The Last Chapter

I have to admit that I wanted more from the last chapter of this book. I've read the book before, and I can't remember how I felt when I finished it the first time. Have you ever read something and it didn't effect you, but then you read it again and the message was different? What was bland was now amazing. That's happened to me several times. I often think about teaching as a means to a revolution. Am I getting to the kids, or am I just speaking letters condensed into words that hit the ears of students listening to another voice? A texting voice. A Top 40 voice. Maybe all this is hitting a deaf ear. Today I taught Rock Cycle to a group of 4th graders. I wonder what they will remember from the experience. Will they remember the terms, Esker, Igneous, Glacier, or Kame? Maybe the will remember the lyrics to Rock Cycle. Does it really matter anyway? Do they need to remember any of those terms. These kids were crazy. They were off the wall. At one point their student teacher asked me, "How long until the next activity, because the kids are just goofing off at this point?" This was a student teacher. Not their "real" teacher. I thought the same thing. We were in the pit looking for rocks, and after 10 minutes the kids lost interest. I'm not saying that the activity isn't worthwhile. It has it merits, but the timing is off. Sami wrapped things up, but then we still had several minutes to kill. I decided to take the kids on a short hike. We went exploring for wild things. One of the students found a woodchuck den, and I "tried" to lure it out. Of course I knew the woodchuck would not come out, but it was exciting. The kids were totally silent for the first time. They were engaged. No bells, or time told us what to do. We were in the moment. This is the revolution. We don't need a revolution on a bus. Rosa did this for us already. God bless her. We don't need to write a letter to a senator, or a president. We just need to take kids outdoors. We need to learn how to feel for the moment. We might miss the bell. We might not follow the rules. Some might get upset, but who cares? Feel the moment. Feel the moment.