It's kind of amazing how emotional the day was today. We have only known these kids for five weeks, but it was still really hard to know that after tomorrow, they will be out in the world on their own. I will likely never see them again after tomorrow.
Today, the kids presented their science fair projects, which we have been working on for the past two weeks straight. Every single group finished, and covered topics ranging from tornadoes and gravity to black holes and the asteroid belt. There were some really cool models (examples here and here) and it was great to see everyone get up and present in front of the entire program. Not going to lie, their presentation skills need some work, but you have to start somewhere!
The coolest part of the day came in between our 2nd and 3rd period presentations. Every day, at this time, we have a "Community Meeting" or CM for short. At CM, the site director stands in the middle and leads various "brain break" activities including games like Four Corners, Big Wind Blows or 123 Clap. Today, however, our site director (whose name is Corinthian) decided that the kids would participate in a special shout-out session. Kids normally give "shout-outs" at the end of each day, in which they shout out each other or the staff for exceptional behavior. However, because today was the last day in the classroom, Corinthian decided that the kids would do their shout outs at CM, and more importantly, all shout outs would be directed at their teachers from UTC. During shout outs, kids are not required to speak if they would not like, but today, about one of every three kids stood up and wanted to say something.
Today gave me the feeling that I pursue every day in education. Kids were throwing shout outs everywhere, and it was so cool to see them expressing how they really felt about all their teachers. It was at this CM that you could see who really made a difference. Some of the things the scholars were saying was truly unbelievable -- talking about how they will always remember a specific lesson that they did, such as a mock trial in their social studies class, for example, or how they will remember us when they are in college or successful in life. These statements were especially powerful considering the circumstances that many of them are placed in every day when they leave school, and the odds that are stacked against them simply because of the area they are growing up in. As the kids went around the circle, I got a pretty good amount of shout outs. I was not the most shouted out teacher (that belonged to the 7th/8th math teachers) but I definitely got a ton of love from the kids, and a lot of it was specific praise, recalling help I gave on projects during the year, sometimes going back to the first couple of weeks. It was so awesome to hear this and know that I truly left an impact on the kids. It's really hard to remember that you're doing this some (read: a lot) of days, but today reiterated the belief in my mind that what we're doing out here is really special.
Tomorrow is our "Olympics of the Mind," in which kids compete in games and show off what they have learned all summer. However, we have a little surprise for the kids at the beginning of the day tomorrow. I won't give too much away, but I will give a couple pieces of foreshadowing:
-this music video
-this picture
Will DEFINITELY be posting about it this weekend. Turn up!!!
BD
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