Photograph by Justin W. Moore (http://www.outdorphoto.com/)
A few weeks ago, I eagerly signed up to be a part of @NASATweetup. I honestly thought it was a long shot. Then, something happened: I got on the waiting list. Still. A Chance. But, a long shot. Friday afternoon as I sat in my classroom sipping water from my astronaut water bottle, wearing my space shuttle lanyard, I quickly checked my email and saw it: I was going to be a part of the NASA Tweetup for STS-134 on April 18-19, 2011. I am going to Florida to experience the launch, live, from Kennedy Space Center. Even as I type the words, I can’t believe it. I will be blogging about this experience here and how I am going to bring this back to my students. My hope is that I can share things in a way that will allow many teachers to bring the experience to their students. If one kid, in one classroom, somewhere, sees the launch and says, “I would love to be an engineer and design something like that when I grow up,” then this trip is totally worth it. It is in these types of experiences that dreams are born.
I have ALWAYS thought that if you are going to REALLY teach something to kids, you had better be willing to go ALL OUT. If you want kids to really understand something then you need to live it, breathe it, and share it with them…but most of all, let them OWN it. Why space? Some people think teaching “space” is knowing the names of the planets. But it is so much more than that. Space is about exploration. Engineering. Risk-Taking. Courage. Creativity. Innovation. Problem Solving. The Past. The Future. Learning. Pushing Forward. Dreaming. Setting Goals. Reaching Goals. Achieving. Handling Failure and Learning From It. Collaboration. Perseverance. Success.
So next time somebody hands you a unit on “Space” and it contains coloring sheets of the planets with short paragraphs about each one, tell them thank you and then when you get back to your classroom, use that paper to roll up and build rockets with. Once your students build and test their own rocket, you’ll see what I mean. You’ll see the risk-taking, problem solving, and creativity. You’ll see their eyes light up when their rocket flies. The light in their eyes? Those are dreams being born. Those dreams are what teaching is all about.
*Thank you Shannon for sharing your amazing photo of a child reaching for the stars. Taken by @bikegeek 🙂
