taking the time to build those relationships.

I know that in my district and in my building relationships with students are considered important and if an administrator had walked through my room at that point that I would have been given the chance to explain what we were doing and the reasoning behind it. I want to take the time to celebrate those moments of kinship with my students. I want them to know that we’re on the same team and that I’m for them. Sometimes that means taking a break and having fun with them. Sometimes a paper airplane can be a symbol of a time we connected--so I wrote Mrs. Christner’s Class on the wing and stuck it to my bulletin board. Now it’s a reminder that school and class can be fun, even when we’re working.

So don’t be afraid to take a risk and have fun with your students. They need to learn more than just math, science, and English from us. They need to have positive experiences with adults so they can interact positively with them. I’ve only been teaching for two years and already I’ve figured out that some of my students haven’t ever had positive interactions with adults, so they need that experience even more. That one paper airplane became a connection--a bridge--to my students. I established more trust, respect, and relationships that day than I have all year. We can’t teach kids we don’t connect with.