Rocket Boys

Blog #4

When we were given the reading list for Mathematics Area Content and I saw that Rocket Boys was first on the list, I was not totally against reading it. I read parts of this book in middle school and what I read, I enjoyed. This time was no different. Rocket Boys is such an inspiring story and I think it can teach students and adults a lot about life and chasing your dreams. I love the enthusiasm of Homer and the rest of the boys. The way they never gave up on their dream of building rockets and winning the National Science Fair. The support that they provided for each other motivated them to keep pursing their dreams. I was extremely touched by the reaction of the community when they saw the boys’ rocket launch into the sky. Through all the obstacles that got in Homer’s way, he continued to do what he could to keep his passion of building rockets alive.

I think that many students, especially middle school students, would be able to relate to this story in multiple ways. Middle school years are very awkward and fitting in can be difficult. You want to be “popular,” you want to fit in with your friends, and you want to make your parents proud at the same time but sometimes those to things don’t line up. Trying to figure out what their lives are going to be is sometimes on the forefront of their minds and sometimes at the back of their minds, but either way, encouraging them to follow their dreams is something I want to be able to do as a teacher. Like Miss Riley, “She was strict with us, not ever allowing anybody to get her off topic even once, but she still had an impish humor that she often used to keep us alert, along with such an obvious love for her subject that we all paid attention” (Hickam, 2000, p.150).  I want to be a teacher that students feel comfortable asking me to slow down or to go back over material they do not understand. I love how Miss. Riley always pushed her students to reach their full potential and how she always stuck up for the boys. If I ever use this book in the classroom, I hope my students think of me when they read about Miss Riley.

I know that this book was under the mathematics content area, but I don’t think I would use it in a middle school math class. The math content was far to hard for middle school students to use. Like I said earlier, I really enjoyed this book and I would however, use this book in a science classroom, particularly chemistry, showing combustion, the reactions of chemicals, and their effects on each other. I hope that my students would be inspired by the motivation of the boys and that they would be encouraged to chase their dreams and follow their hearts, not only in the classroom, but outside of school as well.

Citations:

Hickam, H. H. (1998). Rocket boys. New York: Dell Publishing.