Monday, May 8, 2017

Fidget Fads

Fads come and go at a faster pace than they used to.  Social media and youtube have increased the rate of communication about everything, including the latest greatest thing since the pet rock (just in case your generation thinks your fads weren't ridiculous).  Social media and youtube have also given parents and teachers an increased opportunity to fight about the new gadgets, peer pressuring and bullying each other about whether or not the new thing is something their child REALLY needs or the downfall of education as we know it.

Take a deep breath.  Remind yourself that you are a grown up.  Let's have some perspective.

First, fads are not new.  I mentioned pet rocks above, but it goes back farther than that.  For fun, go to this site or this one and have some nostalgia.  We have an astounding lack of memory about the obsessions we had as kids.  That doesn't mean we should mindlessly accept all our students' obsessions, but perhaps it will help you empathize with them.  By definition, they come and go.  Remember rainbow looms and the distraction they were in the classroom?  Now, they aren't there.  Try to remember that.  This year alone, I have seen the rise and fall of bottle flipping, Rubic's cubes, and slime.  Spinners are just the latest one, hardly the worst.



Second, every new fad is a distraction in the classroom.  If a student wants to be distracted, they will be.  We must stop blaming the object as though they wouldn't be distracted if "fill in the blank" didn't exist.  When I was a kid, note passing was a big deal.  Absolutely no one blamed the pencil.  I have watched students read their pencil or stare at their own hands in order to be distracted.  (That student then raised his hand to ask me questions about his fingerprints.)  If you are at your wit's end with spinners, it is because you haven't created parameters for their use.  Tell kids they can have them the first five minutes or the last five minutes.  Tell them they can use them while doing independent work but not while you are lecturing (or vice versa - It really doesn't matter what your boundaries are as long they know you have some and will stick to them).  I say yes until there is a reason to say no, so slime was allowed in my classroom until the day I had to scrape it out of the carpet.  My students learned that the proper use of something yields positive consequences while the improper use of it yields negative ones.  Be the teacher, not the curmudgeon.

Third, every new fad brings an opportunity for engagement and learning.  Personally, I love the spinners.  I teach physics, and there's not much better way to get a kid excited about rotational inertia and the friction-lowering power of ball bearings than these little guys.  They don't make as much noise as the bottles and Rubic's cubes, so I let them experiment with them and ask questions.  I saw a blog post yesterday that bemoaned the fact that if you get one spinning fast enough it will lift off your finger.  I say that was a teachable moment about aerodynamics.  Someone in another article was complaining that her students were trying to spin them on their nose.  There's a teachable moment about the center of gravity and balance that was lost in that classroom.    You may not teach science, but what if you created a writing prompt for English or created a math problem around rotation rate?  The kids are showing us what will engage them, so take advantage of it.

Finally, let's get real about the word "need."  I have read a thousand social media comments from parents who claim their child needs one of these.  You can't need something that was invented yesterday.  As human beings, our physical needs are nutrients, water, oxygen, and the ability to expel waste.  Recent brain research is showing what teachers have known for decades.  Some kids benefit from movement and sensory input during their learning.  Teachers have kept things in their rooms for students to use for as long as I can remember because it helps.  That's not the same thing as a need.  Again, I say take a breath.  Your child will not have their graduation delayed if their teacher makes them put away their spinner for half an hour so that she can concentrate while she is teaching.

Everybody say it with me, "I'm a grown-up."  Now, go be one.



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