"Inconsequential" Moments

I allow my students to listen to their iPods on in-class workdays. For one thing, music keeps them from talking. They have little earbud headphones stuffed into their ears. For another, most of them listen to music when they study at home, so they’ve conditioned themselves. It’s not really study time if there’s no music.

So today, there were two girls working on the same desk (one completely twisted around to make this possible) because one had one earbud, the other had the other. Both were working silently, and there was just a certain charm to the image. Another girl, a flawlessly beautiful, homecoming royalty-type, who manages to make her achievement look easy, was so wrapped up in an iPod study-bubble that she seemed to have forgotten she was in class. Every time she had to stop and think about something, she looked at the ceiling and made those kind-of humming raspberry kinds of noises that babies love to make.

On in-class writing days, the kids who never turn anything in know that they must have the assignment in front of them and appear to be working if they want to keep me off their backs. It’s the closest they come to actually writing all year. Of course, they’re behind everyone else, so I stop and ask if they need help. They say no, and I say it looks like they’re a little stuck. It’s an obligatory exchange. Then they ask a question, just so it won’t look like they’re not doing anything. Usually, it’s something they genuinely don’t understand, so I explain patiently, like they’re actually going to use this advice, and they listen earnestly, pretending the same thing. For a brief moment, they are indistinguishable from their more motivated classmates. It’s a lovely illusion for us both. And who knows, maybe some of it sinks in.

Boys often have a hard time getting started on in-class writing days. They joke with each other and, once I’ve put a stop to that, they poke each other and stick their hands in front of each other’s faces, and I think, “If anyone else were observing this right now, they could not possibly doubt that these creatures descended from apes.” I feel a little like Jane Goodall. Look! That one picked up a pen! They use tools!

These are the days filled with countless little moments that make me smile. These are the moments that will get me through the final three days of state testing from tomorrow through Thursday. What are the little things that get you through the less pleasant aspects of life?

tags: education