Do you feel like you have reached your full potential goals and needs?
What was an experience that changed your life?
Have you ever had a really close connection with someone?
If you could go back in time, what would you change?
Have you ever been heartbroken?
What keeps you going in life?
What is something that you are not proud of?
Did you ever do something that you regretted in the long run?
If you were able to do something good for the world, what would it be?
What age do you think was your best age? Do you think you would want to be that age again?
What was the most painful moment in your life?
Are you proud of yourself?
If you could have something back, what would it be?
What’s happening in the world that you are completely against?
I was very excited about what the students would explore in the museum. I was excited that instead of giving them a paper guide, students would be guided by their own curiosity (I used Remind 101 to text students while we were separated in the museum about what they should be looking for and they used their phones to take pictures of these things) and they could legitimately explore the museum. I was even excited that there would be a 3-D IMAX movie. But I was extremely hesitant about the idea of students going up to strangers asking them questions, personal questions at that. In fact, when introducing the task, I told my students that we would probably fail and fail miserably. But when I planned this trip, it wasn’t just important that students see early humans. I really wanted them to be able to better answer the questions “What does it mean to be human?” when they walked away from this trip. And when I thought about what was needed for this to happen, talking to strangers seemed to be a risk we could take.
At the museum, it was amazing to see my students come alive in front of exhibits, whether they had previous knowledge or not. It was even fun to explore along with students. We came across a cave with handprints that we recognized as signatures and we could put our hands there. I was even more interested in the way students interacted with the people with whom they asked questions. It was the most rewarding thing to see students able to talk with others. I wonder if my students have learned as much from this unit as I have just from watching them on this trip.
When thinking about what it means to be fully human, to me, that means being able to live up your full potential. This trip definitely helped me better understand what that means by asking me and pushing my students to live it. It’s one thing to study how others are fully human; it’s another thing altogether to be pushed outside of a comfort zone. That is the only way we will really reach our full potential.