When I got my new whiteboard on wheels, I saved the styrofoam cubes that were part of the packing. About 5 inches square, with a notch on each that once wrapped aroung the whiteboard to keep it from slipping, I put them on top of my filing cabinet, certain I could use them for SOMETHING. The notches interlocked, maybe I could use them for volume? I wasn’t sure. But I kept them.
Yesterday, during science, I pulled them down and went to the various groups of kids. I handed over the cubes, silently.
“What is this?” they asked.
My only response: “I don’t know, do you?”
It was amazing. Only a few said “Oh, that’s from packing furniture or something.” Some kids locked them together. Some took them apart and said they looked like little houses, or A’s, or interlocked, an S. One of my favorite kids (Yes, we have favorites.) grabbed them, interlocked them and said “Integration! Multiage! TEAMBUILDING!!” (What my program is based on, btw.) Some put them on their ears, or nose, or head. I used it to explain that scientists don’t know the answers, they ask questions to FIND the answers. I found my kids’ reactions so interesting, though, that I spent study hall going around to other classrooms.
Other kids did things totally separate from what mine did. Some made laptop handles. Some made towers. One refused to touch them because “I have homework, I can’t be bothered.”
And the teachers! One, a very traditional, read the chapter, do the review questions, take a multiple choice test type — I handed them to her, and her whole body stiffened. Her face got red. “What is this? Are you playing a trick on me? What am I supposed to do?” So interesting.
It helped reaffirm my teaching style. My kids weren’t scared to ask questions. They are used to the Weirdness of Mrs S. They feel safe to play with the cubes, and safe to make any conjectures they want. Granted, the traditional kids don’t know my like my own kids, but still. It made me feel good.
Another teaching story from this week: Math is first thing most mornings, and on Tuesday, my kids were just groggy and cranky and not participating. In my most stern “I am disappointed in you” teacher voice, I said “All right, everyone up. Come on, out of your chairs on your feet.”
The kids stood up, looking at each other, and then at me, confused. Without cracking a smile, or exuding ANY joy, I said “Okay, put your right hand in.” I sighed.
“Now take your right hand out.” The kids complied, but were still not getting it.
“Now put your right foot in.”
“Wait, Mrs S! Are we doing the Hokey Pokey?” One kid volunteered, quizzically.
“YES! We ARE doing the Hokey Pokey, do you have a problem with that?”
A few kids complained and stopped, and I wagged me finger at them.
“SHAKE IT ALL ABOUT!!! Everyone!”
The kids shook it all about, and I said “There, NOW we can get on with our math lesson.”
Seriously, I wonder what my kids will say about me when they are adults. Only in middle school could I be THAT dry and mean (heh) about making 13 year olds do the Hokey Pokey.
Over there in the Wordy section, you’ll see a new book I’m reading. “Not much just chillin’: the hidden lives of middle schoolers” is good. Damn good. I am loving this book. It is also reaffirming my beliefs; basically, kids first, everything else second.
As a middle school teacher, I KNOW that this stuff goes on. I know what I wish my kids had. Anyway, some excerpts: