Rubix Cube Club
My Experience:
To try and understand what it is like to "be the other", I inserted myself into a place I knew I did not belong. Rubix cube club.
As soon as I walked in, I identified with one person, felt slightly more comfortable due to one little fact. There was a girl in the room which which I felt I could connect. The rest were boys. Three at first, and then two more. While I enjoy spending time around guys, had I been the only girl I would have felt even more out of place.
After taking into account the people in the room, it occurred to me just how little I knew. It felt like seeing beneath the surface of the iceburg, recognizing that few of the cubes were the traditional 3x3 with which I felt familiar. There were countless kinds of rubix cube I had never seen, never even heard about. There were 2x2, 4x4, 5x5, 6x6, and 7x7 cubes. Not only that, but there were Rubix cubes that weren't even cubes! There were pyramids and shapes which I do not even know how to name. There were cubes split up differently than a bunch of mini cubes. I wondered how you were supposed to know where the parts went on the irregular cubes.
Having never solved a Rubix cube in my life, I felt blown away by the speed with which the club's members solved these cubes. Hands moved so fast, they blurred before my eyes. I felt incapable of learning by watching those with such speed and even more unsure that my hands were even capable of doing that. One young man said he had gotten down to around 45 seconds. Another, using a timer, took around/less than 15 seconds. That was the fastest time recorded there.
I sat there and tried to participate, messing around with a Rubix cube. However, I did not know what I was doing and it was obvious. Others offered to help me, but at first I chose to watch. Later, the vice president helped me learn the first couple steps to solving the cube. I enjoyed learning as it challenged my thinking, trying to understand how it worked. I found it challenging though, testing my patience, when I would listen and watch as he showed me, then attempt to do as he had and end up feeling lost. Within a couple tries, I was usually able to follow.
Overall, I felt really inadequate and like my brain did not work like that, at least not so fast. Much of what they said went straight over my head. There was talk of algorithms and “hidden middles”.
Despite my inadequacy, I admit the members of the club were welcoming. They were nice and tried to help. The girl said it took her a couple hours her first time. All emphasized the importance of practice. I still felt pretty out of place, but I knew they were trying. I recognized I would be left in the dust for a long while were I to continue to go back, but recognized if I wanted to learn, I would likely need to go through that feeling of inadequacy. Whether or not I felt left out, I saw some effort to help me out and considered returning in the future.
How to apply it:
This experience helped to give me a little insight into how some students in my future classroom may feel. Lost and overwhelmed. Welcomed, but nonetheless left behind in the dust. Aware that the inequality will be there for a while and that they will have to work long and hard to ever be looked at as the same. Wondering if they will ever be capable of what the others are doing.
English language learners may very well experience all of these feelings. They may sit in class trying to follow along, but failing miserably as class moves too fast for them to sort through all the words. Others may try to welcome and befriend them, but without sufficient language skills, they are left behind, the language barrier requiring patience of both parties. They may be aware that it will take time to learn the language and that they will have to work hard before they can ever get along as easily as the other students.
Struggling readers may have very similar experiences when it comes to reading as a class or even one on one. They may not be able to catch up and feel lost when it is their turn to read. Then, they feel embarrassed. Others may question if they were paying attention, just as I felt that the vice president may have been questioning if I was listening when I afterwards struggled to do as he had told me. Students in lower reading groups may desire to climb the ladder and yet, as they improve, others do too.
Those who do not understand any of the subject material taught may feel lost as they struggle to understand the new flow of information. Getting behind at any point serves as a major disadvantage later on, making it even more difficult to understand the new information they learn.
For new students, talk of past assignments or events in class may leave them feeling lost. New students may feel welcomed by the class or by their teacher, recognizing that others want to get to know them, but because they were not there in the past, bonds have already been built between friends and other students have already established a connection with the teacher. While a connection may be built soon, will it ever be the same? Maybe. Maybe not.
As others speed along without any trouble, students with any disadvantage may feel they will never be the same, never quite catching up or doing as well as other students. They may feel that they will never fit. They may wonder if they are even capable of doing so, just as I did as I watched with awe wondering if my hands might ever move so fast.
As a teacher, I worry about how to help these students to catch up and feel adequate. I wonder how to create unity amidst so many differences. Perhaps the key is recognizing we all have both strengths and differences. It is part of being human. While differences are part of the beauty of life and interactions with one another, it is difficult to eliminate otherness when this is the case.
Artifacts
Club Members' Youtube Channels:
slowcuber17
macc66dreams
Photos:
To try and understand what it is like to "be the other", I inserted myself into a place I knew I did not belong. Rubix cube club.
As soon as I walked in, I identified with one person, felt slightly more comfortable due to one little fact. There was a girl in the room which which I felt I could connect. The rest were boys. Three at first, and then two more. While I enjoy spending time around guys, had I been the only girl I would have felt even more out of place.
After taking into account the people in the room, it occurred to me just how little I knew. It felt like seeing beneath the surface of the iceburg, recognizing that few of the cubes were the traditional 3x3 with which I felt familiar. There were countless kinds of rubix cube I had never seen, never even heard about. There were 2x2, 4x4, 5x5, 6x6, and 7x7 cubes. Not only that, but there were Rubix cubes that weren't even cubes! There were pyramids and shapes which I do not even know how to name. There were cubes split up differently than a bunch of mini cubes. I wondered how you were supposed to know where the parts went on the irregular cubes.
Having never solved a Rubix cube in my life, I felt blown away by the speed with which the club's members solved these cubes. Hands moved so fast, they blurred before my eyes. I felt incapable of learning by watching those with such speed and even more unsure that my hands were even capable of doing that. One young man said he had gotten down to around 45 seconds. Another, using a timer, took around/less than 15 seconds. That was the fastest time recorded there.
I sat there and tried to participate, messing around with a Rubix cube. However, I did not know what I was doing and it was obvious. Others offered to help me, but at first I chose to watch. Later, the vice president helped me learn the first couple steps to solving the cube. I enjoyed learning as it challenged my thinking, trying to understand how it worked. I found it challenging though, testing my patience, when I would listen and watch as he showed me, then attempt to do as he had and end up feeling lost. Within a couple tries, I was usually able to follow.
Overall, I felt really inadequate and like my brain did not work like that, at least not so fast. Much of what they said went straight over my head. There was talk of algorithms and “hidden middles”.
Despite my inadequacy, I admit the members of the club were welcoming. They were nice and tried to help. The girl said it took her a couple hours her first time. All emphasized the importance of practice. I still felt pretty out of place, but I knew they were trying. I recognized I would be left in the dust for a long while were I to continue to go back, but recognized if I wanted to learn, I would likely need to go through that feeling of inadequacy. Whether or not I felt left out, I saw some effort to help me out and considered returning in the future.
How to apply it:
This experience helped to give me a little insight into how some students in my future classroom may feel. Lost and overwhelmed. Welcomed, but nonetheless left behind in the dust. Aware that the inequality will be there for a while and that they will have to work long and hard to ever be looked at as the same. Wondering if they will ever be capable of what the others are doing.
English language learners may very well experience all of these feelings. They may sit in class trying to follow along, but failing miserably as class moves too fast for them to sort through all the words. Others may try to welcome and befriend them, but without sufficient language skills, they are left behind, the language barrier requiring patience of both parties. They may be aware that it will take time to learn the language and that they will have to work hard before they can ever get along as easily as the other students.
Struggling readers may have very similar experiences when it comes to reading as a class or even one on one. They may not be able to catch up and feel lost when it is their turn to read. Then, they feel embarrassed. Others may question if they were paying attention, just as I felt that the vice president may have been questioning if I was listening when I afterwards struggled to do as he had told me. Students in lower reading groups may desire to climb the ladder and yet, as they improve, others do too.
Those who do not understand any of the subject material taught may feel lost as they struggle to understand the new flow of information. Getting behind at any point serves as a major disadvantage later on, making it even more difficult to understand the new information they learn.
For new students, talk of past assignments or events in class may leave them feeling lost. New students may feel welcomed by the class or by their teacher, recognizing that others want to get to know them, but because they were not there in the past, bonds have already been built between friends and other students have already established a connection with the teacher. While a connection may be built soon, will it ever be the same? Maybe. Maybe not.
As others speed along without any trouble, students with any disadvantage may feel they will never be the same, never quite catching up or doing as well as other students. They may feel that they will never fit. They may wonder if they are even capable of doing so, just as I did as I watched with awe wondering if my hands might ever move so fast.
As a teacher, I worry about how to help these students to catch up and feel adequate. I wonder how to create unity amidst so many differences. Perhaps the key is recognizing we all have both strengths and differences. It is part of being human. While differences are part of the beauty of life and interactions with one another, it is difficult to eliminate otherness when this is the case.
Artifacts
Club Members' Youtube Channels:
slowcuber17
macc66dreams
Photos: