Imaginative bridges

With recent health events my perspective on teaching has been altered to focus on life. As I have been looking at life altering diagnoses I have been mentally frozen, mostly out of fear and disbelief. As it has taken over two weeks to unthaw my brain I have been trying to ponder possible 'imaginative bridges' in my teaching. This weekend has brought me to focus on the life of science teaching, and not just biology.

As many of my students' families operate farms I have begun to see connections of their actions on the farms to my own teaching. Before I introduce new material I cultivate them to prepare them to add new knowledge to their field. As the fields are growing the students' need nurturing, food, water, and additional minerals with fertilizers. I use readings, vocabulary activities, investigations, and research in hopes of adding growth to my students. During this growth period weeds and harmful pests must also be dealt with in the fields. In my classroom I can't use pesticides and herbicides, but again knowledge must be used to fight misconceptions and pruning through behavior modification can help control inappropriate behaviors. At the end of the season the crop must meet guidelines in order to be sold. In the end of a class the students must pass an examination to determine their quality of knowledge gained. All of this in hopes of producing students who will go out in this world and prosper and hopefully repeat this process with others in their own lives.

As mentioned in course readings we need to strive to think 'outside of the box.' This is scary for me. Sometimes my box leaves me out in left field and others' don't see my connections. I can read and interpret something so totally different than other people. By putting my imaginative bridge connections on 'paper' I feel vulnerable, but I feel life is vulnerable.

As I have been searching this last week for a compelling image to share with my group I was drawn to a plant that was given to me. It is a type of succulent with thick spikes for leaves. When the leaves fall off they begin to grow their own hot pink roots in search of water to survive. When asked to think about what is compelling is that I want my students to be like this plant--to thirst, and be willing to seek out new sources of knowledge to increase their survival.