Teacher Connections Lead to Academic Connections

Today, this science teacher spent some time in an English class analyzing a historical speech.  How did this happen?  Facebook and openness.  Let me explain.

I added a unit on human space exploration to my physical science class twenty years ago.  If you want to know why, see this post.  During this unit, we spend a day on the three fatal accidents of NASA (Apollo I, Challenger, and Columbia).  This is a difficult day for me, as I watch the CNN footage of the Challenger explosion in every class.  I also show Reagan's beautiful speech, which made my fourth-grade self feel so much better the night of the explosion.  It's hard to explain, but it felt like my grandpa was telling me everything would be okay.  As I've grown older, I've been able to appreciate the speech itself, from the compassionate writing of Peggy Noonan to the poem quoted at the end.  Today, I've grown in appreciation for that speech even more, sitting in two AP Language classes.

I know you still want to know how Facebook came into this.  On the day I showed this speech to my 8th grade, I posted a link to it on Facebook and Twitter as well.  I wanted to share the nice part of my day and remind people what the President of my childhood sounded like.  Among the comments was one from our English department chair, telling me that she teaches this speech in her class.  I replied that I would love to be part of that discussion sometime.  She emailed me the date and class periods.

One of the things I love about my school is that, "I'd love to sit in on that discussion" isn't a really weird request.  I love that there are invitations to come see awesome teaching or judge student presentations or just enjoy learning about something that the other teacher knows you are interested in.  Showing up in another teacher's class (especially one outside of your own subject area) illustrates to students that there are connections between the different types of material that they learn.  The science teacher and the English teacher may appreciate the same speech for different reasons, but they both appreciate it.

The openness of our teachers with each other allows deeper academic connections to be made in the minds of students that might not happen if we just closed our doors and taught in isolation.

Using the Olympics to Teach

When there were only three TV channels, there was a pretty safe bet that if you mentioned something from last night's television line up, most people would have seen it.  Because of the number of choices for viewing on television and the internet, this is no longer the case.  Everyone once in a while, however, there is something that draws a large crowd.  The wise teacher should take advantage of that and plan for it.  The Olympics is one of those.

While no one event drew the majority of my students' eyes, the Winter Olympics as a whole certainly did.  Some students love figure skating.  Others are fascinated by snowboarding.  The biathlon, which most didn't know existed until last week, has captured the attention of many (because it is weird and different).  They may like to mock curling, but a lot of them watch it anyway.  

For a science teacher, the connection to the curriculum is pretty low hanging fruit.  My 8th grade had just finished the chapter on Motion, Forces, and Newton's Laws when the Olympics began.  The chapter that began two days into the games was on Momentum and Energy.  I would have to be crazy not to reference as many events as possible, especially since the Winter Olympics is basically 85 kinds of sliding.  For two weeks, there was primetime coverage of a momentum-based physics lab.  NBC even has a video series called NBC Learn, in which they have short documentaries on the science of each sport.  My kids liked the one on SlopeStyle.

Even if it hadn't been so perfectly timed to the chapter I was on, I would have used it in some way.  My physics students finished Mechanics last semester, and we had begun talking about waves and sound.  I still took the first five minutes each day to reference the physics of the games.  I put up photos of a couple of events each day, trying to choose ones that were as different as possible (luge and curling on the same day, for example).  Above the photo, I listed 3-5 physics concepts (momentum, Newton's 3rd law, rotational momentum, etc.) that were heavily represented by that event.  As I write this, I am watching the closing ceremonies, and I have seen several examples of concepts that I plan to use in the chapter on Light and Color as they use light as a kind of paint on the floor.

If you aren't a science teacher, the applications may not be as obvious, but they are certainly there.  

- Foreign language teachers can find coverage of the games in just about any language just be going to YouTube.  

- Latin teachers, you probably can't find Latin coverage, but you can obviously address the classical history of the games.  

- History teachers, this is a prime opportunity for teaching geography but also to address the culture of a country by discussing why some countries are always better at certain sports.  Do you teach about the Cold War?  I heard the Miracle on Ice mentioned at least half a dozen times this week even though it happened 38 years ago.  

- Math teachers, there are many opportunities to use real data.

- PE and Health teachers, duh.  Yours is as obvious as physics.

- English teachers, do you have your students write journals or blog?  The Olympics can provide a very enjoyable prompt.  My 8th graders' blogs were great this week because they were excited about getting to choose whichever Olympic sport they wanted.

You may not have time to construct entire lessons around the Olympics.  That's totally fine.  You will, however, reap the benefits of taking five minutes a day for two weeks to show how the subject you teach connects with something that has the attention of the world.