5/16/08:  Delight

My Extended Reading kids made GooglePages (find student links at the side of this page) as a way of processing information they’d read.  That experience has had its ups and downs, but one class definitely made me smile.  They took the DACS online reading test today, and I told them they could play online word games when they finished.  One 7th grader turned and politely asked, “Can I work on my GooglePage?”

Can you…what?  I gave you time to play games, and you wanted to…work?

When all of them finished the test, I popped in our end-of-the-year movie.  No dice.  Half kept playing word games, and the other half tweaked their Google pages or finished assignments I’d given on there.

Wow.  These kids are encouraging!

5/15/08: Experience

The Extended Reading kids and I read a play based on “The Great Debaters,” the story of the first black students to debate white students on the college level. As a follow-up and end-of-the-year reward, we’ve begun watching “Remember the Titans.” There are times when I’ll pause the movie to explain the significance of something. I find it ironic that if we were in the South, the kids would understand the significance of race issues; there, I’d be challenging them to rethink the value of a person. Here, I’m challenging them to recognize mistakes in our nation’s history so they can avoid repeating them and counter those who still make them.

One of my favorite scenes in “Remember the Titans” comes with a midnight run made by a freshly-integrated team of black and white football players. Their coach stops them, panting and exhausted, on a battlefield in Gettysburg, PA, and gives them a history of the location. Blacks and whites died there, fighting for human rights. If these football players can’t get along and become a team, what was the point of other men’s deaths?

When I was a kid, my parents dragged me around to historical sites. Somehow, that stuck; when I drove around the southern and eastern parts of the U.S. in 2000, I stopped at the former homes of Helen Keller and Laura Ingalls Wilder, along with a few Civil War prison camps and battlefields.

I’ve been to Gettysburg. It’s a heavy place. I’ve told my students that it’s not a creepy, ghosty sort of feeling, but when you pause next to a simple, wooden fence that someone has sought refuge behind–and that others have lost their lives behind–it has an impact on you. How much blood has that ground absorbed?

I’m grateful for the experiences I’ve had and that others have shared. I know my students have been enriched by them. My hope is that they keep them in mind as they become adults and make the decisions that shape our society.

5/14/08

It’s the end of the day, and I look down at four wilted dandelions lying on my old wooden desk. Thanks to a fire alarm this morning and the kindness of a 6th grade boy, springtime has arrived!

5/14/08: Shaken

There were other articles I wanted to read with my Extended Reading kids today, but as I went through the news one story in particular stood out. A high school girl in China was trapped by the recent earthquake, and rescuers would have to amputate her legs in order to free her. I sat on a table, put my computer on my knees, and told my kids to imagine that it was a chunk of concrete. “In order to get out from under it…” I began, then sliced my hand across my legs just above my knees.

One student still didn’t understand why an earthquake could hurt a person. Last week, some of my study hall students discovered colored blocks I’d used when I took a Lakota language class in college. Today, I grabbed those blocks and two books, then took them over to my students. “Make a house.” On the books we put up walls followed by roof beams. The books turned into tectonic plates, and I shifted them parallel to each other. The girl watched attentively as the walls twisted. The aha moment came when the ceiling beams came crashing down.

We went through more earthquake pictures, with that particular girl reading off the captions as quickly as they came up. I love those moments in which students realize that letters on a page stand for things that actually exist!

5/13/08: Immigration

I was rather bothered by an article regarding trash left behind by illegal immigrants. Since it related to things Hispanic, I read it with my students.

Illegal immigration is a sticky situation. Regardless of problems relating to the influx, I encourage my students to think about things from the immigrants’ perspective. What things are they leaving that are so horrid that they’re willing to risk everything? It’s a delicate balance to show frustrations with the process while being sensitive to the people involved. I put it into 7th grade terms, and used J and B since they were sitting in front of me.

“Let’s say that B cheats off J’s quiz.”

J pulled his notebook closer to him, hamming up his defensive role.

“As a teacher, how do I feel about cheating?”

The kids frowned, shook their heads, and said, “It’s wrong!”

“What if it turns out that, even though B studied, he just couldn’t do well on the quiz? When he gets home and his parents find out, they beat him.”

The kids’ faces registered shock and empathy. Distracted by that, I almost missed J’s gesture–but it turned out to be a perfect example. Without a breath and without a show, J had slid his notebook over to B’s side of the desk.

Mercy. These kids are getting it.

5/8/08: Fiesta!

One of my homeroom kids brought in sombreros after a Cinco de Mayo fiesta he’d attended. Since then, students in both Extended Reading and Spanish have found them and enjoyed them. I love the giver’s generosity, especially considering that he’s not even in my Spanish class!

5/2/08: Reading to Kindergarteners

My 7th grade Spanish students read to Mrs. Q. and Mrs. B.’s kindergarteners again today. As always, I was impressed by their maturity. I love watching them interact with the little people and realize that life isn’t always easy on the responsible end of things. My favorite was the day we read to Mrs. D.’s students and helped the kindergarteners put on their winter clothing. The 7th graders were amazed at how much effort that took, and I smiled. “Thank your parents!”