Memories are Funny Things

I recently joined a group on Facebook: “You know you’re from such-and-such a town if....”

I’ve had a lot of fun reminiscing about my life in school when I was a youth. It’s funny what you remember and what you forget.

There was a long discussion of memorable teachers. Some teachers I knew I’d had but could not dredge up a single memory of being in his/her class, what he/she looked like, or even where his/her room was located. I can remember specific lectures from other teachers - I can almost hear their voices in my head. If I went to the school today, I could walk right into their room - I remember exactly where it was.

Some nicknames I remember - my Elementary school principal, Mr. Hopkins, was called Mr. Hoppy Toes for a little hop he did on the playground once to avoid a rolling ball. Snappy fingers, AKA Mrs. Haller, was my third grade teacher. She could snap her fingers so loud, it could damage your hearing if you were too close.

I recall a student who was in school for the 7th grade but never came back. He drowned that summer in Academy Cove. I was not close to him and I don’t recall his name, but I can picture his face to this day.

I remember my daily (unhealthy) lunch in the high school - two bags of Munchos and two milks. And looking at the list of players who made the middle school baseball team. I don’t remember where my locker was in middle school but I think I remember the combination of my locker in high school.

My Father-in-law is fond of saying “You never know when you’re making a memory,” and he’s right. 

Look around - some of what you see you'll recall vividly when you're older, some will be wiped away with the passage of time.

We Adopted a Ship!

The US Maritime Administration, a part of the Department of Transportation has a really cool educational program for teachers and their classes.

They match the class with a working merchant ship and then put the teacher/class in contact with the officers on board.

I applied in September and in December we were matched with the T.S. Kennedy - the training ship of the Mass Maritime Academy in Buzzard’s Bay. The Kennedy is a former cargo ship that has been converted into a school at sea.

There are over 600 students on board and they have daily classroom instruction and have duties on board. We looked at the layout of the ship - the teaching spaces, recreational spaces, and sleeping accommodations.

We watched a video tour of the ship - I don’t think the students cared for the very limited personal space provided on a ship - basically a bunk bed with 18” of space below the next upper bunk and a curtain. About 90 cadets sleep in an area about the size of my classroom.

The T.S. Kennedy maintains a great blog that they update daily. They make it really easy to follow along on their voyage and they suggest some interesting topics to learn about as they go.

We’ve learned about navigation, the environmental impact of ships, geography and a host of other topics. 

The T.S. Kennedy left for their annual training cruise in January and we’ve checked in with them every few days to see where they are and what they’ve been doing. Their most recent port stop was Barbados so, yes, I’m a little jealous.

Next, they’ll begin working their way north again. Their next port call is Miami and then back to Massachusetts.

Personal Responsibility

Personal Responsibly - per·son·al re·spon·si·bil·i·ty 1. the ability of a person to maturely respond to the various challenges and circumstances of life.

What is personal responsibility for a middle school student? What does it look like in action? What does it feel like for the student?

The changes between grades 6 and 8 are too numerous to list here. Suffice it to say they encompass every aspect of the student’s maturity, emotions, social interactions, academics, and personality, just to mention a few general areas.

The work in school changes dramatically. In the elementary grades, students are asked to learn “what” - what happened in history, what happened in the story you just read.  In the middle school years, students are asked “why” something happened. They are asked to link divergent pieces of information and determine a common theme. They are asked not to just routinely repeat mathematical operations but to begin understanding the why rather than the what.

For the student, this is probably the first time they are changing classes and visiting their lockers between classes. They will learn to bring the appropriate supplies to class - the right book, a pencil/pen, erasers, notebooks, etc.

It may also be the first time they have homework nearly every night. They will have to master time management especially if the student has after school activities like gymnastics, lacrosse, basketball, or dance.

They will, over time, learn to self-check - “Do we have English homework tonight?” or “Is the Science quiz tomorrow and do I have what I need to study?”

Learning to keep track of assignments and deadlines is part of personal responsibility. 

Students at this level should have the personal responsibly to act appropriately when a substitute is in the class room and not take advantage. 

Students should need fewer and fewer reminders as the middle school years progress.

Growing-up is a difficult process. It’s three steps forward and one back. The growth of a students personal responsibility is an amazing thing to watch and participate in.

The Joy of Writing

We started a recent staff meeting with a little warm-up exercise: Tell the person next to you about writing.

I told my partner that I can’t remember a time when I didn’t enjoy writing and I think it’s because I’ve enjoyed reading all my life. 

I have a very clear memory of being read, “Where the Wild Things Are.” That book was published in 1963 and it was a pretty new book when it was first read to me. I remember reading it to my boys and it endures as one of my favorite children's books. 

I can’t say Maurice Sendak inspired me to write, but he didn’t hurt the effort one bit. His language and imagery are beautiful and they ignited my young imagination.

For me, reading and writing have always gone hand-in-hand. I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember and writing for almost as long.

I remember a writing assignment in the third grade. We had to write a fictional story. My story was about Pink - a little creature who lived in the grass in my backyard. The teacher was so taken with “The Adventures of Pink” that she had me read the story aloud in class, made copies for all the other students and then had each of them write a fictional story about Pink. 

After college, I did a lot of freelance writing. My work was published in the Providence Journal, Boston Globe, Block Island Magazine, Air & Space Smithsonian, Aviation History and more. Later, my wife and I started a newspaper business and we both wrote day and night.

I still write. I have three blogs going now:

• This blog about teaching;

• I have a blog for my video business where I discuss converting video, movies, slides, photos, etc. to a digital format;

• I also have a personal blog where I allow myself to spout off about topics that interest me.

As a teacher, I ask my math and science students to write regularly. I don’t think they much care for essay writing but it’s good for them. It helps them think through the topic a little more than the typical-seven word sentence I get on a test or quiz does.

I like giving them writing assignments and they’re going to see more and more of them as the year progresses.

To paraphrase Mr. Sendak: “Let the wild writing rumpus start!”

In Praise of the Boring Stuff

I like fun. 

Really, who doesn’t like fun? 

We do a lot of fun activities in my classroom. Last week, we went to an observatory after

school. Monday we launched rockets from the playground.

Fun, right?

Right - but let’s not confuse the classroom with Disney World.

We do a lot of stuff that isn’t so much fun, too. That’s why we call it work. It’s hard. It’s challenging. It makes the students think. And sometimes it’s just plain boring. 

The thing students don’t understand is that we’re teaching them a lot more than the stuff in the books. 

Yes, I teach about fractions, exponents, atoms, the Earth’s mantle and hundreds of other topics. I’m also teaching the students how to do an assignment that they don’t want to do because it’s boring or it’s hard or they’re not 100% sure they understand it yet.

Learning how to learn is probably the most important thing I can teach students at this level. In a few short years, they’ll be off to college where no one will harass them for missing work, or remind them to study for a quiz, or even notice if they attend class. 

They’re gonna need to fend for themselves and part of that is knowing how to put their heads down and plow through the boring stuff. 

In Memoriam: Crew of Space Shuttle Challenger (1986) Mission 51-L

“Did  you hear? The Shuttle blew up,” said the man standing in front of me to the man standing behind me in the cafeteria. At first I thought he was talking about one of the vans used to shuttle people between the company’s three facilities. Then, I realized my error.

As quickly as I could, I hustled back to my office. There was a radio down the hall from my office. By the time I got there, everyone in the department was cloistered around it. In 1986 there was no internet, we didn’t have cell phones or Facebook or twitter or really, even TV’s at work. We had the radio, just like when the Hindenburg exploded or the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor or JFK’s assassination.

“I wonder if the astronauts got out?” asked one of my coworkers.

My heart was in my throat. I knew the astronauts didn’t get out – there was no way out. It was up or down with the vehicle – period.

The aftermath was bad.

Mismanagement, cover-your-butt paper trails, everyone running for cover.

While the blame swirled around all the participants – NASA, Morton-Thiokol, President Reagan, Congress and really, anyone who stood still long enough to be targeted by any one of the above, we heard the voice recordings from Challenger.

Dick Scobee, Spacecraft Commander: “Roger, go at throttle up.”
Mike Smith, Shuttle Pilot: “Uh oh.”

Then, nothing.

They were aware that something was wrong. At least long enough for Smith to comment before radio transmission abruptly ended.

It got worse.

We saw the footage of the intact crew cabin emerging from the explosion at an altitude of 64,000 feet before spinning and tumbling to the ocean’s surface.

We learned three of the astronauts personal egress air packs on the flight deck were found switched on – something that can only be done manually.

Investigators also discovered that several electrical system switches on Smith’s right-hand panel had been changed from their launch positions. These switches were protected with locks requiring them to be manually pulled outward before they could be “switched.” Further analysis proved that neither the force of the explosion nor the impact could have moved them, indicating that Smith moved the switches in a vain attempt to restore electrical power to the cockpit after the crew cabin detached from the rest of the spacecraft.

How long did they survive?

It was over three minutes from explosion to impact with the Atlantic.

Were they alive and conscious all the way down?

I hope not.

It’s horrifying. I try not to think about it.

For a few weeks everyone knew their names – now, twenty five + years later,  might be a good time to remind ourselves of just who these people were:

Ellison S. Onizuka – First Asian American in Space, Air Force test pilot. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, a shuttle craft bears his name in three episodes.

Christa McAuliffe – A Massachusetts native and was selected as the first Teacher in Space. The Soviet Union named a crater on Venus; McAuliffe.

Greg Jarvis – Earned his Masters at Northeastern University and worked, for a time, at Raytheon in Bedford. Almost immediately after the crash, students at the University of Buffalo, where he earned his bachelors degree, nailed the name “Jarvis Hall” onto the side of an engineering building, and in 1987 the name was made official with a dedication ceremony.

Judy Resnik – The first Jewish woman to fly in space. Her long, weightless hair was a memorable image during her first space mission.

Michael J. Smith – Graduated from the Naval Academy and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross during Vietnam. His was the last voice heard on the cockpit recordings.

Dick Scobee – An Air Force test pilot and Vietnam veteran. Scobee piloted Challenger into space in 1984.

Ron McNair – Received his Ph.D in Physics from MIT and flew with Scobee on Challenger in 1984. During that mission, McNair became the first man to play the saxophone in space. He had planned to record a saxophone solo during the flight to be used on an album he was working on.

We should never forget them.

Will This Be On The Test?

I am often asked “Will this be on the test?” by my students. Sometimes I answer directly, often I deflect the question and once in a while I try to share the larger picture.

The larger picture is a tough point to make with many students.

Naturally everyone wants to do well on homework, quizzes and tests. It feels good to see that big 100% on top of your math quiz. Students who do well should be proud of their accomplishment but, ultimately it might not make any difference if they’re not ready for the larger context.

Probably all students have crammed for a test and done well....but, when asked to demonstrate the knowledge six months later are at a loss. 

That’s the problem with learning or teaching to the test. Yes, the students may do well but have they truly mastered the skill we were teaching and testing for?

The sequence goes like this - they have to learn a new skill, practice it, practice it in a variety of contexts and then go back and relearn it a few days later. We look at a new skill from a variety of perspectives. I present the information in a lot of different ways - for example, recently I used their current math lessons in our science class. 

Math skills build on each other. You can’t figure out factors unless you know your multiplication tables, you can’t do fractions unless you have a good grasp of factors and so on.

If a student doesn’t have a solid foundation of skills, he/she’s going to suffer going forward. It’s much more important that they have a deep, long-lasting understanding of these skills than they do well on one particular test. 

Let’s face it, if you’re a grown-up, what difference does it make if you got an 80% or a 100% on a 6th grade math test? None really. But if you’ve never really learned how to do decimals, how are you going to do your taxes, or figure out the real cost of borrowing money for a new car or how much interest you'll pay on your student loans?

You’d be better off if you had a deeper understanding of multiplying and dividing decimals and got the 80% than if you crammed and got the 100% but forgot it all in the following months.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not encouraging my students to aim for a low B on all their tests and quizzes, but I am encouraging them to really learn the stuff we’re talking about not just regurgitate it back to me.

It’s that deep understanding that most teachers are trying to instill in their students. The students can’t see the larger picture, but it’s critical.