I have to not include names to protect privacy but I had something happen yesterday in class that gives me a warm fuzzy feeling (none of the students described are pictured in this post). Trust me, that is a rare thing in teaching. My students in Biology were given a project that is new for me (I borrowed from a workshop I went to a couple of years ago at NABT in Denver). Each student is given a cutting from an African violet. They dip it in root hormone and then plant it in the pot they brought from home.
How its done
They created a bar graph on notebook paper. They are to record the growth every two weeks and to take a picture with ruler behind the leaf at the same interval.
If they keep these records along with some journal notes about its location amount of watering, conditions, etc and if there plant is still alive at the end of the nine weeks, they get a 100 test grade. Points are deducted at the rate of 10 per week if the records are not kept. If the plant is still living at the end of the second nine weeks and all records are kept, the student receives two 100s.
One of my students who always struggles a bit brought his pot happily (more or less) to class. As we were doing the ready,set,go (my version of do now or bellringer), he inadvertently knocked his clay pot on the floor, and it shattered into about eight pieces. Another student spontaneously got up gathered up all the pieces, took it to his table and asked if I had any glue so he could glue it back together. As we continued class and prepared for and planted the cuttings, he carefully glued the pot back together so it could receive a new plant. The fact that the students were of different social, academic and racial groups did not matter. What mattered was a pot was broken, and it needed repair. One student cared and it made all the difference.
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