Transitions

I've done a lot of teaching through the years.  I've had poverty-stricken students and students who were dropped off at school in Rolls-Royces.   I've worked at lab schools, public schools,  a private school, homeschooled and have even had a classroom that was entirely outdoors.   The basics are the same.    The key is finding a way to engage students.  This may sound like curriculum development, but it is more than that.  It is about creating an environment of trust so that the students feel free to get on with learning.   I don't know that I yet have that part defined enough to put down in print, but, I do have plenty of ideas that have helped me to gain enough confidence to let my students be explorers in addition to learners, which seems to make a difference.  Luckily, these same tools translate well to being a wife and mother.   Who knew?

There are two things that have helped me meet the needs of my students and my family simultaneously. The best teaching tool I've found is to get my students outside.  It creates a connection with nature that seems to be getting lost in our present education system.  This nature connection also enables students to connect with me in a way that is different than in the classroom. When we do a nature study, we become more like fellow humans looking after the planet than a regular teacher-student relationship allows.

Students studying subnivean creatures (creatures that live under the snow)

The thing that has helped me reconcile the sometimes conflicting roles of wife/mother/full-time employee is completely unrelated to any pedagogy and falls into the category of practicality.   I do once-a-month cooking to make life at home a little easier.     Both of these ideas will form the basis for what is discussed on this blog, with the underlying theme being how to differentiate instruction/meet other people's needs without going crazy.

Let me just say, that to study nature, you don't need to be in the country or spend a lot of money.   A principal once told me that he hired me because when he questioned me during my interview about how I would manage to teach on a very limited school budget, I told him that I could make a week's worth of lessons out of a handful of dirt.   Okay, soil, but dirt sounds much more startling.   The point is, that the minute you step outside, you have endless lessons just waiting to be tapped.    Urban environment?  No problem.   Cobwebs, bugs, fungus...all those things and more occur pretty much everywhere.   Right now my students are participating in ProjectSquirrel, a citizen scientist effort based on recording very simple observations about the squirrels in our urban neighborhood.   w -http://www.projectsquirrel.org/ I've generated simple data logs in which the students record their observations each time we go out ( about two or three times a semester).    This simple study has taken on a life of it's own and students have undertaken to begin recording their findings and analyze the data of their own accord.   Nothing brings a smile to my face like a student I didn't think was fully engaged eagerly telling me about what they saw a squirrel doing  before school that day.


As for once-a-month cooking and how that has made transitions from work to home easier for me, I'll start by saying A) It isn't as hard as you might think (I can make 25 meals and clean it all up in about 5 or 6 hours) and B) It is SO worth the effort because it actually saves you hours of time that you would have spent preparing and cleaning up each night.

A batch of chicken manicotti ready for the freezer

Easy Chicken Manicotti

1

jar (25.5 oz) pasta sauce

3/4

cup water

1

teaspoon garlic salt

1 1/2

lb uncooked chicken breast tenders (not breaded)  Best if slightly frozen...still has some ice crystals in it, but not froze solid.

14

uncooked manicotti shells (8 oz)

2

cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 oz)

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix pasta sauce with water.
3. Spread 1/3 of the sauce/water mix unto the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Or, if you are freezing to use later, pour it into a freezer bag and seal.
4. Sprinkle the garlic salt on the chicken. (I just leave the chicken in the bag it came in when I do this part. )
5. Take one of the partially frozen chicken tenders and squish it into a tube of the uncooked manicotti.
6. Repeat until all of the manicotti shells are filled.
7. I place the chicken-filled shells back into the plastic container that the manicotti came in for storage.  I put the whole thing into a re-usable vacuum seal bag or wrap the trays in foil to freeze.  Or, if you are cooking it right away, place the stuffed manicotti into the layer of saucy water on the bottom of the baking dish.  Cover with the rest of the saucy water.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.  Sprinkle with mozzarella the last five minutes to melt the cheese.
To prepare if you froze this dish, just thaw in the fridge over night and proceed with step 7.