Dear Martian,

I have a full-time job I don't get paid for. I have a full-time job I don't get paid for.

These are my thoughts when I leave the school building some days. I remind myself it's the rite of passage... every teacher has done it before. For some it's more work than others. And though it's a decent amount of work for me, I thoroughly enjoy it and genuinely look forward to the new experiences each day brings. And boy do they ever.

Part of being a good teacher is being up on the latest brain research. I'm serious. Though this is not terribly scientific or even academic, it's a little quirky trick I've learned. To spice up a lesson / get students involved / get students to like it, sometimes you have to add the slightest little component of ridiculousness to it. During the months I taught eighth grade, this looked like "If you answer the question right, you get a chance to shoot this ping pong ball into the recycling bin." AUTOMATICALLY: Students interested and dying to answer questions. But you can't do it too often, because then it's not fun anymore. Other times I would have students raise their elbow or cover their face instead of raising their hands. It gets their attention and brings back those who are zoning out. Plus they can't talk when their faces are covered.

I learned these few tricks from my mentor teacher up in the eighth grade, and yesterday I used one of my own. In math we've been learning different strategies of multiplication. (Note to those of us born before 2000: there is more than one way to multiply 2 digit numbers x 2 digit numbers. The way we learned is called Compact and the other methods are Lattice and All-Partials. Click the words to see them.) Anyway the students need to know all three, but usually I let them choose which is their favorite to use when we multiply. In order to assess their understanding of at least one method, I wanted them to explain it in writing. But that's boring, I mean who wants to write about math. Nobody. So I added an element of ridiculousness to it. 

  "Boys and girls, your homework is to write a letter to a Martian, teaching them how to multiply. Because Martians might not know how to multiply and you have a favorite strategy! Use steps and demonstrations and you can draw a diagram to explain it. Just make sure you explain it well enough for a Martian to learn from it."

 

 "Ummm Ms. Foster, can we write to something else that can't multiply?"

"Like what?"

"An elephant."

"Sure."

"How about a rock? A dinosaur?!?!"

"Yes. As long as you explain it thoroughly."

And so, that's what they did. All those kids who never turn in their homework, they did this assignment. Because fifth graders are ridiculous and so am I.  They wrote explanations to all sorts of animate and inanimate objects. Like a pogo stick or a rock. Also, Albert Einstein. It's a shame... I was really hoping for a letter to a zombie.