Down to the Wire

The end-of-the-year trip I have planned for my group of sixth graders involves a "selfie-scavenger-hunt" around the Tidal Basin. It's just something that I dreamed up, and as such I have been literally dreaming about it-- anxiety dreaming about it every night for the last couple of weeks.

In my imagination, it involves small groups, walking, smartphones, and social media, as well as a little friendly competition. I've been turning the specifics over and over in my mind, considering this, researching that, visiting there, photographing and posting and hashtagging.

And now, it's almost ready, and I have recruited a couple of neighbors to go down there with us tomorrow and take it for a test drive. I think it's going to be awesome!

Which is fortunate, since the trip is Monday.

Student-centered

As part of our school's annual International Game Day each homeroom was assigned a country. On the day of the event, we would compete Olympic-style as that country, but in the days leading up to the activity we were supposed to design and create a banner to carry in the opening ceremonies.

When it comes to homerooms, it's been my experience that some years the group just gels better, both with each other and me. By that yardstick, this has been a tough one, and so I was not too optimistic when it came to organizing the banner thing. Fortunately for me, one student took an immediate interest in the project, and so I put her in charge.

Oh, I gave advice and praise as they worked, but it was truly a student-directed and student-made product, and a it was good reminder that generally the more we let go, the better the kids do, because

it was also beautiful.

Nail Biter

One of the student-presented lessons today was called "My anti-nail-biting seminar." It consisted of a little video of a baby who grows up happily until... he starts biting his nails! There was also a slide show and an interactive online quiz. It was well-planned and well-executed, but not well-received. It just so happened that there were a lot of defensive nail-biters in the class who were not just grossed out by the pictures of paronychia, but dismissive of the dangers of salmonella and e-coli infection. "I've been biting my nails all my life!" stated one kid, "I've never had a problem!"

I knew what he meant. I'm a nail-biter myself, and I confess to harboring the notion that chewing on my fingers actually strengthens my immune system by exposing me to small doses of pathogens. Of course the same could be said about picking your nose and, you know.

Whether my theory is true or not,  I certainly don't want to encourage others to bite their nails, especially kids in my class. That would be wrong, but maybe we could accept nail-biters for who they are, rather than villainizing them.

I mean, us.

Every Student Succeeds

It has been so interesting watching my students design and deliver lessons to their peers. The process reveals a lot about what they think education is and is not. One of the most successful presentations so far was by two girls who made a video of themselves baking cookie bars, then designed an online quiz about their ingredients and procedures, and then gave samples and the recipe.

It was fun, engaging, and informative, but when it came to the assessment, it reminded me of one of the biggest challenges we have as educators. We are trying to provide our students with skills and knowledge they will use outside of the walls we are generally confined by. In this case, short of having everyone bake some cookie bars and bring them in, can we really know how effective the lesson was?

Which brings me to the most chaotic experience of the day. Two well-intentioned students planned to teach their classmates some simple origami. They had tips and directions on the interactive whiteboard, and printed instructions for each pair. "If you get confused," they directed the class, "raise your hand and we'll come help you." It was a relatively small group of 12, but they did not anticipate the questions or the level of frustration. Nor did they appreciate the difficulty of simply explaining a complex task. The class quickly descended into chaos, and I stepped in to restore order. Even so, there were not a lot of folded pecking birds by the end of the session.

I was pushing in chairs and tidying up as the two presenters packed their books to go to their next class. "Wow," said one, "I have a lot more respect for teachers now!"

I raised my eyebrows and laughed a little.

"I know" said his partner. "Hardly anyone got it!" She frowned. "Will that hurt our grade?"

Catching On

The Teacher-for-a-day thing was the talk of the team today. How wonderful it was to see my students so engaged just one week before school ends.

AND

I am really looking forward to learning how to:

create a photo meme
bake chocolate chip cookie bars
organize my binder
play poker
decorate dolphin-themed donuts
calculate slope
do yoga
make a lava pen
draw anime eyes
and
rap like Chief Keefe (the clean version!)

Lessons start tomorrow-- stay tuned for future updates!

Teacher for a Day

With the last big project of the year dragging on for some, and others finishing all the enriching activities I can give them, I decided to give them a "BIG opportunity" to finish the year. Some picked up the pace to see what it might be, and one student was even a little disappointed when I handed him the description. "The BIG opportunity is a worksheet?" he sighed.

"But sooooo much more," I told him. "Read on!"

What it is is the chance to design and teach a lesson to their classmates, a lesson on anything they might want to share, and anything the other students might like to learn. What is your objective? It reads. What do you want us to learn? And then, What is the assessment? How will you know we've got it?

Some kids were wide-eyed at first. "I don't want to do this in front of everybody!" one student told me, just a few minutes after he sang a lively song that the whole class could obviously hear.

"You don't have to teach it, but you do have to design it," I said. "Then we'll talk," I winked at him.

To be honest, we have neither the time nor the attention span for everyone to take this assignment its completion, but so far?

We're going to learn some lego-building, origami, and soccer skills.

I can't wait!

The Life in Her Years

On Sunday mornings, it is our habit to take the dog and walk just a little under a mile away to our neighborhood farmer's market. But our old dog is getting persnickety about her food and a little recalcitrant about exercise, and so when she refused to eat her breakfast this morning, and the thermometer read 85 at 10 AM, we decided that we would leave her at home this time.

It was with a bit of a heavy heart that I waved good-bye to her and locked the door behind us, and we started up the steps that lead out of our complex in silence. "This is the beginning of the end," Heidi said sadly and we both stopped.

"Let's go get her," I said.

Heidi's eyes lit up, but she was unsure. "It's so hot," she reminded me, "and she hasn't eaten."

"We'll go slow," I said, "in the shade. And bring lots of water."

"And treats," Heidi finished.

And so we did.