Workarounds - Day Three

Can't believe it, but I still managed to avoid the copier and printers today. Students and I are running into many speed bumps but I anticipated it, so I'm much calmer and patient than I would be under most any other circumstance. This experiment has tried my patience and the kids' patience as well, but we are learning to think differently. OMG, we are constantly thinking critically. We are problem-solving!

Last night after assigning a vocabulary practice on Quizlet instead of the normal paper practice quiz to my 7th graders, I got several emails like this:

"Dear Mrs. White,
My computer shut down before I could take a picture of my grade, but I made a 100. okay, thanks."

(didn't accept that as an excuse)

and this....

"Dear Mrs. White,
I took that quiz you assigned and I promise I made a 100 on it, but I couldn't figure out how to take a screen shot. My best friend was over, and he saw me take the quiz, so if you need to verify the grade, he'll tell you I made a 100."

(didn't accept that as an excuse)

but this one made the whole dang experiment worth it....

"Dear Mrs. White,

My mom has a Dell, and I couldn't figure out how to take a screen shot, so I took a picture with my iPod and emailed that to you. I hope that's ok."

Grade: A

There were a ton of successes. But there was one poor guy who took the quiz 293847529384756 times and still couldn't get the screen shot. His mom finally emailed me and verified his grade. I felt so sorry for him, because he was trying so hard, so we talked about other ways of possibly getting the information to me without paper.

All of this to show that assignments will come to you...somehow. The kids that we teach today have phenomenal problem solving skills. They can work around just about any issue. I've seen kids who can text in the middle of class without having to take their phones out of their pockets. It goes without saying, then, that they will figure out how to send me a picture. or email their homework. or text me answers to their model sentences if their email stops working.

Kids these days aren't helpless or lazy. Give them a problem to solve, and if it involves not having to dig for a pencil, they will find an answer. I <3 Middle Schoolers.