Transistor Radios

You knew that you arrived in the middle 1960’s when you had your very own transistor radio.  For those of you who were not even kicking the slats out of your cradle at this time, ask your parents…or grandparents. Transistor radios allowed “instant on” operation since there were not filaments to heat up.  They could fit in your pocket, weighed less than half of a pound, ran on 9-volt batteries, and sometimes came with a real nifty earplug for ONE ear.  While the sound of baseball cards clipping the bicycle spokes was, as still is, about the best sound in the world, you moved up the ladder with your very own transistor radio.  Being able to listen to the game while actually playing the game made you feel tuned in to the world around you.  On a really clear night, being able to pick up a game with legendary players involved, well, that was just way cool.  You could listen to the music of The Beatles, The Byrds, The Stones, The Beach Boys, (ever notice the groups of the 60‘s had “The” in each name…that’s another Friday Outlook down the road)  anywhere you wanted with this device …IF you could get reception.  It seemed that invariably just when the 3-2 pitch was being delivered or the best part of a song was coming on, or when Jack Snow was wide open for the Irish, or the New Year’s Eve countdown of the WLS Top 100 songs of the year was reaching the top 10, everything went fuzzy. You had to adjust the antenna, point it in a different direction, stand on one leg with tin foil (old school for aluminum wrap) on the tip, and pray to God that this interference was short-lived.  Here’s the lesson in all this:  to hear to music, you had to stay tuned in…and you still do.

It’s that way in what we do.  We have to be tuned in to where kids are.  That’s the beauty of things like Acuity testing that while done properly, you can gain a great deal as to the progression of your kids.  That is what formative assessment is about = forming your instruction to meet the needs of the kids that you have assessed.  Formative testing is for the sake of the teacher. You will hear about that in next Friday’s “Lunch & Learn”.  This gives teachers a chance to “tune in”, to get your antenna up, to pick up some insight into what your students need to get them to where they need to be.  Sometimes you may have to point in a different direction to get the signal.  Often, you will make adjustments to fine tune some learning.  Maybe you will have to tighten your antennae to take the fuzziness out of what you are hearing from your students.  While you probably won’t have to stand on one leg with aluminum foil, you may have to bend over backward to get reception.  Largely, we do just that here at Col. Wheeler – whether it be in the classroom, reception desks, or in custodial duties.  Thanks for that.  As we approach the ISTEP, keep working to get clear reception along the way.