Ironing Out the Details

I have just finished ironing a stiff, white, button-down shirt tomorrow.  I hate to iron.  I'd rather do almost any other chore than iron.  I check labels before I purchase clothes to make sure they don't need an iron.  So why am I ironing on a Thursday night, when there is a perfectly good Spirit Day (read "jeans and school T-shirt") tomorrow?

It has to do with the details in making a lesson really stick for kids.  You have to embed the lessons in their memory- and not just for the short-term.  It has to be meaningful.  The best ways I know to do this is to relate it to real life, or to make it highly emotional.

Whenever possible, I make a lesson relate to the real world, preferably a kid's world, but I want to make a point that they are preparing for their future, too.  Emotional events could be traumatic, touching, or really fun.  While all have played a role in the classroom, the "really fun" seems the most appropriate for most occasions.

My current lessons are tying 5th grade science skills with actual locations and activities that are in the state of Texas.  We "visited" Dinosaur Valley in Glen Rose to learn how fossils form and what they can tell us about past environments, the Gulf Coast beaches to construct models of erosion and lighthouses with working circuits, and Palo Duro Canyon to view evidence of erosion in canyons.  Our "travels" have meant using props- rock samples, slide shows, burnt tree bark, lenses, and costumes.

Oh, the costumes!  I have worn a Victorian-era dress, military camo gear, a kimono, a CSI vest, and much more in the name of teaching.

The costumes brings me back to this evening.  This white collared shirt will be worn with black slacks (not jeans), a red bow tie, a white apron, and 50's style white garrison cap.  I will become a soda jerk at the oldest Dr Pepper bottling company in Dublin, Texas.  I will describe how the bottling plant and soda fountain work through a slide show picture tour from a recent real visit I made.  We'll then see how the complicated system is really a combination of several different simple machines which work together.  Then we'll talk about how the simple machines are at work around us- from doors and flag poles to bicycles and car engines.

It's pretty silly, I know.  However, dressing in costume gets the kids attention and makes them curious to learn.  Clever connections to the real world get them thinking some more and asking more questions.  They notice the details.  They know I care.  They remember the experience- and the connected learning- later on.  It becomes a part of them, embedded into their memory.

I will make some sacrifices- mostly of my dignity and an occasional encounter with the ironing board- but it is worth it to see the kids learning!