TUESDAY, APRIL 6TH, THE SPARK

 TUESDAY, APRIL 6TH, 2021 THE SPARK

This topic has been rolling in my brain for a couple of weeks - but I’m not sure I know what to write!!!  (I guess I need a “spark” of inspiration!!!!)

The “SPARK”.  I haven’t seen much of it in my substitute teaching.  I’ve seen too many dull eyes.  Are there any “alive” students in the K-12 system (or, have I just been seeing the wrong students)?  Maybe the “live” students are the ones at home (aka “remote”).  

When I had six days with the same classes (theater), I asked the students for their information - name, year in school (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior); their activities, interests, hobbies, and finally their plans after high school.  

I was surprised when quite a few of the senior students said they didn’t have any plans after high school.  Now, some had real plans.  One student was going to be a medical examiner.  One was planning on going to the Naval Academy.  One already was in the JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps).  A couple of athletes said they were planning on getting athletic scholarships.  

But, most were apathetic.  “I don't know what I want to do”.

******

I reflected back.  I knew in Eighth grade that I wanted to be a math teacher.  In thinking about this - I’m not sure why I “knew” that.  Yes, my mother was a teacher, my aunt Leah was a teacher (and married to a teacher), I really was naive.  Vocation choices seemed limited (at least in what we were taught).  I can’t really remember talking to the junior high or high school counselors.  The only guidance I had was the subtle (and mostly unspoken) message at home - that I was going to college.  But, what was my “spark”?  What was my motivation?  What “turned me on” to teaching and in particular, to math teaching?  

In High School Geometry, I really got turned on.  Lynn Schwandt was my teacher (and good teachers teach by example more than by words.  By my junior year, I was the highest student from my high school on the National Council of Teachers of Math (NCTM) annual math test - beating out my second (or third) cousin who was a very strong student.  (By the way, my high school grades were only so-so!!!  I guess the SPARK only worked in math.  Especially doing English assignments was about at the bottom of my list and I know I only did enough to get by. 

So, what turns a student on?  What gives them “the SPARK”?

(Is it a drink, so we can give it to all students? <smile>)

The following is my opinion (so, take it for what it is worth.)

I remember watching coaches over the years.  One coach I remember would yell and scream at his players.  (I had the feeling if he could have hit them, he would!!!).  “You idiot.  You missed the block!!!”  “You weren’t playing defense - so I had to take you out”.  

Another coach didn’t need many words - he had “THE LOOK”.  If he gave a player “THE LOOK”, the player would know he screwed up and immediately turn contrite “I’m sorry coach”!  A similar “LOOK” would be “I’m proud of you” - maybe it was a nod of the head with a grin on the coach's face.

Teaching is really coaching.  Sure, I’m not telling my students to run the “down-and-out” pass play, or draw X’s and O’s on a board - but I’m coaching them to be “all they can be”!!! 

To me, the first rule of coaching, and thus, the first rule of teaching is to know your students.  What motivates them?  What “turns them on” in the classroom.  Do you call them by name?  Do you know their names?  (As a substitute, I don’t know their names, but when I had the six days in the same classes, I did work on knowing their names.)

But, it is MORE than just knowing their names - it is KNOWING them.  Encouraging them.

My story is probably not unique as a junior high/high school student.  It was something to get through.  I can name maybe 15 to 20 high school friends by name.  

I heard somebody once suggest that humans should lock up their children between 7th grade and 10th grade.  They are going through puberty - and the mood swings can be worse than tornado season in Oklahoma.  Like letting hay dry in the field after cutting - it isn’t so good when it is wet-behind-the-ears and neither are teenage humans!!!

(Oops - that reminds me of an old religious joke.  Abraham took Isaac his son to make a sacrifice - how old was Isaac?  The reasoning goes Isaac was probably between 8 and 12. Under 8, he wouldn’t have understood the situation - and over 12 (that is - as a teenager), killing Isaac would have been justified!!!  (Okay - not a very good joke and not at all true))

But, I still believe it is possible for teenagers to catch a ‘spark’ - and find a passion for their future!!  

Tomorrow, more about “the spark”!!

LOVE WINS!!!

SHARE THE EXCITEMENT OF LIFE!!! (aka “The Spark”)

HUGS!!!

Karen