So my youngest daughter is learning to drive. Actually, she is scheduled to get her license. Soon. Over the weekend, I took her to a parking lot so she could practice her parking.
"I have to line up my shoulders to the center of the spot," she informed me. "Then I turn the wheel all the way."
Each parking job was an accomplishment. Seriously.
How about just learning what the car does when you maneuver it, I wanted to say. I didn't though.
Instead, I went home and watched the videos from The Next Street driving school that offered new drivers precise instructions on lining up shoulders, watching lines in side mirrors, and assuming backward posture.
I woke up early this morning and couldn't go back to sleep, as I was thinking about a million different things including what I'd write for today's post. In the clutter of thoughts, I remembered a conversation I had on a hallway floor with Kate Roberts at the annual NCTE conference a couple, maybe even a few, years ago. Katherine Bomer's book, A Journey of Thought, had just come out, and I was really struggling with the concepts of the five paragraph essay.
"We need a structure when we're learning new things," I remember Kate saying. "Then we can experiment and make it our own."
My older daughte reminded me that she needed the parking methodology when she first started driving. "I don't need it anymore," Clare said. "Now I just park."
So much of learning requires a structure. We just have to make sure we get learners to that place where, like Clare and parking, they don't need it and just do it.
Happy Slicing,
So true! I took a class for my graduate program that required us to learn something new. It was really powerful to remember what it is like to learn something for the first time. My youngest just got his license -- the parking is the hardest. I can't believe they fail if they touch the curb - that is how I park! Hope all is well.
ReplyDeleteJust like learning to write and then writing to learn. Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteI am grateful my sons learned to drive in the US while I was not there- I feel like it might have really strained our relationships. Your slice was a great reminder about the use of scaffolds to move us toward independence and how we stop using them as we gain confidence.
ReplyDeleteErika
Yes! So true and yet so hard to let go sometimes as well! Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteI posted about driving today, too. I totally get what you are saying because I just bought a new car after driving the same one for 12 years. I sort of feel like your daughter. I know the theory, but it is a whole new ballgame in the new car.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post and an important way we can connect teaching with driving.
ReplyDeleteI still haven't found a successful way to parallel park. Maybe I'll have to try the shoulder thing. (More often than not, I will pay for a parking garage instead of trying to squeeze into a too-tight spot.)
I struggle with the question of structure for my students. I like to give them choice, even around structure, but sometimes that confuses them even more. I like this analogy.
ReplyDeleteYou leave me with much to consider as we teach a new skill to our very youngest of writers and readers. Structure or not? Maybe it is kid dependent? I'm still dwelling on this!
ReplyDeleteGoing through a divorce case is very heart broken when you love your partner with the whole of your heart.. My husband left me for a total stranger and I could not imagine what the hell was happening because everything looks like a dream to me. I was lost and confused about my life without any way to get a solution to make my husband see reasons with me that I love him so much. I was very depressed and desperate to win back my husband and I searched on GOOGLE for help about my situation and I got recommended to Lord Zakuza who is a powerful spell caster for he has so many magnificent testimonies and reviews on the internet from different people all over the world. I got in touch with him and I poured out my sorrowful heart to him and he encouraged and promised to help me out. He gave me some instructions of which a adhered to and within 48 hours of contacting Lord Zakuza my attorney called me to get me informed that the divorce case has been cancelled and I got a call from my husband 30 minutes after I finished speaking to my attorney. My husband and I are so much in Love with endless care and happiness and I so much thank Lord Zakuza for doing this for me and I know people out there might also need their partner or lovers back or want to get pregnant for your partner or husband. You can Text & WhatsApp Lord Zakuza on +1 740-573-9483 or email him via: ( Lordzakuza7@gmail.com ) for a change of story in your love life..
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe students will be able to check their UP Board Result for Class 12 via SMS also. The UP Board 12th Result 2021 would comprise the student's roll UP Intermediate Result 2021 Around 25 lakh students will be able to check their UP Board Result 2021 Class 12 for the UP 12th examination which will be conducted in April and May 2021.
Am here to testify what this great spell caster done for me. i never believe in spell casting, until when i was was tempted to try it. i and my wife have been having a lot of problem living together, she will always not make me happy because she have fallen in love with another man outside our relationship, i tried my best to make sure that my wife leave this woman but the more i talk to her the more she makes me fell sad, so my marriage is now leading to divorce because she no longer gives me attention. so with all this pain and agony, i decided to contact this spell caster to see if things can work out between me and my wife again. this spell caster who was a man told me that my wife is really under a great spell that she have been charm by some magic, so he told me that he was going to make all things normal back. he did the spell on my wife and after 5 days my wife changed completely she even apologize with the way she treated me that she was not her self, i really thank this man his name is Dr ose he have bring back my wife back to me i want you all to contact him who are having any problem related to marriage issue and relationship problem he will solve it for you. his email is oseremenspelltemple@gmail.com he is a man and his great. wish you good time.
ReplyDeleteHe cast spells for different purposes like
(1) If you want your ex back.
(2) if you always have bad dream
(3) You want to be promoted in your office.
(4) You want women/men to run after you.
(5) If you want a child.
(6) You want to be rich.
(7) You want to tie your husband/wife to be yours forever.
(8) If you need financial assistance.
(9) HIV/AIDS CURE
(10) is the only answer to that your problem of winning the lottery
Contact him today on oseremenspelltemple@gmail.com or whatsapp him on +2348136482342. https://www.facebook.com/Dr-odion-spell-temple
The author has discussed a very resourceful topic in times of the pandemic. We, as a nation, cannot keep our children out of schools forever. Hence a plan needs to be implemented where children can safely go to school without getting mass infected. However, it is not recommended for parents or children to go physically to the shops for book supplies. Hence there is a need for an online book shop such as KitaabNow.
ReplyDelete