Category Archives: Reflections on teaching

A love note to my students

April 15, 2015Reflections on teachingonathought

I wore my “gratitude” bracelet today as I proctored our state test. And even though I occasionally wanted to whistle Rue’s song, I didn’t. I just did my job. I walked. I monitored. I walked. I monitored. I walked. . . you get the picture, I’m sure. Since I’m supposed to monitor without looking at or reading the test itself, I decided to closely read my students instead. In the book Falling In Love with Close Reading, Kate Roberts and Christopher Lehmen remind us that we closely read what we love. (Read this post from Kate Roberts for a great perspective on this concept.)

So I closely read my students, who you must know, I already loved. I jotted down a love note to them on a my very own piece of scrap paper.

Dear Students,

I think I love you even more today. You know this isn’t my favorite time of school, but right now I’m full of gratitude for you.

I love that I can tell you don’t want to be silent, and I am so thankful that you are silent anyway. I love how you whisper, “This is so suspenseful!” as I finish handing out scrap paper and start reading the directions.

I love how you roll your eyes, in a friendly way when I ask once again for any electronic devices. I love how you mouth the words to my directions as I read them. I love your twitchy legs, and your bored smiles, your hard work and even your not so hard work. (You – I see you’re finished after just a few minutes. You’re so bright and creative. I’m sorry you are having a hard time putting that all into a text dependent analysis.)

You all sit behind privacy screens, even after your work is done. I watch you fidget and you settle. I love that you chose to read Calvin & Hobbs, and you chose Lacrosse Magazine. You picked up Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I love how many of you are reading Harry Potter books, Maze Runner, and Lord of the Rings. Everyone seems to have the perfect post-test choice. And I love the way some of you aren’t reading. Your heads are down. You’re done for now. That’s okay.

I love the way you stacked your mints, and lined up your pencils. And then how you stack and line them again. And again. I love the way you put your book down, and pick it back up. I love that you ask for extra time, and I love that you don’t. I love that you stick your finger through your tissue to make a puppet. I love that you silently cheer when testing is done, and remain polite and silent as I read the directions to close your test booklets, even though you have already given your test to me.

We’re in this together, folks. Thanks for being such great people. I am lucky to spend my days with you.

Love,

Your ~~Proctor~~ Teacher

A Slice of Anger, in rhyme

April 14, 2015Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

Part of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers. Head over there for information and links to more Slicing! It’s also April… So poetry it is!

I’m angry.

I'm angry.
So I’m choosing rhyme 
and a little bit of meter
to tell you about some
of the testing today, dear reader. 

I’m angry. 
So, I need to write
and hope that somebody is starting a fight. . . 
That people will stand up for 
what 
is 
right.

I’m angry.
So, I don’t quite trust
myself to write
something real, but not mean
before I head to bed tonight.

I’m angry. 
This testing day wasn’t 
so hard 
for me
It was not
overly 
stressful
I handled it fine
My students didn’t cry
Nobody had a fit
They sat where I 
told them to sit

Kids sucked on mints
behind privacy screens
and the testing cop 
wasn’t too mean.
He pointed to a hood on someone’s head
and handed me a piece of paper.
Nothing was said.

We had it easy in my room. 
Maybe because 
most of the kids I proctor
had breakfast and lunch
and will have supper.
Most are white
and middle class.
Most of them read pretty well, pretty fast.

I taught them to breathe
whenever they felt stress.
I told them they are worth 
so much more
than this test.

I assured them that whatever happened
our school wouldn’t close down
that I’d still be around
that they would be fine
even if they messed up 
a few times. 

I decided some things
while everything was silent
while I walked and I walked (and I walked) 
the aisles of this new classroom climate

I decided you should 
opt 
your 
kids 
out.
I decided it’s something we all need to shout.
I decided I’m angry 
at all the rules
and all this wasted time in our schools. 

I decided It’s about civil rights
and so much more.
It’s about standing up for others --
even if your own kids are fine 
not stressed
have a high score.

It’s about taking back assessment
so that it can mean something real.
It’s about caring more about 
how the actual children feel.

Learning is hard: “Getting to know kids through content”

April 12, 2015Celebrate, Reflections on teachingonathought

I’m participating in Ruth Ayres Celebrate This Week. Check out the link up here.

Today, I’m celebrating that learning is hard, and messy…even when it looks fun and fluffy.

Every year, I almost cancel my puppet project before it even starts. I think about the planning: finding research times, writing times, prep times, sewing times, practicing times, show times… So. Much. Time. I think about finding enough parent volunteers, begging for supplies, trips to the fabric shop, and how much fleece I’m going to have to cut and count just to get it ready for the kids. I think about how hard it is to get everyone started on that first day of sewing. I think about how students will look at me like I have 2 heads when I show them how to thread their needle and how to whip stitch. But, In the back of my mind, I do remember why I do the project.

I see flashes of students gathered in “sewing circles.”

I see students faces beam with pride as they right-side-out their puppet’s face for the first time and say, “Look! It’s a real puppet!”

I see students putting their information into creative, entertaining scripts and rehearsing for their puppet show.

I see families coming to watch the show, wondering what all the fuss is about, and families leaving with smiles and pride.

I see emails I’ve received from parents telling me, “Thank you for all you do to teach them in creative ways…my child learned so much, benefitted so much….The newspaper should do a story on this project… ” Those emails are wonderful reminders of how a project can mean something to a student.

My Instructional Coach said something at a meeting the other day – it was a lightbulb moment for me. We were talking about curriculum, responsive teaching, relationships and knowing our students. We were talking about inquiry and literacy and my Instructional Coach said, “Content is one of the ways we can get to know our students.”

Content? I think I’ve always had content and relationships separate in my brain. I teach students…and what I teach them is content. But my coach is right (as usual – don’t tell her I said so…) and I felt the lightbulb turn on. I have been reflecting on this throughout the week, especially as it relates to my Greek research project that culminates in a big puppet show.

This content, along with the process, and the product for that matter, really helps me get to know my students. Often, I see a different side of them. It isn’t just the contagious engagement level: Many students who are used to experiencing failure are often successful; Some students who are used to experiencing only success often hit some roadblocks along the way. I love to watch their mindsets as they work hard to be persistent. It takes rigor to pull out a whole row of stitches and start over. As students take their information and turn it into creative scripts, they are working hard and having fun.

Sometimes I feel defensive when people ask me about this project. It takes a long time, and a lot of effort by students, teachers, and parents. At first glance, people may think it is “fluff.” Sometimes students are worried about the project challenges and tell me “I’m not crafty.” I’ve had parents tell me that when they first looked at my information about it, they rolled their eyes. Even after the first day of sewing, it still looks “messy.” (And I don’t just mean the piles of embroidery floss and small bits of fleece!) Some kids are left with so much sewing to do after that first work time that people don’t believe it’s ever going to work. I still get nervous after that first day.

But then — it works. The kids are amazing. The parents volunteers are amazing. The puppets are amazing. The scripts are informative and fun. At some point after the project has been put away, I know I will stop finding fleece bits on my clothes.

So, when it was once again time to start planning the research and sewing calendar, I took a deep breath. I sat down to really write out the purpose of this project. I wanted it to be more than an awesome feeling. My list of “Knows” and “Dos” and “Understands” filled up a page and a half of a google doc.

Let me tell you the truth. I actually like “fluff.” I think “fluff” has its place in our classrooms, because our classrooms are full of children. But, here’s another truth. This project – the one where my kids research and plan, symbolize and represent, write and revise, rehearse and preform? This project is not “fluff.”

After this project, students will know more about ancient Greece, research, script writing and presentation. They will have gathered, evaluated and organized information. They will have symbolized with representations. They will know how to whipstitch, and how to hot glue. They will have performed in front of an audience! My goal is that they will understand that creative expression can be hard work, and that creativity is not the opposite of learning.

#sol15 March 30 Complaints

March 30, 2015Family, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March. You should do it too! Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!

Feeling Complain-y today… And since I’m dreaming of ordering this T-Shirt…. I figured I may as well write some poetry. 🙂

My skin, dry 
my house, a mess
my email?
A load of stress

My work, piled
high at school
While I'm at home,
a sleepy fool

My grades, due
My daughter has a cold
Laundry, clean but
I still have to fold

My nose, stuffy
I need to file a nail
Students owe me work
Please don't let them fail

My computer, wonky
It has a mind of its own
Making it hard for me
to do work, not groan

April, I need some time 
A meditation, a rest
But what will I get?
A standardized test

#sol15 March 27 Thanks for the Feedback!

March 27, 2015Reflections on teaching, Slice of Life, Uncategorizedonathought

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March. You should do it too! Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!

“Thanks for the feedback!” Bo told us, as he handed us his card and we walked out of the restaurant.

After our dinner, we had politely told Bo that we wanted to give him some feedback. We included how kind and helpful he and the rest of the staff were, and also the fact that the soup hadn’t been hot.

(DISCLAIMER: Food was excellent, service was great… soup was apparently just a bit cool. My table of friends would recommend this place in a heartbeat. In fact, if you are in Virginia for the UVABPI, go tomorrow! 🙂

“We aren’t complaining. Just giving you some feedback that you can hopefully use,” one of us said.

He listened and apologized, and we all talked with him about how it was a timing issue. The restaurant opened under this management 3 weeks ago, and they are still getting their whole game together.

Our table of teachers explained to Bo that we had just spent the day learning about assessment. “We are sitting beside you,” we told him even though he probably thought that was a weird thing to say, considering we were seated at our table, and he was standing next to it. “We want you to use this feedback as learning. We can’t wait to come back and eat here again.”

Bo thanked us for our feedback and planned on using it to better his timing. Do your kids thank you for your feedback?

Assessment. Today was about assessment. I love that the latin root of the word assessment means “to sit beside.” This isn’t what many people think of when they think of assessment, even formative assessment. Carol Ann Tomlinson says that “on-going assessment for planning and feedback, not for judgment and grades…helps us teach better, and helps students learn better.” This idea that assessment informs our teaching is one that we should know as teachers, but we often forget. I think I can get caught up in all that assessment can mean, and lose sight of how often I am informally doing formative assessment, and giving feedback. Today helped me solidify some ways to do my formative assessments.

If you are like me, and need a reminder of which kind of assessment is which, this gem from today may help:

Now at the restaurant tonight, we had already tasted the soup, but others were going to taste it too. So, I think our feedback can still be considered formative. We didn’t judge (or complain) and we gave our assessment as learning (and we hoped they would work to better their timing). It looks like assessment is everywhere, right where it should be.

And that folks, is just another slice of Virginia!

#sol15 March 26 A Slice of Virginia

March 26, 2015Reflections on teaching, Slice of Life, Uncategorizedonathought

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March. You should do it too! Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!

Imagine my delight, when nearing my hotel, I saw this sign:

That’s the HOME. OF. THE. VIRGINIA. **SLICE**.

So what are my Virginia Slices so far?

Carol Ann Tomlinson uses a great analogy to curriculum. “Standards are not a curriculum. A textbook is not a curriculum. A pacing guide is not a curriculum. These things are ingredients for creating a curriculum.” If you take a grocery bag with meat and tomatoes and onions and spices, you can use those ingredients to make a base for a lot of different meals. Just like you can use the elements of curriculum to make many different engaging curriculums.

This is a perfect, smart analogy, of course. But again with all the meat! Where are the Virginia Vegetarians? So far in Virginia, I’ve seen signs of spring, and meat.

And of course my real slice is the amazing Carol Ann Tomlinson. My word. I could listen to her for days.

I’ll leave you with some of my favorite quotable quotes:

Can’t wait for tomorrow!

#sol15 March 23 One of those Mondays

March 23, 2015Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March. You should do it too! Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!

One of those Mondays
you know the ones
It starts with a yawn
as you race out the door
you carry your bag of grading
unopened
back to school
your coffee is cold 
during math
right when you could really use a sip
and you,
your patience is depleted
right when your students could really use some

One of those Mondays
you know the ones
mindful breathing to start the school day
and you 
you laugh through the chaos
you make more coffee 
"Sorry I have so many questions!" a student laments
and you say 
"That's my job! Please! Ask! Ask more questions!"

#sol15 March 19 Choices

March 19, 2015Family, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March. You should do it too! Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!

Choices. Mr. Thought’s video editing world has a choice to offer. “Fast, cheap, or good – pick any 2.”

I was thinking about this a lot today… the choices I have to make each day. Sometimes I can pick 1, sometimes any two…

Morning: Press snooze, shower, or gather my coffee and lunch?

Drive to school: Radio, mindfulness, or plan?

Planning: Fast, thorough, or copies made?

Grading: On time, efficient, or thorough?

Planning Period: Students, paperwork, or recharge?

After school: Catch up on work, get home early, or exercise?

At home: Kids, dinner, or work?

After kids go to bed: Clean, write, or prepare?

After writing: Pack lunches, read or go to bed?

What choices are you making each day?

#sol15 March 18 The Case of the Missing Thermos

March 18, 2015Family, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March. You should do it too! Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!

The case of the missing thermos.

You know when your husband texts you to vent that he forgot to put a thermos in your daughter’s bag? You happen to be in a meeting, about to go to another meeting… and not teaching. So, you actually can help in the middle of the day. You know how it feels so good to be able to help, because usually you are stuck in your classroom, unable to help anyone beyond the walls of the school? Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful wonderful job to have… but you are trapped in those 4 walls from 8 – 3:17, and there’s no time, no way to leave…even for a lost lunch thermos.

But not today! Today you miraculously have time. You go to Wegmans and you get your daughter something yummy she’ll love. And you look at the mac & cheese that is your son’s favorite and you think maybe you should get some for him so he isn’t jealous. But you stop yourself. “Oh it doesn’t make any sense to get that for him… he has his thermos.”

So you drive to their school. You smile at your son in the hallway. You are thrilled to see him in the middle of the day. He shrugs his shoulders in that “I’m too cool to care that you’re here” way. But, you give him a hug anyway, because, well… of course! Then you go downstairs to the middle school and give your daughter her special lunch and you watch her choreographed dance she and her friends have been working on at recess and you hugged her too, right in front of her friends. They notice you have green glitter on your cheek. “I’ve been in this school for 5 minutes and I already have glitter?” you say. “Must be from the hug.” your daughter says.

Then you walk back upstairs to give your son one more hug and an “I love you.” Even though it’s the beginning of lunch, he’s putting his lunch box away and his teachers are asking, “Are you all done eating?”

He says “I have nothing left but that’s okay, I’m not hungry anymore.”

You hesitate and ask, “Didn’t you have a thermos?”

He looks at you and he says, “No.”

You are calm as you say “Oh honey! I’m so sorry! I wish I had known. I would have brought you something.” Because, you know…. you wish you had known and you wish you had brought him something (for example… that just-in-case mac & cheese!)

But your son assures you that he’s not hungry, that he had enough food with his snack and fruit. So you check with him a thousand more times, just enough to make him annoyed. You make sure he knows that if he’s hungry later he can ask the teacher for some extra food. You talk with him about what he’s going to do while all the other children eat, and he makes a plan for art. You get one last hug and you leave, watching him get books with help from his teacher.

Your whole drive back to your meeting you feel a little bit guilty about that stupid mac & cheese that you could’ve bought. You hope that he has something appropriate and calm to keep his hands and mind and body busy while everyone else is eating their lunch. You know you have left him with one more challenge to face in his day.

You text your husband, wondering where that thermos could be. It’s not at home. It’s not in your son’s backpack. It’s not in your younger son’s lunchbox at preschool. Where is it?

A thermos has never been so mysterious.

And, you know how at the end of the day you find out that your son’s thermos was in your daughter’s lunchbox?

#sol15 March 14 Celebration Slices

March 14, 2015Celebrate, Family, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Lifeonathought

I am participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge: A slice a day for all of March. You should do it too! Thank you, Two Writing Teachers! Readers, check out their site, and start slicing!

Celebration Slices! Thanks Ruth Ayres for this wonderful link up!

1. “In 35 minutes, I’m going over to Granny’s.” H tells me. Then 5 minutes later. “What time is it? In 30 minutes I’m going over to Granny’s.” At 10:53, he was set. “At 10:56, I’m going.” He told me. Every Saturday, my mom takes one of my kids out for lunch and then spends some quality time with them. They each look forward to the time, and I’m so thankful for it too. Watching H race across the street, dutifully looking both ways was a joy to celebrate. What lucky kids I have… getting to spend time with their grandparents.

2. E wanted to use his gift card for a lego at the store. While we stood in the lego aisle, L looked up at the giant sign that said “BOYS.” She grimaced and said quietly to me, “That is so sexist.” I’m so proud that she noticed that, and that she spoke up about it. I hope she keeps noticing things and speaking up, louder and louder as she grows.

3. Yesterday my team celebrated Global School Play Day. Yes, we were a month or so late… but what a celebration! The students were excited, as they carried favorite games into the classroom: Monopoly, Pictionary, cards, Battleship, Clue. Kids these days are stressed and anxious, and they don’t get the chance to play enough. I was happy to dedicate a day to play. Even if play wasn’t the work of children, and wasn’t ripe for opportunities to learn, I would still think it was worth our time. But, play does create learning opportunities, and time for kids to learn how to be in control. Win-Win! One of the TED Talks I watched, by Jill Vialet mentioned the philosopher, Bernard Suits’ explanation of play: “Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.” She goes on to talk about the work of play: “They choose it, it’s a challenge. No longer should you think of play as the opposite of work or the purview of slackers. It is the fundamental sign of our inner drive and ambition.” The other TED Talk was on the decline of play. Sad to watch, but important.