Chasing Dreams!

 We can always be better. It doesn’t matter how good you are at teaching, how good your classroom management style is, how well you engage your students, there’s always more to discover and achieve. There are always better goals, there are always loftier heights to reach. And there are always dreams.

A couple of years ago, my principal shared an idea with me – what she thought would be the perfect job for me. A mix of literacy coach and media specialist, allowing me to extend my love of learning to many more students, to help coach teachers to bring literacy into different content areas, and to give me more freedom that the ELA curriculum does not allow.  I loved the idea, and it seems that many other people agreed that this would be the perfect fit. The problem was finding the principal who would be willing to create the position. Someone who would give up that allotment, to allow a vision to occur.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

We almost thought it was going to happen. It was so close. But then, it ended up that the job didn’t happen. And the little fledging dream was crushed, as they so often are.

But the beautiful thing about dreams is that you are never stuck with just one. Dreams are yours, no one can stop you from having them, and they can be as elaborate — and detailed — as you would like them to be.

I like making up dreams. I like to think of possibilities. I like to imagine just what could be achieved in the right climate💡 

Of course, this is one reason sleep is often overtaken by ideas 🛌 

The old cliché is always true when one door closes, another one opens. But I also think you have to look for that door. Maybe you have to push that door a little, give it an extra nudge, make things happen.

So right now, I’m at that stage where I’m creating dreams again. Thinking of how I could find a way to move out of the strictures of the fixed curriculum and into a world of digital citizenship, real-life research, and authentic project-based learning. How can I bring that to students?     There’s limited scope as the traditional ELA teacher, but maybe there are ways. Would I be able to find that job in a not-so-traditional environment 🤔 Can I integrate more into ELA without competing with common assessments🤨

It’s ‘crazy season’ in our world right now

🤪 🤪 🤪 🤪 

COVID or not, we are hiring and planning for next year.  Teachers are shifting roles and competing for positions. There’s a fine line between 'speaking up’ and ‘being pushy.’ But then there’s that feeling of, “I was professional before and that got me nowhere...”

So I’ve had a suggestion made to me, one that I really like. I countered with one that I like even better, and that’s as far as it can go right now.

I really want to believe that my dream was taken away because there’s a better one around the corner. And maybe the corner isn’t going to be this summer, maybe it’s going to be next year, but at least I have begun to sow some seeds, and people who have the power are listening.

In the meantime, I have a simple job, to be the best teacher I can possibly be to the students that I am lucky enough to have🤷🏼‍♀️

But no one can stop me from dreaming 💭💭💭

ELA - Enough of the Essays!

I wonder how many more ELA teachers we would have if we didn’t have to grade essays. 

No really. 

I’m serious. 

I myself am looking for ways to continue my love of literacy and teaching children the joy of reading and writing, without having to be an ELA teacher. 

Because I love it. 

Yesterday, we literally geeked out about syntax and diction as we looked at Langston Hughes‘s poem, Mother to Son, and talked about the word choices, and painted pictures. 

The prompt was simple, “What’s the story?”

The kids loved it, I loved it. 

They wrote such amazing things. They found passion, made connections, related. And I did nothing but give them the moment.

It was one of those, what I call, Robin Williams moments. 

But then I came home and spent two hours immersed in essays. Essays that have created pressure in my life to get graded and back. 

We’re on a timeline, have expectations. The kids need to hear feedback about their work. Parents want a grade. 

It's not fun. 

And yet, I love to work with writing. That’s fun. The building, the improving, the idea-sharing. 

It’s time-consuming but satisfying. Hard work but pleasing.

But then there are the 140+5 paragraph essays to give a final grade to.  

Yes, the hard graft is done, and these are much quicker to check than when I had to get feedback on the introductions, the body paragraphs, the conclusions.....and therein lies the rub. 

It isn’t so much the grading of the essays, it’s the fact that I’m grading these essays the week after I’ve been up late every night giving feedback on the rest of the writing.  

And of course, with the virtual students, the issue that they keep working according to the plan, ignoring your feedback.

It’s why people don’t choose to teach ELA. How many great teachers opt out because of this?

Because there is little I like more in life than sharing great writing with kids, giving feedback, diving in, and analyzing. That’s fantastic. The kids love it, I believe it makes them better students of everything. 

Imagine a world where the focus was on that. Imagine a world where we created better readers and writers by studying and enjoying great writing.  

But they have to write, right?

The only way to become a great writer is by writing. And that writing needs to be shared and the craft grown through advice and suggestions. And that’s my job.  But there has to be a better way to do this. 

I talk to people all the time who say they would’ve taught ELA if it wasn’t for the grading. I talk to people all the time who now teach different content areas but miss ELA. They just had to switch over because of all the grading. These are good teachers who would’ve made a difference.  They are still good teachers. They are still making a difference. 

But the world of ELA needs them.

Oh I know, there are plenty of tricks and strategies - plenty of ways to just focus on part of the essay, to divide up the feedback, to use peer feedback....and if we could build our units with more writing time, perhaps that would be doable. It’s time to sit and redesign.  To be honest though, whenever I do that, the load seems greater. And even more to the point, in our current virtual reality, the amount of feedback needed to support our young writers’ growth is immense.

The grass is always greener, right?  I look with envy at other content areas. What was I thinking not transferring my social studies and science qualifications to Georgia?  

But then I have lessons like that one this week.  

Well, enough musings...I have essays to grade. 

Teaching is Everywhere

I’m not the only one who sees teaching connections wherever they go am I? 

Some of them are obvious. Like when we are at puppy training, and there’s a comment about a puppy having learned to refuse to do something, because it just wasn’t fun. Ha, sound familiar? We have to learn to do things that aren’t fun, but perhaps we can find fun ways to learn how to do them! 

But then there are less obvious times, like when the vet tech comes outside to pick up the puppy – in these COVID times things are aa little different – and I find myself telling her glowingly about my puppy, about how she knows how to sit, how she’ll behave better if she’s bribed with a treat, how she does have ‘down’, but she won’t stay there very long… I’m pretty sure that the vet tech knows all these things. I’m also fairly certain that every puppy owner believes his or her puppy is the cutest and best puppy in the world. Yes. There’s a definite connection.. I felt a little bit like multiple parents at open house 🤦‍♀️

Then there’s those things that you see, that you’re experiencing, and you think… Oh my goodness, how can I integrate this into my teaching? Like lines at Disney. Instead of being bored waiting, we are engaged and interested by the by-play, the characters, the little signs… We know exactly how long we’re probably going to wait, and there’s something in between this sign and the next sign, and we’re ready for it. The ride is such a small part of the whole experience. Well, how can I replicate that in my teaching? How can I make the boring slow learning the engaging part, so the ride is the cherry-on-the-top. I might add, that my husband was not amused by all these musings while at Disney.

Then there are dining experiences, obvious things like creating a playlist that’s like a menu, but then more importantly, how to entice… How to tempt the customer to try something new? How to use images and word play to make something sound more interesting?. Taste tests, samples ... so much that can be brought into our teaching.

What about arguments, threads on social media? How do our interests and passions direct our thinking? Can social media commentary be used as a tool?  I saw the quiet kids participate when behind a screen (during distance learning), so there’s an important connection there too.

Everywhere I look, I see something that ties to my teaching.

Everywhere.

Ideas to grab interest. Real world connections. Valuable to me. Connecting with my interests. 

My husband calls it an obsession. I call it good practice. If it isn’t interesting or relevant, if there is no purpose ... then how do I compete with everything else out there? If students are enticed into the learning, if they see a point in the content, if they are shown how this is replace them to their lives - if all those factors are in play, then I’ll have success.

Less Support? Working at Need Level? Thinking About Next Year

So I read this article. As somebody who used to ride her bike a lot, and whose husband still rides, the analog really held true. In fact, I really didn’t need to read the article – the title says it all.  The Training Wheel Fallacy for Teaching Writing

The article grows the analogy and made me think about a variety of experiences on my road bike. From that time I couldn’t unclip to save myself (in front of a filled restaurant beer garden), to the time some friendly redneck through a full cup of water at me - I guess he didn’t approve of cyclists! It made me compare those memories to my students’ experiences, just as this writer wanted me to do.  

What was particularly great about this article was the timing.. It came at the very moment that I had been thinking about just how to really use what I have learned this spring, during distance learning, in my teaching next year. The thinking continued.

Not long after reading this article, I had a student submit some work. The task was the final project of the year, quite simple – and very much reduced from expectations had we been at school. They had to take a god who was Greek as well as Roman and create a small presentation, including some specific criteria. They then had to create a virtual presentation of the findings. Most students created a slideshow, and then made a Screencastify. One student made a beautiful poster and videoed her presentation. A couple of students made videos of themselves presenting the slideshow using a cell phone and laptop. Two students made really good PowToons, and a couple of students used applications that I’ve never seen before. One student, had a Greek god talking to the Roman god, comparing each other. That was pretty creative. 

But then there was this one student, who has been a frustration all year. A nice boy, respectful, always does his work, but you always got the feeling that he did ‘just’ enough. You knew that there was more in there, but it just wasn’t coming out. I would conference with him, and my frustration always came out despite myself. He would always smile politely at me, and say that he was happy with his grade. Since I rarely talk about grades, that added to my frustration! I would say to him, “Yes, your grade is fine, but what about the learning – what about the creativity – don’t you want to do a little bit more?” He would smile politely and said he was quite happy. During our virtual learning, nothing has really changed there, he’s done most of the assignments, he’s done enough to fulfill a rubric or the criteria, and he’s just steadily gone along. But then we came to this final project. 

He blew me away. 

Now cynics in the room might say his parents probably did it for him. But I know the student’s situation, they did not. Was it as well 'finished' as some of the other work? No! He doesn’t have that habit of editing and polishing. But it was creative. It was unexpected.

He made Flipgrid do things I didn’t know Flipgrid was capable of doing! He had slides popping up in his presentation and transitions. He obviously spent some time creating this video. It was amazing! I told him so too. I even asked him if he can create a Screencastify showing us how to do that. He sort of mumbled at me on Google Meet, and I don’t think the task made the top of his to-do list.  But I do believe that he was delighted to be asked.

So what does this all boil down to? 

I think that although we know there are students who lost support that they needed or students who just never came and asked for help. Some didn’t know how to struggle and gave up immediately.  Next year, we will talk about struggle.

We know that there were students lost because of equity issues, lots of young children in the house, children left alone without supervision, and not ideal work situations – where schoolwork was the least important thing on the table. We know that. And if we have to continue virtual learning in any shape or form, we need to work through concerns and issues. 

I also know that there were teachers who did not offer learning opportunities on a consistent basis.  My kids thanked me profusely for offering the same class twice a day, they said it made a huge difference to have that option that could change with their schedule. They loved the fact that I kept going with the read alouds. 

This is not a pat on the back for Bridget, because I actually feel guilty for not having done more. I look around the country, or I participate in my club RCA webinars, and I realize there is so much more I could’ve done. And that in a future situation, I will be doing. It’s more of a statement that this has not been perfect.

But for some kids, this has been eye-opening. I have had students produce some of the best work that I’ve ever seen from sixth graders. And I know it’s because they’ve had the time to do it. There hasn’t been the pressure of ‘grades matter’ and there hasn’t been a state test out there, lurking in the future. It’s just been about being creative and producing the best work you can possibly do. 

Did some have help from the parents? Well sure! But they could’ve had that help in past years too, it’s rare that I’ve had anything that has not been allowed to be worked on at home! Typically I don’t assign much homework, but they would’ve had the choice to ask for help on on-going projects.  In some ways, it has been great to see non-involved parents stop in and take time to help their students. I’ve done these wonderful one-on-one sessions with students who have been struggling, and have seen them sore to heights that are not achieved at school. Because at school, I can’t give them more than two or three minutes in the class. At school others need attention. At school there are multiple distractions for both teacher and student.  

So what will change?

1. I am going to look at each unit of study, and really think about what the end goal is – I mean I already did that to an extent, but I want to think about doing this in a different way. What is it that we want them to be able to do, and create? What is it we want them to be able to explain? What is it they just need to understand? Last year, I would have said that we did this - and we did. But having gone to ‘bare bones’ with virtual learning, it has shown me how important it is to REALLY did down and say, “What matters. What is ESSENTIAL?”
2. As I look at what matters, how am I going to have them show me their knowledge? How can I find ways for the students to choose how to show me what they know?
3. Now that I consider number one and two, I want to see how I can create that in a self-paced fashion. How can we make the learning possible for those independent learners, while still making sure that each goal has been achieved, and that every student has the support they need. Another thing I have learned from distance learning is how many students just rush through to get the job done, without paying attention to what COULD be done. I mean, that’s nothing new right? However, there are kids that have slipped by me in the past because the support was too great. I need to be able to let them fail a little more, and determine what needs fixing themselves. To me, this means more reflection during the learning and more self-checks, and perhaps peer checks.
4. Conferring. Conferring. Conferring.
5. Talk about struggle. How that's where the learning happens.
6. Online conversations, evening help sessions, one-on-one support could be virtual to give me more time. Why not have a once a month conference? I don’t really give homework, so why not create a conference homework time? Depending on the number of kids and need, conferences could be more or less frequent. Personal. Individual.
7. I definitely need to extend the belief and creativity through more open-ended concepts, with students having the opportunity to determine how they show their learning. I discovered that by being more experimental, we achieved more. So although we have to determine mastery of certain elements, why not allow the students to find ways to prove their mastery to me.  Choice is fun.  Choice is interesting.
8. This year, I went to feedback instead of grades for formatives. My kids have been very very supportive of this. Interestingly, it is the highest achievers who have enjoyed the most. Taking away the fear of getting poor grades gave them the freedom to perform.  Now I’m looking at how to create that feeling in the summative aspect of things. I know that I will not be able to go gradeless for summatives, although there might be some potential there for conferring to adjust grades. However, I am thinking of working with my team to have more frequent and focused summatives. Enough of these awful, long tests. To me, they create a lot of failures and not a lot of success. It’s been something I’ve been playing with for a while, and have had some success, but I think this year will be the year to get serious.

There’s always so much to do and so much to think about as summer approaches. I always feel like it’s important not to just say, “We’re done”, and then revisit at the beginning of the year - because of the beginning of the year, it’s honestly too late. Now is when you reflect. Now is when you make decisions.

We don’t know what next year will look like, but we do know is, this will be our go-to in similar situations. We need to be able to manage our online learning, we need to manage to coach, engage, and support in a virtual capacity. I feel like I’ve made some great strides, and I have a vision for what could be achieved. I believe that in future situations, we will go into this with a little bit more structure and that will help immensely. Parents frequently told me how grateful they were – actually the students more than the parents – for teachers with set class times. They wanted to know, on a consistent basis, exactly what was going to be taught when, rather than the occasional ‘hit and miss’ of some offerings.

We all need a little bit of structure, and we all need a little bit of freedom. We all need support, but we all need to be allowed to fly. Some students need more help than others, others need more options. The bottom line is, I can do this, I just need to plan and think about it.

Editing Essays with Walk'N'Talk!

Walk'N'Talk in ACTION!

I always tell my students to read their writing out loud. 

I know that when I read my writing out loud, I always find the places where I should’ve put a comma, where I’ve missed some simple spelling, even where I’ve missed a word (I’m not sure how that happens by the way, but it seems to be something I do a lot! Especially when I text talk my writing first).  Anyway, I'm a broken record on this. I’ll ask my students, "What is one thing you could do to make your editing process better?" and they will invariably say, "Read my work aloud!" sometimes they even chorus it.  And then they never do it. 

Ever.

So there’s a disconnect. A big one!  They can spout off the answers, but don't do it.

And then, this week, off the top of my head, off-the-cuff, in the middle of a lesson, I found a way to make it happen.

We were coming to the end of writing time for an informative essay when a student came up to tell me that he was finished with his writing. I looked over the writing quickly, and I saw that the writing was replete with errors, even though the 'voice' side of things was pretty good. So without really thinking about it, I said, "Why don’t you go walk up and down the hallway, and read this aloud to yourself. Just hold the computer out in front of you, look where you're going and read it a couple times. See if you can find any mistakes,"  and off he went.  Then I had another student claim that they were finished.  Again, I looked over the work quickly, and thought, maybe this is something I should do with everyone. So I gave the same instructions and off she went. 

As I watch the students stopping and making corrections to the hallway, I thought… This has potential. So I quickly went to my computer and adjusted my instructions on the board.  Now they read, 

When you think that you are finished...
Visit Mrs. B for permission to 
WALK'N'TALK!

Well, that got their attention - now they were excited. 

I had to create rules-because they love it when they think it’s a real 'activity'. 

So, here were the instructions.

• Walk the hallway three times.  As you walk, read your work aloud.
• As you come across a mistake, stop, and stand still, both feet on one tile (I told them that this was very important - I couldn't help it, they were so serious).
• Make your corrections. 
• Once corrected, you may continue.
• Keep walking, keep stopping to make corrections, keep walking, until you have walked and talked the hallways three times!

The results were unbelievable. Well, not really, when you consider that all writers know just how powerful reading work aloud is, but the kids were blown away.  I had students telling me that they had found five or six mistakes - sidenote, they were amazed by this!! They told me they had fixed punctuation, found run on sentences, seen things that just didn't make sense...they were as excited as I was! 

As I look over the finished work today, I realized how much 'cleaner' the essays were from the kids later in the day, after I implemented the Walk'N'Talk wholesaele. 

I’m going to make this a permanent strategy, part of our editing list - and the next time I do it, I’m going to tally the number of edits they tell me they make. I think it would make for some interesting action research. Plus, how powerful this would be for the kids to see - to show them just how much this can help them with their writing. 

#Powerful. #ItWasJustALastMinuteIdea #ThingsTheWork

Amping Up My Note-Taking

So I have an idea.  I’m always having ideas, and I try to implement as many as I can without causing complete mayhem in the classroom 😝.  I always tell the kids too, and get their feedback.  After all, they ARE the experts.  Some ideas fall flat, some are amazing. This idea, it’s not too exciting, but I’m hoping that it’s super successful. 

It all started after listening to Jennifer Gonzalez’ fantastic note-taking podcast. If you don’t listen to the Cult of Pedagogy podcast, you’re missing out on some of the best free professional learning. 

So, she talked about the best ways to take notes. Talked about the research. And it seems that the combination of all of the different types of note-taking, works best. Now that sounds like a muddle doesn’t it.  After all, how much stuff can we throw at our poor kiddos?!  What I mean by all of them is, we need to find ways to mix in scaffolded notes (fill-in-the-blank notes), with teacher notes, with students taking their own notes. All three types of note-taking have benefits, so it only makes sense that all three put together is the best way to teach. But then I thought, why not add another layer to the mix?  An area for ‘help needed’ or ‘questions I have’?  

One of my goals this year is to truly work on better feedback. I think that is probably a goal for every teacher, right?  I really want to better my feedback with my students. I read about these wonderful ideas, but I always run into time issues.  I try to conference, but never get around the room. I add reflection in there whenever I can, but then take up all my own time in reading and response.  I’ve thought about cutting my own time by having kids to prepare for conferences, but then that adds a layer of extra work to their already full plates, flies in the face of my desire to avoid homework, and the very kids who need the most support, will be the students who don’t do it. 

But reflection is vital to learning.

Feedback is my job.

Personal conferencing is best teaching practice.

So here’s what I’m thinking. To the side of the notes I just created, I have added an area for a student questions.  They will take notes initially in their composition books.  Then they will be given their prepared notes for their folders to ensure they have the information they might have missed in their note-taking (I need to add some scaffolded sections in there too), and then we’ll have a two minute reflection time.  

Wait!  

An even better idea has come to mind!  At the end of class, when we have our final five (my closing activity), they can revisit their questions and add to them, writing out their most compelling thoughts on an index card to submit to me.  That way they revisit the thinking after doing the work the notes were preparing them for - and I have an instant assessment of student thinking. Yes!  I like that addition!

Oh my goodness. Now I’m getting even more excited. So all that remains is for me to create these all-singing-all-dancing notes for all topics if this works. I guess I’ll be putting that on my to do list. 

Time to implement!  Let’s GO 🏃‍♀️