Departments : Your Middle School Classroom :
Embrace Your Inner Nerd
By Peter Barnes
Times have changed. Being excited about learning and sharing your knowledge is now considered…well, cool
Are you a nerd? If you're not sure, try this quiz:
- Which would you rather watch?
A. Ken Burns' documentary, The Civil War
B. Survivor: Palau - When you travel to a city for the first time, which would you rather do?
A. see an exhibit on space travel at a science museum
B. go to a movie - Which would you be more likely to read?
A. John Adams by David McCullough
B. Chocolat by Joanne Harris
If you answered A to any of the questions above, you might be a nerd. Luckily, being a nerd isn't a bad thing. It might have made you less cool in high school, but nerds make great teachers.
Extreme makeover
The website www.freedictionary.com defines a nerd as "an insignificant student who is ridiculed for studying excessively." I reject the idea that nerds are insignificant. Most of my favorite teachers were nerds who were significant to me because of their love of learning and their passion for the subjects they taught. I offer a new definition for nerd: "A person who is excited about learning and who thinks that sharing knowledge is cool."
Excitement is contagious
Great teachers are never satisfied with how much they know about their subjects. They talk about history and physics at lunchtime, they read about geology and the American Revolution over the summer, they take classes because they want to learn more. Mediocre teachers stay one chapter ahead of their students. If asked a difficult question, they change the subject rather than seek an answer.
Students can tell when you are genuinely excited about what you're teaching. This excitement is contagious. A nerdy teacher loves when students bring in articles from the newspaper about the upcoming meteor shower or the new movie about Jamestown. They talk with students about the books they are reading and share pictures of battlefields they have visited. Students need to see that learning is not just something they do at school, it's a lifelong process that affects adults as much as kids.
So don't be embarrassed if a colleague or a student calls you a nerd. Accept the term as a compliment, a badge of honor signifying your commitment to quality teaching. Nerds may not always be the coolest people in the room, but they'll always be the ones that other teachers go to for help.
Peter Barnes teaches fifth grade in New Albany, OH.
