Make a Memory

School, like a lot of long-term experiences, can become a monotonous series of similar days.  To some extent, that is good and necessary.  Routines are important to safety, security, and proper function.  If, when you went to work each day, you had zero idea of what to expect, your job would be difficult to master.  It might seem fun for a few days; but after a while, it would result in a lack of security.  Get ready for a big however.

HOWEVER, the days you remember from school are probably not the everyday ins and outs of grammar and math and foreign language.  They are the days where something different happened.  My most memorable experience of elementary school is the day we read the story of the Gingerbread man.  We went as a class to the school kitchen and made a giant Gingerbread man.  When we returned at the end of the baking time, he was gone.  We went from room to room, seeking out our gingerbread man.  We learned directions.  We learned to talk to older kids and their teachers.  We learned the joy of finding something lost (which was the point, if I remember correctly).  Each year after that, I would enjoy reliving the experience as small people came into my classroom in search of their lost gingerbread man.

My most memorable experience from high school came at the end of our reading of The Great Gatsby.  It was school tradition that when all of the English classes had finished Fitzgerald's masterpiece, there would be a party worthy of the time.  As students, we were assigned to committees (decorating our English classroom or the hallway, food, music, etc.), and our work on that committee comprised half of our grade.  We were required to dress in period costume (the other half of the grade) and were given extra credit for dressing as a character from the novel.  We could attend this party during our English period and our lunch time, but since party crashing is a frequent occurrence in the novel, we felt obliged to try it and didn't get into too much trouble if we did.  The school has stopped this tradition for a variety of reasons, and it makes me sad.  The memory of that day is still connected to my enjoyment of the novel.

It is important to help our students create memories of their school experiences.  At my school, the elementary campus really excels at this.  When the kindergarten learns about Antarctica, they come dressed as different types of penguins for a day.  They march around the building, squawking and having a great time.  If they remain at the school, they will experience it again each year, much as I did with the gingerbread man.  When fourth grade learns about planets, they come dressed on different days with some item that is meaningful about that planet.  One day, they wear sunglasses and surgical masks to represent Mercury and Venus.  When they learn about the civil war, they set up tents on the school lawn and come dressed as either union or confederate soldiers.  They spend the day eating as soldiers, learning to darn socks, and hearing from experts on the war.  Years later, I still hear them reference this experience, especially if it was particularly cold or raining their fourth-grade year.

By necessity, this looks a little different in middle and high school.  Because they travel from class to class, it would be logistically rather difficult to have an all day experience (although that can and does happen from time to time).  Rather, we tend to work our memorable experiences into projects.  The two physics teachers do climb to the top of the school building every year to throw egg drop projects down to the parking lot, and I like to think they will look back fondly on that experience.  Our math teachers give students all kinds of mathematical memories, like flying kites they make themselves.  Our foreign language departments take advantage of holidays specific to French and Spanish speaking countries.  The Latin club even marked Saturnalia just before Christmas break.  This week, my physics students are presenting projects that I call Free Choice Projects (I think I'll do a post on that project at some point because it is a great project).  They decide what the memorable experience will be.  I've had years in which students analyzed blood spatter by smashing balloons of colored corn syrup.  I had a student build a hovercraft, which we all enjoyed riding.  One of my groups this week is presenting the physics of swimming.  They asked if they could do a live demonstration rather than a video, so we will be heading to the area aquatic center for one class period.  As students gather around the pool, I believe they will create a better connection of memory to Newton's laws than they would if they were watching a video, not to mention they will think of more interesting questions, which the experts can address on the spot.

It isn't always possible to break from the day to day experience of class time.  When it is possible, make every effort to do it.  After all, we want them to learn the curriculum; but what we really want is for them to love learning.  It is that love that will make them want to learn as much as possible for the rest of their lives.

Do you have a favorite memory of school?  Feel free to comment.