(first published 8/2/11)
School's starting in two weeks. Next week is full of classes and previewing school files. So this is really my last week of summer vacation. I'd hoped to review the various books I've read, and post them on this blog for future reference. But I fell behind in the blogging for trying to finish up the reading. Today was different. Today I conducted an experiment in learning.
I feed birds. I love watching them. In June I noticed one small chickadee with a bad leg. I didn't even know he was a chickadee when I first saw him. I just knew he was really cute and began hoping he'd survive the summer. I think he sensed my goodwill and appeared regularly from then on. I'd wake and listen for his unique chirp each morning. I'd stop anything I was doing to watch him freed throughout the day.
One evening my cat caught him. Pounced right on him as he was flopping around on the concrete patio, eating the seed other birds had scattered from the feeder. Fortunately, I immediately pounced on the cat and managed to pry the little guy from the cat's mouth.
I cuddled the stunned bird in my hands until he came to, and held him gently until he finally flew away. But his flying was erratic. Bad leg was now second to the bad wing he'd just receive. I worried. I schemed. A plot hatched in my head.
This morning I bought the cheapest bird cage I could find. I wanted to get the bird into a protected area where I could be sure he was fed and safe. But how could I stress the little guy by catching him and locking him up? He is a wild thing, after all, despite his disabilities. So I set the cage up beside the scattered seed on my patio. I kept the door open and the feeders in the cage filled. And then I watched, hoping he would come to accept the cage, maybe even volunteer to enter it himself.
It took a while, but soon I had all kinds of birds hoping in and out of the cage. As I watched, I was surprised at how many had a hard time finding their way back out. There was a lot of fruitless batting of wings against the bars. Then there was trial and error as some searched for the opening. Surprisingly, once the first two birds figured it out, the rest followed.
Curiosity - and the reward of seed. That's what brought them into the cage. That's my key. Even something designed to imprison birds, something they should be afraid of, was attractive enough to entice them to enter. They figured out how to get in and out without me. This is good stuff for a teacher to observe.
Maybe tomorrow my little chickadee will enter. Maybe eventually I can keep him in the cage to try to help him survive through the winter.
Maybe this year I can find a way to entice my students. Trap their curiosiities and tap into their creativity. Figure out how to get them to learn.
Worth hoping for.
* (11/14/11 Side note) The cat caught my chickadee the day after this post. I rescued him again and put him in the cage. He was dead within twelve hours. I wrapped him in tissue and buried him in a spot in my garden. I mourned that little wild bird for two weeks. A rock marks his resting place and I still think of him.
How quickly and securely my SPED students work their way into my heart. Most of the time I feel successful in helping them. Occasionally they don't receive what I want so desperately to give. But somehow I put aside the pain I feel when they reject me and try again. And when the lost bird comes back into my room years later to let me know he somehow learned how to fly - those are days of sweet, tearful joy indeed.
School's starting in two weeks. Next week is full of classes and previewing school files. So this is really my last week of summer vacation. I'd hoped to review the various books I've read, and post them on this blog for future reference. But I fell behind in the blogging for trying to finish up the reading. Today was different. Today I conducted an experiment in learning.
I feed birds. I love watching them. In June I noticed one small chickadee with a bad leg. I didn't even know he was a chickadee when I first saw him. I just knew he was really cute and began hoping he'd survive the summer. I think he sensed my goodwill and appeared regularly from then on. I'd wake and listen for his unique chirp each morning. I'd stop anything I was doing to watch him freed throughout the day.
One evening my cat caught him. Pounced right on him as he was flopping around on the concrete patio, eating the seed other birds had scattered from the feeder. Fortunately, I immediately pounced on the cat and managed to pry the little guy from the cat's mouth.
I cuddled the stunned bird in my hands until he came to, and held him gently until he finally flew away. But his flying was erratic. Bad leg was now second to the bad wing he'd just receive. I worried. I schemed. A plot hatched in my head.
This morning I bought the cheapest bird cage I could find. I wanted to get the bird into a protected area where I could be sure he was fed and safe. But how could I stress the little guy by catching him and locking him up? He is a wild thing, after all, despite his disabilities. So I set the cage up beside the scattered seed on my patio. I kept the door open and the feeders in the cage filled. And then I watched, hoping he would come to accept the cage, maybe even volunteer to enter it himself.
It took a while, but soon I had all kinds of birds hoping in and out of the cage. As I watched, I was surprised at how many had a hard time finding their way back out. There was a lot of fruitless batting of wings against the bars. Then there was trial and error as some searched for the opening. Surprisingly, once the first two birds figured it out, the rest followed.
Curiosity - and the reward of seed. That's what brought them into the cage. That's my key. Even something designed to imprison birds, something they should be afraid of, was attractive enough to entice them to enter. They figured out how to get in and out without me. This is good stuff for a teacher to observe.
Maybe tomorrow my little chickadee will enter. Maybe eventually I can keep him in the cage to try to help him survive through the winter.
Maybe this year I can find a way to entice my students. Trap their curiosiities and tap into their creativity. Figure out how to get them to learn.
Worth hoping for.
* (11/14/11 Side note) The cat caught my chickadee the day after this post. I rescued him again and put him in the cage. He was dead within twelve hours. I wrapped him in tissue and buried him in a spot in my garden. I mourned that little wild bird for two weeks. A rock marks his resting place and I still think of him.
How quickly and securely my SPED students work their way into my heart. Most of the time I feel successful in helping them. Occasionally they don't receive what I want so desperately to give. But somehow I put aside the pain I feel when they reject me and try again. And when the lost bird comes back into my room years later to let me know he somehow learned how to fly - those are days of sweet, tearful joy indeed.
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