Let There Be Light!

I arrived at school today an hour plus before I am due to pick up my students. I walked into my quad and immediately noticed that the emergency exit lights were on. "Hmm," I thought.

Then, without giving my 7:15am brain a minute to process, I flipped the light switch up. "Hmm," I thought again.

DownUpDownUpDownUp went the switch.

Off, stayed the lights.

Uh-oh.

I walked into the main building, thinking that my poor little quad was just malfunctioning. Darkness greeted me, and I saw a huge crowd of teachers in the office. Holding flashlights that the office was providing.

Quick. Think. How can I take my 3 smartboard lesson plans and recreate them as active lessons. In the dark.

I walked around my room for a bit with the flashlight beam, searching for something, anything, to give me an idea of how to make the best of the morning. I had to dark plan for instruction until 10am - the time the power company promised the power would be back on.

Then the flashlight beam fell upon something wonderful. A big brown box delivered a week ago, sitting in the corner of my room waiting for me to pull it out and plan.

The Science Kit.

The Science Kit for Magnets and ELECTRICITY!

Forget that we are in the middle of a plant unit. I have batteries! And bulbs! And wire!

On each desk, I put all of the materials a student would need to... you guessed it... create light.

I told them some camp story of the Life Before Lights and they were hooked. I then challenged them to use each of the items on their desk to create light. They discussed, they squinted, they clipped and cut wire. Then, one by one, I made them declare: "LET THERE BE LIGHT!"

We all read by the light of the wee-bulb. They each had a personal circuit on their desk. I even heard some say "I'm going to save energy and turn my bulb off," as they chose to read by some light coming in (finally) through the window.

Even with this wonderful experience, they all still cheered when the lights flickered back on at 9:50-something. But for a few moments, we were all there. Back in time.