Going with Your Students’ Flow…Even if it’s to the Toilet

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Stephanie's History Store

going with the flow

Sometimes when a student asks a question you groan inside because it’s so off topic (even if it’s a good question) because you just don’t have time to go into it at that moment. Sometimes a question is related to the material but you just have so much to cover you dread how long it may take to get back to the lesson you had planned. However, sometimes you DO have the time or the kids are just SO excited about the question/material that you go with the flow, even if it leads into the toilet 🙂

In my Tuesday class, which is a mix of 5th-10th graders, we are talking about explorers and exploration. The focus this past week was specifically on Columbus and his voyages. I knew that it was inevitable that one of the kids would be asking about what the sailors did on a ship when they had to go to the bathroom. Well, since I have a ton of flexibility in the curriculum, and since the kids were SOOOO excited about it, I went with the flow 🙂

In the course of answering this student’s question, we discussed how the sailors would have chosen which of them was responsible for emptying the toilet bucket overboard (a lot of kids made connections to how chores are rotated and shared at home). That then led to another student asking how they cleaned themselves without toilet paper so we talked about the pros and cons of corn cobs, pine cones, leaves, and yes, bare hands, which led us to talking about the different ways people relieved themselves and dealt with their waste around the world (such as someone living in crowded London versus a Cherokee Native American). There were a lot of “ew that’s gross!” and “didn’t that hurt?” and “why didn’t they invent toilet paper/indoor plumbing sooner” type comments which in turn evolved into an interesting conversation about the timing of inventions and technology.

Well, almost 20 minutes later, they were back to working on their Columbus activities and we had thoroughly covered everything I know about anything related to going to the bathroom from the first human to today. The kids were SO into the conversation that I felt pretty ok having gone so far off track with them. They had ALL participated, they were animated, and I heard comments like, “I didn’t know that before.” That was the only validation I needed to know I had made the right choice this time.

Middle Schoolers and Maps–I Tried Something New and it was a HIT!!!

Posted on September 19, 2015 by Stephanie's History Store

On Tuesday my kids worked with maps for the first time with me. Map work is an integral part of this particular curriculum. In fact, the parents want the kids to be able to create a detailed map of the world from scratch by the end of the year (every country, every mountain range, etc) so this was my chance to see in general what they already knew and how comfortable they were or were not with maps.

using maps with middle school students

When we finished our topic of the week discussion, they got into pairs for the map. Since this was just a warm-up/intro activity, they labeled each ocean and continent, the Prime Meridian and equator, Canada, America, Mexico, India, and Russia, and just for fun penguins and polar bears. Being in pairs, they were able to each suggest some answers in the “privacy” of their pairs, and when some inevitably had disagreements I was amazed at how they took it upon themselves to figure out who was right and who was wrong. A few asked me for a hint or help, but mostly they used their resources and talked the correct answer out amongst themselves. This gave each pair the confidence they needed for the whole class part of the activity.

When they were done, (and this was the first time I did this and it was a HUGE hit so I’ll definitely be doing it again), they took turns coming up to the board and labeling the identical (but big) map I had on the projector. Since they knew their answers were correct (I was roaming the room while they were working and pointed out some labels they should rethink while they were still in their pairs), they knew they would be able to contribute to the big class map without fear or embarrassment of being wrong.

As each student came to the board to label one part of the map, they also said one thing they know about that item and one question they had about it (I’ll answer each question for the at the start of class this week). One of the questions sparked a really interesting conversation: “Since the Arctic and Antarctica are both cold, icy, and have snow, why don’t polar bears, penguins, Inuits live in both places?”

One pair went extremely above and beyond, theirs is the map in the picture above (names covered of course). It was interesting to see which kids were more than content to do the bare minimum, and which ones got excited about the material and kept going on their own beyond the instructions. I’m curious to see if that will be the case all year, or if it was the type of assignment, or simply the mood the kids were in. We’ll see what they do when they get their exploration of the America’s map next week.

As other teacher-blogger friends have mentioned in their posts, one of the many benefits of kids working in pairs is that it helps build their confidence for when it’s time to contribute and participate as a whole class. This time around I let them choose their pairs. At times going forward I will choose for them, and they will have to figure out how to work with a variety of personalities since that’s what the real world is like.

A Week Into My New Job And…

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Stephanie's History Store

I’m a week into my job teaching with the home school co-op and I discovered (not really to my surprise) that I have a LOT to learn about working with middle school kids (especially since my classes are a combination of 5th-8th grade). I knew that it would be a different universe than having sophomores and juniors, I really did. But still, what a wake-up call I got this week!

1. Maybe it’s this group or the topics or maybe their age or that I’m new to the co-op or any combination of the above but something that took me an hour in a high school classroom took me 35 minutes with these kids, and that was with me stretching it out. I know it’s only been two days, but their mentality seems to be once a question is answered that’s it, regardless of how open ended I make it, no matter how many other opinions I ask for, once one student participates they act as if no one else has anything to offer, and they’re ready for the next question/point/topic.

2. I talk too fast. Yes I already knew that, but it seems as though I’ll have to slow down more than I usually do.

3. It’s painfully obvious who the “cool” kids are and who the “geeks” are, and my classes only have 4, 9, and 15 kids. I just want to hug the “geeks” and assure them I was in their shoes and that they’ll be running the world one day. I want to tell them being smart and worldly is what’s cool. I want to take the “cool” kids aside and tell them how mean and shallow they’re being (and yes I know this age group is finding themselves and figuring life out and whatnot but geeze). On Tuesday, “J” blew me out of the water with an answer to a question. While I was amazed at his train of thought and commended him for so clearly articulating each angle of the argument, I heard snickers and comments in derogatory tones about his being a human encyclopedia and other things along those lines. Depending on how next week goes, we might have to spend a class solely on non-academic stuff, and focus on being decent human beings (I would word it a lot nicer for them of course), otherwise it will be a long year.

4. Being in a co-op situation, I have unprecedented levels of parental involvement. I went from having virtually none in my last school, to a range here (depending on the parents) from none to completely up my butt. There’s going to be a huge learning curve for me in juggling what the parents want in the classroom versus the program director let alone what I’d love to do.

With all that said, the kids are great overall. The other teachers (I’m the only new one) are all really friendly and supportive. I LOVE having small classes (in my last position all my classes were 32-38 kids), I love having relative curriculum flexibility, and of course I love the flexibility it gives me in my personal life (I’m with the co-op for 2 days and with my daughter the rest of the week). I’m excited for my vision for the year, but I’m definitely definitely definitely nervous about figuring everything out as quickly as possible. I especially want to get a handle on the social stuff asap so we can have a smoother year in terms of academics. I know everything will fall into place, it always does, but I want it to happen quicker than I feel like it might.

The Kind of Teacher I Want to Be

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Stephanie's History Store

I start teaching at the home school co-op Tuesday. That means I barely have any time left to get back into teaching mode after being out of it for a year and a half. Some of it is easy, like the lesson planning, paperwork type prep, and organization. Other parts have been surprisingly difficult, but I think it’s because I’ll have a mix of 5th-12th graders and I’ve never formally taught 5th-8th before. So I’ve been talking to friends and trying to figure out how to be an effective, and hopefully great, teacher to that age group. That in turn made me think about the teachers I had in school and how they impacted me when I became a teacher.

As a sophomore in high school, I had Mr. XXXX for European History. In one class period he inadvertently helped me decide what kind of teacher I did NOT want to be. It’s one thing to challenge students and help them get past their perceived limits. It’s another to push them so far beyond their comfort zone that they completely shut down. It is really such a shame that my most prominent memory of this year long class is of utter humiliation and feeling incredibly stupid in front of my classmates, simply because I didn’t know the answer to that one question that one day out of the whole year and curriculum. I mean, it got to the point where my classmates were shouting at the teacher saying things like they knew the answer and to please leave me alone.

With this experience in the back of my mind and once I had my first teaching job, I had to figure out what kind of teacher I would be. Of course I wanted to be the successful teacher, the one that all the students wanted to have, the one who made them want to learn, the one who made learning fun, the one who continued learning herself, the one who attended professional development with a positive attitude, the one who never got frustrated by students or angry at them, etc. I didn’t want to be the too hard teacher who was feared or the easy teacher who wasn’t taken seriously, the one who became frustrated by the system, or the one who didn’t give it her all each day. I wanted to be the challenging teacher who was respected by students, who got along with her peers, and who left school each day feeling like I had done everything I could to reach at least one student.

I want to be, and I think I am, the teacher who makes history fun, who makes it relevant, who lets students be creative, and who gives them an answer to their parent’s dinner table question of, “what did you learn today.” I think I’m the teacher who can look past the belch part of professional development and get at least one valuable thing out of each session. I know I’m the teacher who gives it her all everyday, and I hope I’ve been able to reach at least one student a day, whether it’s “oh this actually is an interesting topic” or “I guess an adult does care about me” or anything in between.

I know I’m the teacher who is always learning, and this year will be a huge learning experience for me. I am 2 days away from the start of teaching Geography and Music Theory (two groups of middle schoolers and one group of high schoolers). As I venture into this new job I will keep Mr. XXXX in the back of my head, hopefully will NEVER be like him, and instead focus on being the teacher who will bring out the best in my students, give them the best chance at learning and success, and who will hopefully have a great school year.

Stephanie's History Store

History Teacher, Wife, Mom, Traveler, Foodie, Reader

Monthly Archives: September 2015

Going with Your Students’ Flow…Even if it’s to the Toilet