I've waited the whole year for today

My school has enrichment classes during 7th period--this is an opportunity for teachers to share something they are passionate about with their students through an elective class.  Classes include Craft Activities, Cooking, Guitar, Writing, etc.  When I heard my school does this, I knew exactly what I would do for my enrichment class--space exploration of course!

My exact description was:

Students will learn about human space exploration from the Mercury Missions to our present day aircraft, Orion.  Students will tour the solar system learning about planetary objects and stars that exist within our solar system, galaxy, and universe!  They will learn of several current NASA missions to distant objects in space, and then design their own mission to a similar body expanding on the knowledge learned in previous space missions.  Do you know the 12 men who walked on the Moon? Why were our space shuttles called the Cadillacs of the Skies?  How will humans get to Mars?  If you have ever looked up at the night sky, and wondered is life out there . . . then this is the class for you!

The first quarter of school I taught advisory.  I had sixth grade students, and the first quarter is meant to help them adjust to middle school life, learn policy and procedures, and just get a handle on their new learning environment.  The second quarter I was supposed to be with the Science-O kids (I'm one of the coaches), but we didn't have enough students, so I was asked to teach a study-hall class.  Soooooo, finalllllly....third quarter I got to start teaching the class of my dreams with students who felt the same about our awesome universe . . . I was wrong.

The first day in class, I learned one of my health students (who thinks I'm really "chill") decided to ask every single one of his friends to take my class.  My study hall students decided they wanted me another quarter, and a handful of students who were actually interested in space travel joined.  Enrichment classes are supposed to be on the smaller size, but my class ended up with 21 boys and 10 girls.  The first day I had made 'golden records' for each group--to mimic the golden record aboard Voyager I and II.  I wanted the students to try to think of what they would have put on the record--what would they want to tell others/aliens about planet earth, and then I would show them what NASA really did put on the record.  After walking around my classroom (which was definitely a classroom management nightmare), and seeing what they were putting on their record which included, chicken nuggets to big chungas (the newest meme), my heart was broken.  When you are soooo passionate about the topic you are sharing with students, it is sooooo difficult to see them treat it as a joke.

I went home crying that day.  Cameron gave me great advice, she said if anyone can get someone to love SPACE, it was me.  I went back the next day, with that mantra instead--I was going to get all these students to LOVE space as much as I do.  It hasn't been easy, and I don't think this quarter will ever be 'easy,' but I have about 6 weeks to do just that.  I'm on a mission, a space mission!!

"This cause of exploration and discovery is not an option we choose; it is a desire written in the human heart."  George W. Bush

"We choose to go to the Moon and do the other things . . . not because it is easy, but because it is hard."  John F. Kennedy

I've got this!

Learning about the scale of the solar system with play dough (above).

Making our heads grow by a centimeter--to mimic how astronauts tend to look different after being in a microgravity environment.