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Some things in the world…okay a lot of things in the world…are difficult subjects to tackle with students. When bad things happen in the world, especially close to home, how do we help our students understand what’s going on and what they are feeling? There are textbooks, lesson plans, and best practices in place to teach the core academic subjects, but the there is no clear-cut procedure for handling unexplainable disasters. Whether it’s a natural disaster or a man-made one, students are witnessing situations in real time and in more detail than ever. The unfolding events can be very scary for students and teachers. Discovering the scientific basis of these disasters and how to cope may alleviate this fear and give a feeling of control over the situation.

A few weeks ago in Hungary, a reservoir ruptured, flooding several towns with 185 million gallons of toxic red sludge. The 12-foot high river of sludge killed nine people, with scores more hospitalized with chemical burns and other injuries. The effect on the environment and the people there is still unknown, and the scope of any lasting damage is likely to be unknown for many years. The sludge is a byproduct of refining bauxite into alumina, and is contained in numerous reservoirs in communities surrounding the aluminum plant.

What was your favorite subject in school? Was it one that had a really cool teacher? One you could sleep through without getting caught? One that was very challenging? One that you still actually remember what you learned? When I asked kids and adults this question, I was surprised to find out that many people’s favorite classes are the more challenging classes, but only when the classes relate to their own lives. Through my years of working with students of all ages, I have been constantly impressed with how well students of all abilities rise to meet our expectations. If we can create classes and assignments that are a lot of work, but not purely busywork, students might surprise us by showing more potential than we ever knew they had.

Geometry wasn’t my best subject in school. In fact, I pretty much loathed it at the time. Perhaps it was because the class was scheduled after lunch, in an overly-heated room that induced a mouth-slackening torpor within minutes. The geometry teacher had the unfortunate belief that lectures were the only effective teaching method, and he obligingly droned on daily from his desk in the corner. Occasionally, to vary the lesson, he’d stand up. My classmates and I – usually excellent students – struggled against waves of drowsiness, our heads bobbing like too-heavy flowers on thin stalks as we’d start to drift, then jerk awake. Occasionally, one of us would lose the battle and doze off.

Autumn is a time of great change and transformation in nature. As a child, I remember the awe I felt watching leaves fall and crunching across them as I walked on the sidewalk. As an adult, I am still in awe of the sights and smells of the season (and I STILL want to jump in the huge pile of leaves, even if it means I’ll have to rake them up again). This week, Joann and I collected resources that tap into this childhood fascination of the changes occurring in nature to teach lessons in many different subject areas.

A few weeks ago, my third grader stopped in her tracks, flung her arms far apart, and breathed deeply. Nonplussed, I stopped and asked her what she was doing.

“Remembering the way summer smells,” she said.

I sniffed the air tentatively, but all I could really smell was car exhaust. We were in the middle of a plaza parking lot, after all.

I had forgotten this little scenario until this morning, when we awakened to temperatures in the 40s. As we waited for the school bus, my daughter raised her chin into the wind and announced that it now smelled like fall. “But I still remember how summer smells,” she said.

Teachers in all subjects share the common goal of developing skills and habits in our students that will serve them well throughout their lives. This focus on educating the “whole child” reminds us that a student’s well being includes the health of their mind and body. I love how Joann’s picks this week encompass this concept by combining learning and exercise. Physical well-being and brain health go hand in hand. Read about this connection a little more in this article about a study of 9 and 10 year olds at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

We’re all aware of the grim statistics on overweight American kids. 15% of children aged 6-19 are seriously overweight, while over 10% of kids aged 2-5 are overweight. Within some racial and ethnic groups, the rates are even higher. Doctors and child advocacy groups have continually sounded the alarm that today’s students are the most sedentary and unhealthy generation in American history. Why, then, is physical education caught in the crosshairs of some districts’ politicians and school administrators’ sights as an expendable area of the curriculum?

As a recent transplant from the Gulf Coast of Mississippi to Northern California, I am fascinated by the science surrounding hurricanes. I suppose this interest in natural disasters will soon grow to include earthquakes and wild fires…more on that in a future post. Living in southern Mississippi, I saw the lingering aftermath of the powerful storms that can make landfall and devastate entire regions. The most interesting thing about hurricanes to me is the science behind the predictions of where the storm will make landfall and how strong it will be. Unlike many other weather events, people have a lot of warning before a hurricane reaches land. Meteorologists use all kinds of different skills and tools to make these predictions as accurate as possible.

A confession: I’m sort of a weather junkie.

Much to the annoyance of my children, I can happily watch The Weather Channel for hours on end.

“It’s the same thing over and over,” says my son. “It’s boring.”

“They’re not even showing our weather!” my daughter splutters. I tell her that even though we’re not presently in Barcelona, I still care about their weather.

I’m not exactly sure why I like watching weather-related events so much, but I do. Maybe it’s a reminder that, even in the 21st century where we’ve bent so many aspects of the natural world to our collective human will, the forces of nature remain a power that can’t always be controlled despite our best efforts. It truly is bigger than us.