“Stressing the Point” by Joel Penner is licensed under CC BY 2.0

My daughters call me the Stress Enhancer, and with good reason.  I am a worrier, and I like things done now.  Two traits that are not conducive to relaxation.* And traits that held me and a class back recently.

Christina Ditzel and Kate Cutright had invited me to work with them on their project using Scratch,  to code interactive scenes from Pride and Prejudice. Christina planned the lessons, but I would lead one section of the class on their journey, because she was teaching her own class.  I spent several hours over a few days with Scratch, drawing, uploading, causing movement and interaction and felt comfortable enough with my knowledge to be a demonstrator. My plan, developed under Christina’s guidance, was to demonstrate the basics of creating a stage and sprites and conversation the first day and then let students explore.  The 2nd-4th day would be used to show backgrounds, how to share,  and allow students to discover on their own the way to switch backgrounds and have sprites move, and create animation/game. Scratch has several elements, but the element react in similar ways, so once you understand one element, you are on your way toward understanding another.

Alas, an emergency came up and I discovered I would only be able to attend 2 days with the class.  The first day went fairly smoothly as I introduced the tool, students explored and asked questions.  Several students had already used the tool, and were able to act as guides for others.  All the students  were able to create a sprite, and understood the concept of the stage.   On the 2nd day,  the not-so- better angels of my nature came forth, and I started panicking that I was setting this class up to fail by demanding too much without grounding them in  knowledge first.  They needed to know about backgrounds!  They needed to understand costumes!  They  needed to understand the  X/Y axis and how movement occurs!  They  need to know the tricks of saving and sharing!  They needed to know sources for costumes and backgrounds!  And I only had 45 minutes for all this!

I jumped sternly in.  “Listen as I show you this”. “I need to show you this”!  Those lovely students soon recognized my stress, and were kind to me as I showed this tool and that tool. They said things like, “That makes sense, Mrs. Tracy” and, “Yes, I see how to do that now”.  Kate reassured me several times, and de-escalated some of my panic.  But what had I done? I had taken some of  the joy of self discovery away. I had enjoyed learning Scratch on my own, with a few sidebars with Christina.  I didn’t let that happen with these students.

The worst part of this experience for me was the why.  My family emergency was changing  the structure of this project.  That was a given – I could not be there for 2 crucial days.   I decided I, and I alone, needed to fix the structure.  I didn’t place my trust in the nature of Scratch, the joy of learning, the students, Christina or Kate – all variables in this project that were NOT changing.  I placed too much emphasis on me, and I only had the now.  A painful event.  Not my best moment as a teacher/librarian, but a lesson learned.  Trust is a much better atmosphere for learning.  And it will not happen NOW for everyone.   Give it the opportunity to happen WHEN.

* My daughters  have been saying this for years 🙂