Part 2: When they don't get it.

I want my blog to be encouraging, inspiring, and honest. So to be honest, I don't really want to write this post!

Just one day after celebrating my third graders' epiphanies, I found myself bemoaning my second graders' shortcomings. Sigh. No one said teaching was easy (well, no one who actually knows what they're talking about).

Because I teach push-in lessons to 41 different homerooms in 4 different schools, I get to repeat some of my lessons several times. There are a few perks to this -- namely that I write fewer lesson plans and that I'm able to reflect on and hone the lessons, improving them over time. So when Wednesday's second graders were doing our Backpack Jack "Protect the Map" activity, it was the first time for them, but the 5th time for me. I was expecting the lesson to go smoothly. I had ironed out the wrinkles and was ready to go.

And then things fell apart. I have just 4 rules during STEM lessons, and I'm pretty sure they were all broken within the first 10 minutes. Rule one: Respect your teammates. Nope. Rule 2: Everyone participates. Nope. Rule 3: Use a whisper voice. Not even close. Rule 4: Stop working when you hear the signal. (In fairness, it was hard to HEAR the signal, but they probably did best with this one.) Oh my goodness, it was not a fun 45 minutes.

I reminded, redirected, and reinforced (yes, we use Responsive Classroom). We stopped, modeled, and practiced what STEM lessons should look and sound like.

And after all of that, when we finally gathered to test if each team was successful in waterproofing their maps, I heard things like, "I'm rooting against your team," and "I hope yours fails." It was pretty awful.

Image by RobinHiggins on Pixabay

I’d taught this lesson before, so it wasn’t the lesson, and at the risk of sounding self-righteous, I’m going to say it wasn’t me either. Dare I say it? It was the kids!

Now, let me be clear. I’m not “throwing shade.” (Gotta keep up with the vernacular!) It WAS the kids. There’s no way to know what happened before I entered that classroom. Did some of those children come to school hungry? Are mom and dad fighting at home? Was there an altercation on the school bus? Were someone’s feelings hurt? The questions are endless. The answers are unknowable.

So we go with what we do know. Everyone has a bad day sometimes. And sometimes, several students have the same bad day (full moon, anyone?). And ultimately, we are not teaching STEM or math or writing, we are teaching children.

When they don’t get it, it’s not fun or rewarding. It’s hard work. Our work. We are teachers, and we do this work so that they WILL get it. Sometimes it's two steps forward, one step back, but we keep on moving in the right direction.