Today some of my least interested patrons came in. Usually, they use the time to socialize (and I honestly think they move books on purpose around to drive me crazy) and rarely check anything out. So, today I tried something different. I trapped them and made them listen to me ramble about various interesting things. Then I asked them what interesting things they had heard or read about recently.
For those of you who have taught, or teach, it can be a lot like doing stand-up. To start with I had an audience who was captive - not always a great way to begin. Then, there was the noisy table at the front. blech. Still, I persevered and talked about the most interesting things I could think of and letting my topics wander a little.
From talking about biographies (which were assigned last fall) that didn't get returned, I somehow wandered into Al Capone, Alcatraz (which fit nicely with something they'd recently read) and prohibition. And as I hit that topic I realized that these kids, mostly a group of ELLs who still converse more comfortably in Spanish, probably didn't know that word or have any idea what it meant in the history of our country. So, I stopped.
"Who knows what prohibition is? What does it mean to prohibit something?" And we went from there. So we talked about black markets, gangs, smuggling, the IRS (how I believe they eventually convicted Capone) and how when my dad was a little boy he found a still in his grandpa's barn, and quickly let him know. "Put the hay back and keep your mouth shut!"
From there I rambled into data storage, servers (more unfamiliar territory) and a possible future of data storage (encoded into synthetic DNA). Honestly. And bonus points or a free pencil to anyone who knows what DNA stands for. (no one won that, unfortunately)
I then went into a spiel about Choose Your Own and You Choose books that we have, and letting them know that whatever they were curious about, that I try to have in our collection information about that topic.
At the end of the period, a few kids checked out some books, which is a few more than usual. I was uncertain about how it had gone, but their reading teacher was happy. I kept their attention, and they were quiet for longer than normal.
My take-away from this, and it's kind of what I went in with, is that these kids don't hear much about the vastly weird and interesting things that have happened in our past and continue to happen everyday. My biggest question is if you took the Works of William Shakespeare, encoded it into DNA (which they did), and then inserted that DNA into a viable ovum, what would you end up with? What would it grow into?
We need to bring that dinner table conversation into their lives, to put those questions into their minds.
For those of you who have taught, or teach, it can be a lot like doing stand-up. To start with I had an audience who was captive - not always a great way to begin. Then, there was the noisy table at the front. blech. Still, I persevered and talked about the most interesting things I could think of and letting my topics wander a little.
From talking about biographies (which were assigned last fall) that didn't get returned, I somehow wandered into Al Capone, Alcatraz (which fit nicely with something they'd recently read) and prohibition. And as I hit that topic I realized that these kids, mostly a group of ELLs who still converse more comfortably in Spanish, probably didn't know that word or have any idea what it meant in the history of our country. So, I stopped.
"Who knows what prohibition is? What does it mean to prohibit something?" And we went from there. So we talked about black markets, gangs, smuggling, the IRS (how I believe they eventually convicted Capone) and how when my dad was a little boy he found a still in his grandpa's barn, and quickly let him know. "Put the hay back and keep your mouth shut!"
From there I rambled into data storage, servers (more unfamiliar territory) and a possible future of data storage (encoded into synthetic DNA). Honestly. And bonus points or a free pencil to anyone who knows what DNA stands for. (no one won that, unfortunately)
I then went into a spiel about Choose Your Own and You Choose books that we have, and letting them know that whatever they were curious about, that I try to have in our collection information about that topic.
At the end of the period, a few kids checked out some books, which is a few more than usual. I was uncertain about how it had gone, but their reading teacher was happy. I kept their attention, and they were quiet for longer than normal.
My take-away from this, and it's kind of what I went in with, is that these kids don't hear much about the vastly weird and interesting things that have happened in our past and continue to happen everyday. My biggest question is if you took the Works of William Shakespeare, encoded it into DNA (which they did), and then inserted that DNA into a viable ovum, what would you end up with? What would it grow into?
We need to bring that dinner table conversation into their lives, to put those questions into their minds.
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