You know....you know?

Have you ever found yourself telling a story or introducing a new concept to your students and found your respective audience returning with the blankest of stares???

You quickly realize you’re in uncharted territory and you try everything: rephrasing your original comment or example. You find yourself saying, “you know – it’s like <insert example here> and still…NOTHING. Soon you’re engaged in an impromptu game of Pictionary-Gestures mash-up attempting any and all way to illustrate your once simple concept. Still nothing?! Next you’re grabbing every item in sight and are soon surrounded by a makeshift fort of “examples”.

Despite unpacking your adjectives, synonyms and role-playing…your students soon take on the appearance of confused puppies: heads tilted to the side, glances from you and the objects to their peers with slight grins forming. They’re thinking, “Okay…you’ve gone and lost your mind and I have NO IDEA what you’re talking about.” Finally, as a last resort, you turn to the great technological gift of the gods...Google. Five minutes...ten...a half hour passes and you've concluded an impromptu sidebar lesson on <insert previously unknown concept here>.

My teaching days often include the previously described scenario. I've planned and outlined a lesson with multiple activities, highlighted crucial talking points and identified real-life meaningful examples when possible. BUT - like much of the other aspects of my life, I forget to account for the ultimate in Murphy's Law in the land of teacher-dom: lack of prior knowledge. Call it a sign of getting older...but the things we experienced in our childhoods are becoming non-existent for today's students. Factor in a lack of personal experiences at home, a lack of communication (for families speaking in different languages, if at all), a lack of previously learned concepts....overall, these missing pieces combine to create a black hole in which information is sucked into with little chance of retaining or recalling.

Hence...my love for Google. Yes, there are several search engines on the Internet and pictures can be located almost anywhere...but Google has been my savior when attempting to communicate in the absence of word recognition, experience and/or comprehensions and familiarity. While my 'itinerary' has been thrown off schedule, I have learned to embrace these temporary derailments and the challenges to seek out a new route to our final destination...with the addition of a formerly unknown but now much-needed detour...

Thanks to Google for clarifying the following concepts/vocabulary for my students (and myself, when trying to decipher their comments):

1. Board Game -- we googled EVERY board game site and images...a student's concept of games was only that of Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3. "You mean...those are real?"
2. The Twizzlers' height bar at Hershey's Park -- started out with a student stating...."Six Flags", "red", and "candy". He was trying to tell me that he had been to Hershey Park and could ride the rides with the Twizzlers' height.
3. Hotel -- several students did not recognize this word nor my descriptions of places where you sleep when you're not at home. "No, we sleep at home." "When you went to the beach...where did you sleep?" "I slept in a bed." "Whose house?" "I don't know..." "Did Mom and Dad pay money to sleep there?" "No, it was free. Wait, I don't know." and so on...