Show Me How

I stepped into Ms McGuire's room to help with their blogging project, and it didn't take long for the students to start asking me questions about how to do things on their blog posts.  After a few minutes, I realized there were going to be a lot of questions about text wrapping -- something I don't really do on my blogs.  I just plop a picture down in my post and don't worry too much about the aesthetics of the page.  (Who knows? Maybe that's why I don't get a lot of hits.)

I explained to the class that I would start googling that question and we'd deal with it by the end of class.  Then Lindsey popped up.  "You mean, you want to do this?"  I looked at her computer and -- by golly -- she was doing text wrapping with her picture.  "Lindsey! How did you do that?!? Show me how!"

It may seem like a little thing, but when the dust settled I realized how that attitude feeds into a blended learning concept.  Back in 1994, when I started teaching, I was the final source of knowledge.  Well, the textbook and me -- we were an ugly tag-team match up.  If I didn't know the answer to a question, I would get all red in the face and flustered. It was like the deodorant commercial -- never let them see you sweat. I never wanted to show any mental weaknesses.  Not knowing was akin to not being qualified to be the teacher.

So much has changed now, and I feel completely comfortable not knowing something. In fact, I'm cool with asking a 10 year old how she accomplished something I can't.  Cause it's all about learning and growing, and I'm glad I could model that for 25 fifth graders.

And, just to show you I can now text wrap.... here's proof.