An Encouraging Thought

It has been far too long since I have posted here, and for that I am sorry.  To tell you the truth I have been busy, but more than I busy I can admit that I have been a bit down on myself.  I still have so much to do to become the nguyeningest teacher that I want to be, and I have been a bit under a rock by recognizing that I am not there.

We can talk a big game on these blogs and share all these awesome lessons that work (when they work), but even those great ideas can fall or be used improperly, or rushed to the point that no meaning is taken from them.  I am a the point right now where I find myself trying to catch up to all the curriculum that needs to be done, and I don't like that, but I have a professional responsibility to make sure that kids are prepared, so I have to work better and harder than I do at this point.  Have I led students through inquiry? Are they engaging with their world?  Why can't I be more like (insert awesome blogger/teacher/awesome person name here)?  I feel as though I am not measuring up, and that's a hard place to be.

So I am introducing volume and I asked them to notice and wonder, and this is what I got...

This board of notice and wonder seemed a little too good to be true, so I asked the class (a class who I trust to be honest) this:*  

Raise your hand to vote.  Here are your two options: Did you notice or wonder because you actually want to know, or did you notice and wonder this because you think it is what I want you to notice and wonder?

The majority of the students put their hand up for option A.  They looked at pop-cans and wanted to know legitimately awesome things.  They were curious, and they were taking it seriously.  They had cool discussions on why the companies would make these decisions.  Now granted, we have talked about pop companies before when we did surface area, and I walked them through that, BUT I can see that they have caught a bit of this math bug.  They have caught a bit of the curiosity that I had when driving home and watching road lines whiz by.

I am not a perfect teacher by any means.  I lose control of my class. I take forever to assess.  I give them notes, and I even *dun dun dun* lecture.  Not every class is inquiry based.  I am not always fully prepared.  I am very disorganized. I have more faults than I care to name, but somewhere, hidden under the heap of my self-deprecation is something that has attracted kids toward curiosity. We often say to ourselves "If I but do this ONE thing, it will have all been worth it."  Today this board represented my one thing.  Today I saw that I am not in the wrong profession; I am not the worst person in the world; I am not a terrible teacher. Today I cast off my self-deprecation and embrace encouragement.


*Keep in mind this is ONE of my classes.  My morning class was not as indepth.