Tear here to open...

There is something wrong when you find yourself twirling a block of chocolate in your hand and you notice a printed message and a perforated line indicating "Tear here to open." I mean, when faced with a block of chocolate (72% cacao no less!), who is ever going to put the block down lamenting they don't know how to open it? IT'S A BLOCK OF CHOCOLATE!!!It made me think of how we sometimes teach our students.We plan our lessons so that every step along the way is described, modelled, scaffolded and templated so that they encounter success and feel confident as they go about their learning. WRONG! We are writing "tear here to open" on the block of chocolate.Learning is meant to be messy. Learning is meant to be a struggle. It requires failure, mistakes, errors and wrong turns. It should pose a challenge, demand problems to be solved, stretch young minds to consider new ways of doing things and it should be engaging.Nobody needs to be told or shown how to open a block of chocolate - the motivation is there, the reward is obvious, a labour with immediate fruits!As teachers, we should make sure our chocolate is the best chocolate in the world, wrap it up so that getting into it is a challenge and not even bother with instructions. That's what I want my classroom to look like!