IDK

I often see “IDK” written as an answer to a question on a worksheet, homework paper or test. 

For those out of the texting world, “IDK” means “I don’t know.”

For me, it’s like nails on a chalkboard. It irritates and annoys me. 

IDK tells me this student is not interested or engaged. It tells me the student is putting forth little-to-no effort in their work. 

Think about it, the student who writes this didn’t even make the effort to write out the actual, complete words. Heaven forbid they turn on that magnificent living computer in their skull long enough to really think about the question and compose a meaningful answer.

If you’re being asked the question, there must be a reason. It’s not like we pull questions out of thin air in order to stump you. Perhaps we went over it in class. Maybe it’s in the reading you didn’t actually read, but instead skimmed for answers? 

If you have been in class, you must have some tiny scrap of information to start with…then, in light of that bit of data, maybe give it some concentrated thought, and come up with something…anything but IDK.

IDK tells me this student gave the question about a tenth of a second of thought and if the answer didn’t leap to the forefront of their thinking in that time, they gave up and moved on.

This level of effort is disappointing at best. It shows no perseverance, no mental toughness, no willingness to fight through challenges. And those attributes, more than anything else - more than knowledge, intelligence or education -  are the leading indicators for success. Success in school, at work, and in life, is all about overcoming challenges.

Today, the challenge may be a difficult question on your science homework but this is easy stuff compared to the problems that lie in wait down the road for you. Develop and grow your mental toughness and perseverance and you’ll be better equipped to meet and overcome those problems in the future.

The recipe for success is not IDK.

Mannequin Challenge

Just a little fun in Advisory this week...

When I Was In Middle School

When I was in middle school, things were different - a lot different.

First of all, we didn’t call it middle school - it was called junior high. Most junior highs housed grades 6, 7 and 8 but some did 7, 8 and 9. Mine was the former.

Technology wasn’t a word that we used. 

We didn’t have cell phones - not even flip phones; they hadn’t been invented yet. All our phones had wires and most hung on the wall.

We didn’t have computers - personal computers hadn’t been invented yet and the computers that did exist were so expensive only a large city or business could afford one - yes, just one. Oh, and they were about the size of a car.

We didn’t have iPads, tablets, Youtube, Facebook, Snapchat, or Pokemon Go.

We didn’t have video games - no Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo. 

We didn’t have iPods, MP3s, or CDs.

Here’s what we did have - we had Legos and Erector Sets and Hot Wheels and board games, and our imaginations.

We had wood and tools and jack knives.  We whittled. (Do you even know what that word means?)

We had yo-yos, jax, squirt guns, bikes, sling shots, frisbees, slinkys, silly putty, jump ropes and balls of all sorts.

We played outside: hide ’n seek, red rover, mother may I, hop scotch, four square, marco polo, tag, football, baseball, basketball, kickball, badminton, volleyball, tetherball, croquet, keep away, pickle, kick the can, and stick ball.

In school, we had film strips, records and movies - real movies that came on big, heavy reels of film. And we had books. We had books for every class and books to read for fun.

We had comic books, chapter books, coffee-table books and reference books.

We had a huge set of books called encyclopedias in every classroom. Encyclopedias contained all the world’s most important knowledge. It was like someone printed out the internet (which had not been invented yet either).

Think about how much the world has changed since I was in junior high and think about the world you are growing up in now.  

How much is it going to change by the time your children are in middle school? Probably a lot and it probably won’t even be called middle school then.

Do You Do Homework?

Most students do, but some simply don’t. It’s like some students have made it a personal policy not to do homework.

It’s about achievement.

I was recently updating my grade book and noticed several students who were in the very high B range but are missing homework assignments.  In my class, homework counts as 10% of the total grade. I have some students who are settling for a B when, if they just did the homework, they’d have a solid A. Why would you settle for a lower grade when a higher grade is so close?

It’s about respect.

You are expected to do your homework. Your parents, teachers and school leaders expect you to do your homework. Show them the respect they deserve by doing your part. I don’t even give much homework. In the whole of the first quarter, I have assigned exactly six pieces of homework that I collected for a grade. Six. That’s about one piece of homework per week. Is that too heavy a burden?  

It’s about ownership.

So many kids talk about how they want really good grades. They seem to be motivated by grades, and yet, some of them don’t do homework. I don’t assign work outside of school just because I want to torture you. There’s too much to teach in five 50-minute classes per week. You need to do some at home. Take ownership of your education. Take charge and give it one-hundred-percent.

It’s about responsibility.

We talk about our ROARs  - Respect, Ownership, Achievement, and Responsibility. Yet, I feel like a lot of students just say the things they know they are supposed to say. They are not taking the idea of Ownership or Achievement to heart. Take responsibility for your life - do what you’re expected to do. Part of growing up is making yourself do things you don’t want to do - like homework. Push yourself to achieve at your highest level. Be the best version of you, you can be. 

Trust me, if you can incorporate these ideas into your daily actions you will go far and be far happier going there.

Milkweed Bug Redemption

It would be fair to say my wife was not really happy when I brought home a plastic bag with some bugs in it, but now things have gotten out of hand. 

When I did my training on how to teach the 7th grade science curriculum one of the things we did was to make a sample habitat for milkweed bugs. Nothing like a hands-on activity to help you learn how to do something. 

My milkweed bug habitat is about two weeks ahead of the ones we have in the classroom. Let me tell you, my bugs have been quite busy and my plastic bag is full of milkweed bugs of all sizes. 

I probably have a hundred nymphs in various stages of development in my habitat. 

On Sunday, I walked into my office and lo and behold - a tiny milkweed bug was standing on my keyboard. 

He (or she) had escaped.

How’d he (or she) get out?

I carefully looked over the habitat and could find no openings beside the tiny airholes at the top - and he (or she) was too big to fit through one of those. 

I took my tiny escapee - I named him (or her) Andy (or Andi) after a character in a famous movie - and plopped him (or her) back into the habitat. 

But, that’s it for my milkweed bug experiment at home. I’ll be bringing it into school before the Andy (or Andi) tells all the other milkweed bugs how to get out of the joint. 

Mechanical Pencils - Ugh

Mechanical pencils are used to provide lines of constant width without sharpening in technical drawing. They were first developed in the 18th century. A professional-grade mechanical pencil is a beautiful and elegant writing instrument. 

The mechanical pencils kids bring into my room are of the disposable variety. They are so cheap and flimsy, I’m amazed they work at all, and they don’t seem to work for very long.

My dislike of mechanical pencils knows no bounds. I do not understand the attraction kids have with them.

From my perspective, all I see are problems. It seems like whenever I see a kid taking notes with their trusty mechanical pencil, they are breaking the lead, running out of lead, looking for lead, spilling the lead on the desk, watching the lead roll onto the floor, asking their friends if they can borrow some lead or asking me if I have extra lead.

For the record; No, I do not have lead for your mechanical pencil.

I have pencils - real, number 2, wooden pencils from the Ticonderoga Pencil Company. You may borrow a real pencil, but I do not have lead for you and never will.

Here’s a little inside teaching insight for you: If you leave a pencil behind in my room, I will sharpen it and add it to my loaner bin near the door. 

If you leave a mechanical pencil behind….I will throw it away. 

Physics for Bottle Flippers 101

“There have been school-wide loudspeaker announcements banning bottle flipping from our school,” posted one of my teacher friends on Facebook recently.

She was writing about the fad that is sweeping the nation. Forget high-tech, smartphone-addicting Pokemon Go, low-tech water bottle flipping is the new rage.

Apparently, it all started with Michael Senatore, a high school senior in Charlotte, North Carolina, who flipped a water bottle during a talent show. The video has gone viral and now, seemingly, every middle-schooler wants to do it. 

If you’re going to spend your time trying to land this stunt, you ought to understand the physics involved. Yes, I said physics.

Here are some of the terms you’re going to need to know:

• Angular momentum
• Mass
• Fluid dynamics
• Air resistance
• Inertia
• Gravity

Angular momentum is a lot like linear momentum, with which we’re all familiar. Picture this: Tom Brady throws a fast, tight spiral just over your head. As you reach up and grasp the ball, its momentum pulls your hands and arms in the direction the ball was traveling until it slows enough for you pull it in for a catch. That’s linear momentum. 

Angular momentum is the same thing but in a circle. When you flip the bottle you impart spin - that’s angular momentum. 

The spin causes the water to slosh around inside the bottle - this is where fluid dynamics comes into play. The bottle tries to transfer its angular momentum to the water but the water has a lot more mass then the plastic bottle and, because of inertia, the liquid doesn’t want to spin. Instead, because it's a fluid, it sloshes around, slowing the rotation. 

The trick is to get the angular momentum to zero when the bottle is vertical so gravity can do its thing and the bottle lands upright on a flat surface.

There’s a complex balance between angular momentum, fluid dynamics, air resistance, inertia and gravity.

There’s no reason you have to stop with a single rotation either. If you impart enough angular momentum, you should be able to do 720 degrees of rotation before landing your bottle. Of course, that makes the whole trick much more difficult.

Wouldn’t it make a great science project to build a machine that can flip a bottle perfectly every time? Hmmmmm, maybe we can tackle that challenge in the STEM Club…

Sources: The Boston Globe, Vox