Sponge Bob, Schwarzenegger, and Jack Assery

So I did this imitation of Patrick from Sponge Bob one time in front of my middle school kids. (I'm really good at it! Actually, I can do Schwarzenegger even better.) Anyway, as I was ranting through this riff of Patrick, another teacher had walked through my room behind me, unbeknownst to me. She was great, but apparently she stared at me like I was pulling a knife on everybody. After she left the room the kids erupted and had a tremendous laugh (at my expense of course) at the effects of my jack assery. Then a kid stated: "You don't get along with adults very well, do you Mr. Powell."

She had no idea how close she came to hitting the ball out of the park.

It's not that I don't get along with other adults; It's that I get along better with kids. I don't know what I'm doing. I never know what I'm doing when I'm in the zone. But I do know that I use my instincts, and I feel that propellant and that signal coming from the inside.

Not only that, I trust it.

I could rarely tell you what teaching technique I use, or what strategies I'm employing, or the best practice for this or that. All of that language that teachers come up I find dull, sterile, uninteresting, and irrevelant to my teaching.

Anyway, I'm reading (for the second time) The Power of Mindful Learning by Ellen J. Langer (1997), and she points out, and has conducted a body of research that actually somewhat supports my "practices." In one particular study, she noted that students who learned new material in a traditional manner tended to recall less information and showed less improvement than kids who received the new material in a "mindful" method that involves variety, creativity, and novelty. And she also stresses that these students learned more regardless of whether or not they knew they were going to be tested. They showed more improvement in their intelligence and creativity in their writing about what they learned.

I'm not saying Patrick is going to save the world. Frankly, he's a symbol of glorified stupidity, along with Bart Simpson and many other characters that pop culture jams down our throats. But I will say that I teach from my core, and my instincts. I use my instincts and try to deliver from my authentic center. Something that was never taught to me in "teacher school". I had a teacher friend tell me once that this is all because I teach from another "plane". No doubt about it. I'd jump out of any other. :)

Next up will be my Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy done as Schwarzenegger. That should go over like a two story outhouse with the high school teachers.