Detours Ahead!

Sometimes to get to where your going you have to take a couple detours. The thing about detours is that they take extra time from our original route, but they are necessary. If you came to a road block and there was no detour route then you would be stuck until they finished the construction. This was an important lesson that I learned within my first week at Culler.

It seemed to be a regular day (as "regular" as a middle school teaching day can get). Bell rings. Take a seat. Do the warm up. Please don't talk. However, if you do, don't let the teacher see you. After experiencing what a Monday was like in our classroom, I was incredibly interested and, honestly, a little but nervous to see what shenanigans this Friday would bring. Go over the warm up activity. Take out your notes. Start lesson.

This is where the adventure of teaching took a turn. While learning about unit price I got to witness a new side of the classroom and of the teacher. It was obvious the class was not grasping the concept of what unit price was. Up to this point in our Friday class the eighth graders were unusually obedient and engaged. To alleviate their confusion our CT tried an example comparing a small jar of spaghetti sauce to a large jar of spaghetti sauce. This example led us on a string of tangents from spaghetti sauce to Spaghetti O's to favorite foods to different rhythms of clapping to whether or not our CT was dating someone. This winding path of discussion topics was driven by the students pointed and reaching questions. To say the least it was amusing to watch the students move from one topic to the other.

It was both a ten minute tangent to what they were supposed to be learning, however it was also a great help to them. While our CT, the majority of students and I were moved to tears because of our laughing, it was so great to see the personalities come alive in the class. It helped them "take a breath" from their confused minds trying to grasp a difficult concept. However, at the end of this detour the kids were more focused in their groups and willing to complete the group activities that were given to them. A possible reason for this could be due to the morale of the classroom.

As much as this was a long detour from the highway of learning, it was a beneficial detour in the grand scope of things. There are several ways to get to where you are going. Some are interstates of learning and some are back roads. However, more often than not the back roads are much more interesting.