8 hours of constant talking, activity, and 80 students met with me yesterday. Wednesdays are scheduled days from teaching Hell. Last night, my 7-10 master's class was interesting, however. First of all, I was exhausted by the time I got there and regardless of the wonderful student Grace who brought me a diet vanilla coke, I was not looking forward to another 3 hours. This class is a weird mix of people. Ive got several full time teachers, one former advertising exec, a couple substitute teachers, one older woman who has no social gate-keeping, one student who is so outlandish and ignorant that I struggle to imagine the later pain caused if a school hires this person, 2 former undergrad students of mine, and a sprinkling of "others." We began by watching President Obama's speech to students which occurred on 9-08-09. None has seen it. NONE! What does it say that they all knew of the controversies, but none, not any of the 18 master's students, had taken time to see it. A good conversation followed which included comments such as, "Wow...I heard it was bad," or, "What a good message. What was all the hype about?" I shared the letters from school districts around this area that did not allow it to be shown and those that did. They were amazed that districts would be so conservative and wondered why. Of course, Ignorant knew why. It was a great conversation and when asked why I might choose to show the video in an assessment class, much was said and connections made. We then got into groups and each group took one of the weekly readings and made 3 tenets describing, summarizing, or otherwise illuminating what the article was talking about. It went well and they admitted they loved the articles "way more than the book or the National Reading Panel Booklet." From there I began my little ditty about qualitative and quantitative research, the who, what, when, where, why, and hows. Such fun. There is nothing better than RX1=O and RX2=02 as different than X2=O etc. to get their brains a bending. Finally, we again grouped 1-4 and each was assigned a Model of Reading from their book reading. They were to explain the model in 100 words or less and draw a picture (but not the actual model) that would explain the model clearly. They did a nice job. I guess I am telling the lesson plan because I found myself, as a professor, noticing these weird students following me through the different activities easily. When prompted, they answered; when grouped, they worked. We were there until 9:50 and the entire time was spent engaged in the lesson.
Now, I know that when I am teaching, I am rarely not in FLOW. Time moves quickly...for me. I am not sure that is ever true of everyone in the class, however. Yet last night, in a class that is L-A-T-E, was after much teaching by both myself and those full time in the class (which is about 90%), time moved. One student commented as she left, "That class went so fast!" and another, "Yeah, I'm glad. I'm exhausted." You see, that is just it. No matter how exhausted, how uninterested one may be, when confronted with ideas at a fast pace, activities that make you think, have positions, and spark curiosity, I think each teacher is likely to jump. So, I was thinking that the very thing that many teachers are worried about, taking positions, being vocal, bold and smart are the very things that they need to be engaged with their jobs. Now, how do I get those in my class to not fear losing their jobs because of interest, curiosity, and perhaps "non-mainstreamed" teaching?
Oh, and I miss my grandpa.
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