Shadow Dancing

Some random thoughts in the days after Monday’s solar eclipse.

It wasn’t long ago that I didn’t even know that an eclipse was coming this year. My son who goes to college in a town that was in the totality path told me. As it got closer, I found myself getting more excited. Even though we weren’t in the official totality path, I was excited that my school was recognizing this big event for what it was:  A Big Event! Our school ordered glasses for all students, staff and any visitors that might be in the building that day. We taught lessons about the eclipse in the days leading up to it.

I also ordered glasses for my family and was thrilled that my younger son drove down to my older son’s apartment at college and that they would experience the eclipse’s totality together.

The weekend before, I realized that many of the songs in my head somehow were falling into the theme of the eclipse and the #eclipsesongs hashtag was born.  Every few hours, I posted videos of songs whose titles somehow fit the theme. I even started getting reactions and a few joined in suggesting others. I put the list on a whiteboard in my classes and asked students to add songs to the list, which was fun to see. I think a new activity may have been born in my classroom: themed playlists from time to time to see what they might add to them.

The day of the eclipse, I played “Total Eclipse of the Heart” for all my classes. We watched Walter Cronkite’s CBS News report from 1979, turned on NASA’s live stream from Oregon and generally felt the excitement build until it was time to distribute glasses and go outside. Our school’s main hallway has a giant skylight.  During that last 20 minutes before we all went outside, you could see students and staff coming out of classrooms with their eclipse glasses to look up and see what was happening with the sun from inside.

On the field outside our school, the atmosphere was joyful. Some kids ran around playing tag...many others sat or stood in clusters wearing their glasses and looking up at the sky. Some tried doing the cereal box viewer thing or the paper viewer thing or the colander viewer thing. Many visitors came and it made me happy when my husband came too.

It didn’t get as dark as we’d hoped. I know for some, it was anti-climatic, but for me, I know that while it wasn’t 100%, so many cool things happened...we slowed down for an hour and observed. We listened and heard the crickets chirp during the day. It cooled off a little bit. We were able to pick out Jupiter shining in a not quite darkened sky. We saw amazingly beautiful sun crescent shadows on the ground as we went inside to get ready for dismissal.

When I went out for carpool, I took my glasses and kept putting them on to look and see the progress the moon was making as it headed off on the other side. And I realized at that moment that I was sad that it was ending. I couldn’t put my finger on why, though. Was it the same kind of sadness that comes after any event that you’ve been looking forward to is over?

And I finally decided that what had driven my excitement for this eclipse was the feeling that for a few moments this past weekend, we were all on the same team.  From coast to coast, we all looked forward to this solar eclipse. We weren’t talking about awful stuff going on in the world. It covered up the awful hurt I’d felt from the horrible things chanted in Charlottesville. For a few moments, we all slowed down and all eyes were (hopefully protected) looking skyward. And when it was over, there was that realization that there’s more of the same and more ugliness coming. And wouldn’t it be great if, for just a few minutes, we could grab these good feelings and find that place where we were all on the same team more often?

That’s what I want. For people to speak to each other, not at them. Listen to each other. And hear them. And see if we can find a place where we can look out for each other and remember that we are able to be on the same team and feel that feeling we felt as our protected eyes looked skyward as the moon’s shadow danced across the sun.

One more thought. Next time? In 2024? I’m driving to Totality!

Back to School

This past week, I took a class at UNC-Chapel Hill as part of the NC Scholastic Media Association's Teaching Fellows program. Each summer the NCSMA offers a graduate level class to media/journalism teachers and covers the cost of it. It was a great opportunity and this was my second time taking part in this program. The focus of the course was teaching design (graphic design) to high school students and was a semester's worth of content taught in a week.

I went into the course with limited knowledge on the topic and little to no experience using the apps we were using in the class. There were six students in our class; our teacher was a renowned professor, quite accomplished in his field.  As the week wore on, I noticed many subtle and not so subtle ways that this class, even though it was just one week, mimicked "real life" classrooms, or at least the experience that students have in school.

What follows are some random thoughts and takeaways I had during this week:

Even though there were just six of us in the class, we sort of had the same "cast of characters" you'd find in classrooms anywhere. We had the high flyer who got it right away and took work to the next level. Some plugged away at their work, quietly minding their own business. Others would speak out as they worked through figuring out what needed to be done. Some would show their frustration out loud. Others would not.

Just like in real life, relationships drive the dynamics of the classroom. As we got to know each other better, we were more helpful and solicitous of each other, and the time our teacher took on the first day to get to know each of us and learn about "where we were coming from" helped set the tone for the course and week, as well. Developing these relationships throughout the week made us feel more comfortable with the critiquing process we worked through on the last two days of the class.

Learning can be hard! And messy.  And comes in starts and spurts. Parts of this class were difficult for me, and as I worked through the frustration of not "getting it" the first time (or even the second time), I felt humbled and developed a much greater understanding for what students might go through at school.  It was almost like my brain went through a virtual "rolodex" of thoughts during the harder parts: "Wow, this is cool." "Oh, I'm not good at this." "Why can't I get it?" "What's wrong with me?" "I'm disappointed that it wasn't easier; I thought it would be." "Ohhhh, now I get it....that makes more sense." "Wow, look what I created!" "I bet I can do this with more practice."

Designing projects. Well, it can be intimidating, exciting and difficult...all at the same time. When our teacher handed out project instructions, I'd notice some of my classmates coming up with ideas fairly quickly, but I would have a hard time even getting started and maybe feel a bit of anxiety as I thought, "I can't think of anything creative to do." I know students sometimes feel like this, too. When we were given our last project, I had a list of ideas, finally decided on a topic, went through steps of the design thinking process, and began developing a vision for it/sketching iterations. But after getting started and plugging away for a couple of hours, I realized that my plan wasn't fully developed and I felt stuck, so had to go back and regroup.

Not only do I see this sort of thing happen with my students, I'm pretty sure I caution against getting started before having a well developed plan, and yet, I was so excited to get to work, I did just that! I learned many things about going through the process of really developing a project from scratch and I think the way I teach this process to students is going to look much different when we go back to school next month.

I love getting into a working state of flow. This isn't a new for me, but I was really aware of it during this class, when we would have a good chunk of dedicated work time. I'd have an ear bud in, music playing and really focus on my work. I want my students to experience that more and know what it feels like to get to a place where you're so into what you're doing you almost lose awareness of what else is going on around you.

Grading vs Feedback. When I got my first grade, which was just okay, I was disappointed. I wondered it it was worth it. When I got my second grade, which was a bit better than the first and accompanied by a good amount of constructive feedback, I felt better.  Learning how to give quality feedback is so much more important that just a number grade. It's what will actually help students learn, improve and grow. Giving better feedback was one of my stated goals at the end of last school year for this coming school year and I was happy to experience quality feedback in action, particularly as we presented our final projects,  to get better ideas of what I want it to look like in my class.

I really learned a ton this week in this class. Content wise, well, when I look at my final project vs. the first day, it kind of stuns me. And I'm looking forward to working at getting much better at this and introducing these concepts to my students. But I learned much more than that. I was talking to my classmates about much of what I've written here and one said how valuable he thinks the experience of taking an actual class like this is, where you are given real assignments to complete and I completely agree. Experiencing the highs and lows of being a student, even if just for a week, can only make me be a better, more empathetic teacher and even though I'm kind of feeling a bit of the "mid July blues" because summer is practically over, I am also almost ready to start looking forward and getting excited for the possibilities that this coming school year holds.