What do you do when you run out of things to say?
Today it is -7 and sunny. The sun rose at 3:17 this morning, and I did not get up to go for a run. The sun will set at 9:22 tonight. It will still be twilight at midnight. I only see a handful of stars anymore, and only if I happen to be up at midnight. I sleep longer but less well than I did a month ago.
I am forcing my science classes to watch An Inconvenient Truth. I don't know why I didn't watch it before. It is an excellent film. I have now seen most of it three times, since I have two sections of science. It's been interesting watching it from three perspectives: my science class is too cool for school, and they are missing a lot because of their iPods and digital cameras and gossipy social lives. But my biology (really ecology) students are totally grasping the implications of global warming. I can tell because they gasp at all the right places, and chatter in Inuktitut as they realize that by the time they are elders, the world their elders grew up in will be vanished, along with many of the animals they depended upon. They are linking the arctic food web that we created last month to the impending changes to the tundra. They are getting the fact that the "stable permafrost" that this town is built on will thaw and everything will change. They say, "Everything will change!" and I can see the dismay on their faces and I can watch their minds boggling as they try to grasp it.
Sometimes I really hate teaching. I hate the attitudes and the immaturity and the fashion of high school. But then sometimes there is that spark that lets me brush that other crap off. That is why I teach. For that little spark.
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2 comments:
Awesome. That's so good. Some of those kids will remember your class when they are 50 and politically active ("I still remember that day in class when we watched An Inconvenient Truth and it started to seem real to me...").
I still haven't seen the movie; guess I should, huh?
I think you should see it. And I hope that at least something sinks into their consciousness (or at least their subconsciousness) that lets them make some changes.
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