Sometimes, as you all know, as a teacher, you have to change the plan. Be flexible. Roll with the punches. The reasons behind the need for flexibility are usually negative (testing, snow days, etc.), but sometimes....sometimes, those reasons are good! Today was one of those days for my 7th period.
This Friday went like any other Friday. In all of my classes, we were finishing our PARCC reviews and beginning debate preparations for next week. Until 7th period. Until a glance down at an open Twitter feed changed everything.
A rocket launch?!
I should preface this with space has always held a certain fascination for me, and that fascination has only grown after marrying my husband, who had a giant mural of the space shuttle Columbia on the wall behind his bed, attended both Space Camp and Space Academy, and studied aeronautical engineering with a dream of someday working for NASA. Space and space exploration is an ever-present topic in our home. (We like to get nerdy together. We spent a good chunk of a road trip to Tennessee last summer discussing nuclear engineering, nuclear fission and fusion, and why I couldn't develop a method to harness the electromagnetic energy from solar flares to solve the world's energy problems.....even though I still think it's a good idea!)
But I digress.
I closed the tab on my computer for the PARCC rubric we were discussing, which opened up my Tweetdeck. The NASA logo caught my eye, and I saw "Are you watching our live #YearInSpace launch coverage? Lift off is at 3:42pm ET. Watch: nasa.gov/nasatv."
I checked my watch: 2:35 CST. I grabbed my speakers, plugged the projector back in, clicked the streaming link, and told the kids, "Change of plans! We're watching a launch!"
Eighteen pairs of eyes turned to me questioningly: "A what??"
"A rocket launch! There's a rocket launching in five minutes. We're going to watch it live!"
Cue the chorus:
"What?? Really? That is so cool!"
"Is this really happening?"
"Where are they going?"
"Who is it?"
The feed flickered to life on my projector, and for a full five minutes, all of my students sat riveted listening to the countdown and watching the launch, followed by a flurry of questions that, thanks to my husband, I was mostly able to answer. It was one of those beautiful moments of teaching that was completely unplanned and completely amazing.
What made it even better is when I got home and was telling my husband about it, he had watched it too and explained how it was a pretty historic launch. The two astronauts, American Scott Kelly and Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, will be spending the next year in space to test how humans can cope physically and emotionally with extended spaceflight for further exploration into the solar system (like Mars). Most stays in the ISS are 6 months, tops, so this is unexplored territory in manned spaceflight. How cool is that?
All this to say, don't be afraid to be flexible! I teach English. Could I have dismissed the whole experience from the beginning by thinking, Ugh, I don't teach science? Absolutely. But I took a chance, I was able to share a historic moment with my students, and, who knows? There may be a future astronaut or physicist or mission control specialist in that very classroom who saw his or her future in those 5 minutes.
Don't be afraid to put yourself out there and take advantage of these special opportunities to share the world (or the universe!) with your students! You'll be so glad you did!
For More Info:
Year in Space
Launch Footage
