What Was It Like To Go To School 100 Years Ago?

What was it like to go to school 100 years ago? The people of Oklahoma City have a pretty good idea after discovering chalkboards dating from 1917, hidden behind newer chalkboards.

When contractors removed the newer, and as far as anyone knew, the only chalkboards, they were stunned to discover an older set of chalkboard beneath the newer ones.

Here's the full article with lots of pictures. It is just so cool to see this.

These boards were drawn and written on in 1917, 98 years ago.

Look at the pictures...it was Thanksgiving. There are drawings of turkeys, pilgrims and the Mayflower. There's music and a poem. There's even a crazy circular way to multiply.

This was a long time ago. Quite accidentally, they left a little of themselves behind. The content doesn't look much different than it might in any modern elementary classroom. Clearly the technology has changed but anyone from 1917 might feel right at home in a modern classroom learning about the Pilgrims.

Your Brain Might Melt

When I was in high school - ya know, back when “school” was just the largest cave and the blackboard was an outcropping of slate...just kidding.

Seriously, when I was in high school, I learned how not to remember stuff in math. Obviously, that wasn’t the goal, but it is what happened. When I discovered my error, it was an important moment. I thought I’d pass that insight along to you, so you could avoid my mistake (and make some fresh ones of your own).

I can’t recall exactly what we were learning, but it was in math - probably Algebra II. We learned how to do something, and because of the way my brain works, I was always trying to think a memory prompt to remind myself how to remember stuff. (PEMDAS, for example is a memory prompt.) I still do this a lot and it can be an extremely effective way to remember things...if you do it correctly.

The mental note I made to myself was;  “Do the opposite of what you think you should do”  and it worked like a charm. I was solving problems quickly and correctly. We did a lot of practice and I was breezing through the worksheets. I learned this topic sooooo well.

Too well, as it turned out. I learned how to do all the steps in the right order and always got the right answer. Then, the memory prompt turned from friend to foe. 

 “Do the opposite of what you think you should do” had worked like a charm, until I memorized how to do it. Now my prompt was telling me to do the opposite from what I had learned....in other words....wrong!

Suddenly, I went from confident to confused. What way was “the opposite of what you think you should do?” I couldn’t remember what was the right way or what was the wrong way. I was dazed and confused. 

It was then, that I realized that my memory prompt was at the root of my problem. I had to change the prompt.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to forget something when you’re trying to forget it. The more you try, the more you think about it, so the more you remember it, so you’re not forgetting it, but actually remembering it more. It’s very circular and I think if you thought like that for too long, your brain might melt.

So, do yourself a favor, use memory prompts; they really will help you remember stuff. But do not, under any circumstance, use “Do the opposite of what you think you should do.” You’ll just end up confused with a melted brain.

The Name Game

Karma has not been kind to me with respect to the names I have had to learn as a teacher. I am not good with names. I have to make a real effort to learn people’s names.

No, it’s not what you’re thinking. It’s not the difficult to pronounce names that I stumble on, it’s similarity of names that throws me off. And it’s not that I mix up students; that’s never a problem. The problem for me is when I need to recall the name and say it correctly very quickly. 

I know I’m not alone in this. I have a friend with nine children. When she was trying to call a kid downstairs to go to school, she would basically start calling off names of oldest to youngest and stop when she hit the right one. It’s not that she didn’t know her kid’s names, but in the heat of the moment, the mind sometimes does funny things with one's recall.

When I was a substitute, I had a class with three students named Destiny. “What’s the big deal?” you may be thinking, and you’d be justified in thinking that. The part that confused me is that the three students spelled it three different ways: 

Destiny, 

Destinee, 

Destineey.

I started thinking in my head Destiny with one E, Destiny with no Y, Destiny with three E’s and a Y. Let’s face it, that’s a lot to recall in a hurry.

When I taught at the Hellenic American Academy, I had two students whose names it took me a while to get comfortable:

Efthamia

Efthalia

I never mixed up the differences between the students - and they were very different people - but sometimes I’d get a little tongue-tied when calling out their names and it would come out as Eftha,mumblemumble,ia. In which case, Efthamia would answer because Efthalia was often daydreaming.

And then last year at McAuliffe I had two students with very similar names that I mixed up for a little while:

Maria Julia

Julia Maria

I solved this by just using their first names and that seemed to help.  

And, now we come to this year. I've got multiples. I've got multiple students with the same names in class and I've got twins. 

Don't get me started on the twins, I'm confused enough already...

By The Numbers

I have a very long ride to school and then back home each day. It probably averages about three hours and that’s a lot of time each day.

Word problem time:
We have 180 days of school, and your teachers have an additional 10 days of professional development. I spend an average of three hours each day in the car driving to McAullife and then back home again. How much time will I spend commuting during the year?

Answer: (180 + 10) * 3 = 570 hours

If I work an eight hour day, that means my 570 hours is the equivalent of 71.25 work days.

Remember, you only go to school 180 days, so that means if you include my commuting time, I’m “going to school” over 71 days more than you. 

Think about how this might play out for a typical McAuliffe student. After school, you’ve taken the bus home, had a snack, walked the dog, and done your homework. I honestly don’t want to hear about the burden of homework I assigned you because I’m still driving home.

When I started teaching at McAuliffe, I promised myself I would not waste all those hours on mind-numbing sports talk or ridiculously repetitive political talk radio. Instead, I listen to books in the car. 

I listen to a lot of books in the car.

Last school year, I listened to 33 audio books. Some of my favorites were:

• On the Road
• The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (You will read this too)
• Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond
• Physics for Rock Stars: Making the Laws of the Universe Work for You
• A Little History of the World
• Zim: A Baseball Life
  
• The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
• Rendezvous with Rama 
• To Kill a Mockingbird (You will also read this)
• Pedro.

I have to say, I don’t retain the content of a book when I listen to it as well as when I actually read it, but that’s not really an option when you’re speeding along at 65 miles per hour.

Welcome To My Blog Class Of 2016

I started this blog a few years ago as a way to voice my feelings, vent my frustrations and share my views on interesting topics. It is a way to speak to my students in an informal way, to supplement some of the things we do in the classroom and to inject a little humor into our daily lives.

To date, I have published 130 posts including this one. That’s a lot of writing. Think about each one being equivalent to a 250 to 500 word essay for your ELA or social studies class. That’s a lot of words and a lot of topics. Just when I think I can’t think of one more thing to write about, something happens and I think to myself, “There’s a blog post.”

Fortunately, I enjoy writing. At one point in my life I did a lot of freelance writing and I was fairly successful doing it. My work has been published in the Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Air & Space Smithsonian, Aviation History, Sea Classics, Block Island magazine and many others.

One article I submitted to a website about naval history was later referenced in a NASA book about wind tunnels. The book is titled Cave of the Winds and the author used my article as a source in his book. How cool is that?

Writing is something I enjoy. The ability to put words together in a coherent way has been a huge asset to me over the years. I’d be lying if I said it always comes easy to me. It’s usually not hard now, but, then, I’ve had a lot of experience.

So, do yourself a favor, bookmark my blog. I will post every weekend. I encourage you to read it and comment on it. Sometimes I will require you to read a particular post, and sometimes I will refer to a posting in class.

As an encouragement to read and comment on my blog posts, I will reward students who post insightful, intelligent and relevant comments to my posts with a homework pass. (When you post, please identify yourself with initials only - not full names. I’ll figure out who you are).

Read my blog, learn some stuff, have a few laughs, get a free homework pass. How hard is that?

Tweet This...

I have news. I have added a twitter account to my blog. It's called @Science_186000 and it's all about science.

So, if you enjoy science, please follow me on Twitter.

If you know someone who enjoys science, tell them about @Science_186000.

If you know someone who knows someone who enjoys science, tell them about @Science_186000.

Get it?

I'm trying to get the word out. Help me please...

You Know It Ends In A Fiery Plane Crash, Right?

I was recently telling my wife about my day and mentioned the “I can’t trust myself” drawers. “Huh? What’s that?” she asked. I explained that I have a drawer for each of my four classes called the “I can’t trust myself to hang on to this” drawer. They are for students who have trouble keeping or finding unfinished work. She started laughing. I don’t know why, but she found it hilariously funny.

I told her I reserve the right to entertain myself and I do so as often as possible. This conversation got me thinking about all the things that have made me smirk, smile, laugh and giggle this year.

• Like my “Do Now” in the middle of the space unit that asked: “What is the Dark Side of the Moon?” I confirmed that none of my students are familiar with the work of a little known progressive rock band called Pink Floyd.

• Or my Paul McCartney question on a “Do Now.” They now know Sir Paul is in the Rock ‘n Roll hall of fame three times and Kanye West is just not that important (but don’t worry, I’m gonna let you finish.) 

• Watching students, who had been warned repeatedly about keeping all four feet of their chairs on the floor, tumble out of those tilted-back chairs. When I say students with an “s” on the end, I mean quite a few. How can you help but laugh as each one climbs up off the floor with a sheepish grin on his face? (Yes, it is always boys).

• The “I can follow instructions” test hidden within a chemistry test. Yes, only one student successfully read and followed the instructions.

• My intonation of “number nine, number nine” whenever we do problem number nine in math. They don’t get it but it makes me smile.

• Since my room doesn’t have much of a view, I use my projector to show live cam views from around, literally sometimes, the world when the kids are working hard. These always make me smile. The ISS live cam is one I project a lot. Here are a few of my favorites:

International Space Station 

San Francisco  

Lithuania

Rome

• I really enjoyed the subtle sabotage of my students who were reading To Kill a Mockingbird. “Have you gotten to the plane crash yet? You know it ends in a fiery plane crash, right? Oh, sorry, no more spoilers.” It went to a whole different level when students started cranking their friends on the plane crash thing. 

I do like to have fun and I often include my students in my jokes, but sometimes they don’t get them. And that’s fine. They are young and inexperienced. The kids are funny in their own right and they often make me laugh. For me, that’s one of my favorite parts of being a teacher - laughing with my students (and, occasionally, at them).

This is not how To Kill a Mockingbird ends.