One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Ever wonder why your teachers repeat themselves so often?

Have you ever thought about all the different ways we have to say the same thing?

Have you ever noticed you often get the same information delivered by several methods?

It’s not an accident. It’s what teachers do to help every student succeed. Some people need to see things written down, others need to hear something to really understand it. Some need to hear or see it more than once. Everyone is different and everyone learns differently. Teachers make sure they communicate information in ways all students can understand. 

I find the process of giving instructions to students to be very interesting. I work hard to find the simplest, most direct way of giving instructions. I break down tasks into smaller bits and present them one by one. 

Let’s say a teacher wanted you to accomplish four tasks. Just saying the words will get about 80% of students to do each task correctly and in order. 

Here are that teacher’s make-believe instructions to a class of 30:

One, two, buckle my shoe;

Three, four, open the door;

Five, six, pick up sticks;

Seven, eight, lay them straight.

The teacher’s expectation is that 30 students will buckle their shoes, open the door, pick up some sticks and place them in a straight pattern.

When the teacher looks out over his/her imaginary classroom, here’s what they are most likely to see:

24 kids looked at their shoes and said some version of, “I don’t have buckles on my shoes,” “I only have laces,” “I’m not doin’ nothin’ to these bad kicks” or “Huh?” 18 of them closed a door, but six more reopened it, 14 picked up some sticks, 10 scholars asked to leave the building to look for sticks, 11 kids have them all lined up nice and straight, and three are building a fort out of the sticks. Four students took off their shoes, three opened a window, two kids put the sticks in their shoes, someone asked to go to the restroom, and one ambitious child is chopping up a chair to make more sticks. 

It’s hard. It was a lot of confusing instructions delivered in a way that they were not accustomed to. 

And that is why we say it, put it on your paper, project it on the screen, write it on the board and then start all over again. That is why we repeat instructions multiple times. 

That is why we have so many ways to communicate the same information.

Khakis

Just to set the record straight. I do own more than one pair of pants. I overheard a couple of students speculating that I wear the same pair of pants to school every day. 

I do not.

I wear the same kind of pants every day….Khakis. The tan-colored, cotton pants that you see each day. 

I have about 12 pairs of khakis. 

Fashion is not a really important thing for me. I don’t really understand what colors go with what other colors. The whole stripes and patterns thing confuses me. 

I keep it simple. I wear only tan khakis to school. They’re comfortable and they go with everything. It doesn’t matter what I choose to wear for a shirt, it’s gonna go - no matter what. 

For me that means less time thinking about things I don’t find important and more time to think about things I do find important.

Like….what would happen if you could drill a hole right through the Earth and come out the other side. 

I like thinking about things like that…and not so much about what shirt goes with what pants.

Current Events in Science

One of the favorite days of the week for me is Current events day. I like the opportunity to see what my students bring in, what they’re interested in, and what they like about science. 

This year, current events day will be Fridays. Ten minutes at the end of the week where we can poke our collective heads up, look around at all the cool things that are going on in the world of science and talk about them.

Everyone can participate in current events. 

It’s simple: Find an article, read it, bring it into class. Last week students brought in articles about a new Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star, the Philae lander that was found on a comet, and a rocket test gone wrong. 

I encourage everyone to participate. Think about what you enjoy learning about in science, find out what’s happening in that field and read an interesting article. If you love geology, bring in an article about something that happened in that field. If you enjoy biology, find an article about a new development in biology, etc.

Current events in science should be fun and interesting. Participate, join the fun.