It's In My Blood

"I should be a teacher."

(silence)

"Oh, okay. How come?"

"Today in chemistry, I helped some kids understand some stuff. I explained how I think about the problems then showed them step-by-step. They took their quiz and Ace'd it. I mean, I know it would be harder with a bunch of kids but it felt good to help them. I mean, I really helped them do better on their quiz."

"It does feel good to make a difference, doesn't it? Yunno . . . if you want to help other people, there are lots of ways to do that, honey. You could be an engineer and help other people too."

"Yeah, but if I was a teacher, then I could coach too and help kids in and out of class."

"Yes, you could but you could be an engineer and be a coach."

"You sound like you don't want me to be a teacher. I know you work a lot Mom, but you always said that whatever I wanted to do when I grew up, I should find a way to help other people, right? Besides, teaching is in my blood."

He smirked at me like he had won an argument then opened the pantry looking for food. I watched my 16-year-old son locate an open bag of tortilla chips and retreat to the computer room. I didn't know if I should take his comments about becoming a teacher seriously or not. The week before, we had visited a college with a respected engineering program. As the professor described the various engineering majors, he also mentioned that they have a new teacher education program focused on STEM. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something flash over his face. I dismissed it at the time. Now mixed feelings of pride and dread swirled in my stomach. I hated feeling this way about my own profession. I would never discourage my son from pursuing his passion, if teaching became his passion, but . . . things are so different now.

Beat the Problem

I spent my spring break this year traveling to four different college campuses in three different states. We visited schools with mechanical engineering programs that were within driving distance of our home in southeast Michigan. As part of every visit, we got to peer inside classrooms. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see actual students learning from actual professors.  As we tromped through the buildings, I was struck by how many classrooms were intentionally designed to foster group collaboration. One institution had classrooms with microphones suspended above the group tables so that questions and problems could be monitored by the instructor and shared with the rest of the class. A flipped model of instruction was used whereby homework included 20 minute lectures and classwork was reserved for discussion and problem-solving. I wish I could have seen it all in action. What I kept hearing over and over was that in engineering, it was about trying to "beat the problem". And once you figured out how to beat one problem, you tried to beat another one. According to the professors, industry had communicated to the universities that what was needed in the world of a professional engineer was being able to effectively solve problems in a group.

I was thinking about what all of this had to do with teaching and assisting children who, for whatever reason, were struggling with reading, writing, and communicating. If I think of a learning objective as a problem to beat, this problem would have to be clearly identified along with the desired outcome. A deadline would be needed. Depending on the class, the students might have decided what problems that wanted to try to beat. The problem would need an authentic purpose. As part of the learning process, there would be demonstrations and presentations where process and learning were shared with others. To me, what I witnessed at the college level felt like a workshop model of instruction. It made me wonder about my own use of learning targets. Are the learning targets I use clear and measurable? Do these targets have an authentic purpose? Have I established a clear path for achieving the targets? Do my students have a choice about ways to achieve a target? It also made me think about how teachers work in teams to beat problems.

Thinking About Tomatoes

Spending the last few days navigating icy roads and lake effect snow in the Upper Peninsula has me thinking about tomatoes. Springtime below the bridge is coming soon. The wind is crisp but the sky is bright and blue. No buds in the yard to speak of and the grass is brown but at least it isn't covered in white. I'm not a real gardener--not like my dad. Anything that happens to survive in my patch of dirt is a bonus. I started out fairly dedicated last year but I ended up distracted by other responsibilities. Even though I neglected them terribly, my tomatoes grew in abundance.

Land of Snow

Happy Easter from Up North! When I first moved to Michigan from Ohio, I had no idea where "up north" was. I remember the kids at the school I worked at talked about going up north for the weekend. I had friends at work who had family cottages up north. Over the years I grew to understand what up north meant, at least I thought I did until we arrived in the land of snow, better known as Houghton, Michigan. There is still snow up to the first story windows of our motel. Supposedly, the Northern Lights can be seen most evenings. I've never been a fan of snow, mostly because I hate driving in it. But on our way here, drivers weren't in a hurry and didn't drive crazy like they do at home. Of course there isn't much traffic. I'm beginning to sense that the pace of life may be a bit different here than in suburban Detroit.

View from the first floor windows.

Posted with Blogsy

Spring Break Up North

Some people head south in search of warmth during spring break. The weather report for my vacation destination is 25 degrees, wind, and 50% chance of snow showers. My suitcase is packed with long underwear and wool sweaters. Since we haven't had many days over 40 degrees this spring, more wind and snow doesn't feel that much different. Seems like we don't even have much of spring any more. Temps hover around 40 and 50 degrees until May. Sometimes even Mother's Day is cold. Of course, I didn't grow up in Southeast Michigan. I grew up in Northwest Ohio. We had spring where I grew up. Little girls wore pastel dresses on Easter Sunday with just a sweater. We didn't have Easter egg hunts bundled up in parkas. In high school, I remember laying out in the sun during spring break. Maybe my spring break memories are simply selective.

Reflection Friday

First day of my spring break. Only a few more days left of the TWT 2013 SOL challenge. This is my third year participating and each year has been different. Every March brought different roadblocks. Most of the bumps were related to time. My writing process for posting has evolved in three years. I still have days when only paper and pencil will do to help me get going. Other times, I just lay down the words in a draft post in Blogger then let them alone for a while. I tend to keep numerous in-process posts. The one thing that hasn't change is my interest in adding images to posts. Images are important to me. I usually create my own. I still enjoy playing and editing my photos and if I use my own, I don't have to worry that I am violating copy write laws. My favorite editing tools are currently Picasa, Ribbet, PicMonkey, and BeFunky.

My Rotini Girl image was edited with BeFunky. 

Thankful Thursday