Well.. this blog entry will have nothing to do with the readings this week, but I feel it is a great chance to journal some of the amazing goings on at my school this week. I know some of you can and will relate to some of my experiences.
A few weeks back my VP came into the lunch room and started talking gibberish about other schools having their kids make stuff, build stuff, send a hot air balloon into the sky, build a bridge etc. She said, “I don’t even know what I am asking of you, but I do know that if there is a group of people that can run with this it was you.” And then she left. We all looked at each other with blank faces and asked each other what had just happened.
A week later, the four 6/7 Intermediate teachers along with our CST were huddled in the lunch room, each having had a TOC provided for the morning, sharing with each other our vision of what the heck we were being asked to do. Over the course of the next few hours, we proceeded to cancel our annual Heritage Fair, Cancel DARE, designate roles, decide on embarking on a completely unstructured Inquiry project and most importantly decided that we too would be thinking about our ‘Passion’ and what we would take on alongside the kids.
This is all really a preamble to a story about one of the teachers in this group. When Mr. X, for sake of anonymity, was involved in our original talks he was completely dumbfounded. His body gestures, his instant challenges to simple ideas, everything about his actions proved that this was not his comfort zone. He wanted specific instructions to give, timelines, criteria. He would ask when we would start and we would say, “Soon”. He would ask what the criteria was and we would say, “Personal growth”. The biggest obstacle for him was not being able to figure out a ‘passion’ on which to hang his hat.
This morning we presented to our 120 Intermediate kids in the Multi-Purpose room. I was to provide a PowerPoint with opening and closing remarks and each group member was to come prepared to share what their passion was and how they might turn it into an inquiry question.
Over the course of that hour, I learned more about my peers than I have in three years of working with them. I learned that Mr. M is a fanatic football blogger, stemming from vehement arguments with his grandma sitting around the football games as a kid, and wants to start his own blog. I learned that Mrs. D. writes ‘Adult’ mystery novels in her spare time but wants to focus her Inquiry on Minecraft as she, and her three-year-old son are completely addicted. Most of all I witnessed a good friend of mine speak for 15 minutes on his love of photography. He outlined his thinking and process of getting involved in the art. He spoke of his entering his photos in national magazines. The most heart-wrenching moment of all was when he shared his feeling with this group about the personal struggles he encountered throughout this process. He went from feeling like the grumpy old teacher that he used to hate, to feeling like this was a process that he hoped everyone had the pleasure of experiencing.
To me, the entire rest of this unit is complete gravy. The satisfaction that I felt in helping several of my peers work through their fears on Inquiry gave me a huge sense of pride and satisfaction. I cannot be more proud of them, and in all honesty, of myself. What a great job I have.
Thanks for listening,
Andrew
A few weeks back my VP came into the lunch room and started talking gibberish about other schools having their kids make stuff, build stuff, send a hot air balloon into the sky, build a bridge etc. She said, “I don’t even know what I am asking of you, but I do know that if there is a group of people that can run with this it was you.” And then she left. We all looked at each other with blank faces and asked each other what had just happened.
A week later, the four 6/7 Intermediate teachers along with our CST were huddled in the lunch room, each having had a TOC provided for the morning, sharing with each other our vision of what the heck we were being asked to do. Over the course of the next few hours, we proceeded to cancel our annual Heritage Fair, Cancel DARE, designate roles, decide on embarking on a completely unstructured Inquiry project and most importantly decided that we too would be thinking about our ‘Passion’ and what we would take on alongside the kids.
This is all really a preamble to a story about one of the teachers in this group. When Mr. X, for sake of anonymity, was involved in our original talks he was completely dumbfounded. His body gestures, his instant challenges to simple ideas, everything about his actions proved that this was not his comfort zone. He wanted specific instructions to give, timelines, criteria. He would ask when we would start and we would say, “Soon”. He would ask what the criteria was and we would say, “Personal growth”. The biggest obstacle for him was not being able to figure out a ‘passion’ on which to hang his hat.
This morning we presented to our 120 Intermediate kids in the Multi-Purpose room. I was to provide a PowerPoint with opening and closing remarks and each group member was to come prepared to share what their passion was and how they might turn it into an inquiry question.
Over the course of that hour, I learned more about my peers than I have in three years of working with them. I learned that Mr. M is a fanatic football blogger, stemming from vehement arguments with his grandma sitting around the football games as a kid, and wants to start his own blog. I learned that Mrs. D. writes ‘Adult’ mystery novels in her spare time but wants to focus her Inquiry on Minecraft as she, and her three-year-old son are completely addicted. Most of all I witnessed a good friend of mine speak for 15 minutes on his love of photography. He outlined his thinking and process of getting involved in the art. He spoke of his entering his photos in national magazines. The most heart-wrenching moment of all was when he shared his feeling with this group about the personal struggles he encountered throughout this process. He went from feeling like the grumpy old teacher that he used to hate, to feeling like this was a process that he hoped everyone had the pleasure of experiencing.
To me, the entire rest of this unit is complete gravy. The satisfaction that I felt in helping several of my peers work through their fears on Inquiry gave me a huge sense of pride and satisfaction. I cannot be more proud of them, and in all honesty, of myself. What a great job I have.
Thanks for listening,
Andrew