Update: Trip of a Lifetime

Not the success I had hoped for, not the effort I had hoped for and not the outcome I had hoped for. However, it was not a complete failure. In fact, I might have learned more than the kids. Sometimes in teaching, the first time you try something is the learning process. As I watched my kids dig into research and cultures and budgets I learned so many things. I learned that I did not anticipate the right problems and questions. I learned that I assumed too much of an 8th grader's ability to organize a ton of information. I learned that 8th graders do not know how to take the large picture and break it down...they don't even know how to take a medium sized picture and break it down. I learned that next year I will be more prepared for them and I will prepare them more for this project (I will not, however, give them another week to work on the project like one teacher suggested).

Even though it appears that I flopped as a teacher these past two weeks, I can find some redeemable qualities to the time spent on this project. We will do it again. They had fun and they enjoyed researching and planning like adults. Students...for two weeks...spent 45 minutes researching three different cultures. Some of them have never been outside of Hutch let alone thought about another world...and I believe some of them had their eyes opened. They learned something!

I will do many things differently next year...but I guess that's what makes teaching a challenge. I never get it right the first time. Or the second...and rarely ever at all. But, I have to trust that God is good to use me in spite of my failures.