100th Day, 1914 Style

On January 23rd, 2nd grade celebrated the 100th Day of school.  We celebrated by going back 100 years to 1914.  Now 1914 is much different than 2014.  For one thing, we had to attend school in a one room school house.  January 23rd was an especially chilly day to be in a one room school house without central heat - it was NEGATIVE 27 degrees when you factor in the the wind chill!!  brrr...that outdoor outhouse was especially frightful!!

Class was much different as well.  To begin with, our desks were all in rows!  Students had to be silent unless they were called on.  Then, the students would stand, push in their chair, and state their answer to the question, and wait for permission to be seated again. Another big difference was that there was NO technology in 1914.  That meant our learning was done without the benefit of an Elmo, computer, or SmartBoard.  Most of the talking was done by the teacher and students spent much of their day performing orally as opposed to discussing and recording answers in writing.  Students performed math fact tests orally, participated in a spelling bee, and gave oral poetry recitations from memory.

Learning about games from 1914 was a big hit.  We played marbles, SNAP (similar to slap jack), Go Fish, and  Duck, Duck Goose.  Students learned that while there were fun games to play 100 years ago, they were seldom played during school.  They may have played running games during their lunch break, but otherwise games were played after school and on the weekends.  School was for learning - not playing!!

At the end of the day, Mrs. Mazur brought in a special treat for us; War Cake.  War Cake was a staple from 1914 on throughout World War I.  It is a type of bread that was made without butter, eggs, or milk.  Students enjoyed their sample and many were even brave and ate the raisins, though they claimed to not like them!

At the end of our adventure it was overwhelmingly decided that we prefer to attend school in 2014.  We missed our technology and the interactions that are the everyday norm in our classroom.  While it was interesting to see how silent a room could be when following old school ways, I question the amount of learning that was occurring.  Research has learned so much about the way children learn and I firmly believe that talking, interacting,and performing hands on activities are crucial to students' development and learning.  Besides, it is hard to be the teacher in 1914 because you have to talk all day!

Overall we had a wonderful trip back in time and a great 100th Day of School.  :)  I'm attaching a few videos here and look for our picture slide show in the next post.