It's been a wonderfully busy year.
In the fall I was rolling around the house like a marble in an empty shoe box.
I investigated becoming an apprentice electrician. I really liked the people I met, but decided that I wanted the next level up. Electricians bring the power to the machines. It's the machines that I want to work with. So I went to the local community college. They have an absolutely fabulous Integrated Industrial Technology associates degree, with lab benches that made my mouth water.
Except they hardly ever offer the classes in the 15 class cycle, because they can't get minimum class sizes. I stood with the Recruiter guy, on a walkway overlooking the machining classrooms. 20 students were working diligently. "Well," I said, "I guess you have enough students to run those classes."
He said,"Yes, and no. We have capacity to train a hundred each quarter. Companies are constantly calling us, looking for machinists. We can't get the kids." I asked why, and he said, 'Because no one wants to do the work required to pass the algebra class. It's the math. They're not 'getting it' in highschool, and don't want to work for it as young adults."
Terrible shame. And it's probably the same with the industrial technology classes I want to take. Darn shame. I told him that I'd work with him to drum up interest, do publicity, give talks at high schools. He hasn't called me back.
So... I was pondering what to do about the integrated technology (Electronics, Motor Control, HVAC, Blue Print Reading, PLC Programming....) when I was called in to school for a day of substitute teaching. I happened to see Mrs. T in the copier room. (The teacher left me one short on a set of worksheets). "Mrs. T!" I smiled, "When's Science Olympaid starting?"
"Oh, it's been cancelled due to the budget ax."
Well. That was simply not acceptable. I went immediately to the principal and asked what needed to happen to keep it afloat. I wouldn't have started it alone, but I knew who to call. Mary Anne and Cindy immediately agreed to help.
We took two teams to the regional competition. The first team qualified for States. The second team came in 9th place, and were "Second place of the Second teams"... which is majorly wonderful. Together, our teams won medals in 18 of the 23 events! Stuart got medals in Microbiology, Rocks & Minerals, Bottle Rocket and Trebuchet. Roger lead Trebuchet, Bottle Rockets, Mousetrap powered vehicles. I lead Microbiology, Optics and co-lead Thermodynamics. As a family, we "medalled" in 7 of our 8 events. (and Mousetrap missed medal by 2). What fun.
We three started the ball rolling, then Mr. S, Mr. C, My Hubby, Mr. R, Mrs.C, Mr. B and Mrs. H joined to lead one to four of the 23 events. They made enormous contributions. Parents also worked one on one with their children. And the custodians and the school staff helped too. We only had one parent-snit, and it wasn't too bad.
I had to learn thermo, to help lead it . Thermo is fascinating, and is very philosopical, in a sense.
Nothing can be at absolute zero. Every material contains some amount of "internal" energy". Nothing is a Zero. Therefore, Thermo focuses on CHANGES. The trickiest part of leading an event was finding the line between educating, helping and "doing the work for them". You want the students to be successful, but you want them to be successful under their own steam. 6th, 7th and 8th graders are not adults. What looks "good" to them, doesn't always look "good" to adults. And for about 1/3 of them, you have to keep pulling them out from under tables or out of cupboards, and say, "Please get back to work." Discipline is not yet internalized in some of them, so you must provide some.
It's vital, when working with middle schoolers, (and frankly, anyone) that you focus on the CHANGES. A student who scored in the bottom 3 on the pre-test, might achieve an enormous CHANGE, and end up with a medal. And she did. A student might not achieve a medal, but throughout the 3 months, she might grow in soft skills, and "find a niche." She did. One kid is still glowing. He learned that he has a gift for science. He is literally standing straighter now, and is more alive than I've ever seen him.
I can document a CHANGE in every single one of the students.
What a blessing! As I said to two boys (as a teacher, not as an Olympian), "Look for the gold, the glitter, the joy, the pearl of great value in every person you encounter. Everyone has some glory, somewhere. Once you get good at mining gold -- everywhere you look, every where you go, you see shiny."
Much, much polishing, warming, work, effort, growth and achievement happened, and is still happening at Science Olympiad. We qualified for states. 20 of our 29 kids got medals at regionals.
And 8 of the students who didn't make it to the state competition are busy preparing a Science Olympaid assembly to present to next year's sixth and seventh grade students. This project sprung from S's plea: "Mrs. Jamieson, I know I didn't do well enough to go to states, but I have so much fun staying after on Wednesdays... Can I keep coming? What can I do if I still stay after?"
Imagine that. Science being a fun, "clubby" and cool place to hang out.
Shiny! |
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laureljamieson's journal
