Today was to be the day of our BIG presentations at school. My students have worked on projects in our Outdoor Learning Environment (OLE) since September and prepared presentations to be shared with a panel of adults during school today. These amazing and perfect-for-the-task adults were willing to give up their time this morning to listen to and then question the kids about their learning throughout their projects. Though I fret they are not ready EVERY SINGLE YEAR, the students inevitably pull it off and make me proud.
Today is a snow day. On the one hand, I am thankful to be home with my own kids and wearing sweats. On the other hand, though, I am lost. What do I do about these presentations? I had to cancel the panel members this morning, email the families, and respond to a few students’ emails wondering what we were going to do to reschedule. Do I reschedule? Do I ask teachers on their preps and administrators to fill in as panel members? When? Or, do I decide the science learning has been accomplished? The investigating and preparing for the presentations fulfilled the learning goals I intended.
This may sound ridiculous, but I have been thinking about this ALL DAY LONG. I don’t feel right asking my panel members to reschedule. I don’t think the experience would be the same with fill-in adults (no offensive meant to my colleagues). I am not sure I want to lose another day of content learning (though typing that makes it sound pretty lame and teacher-y, not really me). Maybe, I just don’t want to go through the hassle of arranging this all over again. But, I will if . . .
Here is what I decided to do. I am going to ask the students when we return to school! (Gasp!) I will let the students decide if they want to reschedule with different panel members or if they have another idea to throw on the table. I will let them decide and then I will support them. This is about them and their learning experience after all!
Talking and Teaching Science 