Who is Mike Beardslee?
How big were the rats?
Granted, it is the end of MP1 and I have a ton of other
things to be doing but I felt the need to share these ideas. I hope these three or four dispersant
ideas help me make one cohesive suggestion for you and your classes.
Imagine : it was the Spring of ’95, I am a student-teacher
at a rural MS/HS on the Delaware and Maryland boarder. I believe the students had convinced me
that the science classes were legally in Maryland and the English rooms were in
Delaware. Truth be told, I was
student-teaching but thought my college basketball coaching career was going to
take off and a teaching career was secondary. After a few weeks on instruction, I started working on my
first test. Professors’ suggestion
about the proper way to construct a multiple choice question echoed in my
head. I need a 100% wrong answer
for some question. I looked around
my apartment on Salisbury University’s campus and used the perfect name: Mike
Beardslee.
Mike Beardslee was my then roommate. Years later, he was my best man and I
am blessed to have him as a still close friend. I love when I see his children play with mine.
Then something crazy happened – kids picked his name as a
correct answer. That tickled me to
no end. When I returned the test,
I told the students of the error and they howled! This joint moment of silliness gave me real insight. There is a lot to be said for a sense
of community in a classroom.
With out fail for the 12 years of my teaching career, Mike
Beardslee has appeared on every single one of my tests. He has been:
·
The Queen of Egypt
·
The person who shot Franz Ferdinand
·
The person shot by Gavrillo Princip
·
Movie Director that produced propaganda for
Hitler.
·
Father of Modern Psychology
·
Author of The Frontier Thesis.
·
Invented the idea of the invisible hand in the
market economy.
·
One student wrote an entire mid term essay on
Mike Beardslee – sadly it was an awesome piece of work on William Jennings
Bryan!
Since then, I have always found some point in the year to
let a class in on the joke. Mike
has even helped coach a summer camp with me and the kids were thrilled to meet
Beardslee.
Years later, kids ask me how he is doing!
It is a fun moment when kids become a part of the
legacy. I feel like I have always
been able to do this in a way to build community inside our class. Kids love the idea of a tradition or a
legacy. This sense of being a part
of something allows me to demand and expect more form them
The second example of this came from my immaturity. We were covering WWI and every teacher
at Pequannock suggested I use “Arming the Earth” hosted by Bill Moyers. This video was actually funded by a gas
station that is now defunct.!
During one key segment describing no man’s land, a WWI vet
describes the horrors he saw during the war. He said “and the rats, the rats were as big as dogs!” This moment caught me and I rewound it
100 times easy. The kids laughed,
I howled and then I rewound it again!
We shared a sincere moment.
I turned this immaturity into a teaching point. Every test on WWI started with the
question – “How big were the rats?”
Midterms even lead off with that question. I also then ended WWI test with an essay about the “real”
reason that I loved that quote.
The answers about the horrors of trench warfare validated my hopes.
This year as the last 10, I will tell the kids that they are
joining a very prestigious family.
The will join a secret society that knows – “How big were the rats?” Just last week a student I taught in
2003 posted this exact question on my facebook wall. 3 years ago, as
I was leaving a Starbucks – the barista yelled at me – “Campbell – how big were
the rats?”
These two mistakes or coincidents taught me an important lesson
about building a sense of building community in a classroom. Today, I use edmodo, greet kids at the
door, try to comment on their work but nothing has gone farther then Mike
Beardslee and the rats. I hope you
guys find your Beardslee or rats and keep building a community in your
room.
To be honest, I am more excited to see the “How big were the
rats?” responses then the feedback from other educators.
1 comment:
Brad--I can't agree more about building a community. The days I focus on that are amazing teaching & learning days for myself and the students. One thing I noticed when I forget the importance of the community and get down about all the other things I have to do as a teacher my class feels it. Thanks for the reminder to build the community through jokes, greetings, laughter, stories and so much more!
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