Reasoning Rather than Reconciling: Student Vicissitude

I see logical reasoning occurring in my classroom every day. Students using the process of rational ideas, systematic steps and mathematical, scientific procedures. They use evidence to come to a conclusion and are quite adept at summarizing their result. This makes sense. A learner is a learner by choice. If they commit to discovering new things, then they will. In science class at least, students need a certain process or set of procedures to follow to make sense of the world. What gets in the way, however, is emotional reasoning. The cognitive process by which students conclude that what they feel proves something to be true, regardless of any observed evidence. If they perceive it to be important, then to them, it is important. If they are happy, then that is how they see the world, in a positive way. If they are frustrated, then all bets are off and they generally retreat or fluctuate on their stance. This is why I find it so important to discuss with my students the importance of what I call mindful reasoning. This is also why I use discrepant events to throw them off their pedestal.

I define mindful reasoning as the culmination of knowledge, opinions and ideas, personal choice and responsibility and growth. We can learn new things but if we do not understand their relevance and purpose then they are fleeting. If we reason and unscramble the pieces, like a giant jigsaw puzzle, then as we choose to put the pieces in place, they form a permanence, an etching deep in the grooves of our minds so we can access them when needed. The tactile engraving leaving its mark. This inscription will only become integrated into our schema if we are mindful: focused, unbiased, calm, open-minded. With these strategies we are no longer bound by conventional thinking we are released into an openness and fluidity that brings a deeper understanding. I have my students repeat these words to themselves when they get frustrated or foiled on an assignment. "Breathe, think, reflect, imprint." 

Today I gave them something purposeful and challenging. I knew it would frustrate them. They all came up to my desk looking for me to give them direction or guidance. I did not. "Don't give me the answer, but can you give me a clue?" They asked. I calmly responded, "Use your mindful strategies and work the problem. Don't skirt around it, but dance with it. Let it lead you, not the other way around." Slowly but surely the answer presented itself to them. While some students had to research more information, others just restructured their data and were able to find clues buried within their helpful hint cards. While logical reasoning was visible and useful, emotional reasoning reared its ugly head and actually became a bandwagon in which many other students began to follow. It is funny how one students throes and woes becomes a classes adversity.

At the end of class, after they figured out the diffusion dilemma, we discussed strategies to allow for more break through's and less bandwagon hustle. Jumping on the bandwagon can be a tool of great strength when we use it for problem-solving and not negative discourse. What happened in class today, was that the loudest dissent was easier to follow than the focused accord. Several groups had figured out the problem but they remained aloof and fixated. But, the students who felt scattered and confused were determined to bring others down with them. No one wanted to be on a sinking ship alone. Eventually the lifeboats rowed over to the rescue ship and they began to communicate and thus harmony occurred. The class came to a consensus and the quandary was abated. 

It was really hard for me not to intervene. But it was a great day because the level of frustration rose and waned. The camaraderie strengthened and they were so determined to solve the conundrum that they had to rely on one another. Every table had a different clue and it took them some time to figure that out. Once they started mingling, they heard different conversations going on and they began to ask "How do you know that?" and "Where did you see that information?" Once they started aligning the information it all fell in to place. The grey bottoms of the puzzle pieces were turned over to reveal the portrait that was about to be assembled.

The puzzle was no longer disjointed but whole and visible. Each clue was a part of the mystery. The mystery of diffusion of Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide in the Respiratory System and how in different elevations this process may be more difficult. For instance at the top of Mount Everest or deep in the Mariana Trench. On Mars or on the Moon. It took reasoning not reconciling for each class to decipher and unravel the mystery of collaboration and science. I used different clues every class so they couldn't share answers. I wanted to make sure every class got to experience the same level of apprehension. 

To me as a teacher it is more important to let students struggle and reason through it, then to have them solve the problem. If they reconcile the defeat, then it is not worth it. Provide challenging enough not challenging exuberance. A safe zone allows students to express their angst but a community will bring out the joy of learning. This is what I saw today.

Quiz Bowl: Networking, Notebooks and Near Misses

Quiz bowl may sound easy but it actually takes a lot of work. Just showing up to practice is not enough. You have to read, a lot, stay current on politics and world events and practice lots of trivia and rapid fire quiz games. It is an adventure in both knowledge and speed. The questions cover every subject imaginable and you never know what you are going to get, unlike Jeopardy, you do not get a category. I have always emphasized for my team that for us it is about content, not memorizing questions. Individual inquiries repeat after awhile so they may be rephrased ever so slightly. However, they use the same key words, so some teams memorize these rather than learning the information. Also, some schools have an elective called quiz bowl and thus have an opportunity to do so. My team however, meets two times a week consistently and they often meet as teams in the evenings to practice on their own.

I require that every one of my students keep a note-book. During the competition they write down, as each question is read, what is being asked for: book, author, piece of art, city etc. Then they also write down the correct answer and a clue as to how to remember it. These notebooks are kept with them all year and by the end of the year they have a plethora of content from which to review. Today our quiz bowl team took three squads I call them, to the tournament. All three made the playoffs. Our 6th grade team squad made 2nd place overall in their division, even with 3 players rather than 4, they did an awesome job. Last tournament they placed 1st in their division, so there were a few tears at first. But, after some reassurance they smiled and felt proud of their win.

The two JV teams (7th/8th grade) both made the playoffs. But, the playoffs are sudden death and while one team won their qualifying game the other did not. So we failed to qualify another team for nationals. However, since this was a free tournament for us (we score-kept at the last high school tournament) for me it was a great way to test my top players in a different configuration. I now know after a near miss for qualifying, that these teams again need to be rearranged. Quiz bowl is definitely a hit or miss situation and it takes several tournaments to get the right combination. You can't change the alignment of players during a competition, so you have plenty of time to observe and strategize for next time. There is approximately one tournament per month. So while we have time to regroup we have to get it right quickly, because there are only so many tournaments in Houston.

As my students were eating lunch and we were all waiting for the results and the playoffs to begin (2 hours) I began to network. It is basically the same 20 schools in the Houston area that attend these competitions. So the coaches/teachers recognize each other. Some are standoffish and keep to themselves, but most of us greet each other and talk to each other between rounds. I had an idea that I wanted a few of these coaches to collaborate with me on: attending a San Antonio or Austin competition so our students could play against other teams and get some experience with new students. After playing the same teams over and over students get complacent: they fear the same students and know they can beat other students, so their determination and focus often wanes and peaks.

After networking, two schools agreed to go with us. The three of us will charter a bus and take 2 teams each (our best players/nationals players) to an out of city competition. This will be an awesome experience for our students. Nationals is all about not knowing your competition and having that curiosity and persistence to win no matter who you are playing. But, we often do not get the chance to experience this. The out of city competition will be great for building rapport with other teams as well as over-coming the complacency I am beginning to see in my teams. Quiz bowl is very, very competitive. The parents are so much so, it often gets a little uncomfortable watching them argue with the moderators and coaches. This behavior makes it very distressing for the students. I firmly believe it should be fun above all. If they are not having fun then it is absolutely not worth it.

It takes a lot of my time and energy to run National Quiz Bowl, National Science Bowl, National Geographic Geography Bee and Future City. I volunteer my time and I have no expectations but for students to learn and grow. I will do whatever I can to make that happen. I will network and align myself with other coaches (many whom are so nice and friendly) and smile in the face of a near miss and repeat to my teams every game, win or lose, "Keep moving forward." I will also continue to keep reinforcing that integrity and grit is what makes a great team. I model that we accept our wins and loses with the same courage and respect. We win a lot and lose a lot, as do most teams that do not memorize questions. That is the fun in it. Whether you lose or win the sheer excitement of the game makes it all worth it.

Networking, notebooks and near misses, these are a Saturday tradition for us, in the quiz bowl universe. We keep looking and moving forward and we will continue to have fun and learn stuff. That is our goal: smile, meet new people and learn stuff.

A Makerspace Bonanza: Circulatory and Heart Model Creation

A makerspace is a great tool for any student-centered classroom. Not only does it provide supplies it also inspires ideas. It gets students tinkering and designing. It opens their minds to new ways of doing things and it fosters cooperation and collaboration. I have a big makerspace that crosses down the middle of my room. This allows students to access it from both sides. I ask for donations from parents and generally receive a lot of recyclables and art supplies. I add paper, felt and plenty of markers and crayons and tah-dah! a makerspace ready to spark the imagination.

Today was a day of beads, pipe cleaners, wiki sticks, Play-Doh and lots of recyclables.  The makerspace was a cornucopia of supplies for students to design and create their model of the heart and the Circulatory System. Today was all about bringing the unit on the Cardiovascular System to a close and having them use their knowledge to demonstrate their understanding, through artistic and visual measures. I always prefer a hands-on approach and this was just that. Lots of sticky hands and fingers as students were thinking outside the box to build hearts and blood vessels.

They were given these directions:

Include in your model and label:

1. heart (four chambers and Aorta)

2. cells, tissue, muscles, organ

3. Veins

4. arteries

5. capillaries

6. oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood

7. blood: red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma, platelets

8. Draw arrows- pathway of blood

9. Gas exchange

The following pictures are what they began to assemble. Monday they will complete them and then Wednesday they are going to add the lungs and the Respiratory System to the model. It may take a day or two to complete a detailed model like this but it is well worth it. Every student was engaged and interacting with their team. They dug through containers and were pulling out odds and ends and thus, there is such variety it is just awesome.

Monday and Wednesday I will write a blog post showing their progress and the completed models of the Circulatory and Respiratory Systems.

A Teachers Motto: Responding Not Reacting When Tired After the World Series

Astro's Win

I am tired today. I stayed up way to late to watch Game 7, well worth it though. Today was a challenge to get through. I just kept reminding myself of my motto "Respond not React." Focus on the positive. It was a good day for the most part only marred by my distraction from exhaustion. "Respond not React." Look them in the eye and listen. Surrender to the fog and just concentrate on the light off in the distance, the pulsating light that draws me in to my daily intentions.

As a first year teacher I wish someone had come to me with this phrase, Respond not React. Challenging situations will arise but one must always slow down, breathe and with calm in your heart respond. I was not good at this for many years within my classroom walls, often letting students get me frustrated and reacting outwardly in this fashion. Students win when they get the best of you. They will try to get you flustered and angry to see if they can "get your goat." I have lost many goats over the years. Today all goats remained on the mountainside. Munching on the grass of knowledge.

I mediate frequently and find ways to focus my frustrations down to a pin point where they could be dispersed rather than consume me. Even in the hustle and bustle of classroom life, I find a quiet place in my mind to meditate. This is not to say that I never get upset or flustered in class, but being flexible and accepting of all opinions has allowed me to let things go more quickly than I often do in other situations. I stop, breathe, count to 4, smile (always smile) and refocus my energy.

Struggle Amidst Frustration 

Today my students were struggling with an assignment. They often get frustrated and upset just as I do. They all have situations that may cause them to lash out or overreact or cry or even shut down, just as I do. Rather than tell them the answers, it is my responsibility to determine why? It is my role as facilitator to ask questions and determine why they are frustrated in class, is the lesson too challenging or are they not trying hard enough, is the classroom dynamic causing some students to feel under valued or unrecognized? Most importantly, what can I do to help alleviate this? What needs to be done to rekindle the harmony? Today we took a break and played zombie musical chairs and this relieved the tension.

I have done everything possible to create a well-balanced, student-centered, flexible, safe, authentic and active learning environment for every student. I have discovered the strengths of this and the weaknesses. The strengths are student choice and freedom and independence. Students feel they have a voice and own their own learning and behavior. A weakness though can be that some students need more guidance and redirection and rules to help focus them on their daily quest. This balance is what I as a teacher, seek to find on a daily basis. Today we got out of balance and with a quick game of zombie musical chairs we got back on track.

I do not step in to help resolve every situation, I let them find the right solution. Most of the time they do with little fuss or upheaval. I model for my students daily that listening skills promote trust and respect. To think before you speak. To seek the positive rather than focus on the negative. Everything we encounter is a learning possibility if we choose to make it one. I model this by allowing for freedom of respectful opinions and ideas. Today, I let them have table debates so they could get all of the voices heard and learn as a team.This also calmed them down and got them refocused on the task of the day.

The End of the Day has Come

If we respond with respectful words, "I hear what you are saying, however I disagree because." "Thank you for that feed back I appreciate your ideas, however I believe..", then we are responding not reacting. I modeled this today by remaining calm when I myself, got frustrated. When we are 'not on our game' or 'off kilter' we can lose sight of this. I repeated my motto a lot today- I stayed true to my intentions as well- voice quiet, eyes on the prize, listen and guide. It was a long day but I made it. quiz bowl just ended and now at 4:30 I am going home. To crawl in bed and watch TV and sleep. So I can have the energy to do it all over again tomorrow and a quiz bowl tournament Saturday.

Stethoscopes and Jumping Jacks: Burning Off Some Trick or Treat Calories

What surprised me most about today was the amount of students that had never listened to their own heartbeat or anyone else's for that matter. They had heard heartbeats on TV but actually holding a stethoscope and using it was a new experience for most of my students. It also surprised me that many students had no idea how to find their pulse. I had to walk them through the process using the carotid artery and the wrist. It was interesting to watch them, they were so focused and engaged it was a beautiful thing to see.

After they listened with the stethoscopes and measured their pulse rate, I had them get a baseline and then do different exercises: jumping jacks. running in place, lifting up books from the floor and then resting in different positions. With each action, they counted their BPM and then at the end they graphed their data using a line graph. They were amazed at how high their BPM's got after each exercise and then began to compete with one another to see who had the highest BPM. They definitely burned off all their candy calories from Halloween night.

This type of activity is engaging and fun but for me it is an enlightening experience to see them interact and help each other. They were helping each other find their pulse and timing each other as they exercised. It was loud and very energetic. Since it was muddy after last nights rain, I decided to have them do the activity in the classroom. The louder it got the more engaged they were and it ended up being a very fun day.

Trick or Treat Graffiti Wall: Integrating Halloween in a Lesson on Circulatory System

Halloween-Bringing it into a Science Classroom

For Halloween I surprised my students by decorating the doors to my classroom. A mummy named Bob- We decided to call Homeostasis Bob because we are not technically supposed to teach or test on the word homeostasis only the concept. (inside joke) and students brought in some random decorations and I used them to create the other door. They were surprised when they got to class today. A simple gesture of appreciation.

I wanted to integrate a little of the Halloween spirit into today's lesson. The topic of discussion was an introductory chat about the Circulatory/Cardiovascular System. This is the system with the most misconceptions or 'urban myths' so I wrote each one on a piece of paper including: Blood is blue until it meets the air, Humans have approximately 8 pints of blood in their body and The human heart weighs 3 pounds. 

Each student was given one trick (false statement) or treat (truth) and they had 3 minutes to investigate and decide if it was in fact a trick or treat. Then they shared their findings with the class. The conversation was very enlightening and students were really engaged because a lot of the statements were things they believed to be true. It was fun dispelling their misconceptions. 1st and 2nd period created the graffiti wall and scrambled tricks and treats so each class had to figure out which were in the wrong place.

Then students created a place mat for each table where they drew cartoons explaining what they learned about their trick or treat. Finally we closed the discussion by making a connection between the Circulatory system and the three previous systems we have learned about: Digestive, Nervous, Endocrine further illuminating why blood and the Cardio-vascular system is so critical for homeostasis (or as we like to say Bob)

Getting the Giggles Contained: Embarrassing Topics in Biology

Today was the dreaded lesson on the Reproductive System. For some reason in our district there is no Health class, so thus no discussion about the Reproductive System. This puts the responsibility on the shoulders of 7th grade science teachers. Last week we discussed the Endocrine System and the Testes and Ovaries were front and center, so those terms were no surprise. Today we had to introduce the physical anatomy aspect of reproduction and this brought on a lot of giggles and seat stirring. It is an embarrassing topic for sure, but a necessary one. Before any conversation begun today, I made light of the situation by behaving like a teenager and acting embarrassed and shocked (over-exaggerated of course) "Oh my gosh, she said the word penis." giggles "Did she just say, vagina?" This broke the tension as they laughed.

To break the ice, even day one of class, I have always talked openly about almost everything. If it is science: biology, chemistry, any science related topic I will always tell them the truth. Today, my students asked me about the menstrual cycle, hysterectomies, sperm count, even child birth. If they are asking a serious question, I answer it. It surprised me today though, what they didn't know. We watched a Brain Pop video on Reproduction and that was by far the most uncomfortable part of the class. Once we had an open conversation, the giggles were contained and the dialogue was respectful and informative. I think the best thing we can do as teachers is to be open and honest. Even with the embarrassing stuff (at least for them.) I never get embarrassed about science stuff.

I tell my students, "biology is the basis of life and it so important to understand every aspect of it. Why our bodies do what they do. This makes the world around us make sense. This helps us understand our bodies and how to take care of them." When we can get them to see things as science they will not be so embarrassed about things. They will become more curious, in fact. The boys were the ones asking the questions about the menstrual cycle, not to be silly, but because they know what it is and wanted to understand the process. Today for me was a good day. The conversations were instructional, communicative and instructive. As teachers all we have to do is not be embarrassed ourselves, once students sense we find it awkward, they will retreat and get uncomfortable.

I am happy it is over but this year it went well. Not too many giggles. Eyes upfront not down at their papers. Engaged not mortified. I set up my class on day one as a safe haven for learning. A place where questions are welcomed, not matter how uncomfortable. Forthcoming and honesty. If students trust you they will confide in you and believe in you. This is when true learning takes place.