“Now, we can survive without cell phones and microwaves,” I explained, “but advances in technology have obviously made life easier. To the point where, in some cases, we don’t know what we’d do without them.”
“If your mom – or dad – had a cell phone,” I went on, “you could’ve reached them wherever they were, no matter that they weren’t home. Now, we know what some of the big inventions during the Industrial Revolution were, and we know what they did, but what was the impact on our country and our daily lives after they came into existence?” I asked. “How did they make life easier? Or more difficult? How does new technology” – I raised my voice for emphasis – “forever change the course of our lives?”
I gazed around the room, seeing their contemplative expressions. I hoped they weren’t merely blank and that they were actually thinking.
Maybe I’d asked too many questions at once.
I glanced to Christian, who stared at me, looking very much like he had something to say but was holding back.
“Make a T-chart,” I ordered. “Label pros and cons and then put your pencils down.”
The students did what was asked of them. They opened their notebooks to a blank page, drawing one line down the middle and one across the top and labeling the two sections.
After they’d replaced their pencils on their desks, I went on.
“Revolution usually means quick, dramatic change,” I pointed out. “Do you think the Industrial Revolution was aptly named? Were the changes in production and distribution fast, or were they a steady development over time?”
I walked up the last aisle and stopped. “Christian, what do you think?”
He shook his head, looking bored. “I think it was fast, I guess.”
“Why?”
He dropped his eyes, mumbling, “I don’t know.”
I got closer. “You don’t have to know.” I kept my voice light. “Tell me what you think.”
His eyes shot up to mine. “I don’t know,” he repeated, his voice turning angry.
“It was decades,” I shot out, knowing I was close to overstepping my bounds. One of the first things you learn about classroom management is to never call out a student in front of the class.
But I needed a reaction out of him. I needed him to do something. To say something.
“Is that fast or steady, Christian? What do you think?”
“It’s all about perspective, I guess!” he barked. “Humans are, like, two hundred thousand years old, so yeah, a lot of advancement in only a few decades would be fast,” he argued. “Some civilizations in history barely made any progress in generations, while others a lot. Everyone’s frame of reference is different!”
I held his angry blue-gray eyes – the same as his father’s – and elation flooded my chest. I let out a breath and gave him a small smile, nodding.
“That’s a good point,” I told him, and then turned around to walk away.
“But then it may not be fast, either,” he continued, and I stopped.
Spinning around, I watched as he crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his chin up, more confident.
“I would say the past two decades have seen even more advancement in manufacturing and technology than during the Industrial Revolution,” he debated. “The phones, the iPads, automobiles, the Mars rover…” He trailed off. “It’s about perspective.”
It felt like those moments when you get exactly what you want and then you don’t know what to do with what you got.
I stood there, wondering what the good teachers do when a student opens up, and I was clueless. Christian Marek was an angry kid. He was difficult and defiant and so like his father and yet so different. Whereas I gathered Tyler always felt he had something to prove, Christian seemed like someone who never needed to prove anything to anyone.
“So was it fast or steady?” a student called out to my left.
I bowed my head, smiling as I turned around and walked to the front of the classroom.
I cleared my throat. “You’re not being graded on what you think,” I told the class. “You’re being graded on why you think it. Defend your answers.”
I turned off the Smart Board and placed my hands on my hips.
“Complete your T-chart with the pros and cons of the impact on life by the inventions of the Industrial Revolution. Then tweet what you learned today – hashtag Bradbury2015 – and then you may get online and start adding primary sources to your folder for the Deep South project,” I instructed.
I turned, grabbing a dry-erase marker, and finished adding points for the class.
“Aw, yeah!” I heard Marcus bellow when he saw the points I added to Team One. “We got fifty points. Good job, Marek!!”
Team One clapped, celebrating their success and the final point Christian had earned for them, bringing them to a total of fifty before all the other teams.
“So we get Song of the Week, right?” Marcus asked, already working his laptop to find his song, no doubt.
“Yes.” I nodded. “You have five minutes.”
“It’s my choice, everyone!” he shouted, clicking his computer and standing up as the song began playing.
The entire class stopped what they were doing and joined in the fun as the song came out louder and louder from Marcus’s computer. Soon there were hands in the air, voices singing along, and people standing up at their desks, moving to the music.
I laughed at the sight, loving the amount of work they put in to succeed just so they could have these five minutes as often as possible. Even Christian was laughing as he watched others dance to the music.