Saturday, February 1, 2014

My Brain Hurts...Reflections on Learning Google Scripts

Ouch.

That is really all I can say. I don't have a headache (thank God), but my brain hurts. The kind of hurt you get when you have reached your limit for a time period. After two straight 8 hour days of intensive Google Scripts/Javascript training, I can safely say I've delved into something that doesn't come easy for me. And it is really quite a moment when you realize you are up against the very limits of your intellect.

However, this blog post isn't going to be heavy on what my experience was. I actually wanted to put this in the context of our students. After all, they are doing about 7 hours of learning, every day, on a variety of subjects, some of which may be pushing them to their limits.

After two days of this, even though it was on one subject, I had reached my limit and really need some time to reflect and plan my next step. In addition, we had regularly scheduled breaks, plenty of one on one support, a clear schedule, and generous lunch breaks. We knew we weren't going to be "graded" and that we'd have a safe place to share our thoughts, problems, and experiences with others.

On the other hand, let me compare that to the daily experience of one of our high school students.
Get to school in time to start class right at 8:00am.  Then 90 minutes of class, a 15 minute passing period, 90 more minutes of class, a short "enhancement" period for classwork help and organization meetings, a 30 minute lunch, and then 180 more minutes of class.  Essentially, students are in class for 360 minutes with about 50 minutes of breaks. Oh, and more than likely they have homework that they will be graded on.

There is always pressure and so little time to reflect and think.  We need to remember that they are kids with a lot going on. Yes, we should be pushing them to achieve their best. But is it realistic to expect them to be completely sharp and on every single day? I don't think so.

However, for right now, I'm trying to recover from just two days of intense learning. And man, my brain hurts.

No comments:

Post a Comment