My lousy blogging habit…
If I ever had an audience for this blog, I’m sure they’re long gone by now. I haven’t posted in such a long time. I really want to develop a blogging habit, but I just don’t ever make the time to do so. I have too many other things going on.
Anyway, I wanted to post because something neat happened today.
I’ve begun a unit on Ender’s Game with my 9th graders. It’s a fun unit, filled with good conversation about interesting concepts. One thing that is difficult is that while it’s easy to find things to talk about, it’s sometimes hard to find things to actually teach from the book. But that’s a discussion for another time.
Today, though, the kids had just read Chapters 1-3, where Ender decides to leave behind his family and go to battle school. A six-year-old boy leaves home to set out on an adventure. Card writes:
There was nothing to pack. No belongings to take. “The school provides everything you need, from uniforms to school supplies. And as for toys—there’s only one game.”
I read that bit to the class and talk about how we all carry stuff with us. Our possessions show something about ourselves. I then go into the lesson I read about one time for Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” dumping the personal belongings of my briefcase and pockets onto my desk, talking about each one and share a short bit of writing with them about it.
Of course I then have them do the same thing–make a list of what it is they carry with them and then write about how the “stuff” they carry often reveals something about the internal “stuff” they carry inside. It’s a neat lesson and I get some awfully good writing from them.
After the lesson, I wrap up class, and talk again about Ender. He’s leaving his home with no “stuff.” Nothing personal. No clothes, toys, not even a stuffed animal to cuddle when he’s scared. And I ask the students to think about the internal “stuff” he brings with him. And that’s a neat conversation.
It was a great day and a great lesson, but here’s the really neat part. As the kids are packing up to go, one of them says something like, “Mr. Van Nest how come all the things in your class always come together like that?”
I’m caught a bit by surprise by this statement and tell him that I work hard to plan lessons like that so that things come together nicely, but another adds, “Yeah, but it’s like everything just flows together, one thing to the next. Like even if you think about the whole year, everything just flows. Not all teachers do that.”
A couple other students agreed, and I’m touched that they noticed. I’m thrilled that they’re thinking on a level that they see the connections throughout the lesson and the year as a whole. What a nice day.
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February 6th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Awesome! That’s what it’s all for. I still read your blog.