Opportunities for Learning

It never fails- whenever I find myself at the copier there are papers left behind.  Teachers, myself included, often leave behind originals of whatever they're copying.  Sometimes there are stacks of the same test, reading or exercise that have never been picked up.  The staff gets a few reminders here and there about saving paper and not being wasteful, and while I agree it's important to save resources I prefer to think of these orphan papers as opportunities.

Opportunity #1 comes along when I find something that I can use in my own classroom.  It doesn't happen all that often but when the right abandoned paper comes along at the right moment it feels real good.

Opportunity #2 comes along much more often and is a favorite of mine- extra tests.  I find tests and quizzes of all kinds- math, science, language and history.  While waiting for my own copy job to finish I like to take time to stretch my brain a bit to see how well I know subject areas different from my own.  Math is always enjoyable and rewarding- the problems are fun to mentally work through as I recall what I learned a long time ago.

Today I came across a test for history class.   I looked over the 25 or 30 questions and dug down deep to answer each one.  When my copying was done I put the extra test down and vowed to watch a few more documentaries on World War II.