Captain's Log: When Student Becomes Teacher Becomes Student Again

Last week, I was 95% ready for the first class of wacky science. I had most of the cutouts, I had the questions for trivia, I had the dartboard, I had the tape and scissors and a plan.

That last 5% of unpreparedness toppled everything. So I went into the next class after that with 99% preparedness, having only given the kids the task of taping up the cutouts I made the night before to create the paper rockets. The only thing I didn't know was how to improve the rockets if they asked. The class went nearly like I'd hoped, except that there were kids who weren't interested in doing the trivia or the testing or anything else but launching paper rockets at each other. I think some of you heard the frustration in my tone of that captain's log, when I'd learned the hard way that you have to let kids figure out their own solutions the hard way.

This time I was accidentally 100% prepared. The experiment was chromatography with coffee filter, markers, cups, and green pipe cleaners if I wanted the kids to make paper flowers. I was familiar with the science because it touched up with plant science, genetics, and forensic science, each of which I had experience and familiarity with. To make sure I could give the best possible results, I used some of the coffee filters and markers and made some of these flowers myself. I experimented with colors, water exposure, length of time, and different-sized cups to find what worked and what would work better. By the end of Monday morning I had about ten different designs to show off for the class. I also made more posters that I would have kids write or draw down what they knew about the components of an experiment log, and a poster for their questions or comments about me. I had everything in a bag, ready to go. I just had to get myself ready to leave the house.

And then I found out - entirely accidentally - that Monday was Memorial Day, so there was no class.

This just meant I could prepare even more. I could write up a script, test some more hypotheses I had, tighten up things. I did, and that helped - especially with writing down what I could say to the kids about chromatography, thinking about the unique properties of water that allowed such a technique to exist. I'll have to write about it later. All I can say is that when my chemistry professor in college said water was his favorite molecule - in both that serious and joking tone - I can completely understand.

So Tuesday afternoon, I get to the class and set everything up. I bring my best chromatography flowers to give the class a preview of what we'd do and advertise my class to the other kids. The class was pretty familiar with the stuff already, which I was glad about because it meant there would be less questions on the mechanics.

I also was trying out the techniques I observed other teachers practicing to enforce manners with the kids, and I was being relatively successful there. But some of the kids quickly became bored of this project. They tried to chat, to read, to fool around while I was explaining how chromatography is used in different scientific fields, and what it does for forensic science. The kids had their art time, and it was nice seeing how they expressed themselves, though I had to remind several kids that a little water goes a long way. I even brought my own water bottle so that I could pour water into their cups, making sure they didn't have too much water in theirs that their art would be ruined. I got to take pictures of the artwork for my boss, which was great.

Then I had to instruct the kids to write or draw something on each of the posters around the classroom that I'd taped up. Once again, herding cats.

The bored students really didn't want to do this, and I told them that I needed to test them, that I was trying to challenge them, that I needed to see what they knew. Nothing could get them to make an effort. While the other kids were writing down stuff and discussing what to write, I sat down in front of this one kid who was particularly extremely bored and asked them what I could do to make this more exciting. What could I do to ensure his fun, participation, and knowledge. And I let him think on it, because of course you wouldn't expect a kid to answer right away.

I read the comments and questions on the poster dedicated to me, and it was...interesting, to say the least. As the adult in the room, I could see how they saw me. They asked me how old I was, what my IQ and EQ was, who were my parents, where was I born, how tall was I, and then why was I so strict?

I answered that last question by explaining that trying to be a teacher by myself was like herding cats, and I'm trying to minimize chaos and maximize fun and learning, and I could only do that if they listened to me. That if they worked with me, I didn't have to sound like a drill instructor. I was trying to emulate some of my favorite teachers, who were firm but still fun, who tried to teach but could still joke around.

I remember, one of these teachers were so bad at one subject that there was literally a group of students trying to prevent her from teaching that subject again. She was a great people person, but a terrible chemistry teacher. She then became the forensics teacher, and that became one of my favorite classes because her teaching and people person skills. Firm but not unfun, answering with snark but not mean-spiritedly, and trying to solve our problems fairly and without exhaustion.

I owe some of my teachers some alcohol.

Then I asked the extremely bored kid once more what I could do to get him to participate. To make this fun and educational. One thing he said was to make it more challenging. Okay, more advanced things, fair enough. But how about the education? How should I know what to say to them that they didn't already know?

The answer was so obvious but the kid really cleared it up: give them quizzes before the project. See what they knew beforehand.

I asked the class whether they'd do those quizzes if I did that, and they agreed to. I asked the kid, and they agreed to as well. So I'll be doing quizzes before the projects, and ask them to explain what was going on.

One of the kids also requested more chemistry-related projects, while another kid requested more engineering-related experiments. So I'll be figuring out what, from the rest of the curriculum I have to teach them, best fits next week's class time.

I had a list in my notes app of what to improve, which I showed the kids. I wanted them to know I was serious, that I was trying, and that I wanted to work with them to improve. Then I had them clean the classroom, and with their artwork in hand, march out the door.

Really, this week it was more me learning how to best work with them instead of them learning chromatography from me. They already knew how to make the artwork for the most part. But how was I supposed to test them to see what they knew? How was I supposed to enforce this testing, given I was the teacher?

It was these questions that wracked my head last week, and my given solutions that make me enthusiastic for the next class. I hope that I can continue wacky science, because I know how much differently I would have done things with this knowledge in hand now.