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. 

Online Blogging

There isn't always time to write - but there is always time to talk :)

So, I have started a YouTube channel for some personal reflection and musings.  Now I have two ways to reflect, two ways to share!  I don't know if anyone reads them but me, but... 😃

Here is my first post - on feedback using Google Classroom Rubrics 

Here is my second post - on extended learning lessons learned and types of learners in my virtual classroom:  

What Happened?

It's been a strange year.  I mean, REALLY strange.

You think that I'm referring to the extended online learning, COVID 19 and all of that?

Nope.  It was weird long before that!

• I found it much harder to build the kinds of relationships with kids that I am used to - parents too. 
• I felt much more of an island in my teaching, but at the same time more accepted by our faculty (she's weird, but she's one of our own?!).
• Our administrative team remains awesome, but I haven't had that person to sit and share with the same way that I had in past iterations of a leadership team. Is that a criticism?  Not at all, more to do with personalities.

You can tell it was different. I haven't blogged. I haven't found the same sort of excitement in sharing my learning. 

So, that's the negative (heck of a way to lead off, huh?).

Now to the positives!

I adapted my schedule, my hours, my intensity to allow myself more me-time.  I focused on being with Paul and my football (soccer) family.  I decided to ride my horse for the joy of it, rather than continually setting goals that were beyond us both (as a relatively aged pair!). We created a date night that both of us adhered to until the restaurants closed...but have ordered in food ever since. I've allowed myself to create and enjoy, but have focused on finding ways to think about which feedback matters the most, ways to give feedback in class, creating student reflections to allow THEM to make comparisons between exemplars and their own work.

Honestly, its been kind of awesome.

So, as I said - a weird year!

And now we are teaching from home, and a new challenge arises.  And you know what, guilt fills me as I type this, but I am enjoying it. A lot.

Oh yes, it was horrific at first.  All my work time rules went to heck in a hand-basket as kids were reaching out 24-7. Desperate to support them in whatever way I could, I spent hour making videos for kids, videos for parents...anything I could do. It was exhausting.  But then things began to find their rhythm. Then I realized that I was sleeping at night. Next thing that happened was that I could come off my prescription medicine for GI issues.

I discovered just how much stress I layer on myself - What do other people think? How can I fit in? Why do they laugh at my ideas?  All gone. One fell swoop. Just left with me and my (virtual) classroom.

Am I worried about the 2-3 kids who have gone missing? Yes.  Am I frustrated by the kids who have apparently forgotten how to access work and apparently have told parents that we never did it this way? You bet I am!  Do I get bothered by the students who do as little as possible, but then turn in their work to avoid that MISSING notification? Of course I do!  Am I super proud of my kids who are THRIVING with independent learning and far more time for one-on-one supports?  Yes I am.

Every day I am learning about things that will change in either my virtual or real classroom.  That's exciting, invigorating, and just plain good learning.

So, strange year indeed.  I last blogged in the fall, Now it's April and we are teaching from home.