physics camp

my school was awarded a grant to hold science camp this summer. there are three different camps. last week was engineering camp, this week is physics camp, and next week is environmental sciences camp.

there is a special initiative in arizona to help students get hands on opportunities for science (S.T.E.M. Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). it is also sponsored by the arizona science center.

twenty students were selected for each camp and then at the end they will go on a field trip to the arizona science center, a huge hands-on science center where kids get to play.

i signed up to help with physics camp (yes, michelle, physics camp) to learn more about how to effectively teach elementary students physics. it has been a fun week filled with making homemade solar ovens, windmills, and discussing, circuits, solar energy, renewable and nonrenewable resources, gravity, speed, and motion.

the kids have had nothing but hands on experiences learning about all these concepts and they are here even earlier than the camp starts just to get started. i love this. it is how science should be taught.

i reflect back on my experiences in science, and i really do not remember getting science in elementary school. by the time i got to middle school and high school it took a long time to unlearn all the bad habits and attitudes i had gained toward science.

first of all, i had this idea that science was solely about math, never about having fun, and that you had to be right. although involving a great deal of math, science is fun, and it is definitely not about being right.

i think there are many reasons why elementary teachers avoid science. all are excuses because most (definitely not all) general education teachers have not had great experiences in their own lives relating to science. we do not have the best professional development in science. we take one class about how to teach science and then you are expected to go into the classroom and just know how to teach it, and have all the supplies to do so. we have been so focused on reading and math, forgetting that of course science incorporates reading and math.

luckily, we are getting more and more focused on science, and focused in a good way. we are providing hands-on learning experiences for students. science and math really strike me as something that is best learned outside of a text book. although occasionally handy, experimental and life based is much more meaningful. most educators i know ultimately believe in this. so why is it so hard to convince everyone else (state departments of education, legislators, congressmen and women, etc,) that this is the way it should be?

i am glad i signed up for this week, just to reinforce how we can be facilitating the learning of science so that our students begin to think critically about the world we live in...and have some fun in the process.

mental strength

for the past year i have been dragging my body out of bed at 5:00 in the morning three times a week to go to a spinning class (riding a stationary bike like you are really riding up to Snowbowl). it is a great workout and a great start to my day. i usually arrive at school hyper and bouncing around my classroom. my students look at me like i am crazy, especially on mondays.

yesterday during the middle of the fifth time around of an eight minute ride, the instructor said something that i am still thinking about today. she asked (really she yelled it breathlessly) "how is your mental strength?" She continued with "not just right now, but during the day, during work, during your time with loved ones...how is your mental strength?"

that really got me thinking. how is my mental endurance? when i am at school, i can tell when i am fatigued physically and mentally because words come out of my mouth that i don't mean. i get mentally tired of dealing with things and so i become cranky or frustrated more easily.

this morning when i woke up, i asked my mind how it was feeling today. groggily it replied, well okay but i've been better. these are strange months for me. january and february last for a long time. there are fewer breaks at school. the stress of state tests that determine if you actually taught something this year gets overwhelming at times. the kids and i are cooped up inside more because it is too cold for outside recess. these are long months. i think i have always felt that way, even as a kid.

so this morning after i checked in with my brain, i made a mental list of all the things that keep my mind from giving in to the doldrums of repetition and monotony. i am reading a good book, i am writing more, i am staying active during the days, i am eating good food, i am sleeping well at night, and i get to see some family soon. i laugh almost everyday. my mind felt better already.

it is hard to extract one piece of me from the rest. so when i am mentally strong, i tend to be physically, spiritually, and emotionally stronger. i tend to persevere and hold out a little bit longer. and my students seem to notice it too.

the question is... how do i relate that to my students? how do i motivate them or help them to remain mentally strong? especially during these times of testing and monotonous tasks.

i will think on it.

words and how we use them

our words hold great power.

it amazes me as i scan my eyes across my classroom how much power we all hold in our words and gazes. one look at a kid (okay adults too) can make or break their day. the tone of voice can make all the difference.

i find myself these days really concentrating on how things come out of my mouth. i ask myself what is the desired outcome of what i say. this intention on what i say and how i say it has genuinely made all the difference in the classroom lately.

i am more content and focused on my work.
the students are more content.
we are all just getting along a lot better.

there are many schools of thought on how to run your classroom, how to manage it. i think it all comes down to what works for you and what is good for the kids. my room runs like a community. we recognize the individual but also recognize that the actions of the individual effect the community too. whenever i redirect a student, i try to explain to him/her why i am asking him/her to do something. i figure if the students understand why, it might actually make sense and stick with them.

this takes an incredible amount of patience, understanding, intention, and listening. several of those things are not always my strong points. i have found this week that the intention or rather striving for it, has caused me to have more patience and a better understanding.

often what the kids are saying is not what they really mean. they are not talking about someone stealing their pencil, they are talking about the very core of their person not being accepted because someone stole from them. rarely does a student tattle just to get someone else in trouble, they are saying, look at me, notice me.

it can be challenging to acknowledge and know what every one of my twenty five students needs to feel and be whole. some days i come home and lay down on the couch and just sleep for two hours. i don't sleep because i taught a hard math lesson or writing was strenuous. i sleep because i hold in my hand the mental and emotional (dare i say spiritual) well being of twenty five uniquely individual beings.

every look, every gaze makes a difference.

some days that makes me smile. some days it makes me want to take a fourteen hour nap.

it's wrong and it's right

i generally rant and rave about education. sometimes the job can be so overwhelming and misunderstood. the kids are really the reason most people stay in the profession. it is not like people stay because they think of advancement, pay raises, travel to exotic places, or christmas bonuses.

we stay because we walk into broken down classrooms everyday and turn them into magical places where kids are safe for seven hours, where they can learn and move out of their current space, and truly believe in themselves. there are still many good merits of public education but they are lost in the midst of politics, not enough funding, and disbelief in anything related to testing. people read tests results in the newspaper and look little past failing, under performing, or excelling to understand what makes a good school or what remains to be praised in public education.

there are moments where education can be extremely depressing and time consuming. yet, there are shining moments, where as a teacher i have the opportunity to break through all that is saddening, to what is at the heart of education for me. when my students understand that they are in my classroom not just to learn to read, or do math problems that make their head hurt, but that they are there to continue their journeys as life long learners who can think critically and make their own decisions, it is as if all else fades away.

this happened this week. we are beginning to read a story from a reader we have in class about orangutans in borneo. i found several websites of information, videos, facts, and articles to support what we are reading. several groups read small books about jane goodall as an introduction to conservation, preservation, and the study of primates. one group in my class needs to be challenged beyond the fourth grade level. their reading levels are higher than most and this is the group that can become easily bored. so i decided to challenge them with an eighth grade reading level or higher article on the deforestation of borneo.

we began reading and conquered words such as raucous, primatologists, and humidity. we discussed and looked at pictures of deforestation and talked about how this impacts the orangutans. we talked about the need for jobs in indonesia and malaysia, how people needed to survive, how larger countries pay for the deforestation to have paper, chopsticks, and yes, garden furniture. the students were shocked.

i was peppered with questions. "why do people buy these things?" "how do the orangutans feel about this?" "Are zoos bad?" "Why don't people have jobs?" "don't people think about more than just themselves? you know, like about the orangutans or the trees?" "you mean the animals are just free, and wander around?" "do the trees grow back?" "if people cut down these trees, how do we breathe?"

i replied to all of them at once, these are good questions, ones you should keep asking. i don't have the answers to all of them, nor can i tell you what is right. and in the midst of all the questions, came one question that floored me.

"you mean that some things are right and wrong at the same time?"

the whole group was silent. they turned to look at this student and then back at me for an answer. i think they were quietly hoping i would say no. i replied, "yes. that is exactly what i mean."

suddenly their clearly defined and delineated world turned upside down and they realized that life was slightly more complicated than they ever imagined.

one student ended the conversation by saying, "i know another example of something that is right and wrong.

war."

i nodded unable to say much of anything.

out of the mouths of babes.

this is why i am an educator.
if these students can grow up understanding that things are both right and wrong and neither right or wrong, we've got some hope or at least a start.