Underestimating is usually never good. From trying to get a loan to gambling, underestimating can leave you in hot water. Often time we even underestimate people then act surprised or impressed when they preform to their ability.

Today I have to admit I have underestimated and now I’m kicking myself for it. You see this  year has been a discipline/classroom management nightmare. I spend more time dealing with problems in that area than ever before. I also have a record number of students per class. Those two issues added together can be a huge problem. Also add in the fact that I have my largest number of IEPs, 504s, and boys (yes that is a factor when you have  over 22 boys in a class of 31, there is a lot of energy being expelled) ever. I also have a record number of failures from kids refusing to do work. So as you can see this year has really challenged me and my teaching (that is a teacher’s nice way of saying it has been pretty bad).

With a year like this I have been leery of trying “out of the box” type stuff.  We have done some group work and some were successful and others not so much. But anything too advanced like PBL type lessons I have shied away from. Until this week. The thing is, I was actually pretty scared about it. Then I panicked even more when I realize this would be during a school “walk-thru.” I even tweeted out my fear:

I went for it anyway. Decided not to take the easy way out. I made sure I gave specific background information, instructions, and my expectations.

Day 1 – excellent. Only 2 groups out of 36 groups of students I had to really push to get busy. Kids were “bottoms up” on the table which I always say is a great measure to how hard they are working and collaborating. Groups did not argue. The best part – they came up with some amazing stuff!!

Day 2 – Same things. Only 2 groups did not finish (yes same 2 as yesterday). My 1st three classes as well as my last class had 100% of students actively engaged.  100%. Now this is a group of kids I have had problems getting to give me anything. 100% were working. Today their finished products were outstanding and even better than yesterday’s work. I had kids asking me about engineering or what kind of degrees would they need to do __. Such great stuff!

So I underestimated my kids. I should have never done that. We should never think the worst of students. Years like this year make it hard not to fall into that, but I feel kinda like a jerk for falling for it. I should have never thought that students could not do something on their grade level. Please don’t make the mistake I did. Take the leap and just try something out of the norm. It may be frustrating or it may be a pleasant surprise.

The word “trend” is pretty “trendy” right now. Used to be trends only happened in the fashion world – and now we look back at those trends and cringe. (Did I really wear flannel to middle school? Help us all if that ever comes back.) But now, thanks to social media, the word “trend” is used quite often. We usually use it to see what people are “talking” about. And you see the more things trend, the more we talk about them. Vicious cycle, I know. Some trends are pointless – like that Justin B is always trending somewhere in this world. Some trends are political – I am pretty sure the debate last night was trending, I wouldn’t know I was too busy watching the Yankees lose, yay! But some trends are inspiring. Some trends are showing us that there is hope in humanity and in the future of our world.

Lately a lot of these trends had focused one something near and dear to me – SCIENCE! Yeah, I am a science teacher and a self-proclaimed nerd, but most people in the US or around the world are neither of those things. Yet thanks to social media science is trending often, and it is trending BIG time.

I started thinking about this last week while teaching my students about the Apollo space program. We were discussing how almost every person in the US (and many parts of the world) stopped what they were doing to watch Neil Armstrong take first steps on the moon. One of my students asked me “how did they know he was going to do that, they didn’t have internet?” I answered his question, but really that stuck with me. I get a lot of my information from Twitter and Facebook. Also, when something is happening that is important, I pull up Twitter and follow along, and even comment. We have become dependent on social media to bring us current events as they happen.

But where does science come into all of this, many of our current events are science based. Think about last Sunday, what were you talking about on Twitter and Facebook? Other than sports, probably Felix Baumgartner’s jump. On August 4, 2012, you may not recognize that day, but if you were on twitter you were tweeting about @MarsCuriosity landing on Mars. It is a safe bet that if it was not for social media Times Square would not have had over 1000 watching the landing after midnight.

When looking for info for this post, I came across this article on Felix Baumgartner’s jump. 7.3 million viewers were watching on youtube, his picture got over 200,000 likes on Facebook within 40 minutes, he had more tweets than Justin B or NFL during that time. All social media, all science.

NASA has done an excellent job tapping into this medium. They have NASA Social or #NASAsocial (formerally #NASAtweetup) where people from all over the world from all walks of life come and tweet events they are having. I attended the Mars Curiosity landing and it was cool to see that all 25 attendees had different professions and tweeted about different genres. So the people following us saw our tweets and  passed them on. If we were all teachers or scientist the tweets would have gone into the same ol’ echo chamber. They also have twitter accounts for astronauts and their “space craft” like @MarsCuriosity and @NASAvoyager.

Lastly, so often #STEM has been tweeting lately. Perfect. So while as educators we stress about whether or not our kids are becoming problem solvers and how testing is killing their creativity, we can rejoice that social media has our backs. I cannot wait to see what awesome science adventure will be trending!

As humans we need encouragement and friendship. We need time to “chat,” time to build relationships. We need it from our family we spend most of our lives with. We need it from our friends we spend time with when we can get schedules lined up (and that’s not as often as we would like). It is 2012, so it is safe to say we need it from our community within our social media world. But often we forget we need it from people we spend most of days with – our coworkers.

Had a panic last week. The kids were wild at lunch. They are wild all day but in a lunchroom with 296 kids (& only 293 seats) it can feel more crazy if you aren’t used to them. So the AP announced that if they did not calm down the teachers would be sitting at the table with the kids. Panic, I tell you. It’s not because I don’t like the kids (though that class is a slight nightmare) but it was losing that 15 minutes of conversation with coworkers.

You see my school is a new school. We split from a 6-12 to a 6-8 school 3 years ago. Before the split we had Friday lunch. We all had the same off period and during that time we all ate take out from local restaurants. It was nice to hang out and laugh and sometimes even complain. It made us closer as a group. Since we have moved to new school, our lunch schedules have never completely matched up and we have had off periods by ‘team.’ Not only was the camaraderie gone but it had almost felt like it was our team vs their team. This year we all have lunch at the same time. So for this 15 minutes we have that time to laugh at the day (you know bc if we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane). Hey we all need that moment to quote “Bad Teacher” (don’t judge it gets us through the day – teachers report to your quadrants).

Principals, please remember this. You need to cut out time for your teachers to spend together. Maybe a duty free lunch once a week or twice a month. I know of an amazing principal who has retreats for his staff to take a day and bond. Most businesses have coworker retreats but we don’t take the time as teachers, that is wrong. And I don’t just mean a time we can all bring food but then eat it back in the lunch room, but time without kids. The bond is needed. It is so important. Your teachers are adults, they need time with adults. Most leave school and go straight home to more kids. I promise, this eventually leads to insanity. I feel it nipping at my heels often. You don’t teachers having breakdowns do you? The state of Alabama has already taken away most PD & teacher work days with the new tourism law, so the bonding that takes place during lunches and breaks on those days is already gone. We must find time to replace them.

Better yet, not only give them this time but join them sometimes. You might find out how human they really are, and they may do the same.

I’m not knocking my administration, they probably have never even thought about this & how it is effecting us. But I know I have admins that read this blog. Those who do, just think of a way to help your employees. Also, teachers who get that time and aren’t taking advantage of it, please do. It will help you in the long run.

Have you ever had a lesson that was awesome and you couldn’t wait to share it with your coworkers or to blog about it? Well here is your chance to WIN as you share your awesomeness!  Adobe Education Exchange is having an Adobe Educator’s Choice Awards. There are 3 categories, Primary and Secondary, Higher Education, and Creative Suite 6. The prizes are pretty cool as well, a MBP as well as Creative Cloud subscriptions.

Visit the Adobe Educator’s Choice Awards website to enter! Entries must be received by October 5! Good luck!