Unit 5 -Tea Time and Classrooms Built for Conversation

I am currently substitute teaching at a number of schools.  One of the hidden benefits of being in so many different types of classroom is the ability to observe how teachers set up their rooms. The systems of organization fascinate me.  Every classroom I enter reveals to me some pearl I store away for a future class of my own.  It's like these absent teachers are members of my PLN in a stealth kind of way!


Last week's treasure was so incredibly simple, yet somehow very powerful. I noticed a kettle, several varieties of tea, and many travel mugs set up in the corner of a lab.  "Your teacher seems to like tea quite a bit." I said casually to a student during break time.  "Yes," she laughed, "but that tea is for us too!  She brings it for our advisory class.  We have tea and discuss what we need to talk about.  She lets us come in before classes or after classes for a cup. We can talk or be quiet. Those are our mugs."

This student happened to be an ELL student.  The way she spoke, I got the impression she really valued the chance to prepare a cup of tea and share it and conversation with her teacher and fellow students. Which got me thinking...initiating conversation among students has been a thread throughout the course so far.  How do we get students talking? How do we make the conversation natural, rather than rehearsed? How do we set up situations where students need to listen and respond? Wouldn't this be a fantastic method to entice students to participate in conversations?

I tend to arrive early for classes, so it would not be hard for me to be available a bit early or after class for a cup of tea and natural conversation practice with students.  After all, tea is common to so many cultures and would help provide a more relaxed atmosphere for conversation. 

At first, I imagine the conversations might be more about the actual tea, making it and how it is a little different in each region of the world.  With proper encouragement, it could be a chance to build up trust between all class participants, which could only lead to better outcomes. It would also be a chance for students to bring up any issue they were having.

So, I'm storing this idea away for all classes I have in the future, but I think it might have particular benefits in an ELL context.