I'M BUILDING A ROCKET!!!

This week I had the privilege of visiting some classrooms at Snow Hill Primary. I was taking a look at what STEM classes do at much lower grades. One of the first classes I entered, I saw a familiar face at the back table. Kristin White's son, Asher, was with his group and was very busy. The class had drawn balloon-powered rockets and were now starting to construct them. When I went to Asher, he was feverishly cutting at a cardboard box with a pair of safety scissors. The other members of the group were working quietly at their seats. When I asked Asher what he was doing, he was VERY ready with his reply. "I'M BUILDING A ROCKET!!!!" (Now I don't know that printed words can do justice to the level of excitement that needs to be conveyed here. Picture this sentence coming from an early 90s pre-fight professional wrestler and you're starting to get the picture.)

To say that Asher was into his work is an understatement. This lesson captivated him. It led me to think that I had never seen that level of excitement from another student, and while that level may be hard to reach, it is something we can strive for. There's a lot of debate today about education versus "edutainment." While I do not think that it is our job to entertain students on a daily basis or to trade fun work for quality work, there is a middle ground somewhere. Our job as educators should not simply be the delivery of information. Books have long been able to do that and today online programs or even YouTube videos can achieve the same thing. Our job is to unlock thoughts in young minds so that they can accept that information and do something with it. And to be honest, that means it has to be interesting. Mr. Shaw and Mrs. Garcia work very hard to make your professional learning interesting and let's be honest, you're getting paid to sit there.

While Asher-level excitement may not be within reach for all students, it is something that we can work to achieve. Remember that teaching is a service industry. Students do not come to school so that we can get paid. We get paid to do something with them while they are here. Let's do our best to keep student engagement in mind so that we can be better than an online program every day. Who knows, one of these students may just build a real rocket some day.