Tomorrow is the first day of school for kids around here. A new start to a new school year. And it’s a fresh start for me too. This year I will work a different position in a different elementary school. I am trying my best to gobble up various experiences of elementary education. And somehow I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have supervisors who believe in me and mentors to teach me as I teach kids.
Before this school year officially starts, I want to share some reflections about my previous year. And just like when I was a student, I have mulled this over endlessly in my head, taken detailed notes, but waited until the final hour to actually get it done. Procrastination is such a harsh word, it's more like finish-phobia I'd say.
My first year as an educator in a public elementary school was a marvelous adventure. I had the unique opportunity to work with students in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. Sometimes I worked with small groups to reinforce math skills, and other times I led STEAM-centered challenges (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics). There are so many specific stories and moments to flood my mind looking back, but here I want to boil it all down to just a couple key things. These are the most resonant pointers from my 2016-2017 school year, the stacked moments I choose to transform into lessons to learn from and be inspired by.
My first year as an educator in a public elementary school was a marvelous adventure. I had the unique opportunity to work with students in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. Sometimes I worked with small groups to reinforce math skills, and other times I led STEAM-centered challenges (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics). There are so many specific stories and moments to flood my mind looking back, but here I want to boil it all down to just a couple key things. These are the most resonant pointers from my 2016-2017 school year, the stacked moments I choose to transform into lessons to learn from and be inspired by.
Curiosity-driven learning
I’m lucky that my elementary education internship was within a hub of inquiry learning. It just makes sense to let questions and problems inspire the quest for knowledge; let the kids find it out for themselves instead of pounding it into them like the outdated teacher stereotype we all often imagine. I can’t pretend to have a grasp on the whole facilitating inquiry learning thing yet, but the overall concept has stuck with me. I want my lessons to be interesting and invite students into learning with a question or a way of applying it to their own lives.
I remember some average weekend near the end of winter; during the long stretch in February where there are no holidays to look forward to on the school calendar. I spent many week nights and a big chunk of my time on weekends planning and revising lessons. How could I hook kids into an engineering design project? What examples would best illustrate converting improper fractions to proper fractions? While stumped on some question like these, I came across a quote that made this planning perfectionist pause.
Students should be working harder than the teacher.
This thought reaches back to the heart of inquiry. I was working so hard to plan and have detailed examples. I needed to get my hands off of white board markers and props, and let those ten to twelve smaller hands take over. Keeping this at the front of my mind made the spring a lot more fun for both students and teacher. It’s something that is true for humans big and small - natural curiosity and relevance increase interest and engagement.
Students should be working harder than the teacher.
This thought reaches back to the heart of inquiry. I was working so hard to plan and have detailed examples. I needed to get my hands off of white board markers and props, and let those ten to twelve smaller hands take over. Keeping this at the front of my mind made the spring a lot more fun for both students and teacher. It’s something that is true for humans big and small - natural curiosity and relevance increase interest and engagement.
The power of stories
Because I mostly taught math and led smaller projects, reading books was not a regular part of the programming. Apart from math story problems (which most students do not count as enjoyable literature), there just weren’t enough minutes with my small groups to squeeze in storytime. Until it was time to say farewell.
For my goodbye lessons with each small group, I chose to share a book I love with the kids. Because I’m a total bookworm, and because I believe that stories and art can convey a desired message way more effectively than a blubbery teacher. I read Jennifer Berne’s “On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein”. Students all know his name and perhaps an equation or notorious weapon associated with him; but more than those things, this story highlights that Albert was an unusual person and a daydreamer. With quirky illustrations and bits about the famous scientist’s equally eccentric mindset, it relates a special message - never stop dreaming and wondering.
From wiggly 2nd graders to apathetic 5th graders, I saw students captivated by this picture book. After finishing the story, my students began spilling out questions about life and the world around us. Why doesn’t the moon fall down? Do birds remember the nest where they were born? Where did God come from? It was a shining moment and even with my affinity for reflection and improvement, I still can’t think of a better way to conclude the year with my 90ish students.
Sitting in this moment on the eve of the first school day, I feel the many things. The nerves and excitement of something new about to begin, the regret that summer has ended, and the certainty that my students and I are about to learn a whole lot together.
