Run the Mile You're In: My Review of the Book and Personal Anecdotes

Before I started running three short years ago, I read books and articles and watched films about runners, and I dreamed of running but didn't imagine it actually happening, until that one day when I took the first step and laced up my shoes and headed out the door, unable to run even a block before stopping to walk. Ever since I can remember I've been interested in stories of perseverance and overcoming obstacles. I've devoured books and articles and films. I've wondered how people press forward. I've discovered that in all of the stories I've read about persevering, there's always a larger sense of purpose--a bigger WHY for doing what you do. A sense of purpose is exactly what Ryan Hall describes in his newest book Run the Mile You're In.

Several weeks ago when I saw the call for applications to serve on a book launch team for Hall's book Run the Mile You're In, I jumped at the opportunity. Gratefully, I was selected as one of the readers to receive an advanced digital copy of the book so I could read and write a review in preparation for the book's release on April 16th. My short review came after reading and reflecting on the book.

Cleverly divided into 26 chapters, Ryan Hall’s fast-paced book run the mile you’re in inspires and motivates through stories of his incredible life as a student athlete and then professional runner. Woven throughout the expressive life stories you will find Bible verses that connect to the stories he tells about his life and running career.
If you’re not a runner, there’s inspiration in Hall’s amazing stories of listening to God for direction guidance. And if you are a runner you’ll be motivated by Hall‘s dedication to the mental and physical challenges that running can bring. One of the best quotes in the book is “comparison sucks the life out of what we are doing. We are all on a beautiful journey, so let us be thankful for every step, even if our journey looks different from someone else’s.”

Graphic courtesy of launch team.

Fortunately, I read the book prior to several 10+ mile events I ran because I heard in my head mantras and wisdom from Hall and his references to scriptures that helped me push through discomfort and low points during those runs. Those were my "come-back" runs as far as I was concerned.

I needed a come-back run for myself. When my radiologist told me in November that I would eventually run a half-marathon again, I wanted nothing more than to believe her and to realize that dream. After all, I had worked hard to run and improve my pace while running and I maintained a running routine during my radiation treatments, but I also lost speed and mileage following surgery and during recovery. When on March 30th, I ran my first half-marathon post surgery/radiation, I found myself beginning with the comparison game again. 

Then I remembered these lines from Run the Mile You're In,  "...the best way to compete is to strive for personal excellence...comparisons in athletics and in life are so fruitless. When we compare we miss the joy of the journey as well as the joy of the achievement (p. 99)."

Joy--isn't that what I'm always aiming to choose? Yes. Absolutely, yes. I literally gave thanks to God in that moment for the fact that I was even at mile 9 (If if you're at all familiar with Run the Bluegrass, you'll know that mile 9 is infamous for its hill. Actually, the whole course is known for its hills and that's typically one of the things I like best about it).

Sure, I didn't beat my time from last year, but I did "flip [a negative] thought into a true and encouraging statement that...ignited hope in my spirit (p. 83)." I chose then to focus on love over fear and to run the mile I was in.

Wearing pink to honor my journey. #choosejoy

NOTE: I highly recommend Run the Mile You're In (marked here with post-it tabs because I needed an example of how much I wanted my students to mark up with sticky notes their independent reading books--they liked my example) I also highly recommend Run the Bluegrass--America's Prettiest Half-Marathon. I've run it three times now, and it's the best!

NOTE: One of the privileges of serving on the book launch team was that we had the opportunity to attend Facebook Live events with Ryan Hall, and at one such event, I asked if he had any advice for those of us who entered running in mid-life, and he graciously responded, telling us it's just about a delayed running life and we have a training age and biological age--a chance to get faster and keep getting PRs and improving, so it's all about progress!

Up & Moving with a Physical Barometer Debate in the Classroom

Sipping our tea and coffee my teacher friend and I chatted about how our students need more access to high quality discussions and debates. I had recently wrapped up a physical barometer debate with my students, and in their written reflections of the learning experience, I noticed how several students thought the debate wasn’t fun because it was too structured and didn’t allow them to speak whenever they wanted. There were other students (the majority), however, who enjoyed the debate experience and offered reflection on how the structure helped them learn better to share their thoughts and opinions confidently and safely without fear of being attacked for their opinions. It also afforded them the opportunity to be up and moving.

The whole debate activity came about naturally. As I’ve written about before, students in my classes write daily in their journals to build habits of mind associated with disciplined writers. The journal topic for the day came from a recent tweet by the Prichard Committee’s Student Voice Team who had been in Frankfort speaking out about corporal punishment that still occurs in some of Kentucky’s public schools. I showed a screenshot of the tweet to my students and asked for their opinion on the topic. Most students in my classes were incredulous about the issue. Even those who thought paddling is okay, wondered how could it be true that in 2019 students are still punished by paddling?

Interestingly enough, my classes were almost equally split on the issue, with more boys thinking corporal punishment is an effective deterrent against breaking school rules and more girls finding it mentally, emotionally and physically harmful. However, not all boys agreed with paddling and not all girls disagreed with it. I honestly didn’t expect the class to be so equally divided nor did I plan to hold a physical barometer debate that day. But as you know, sometimes teachable moments just present themselves. We had been studying speeches and rhetorical appeals and techniques, so the debate went along with our overall lesson objectives. Because it happened so naturally, students were 100% authentically engaged throughout the debate.

Here’s how things went down for our physical barometer debate

Preparation
Students wrote individually in their own journals first, giving reasons to support their opinion on the topic. Then I had them congregate in two large groups (13 + people in each group) standing around two white boards at each end of the room, one group in the back, and the other group in the front. The goal was for them to state their claim and then list as many pieces of evidence as they could create, making sure they had at least one piece of evidence for each person in their group. They also had to think about what the other group might present as counterarguments. I set a timer and they began working, collaboratively and thoughtfully. I told them they had to keep each other on task, and they rose to the occasion, with the more extroverted students taking the lead and pulling in some of the introverts and with the natural leaders pulling in stragglers who really wanted to spy on the other group.

After the groups had time to develop reasons and evidence, they assigned each person in the group with a piece of that evidence to state when their turn arrived in the physical barometer debate. They also wrote an opening statement and determined who would deliver it, and finally, they selected the person to speak last, and that person had to be prepared to listen carefully and offer the final wrap up and rebuttal of the other team's ideas.

Connections to rhetorical techniques being studied
Because we've been analyzing various speeches for rhetorical techniques, I asked students to think about how they could use some of those techniques (Ethos, Pathos, Logos, Repetition, Parallelism, and Allusion) in their presentation of their evidence during the debate.

The actual debate
Students stood in two long lines, shoulder to shoulder facing the other team (with about 3 feet in between them). The first student from Team A stepped forward one step and stated her/his opening statement in favor of paddling in schools. Then the first student from Team B stepped forward one step and stated his/her opening statement against paddling in schools. After the first two stated their claim, they stepped back and the next two students from Team A and Team B stepped forward and presented the first piece of evidence, and we continued along down the line until every group member had an opportunity to speak. At this point, even the more reticent students were confident enough to speak, and the structure made it easier for them to participate. Only one person could talk at a time, and each team had to listen attentively to the other team's ideas.

Since Team B had 3 more members than Team A, some Team A members had to speak more than once before the final Team A and Team B members provided the rebuttal and wrap up.

Reflection following the debate
After the debate while students made their way back to their seats, I quickly typed up and projected on the screen reflection questions for students to provide written responses about their experience.

1) What did you think about the physical barometer debate?
2) How did your team do?
3) How did you effectively use rhetorical techniques in your debate?
4) What lingering comments do you have that you must mention?

What I thought worked
In typical NBCT analytical fashion, I spent time thinking about what worked and what didn't work in this lesson. Overall, I think the physical barometer debate worked really well, especially since we're working on scaffolding students oral speaking opportunities before they deliver full argumentative speeches later this month. The physical barometer debate provided another small step for reticent speakers. I also think the strategy allowed for students to listen carefully to one another, something that we all need more and more practice doing these days. I like that students had the opportunity to stand and move about the room. I like that the activity brought the class together even while they debated. There was sense of camaraderie among the students.

What I thought could be better
I would like to create success criteria for a physical barometer debate, so if we do this on the fly again in the future, I have the success criteria ready to share with students in advance. I might also have students work in smaller groups first, with each student having a role to play and then run two debates simultaneously so there could be more back and forth on rebuttals. Maybe I would do that? Maybe not. I'm always experimenting with new possibilities. What about you? How have you used physical barometer debates in your classrooms?

5 Things I'm Doing in My Classroom This Year

When I was out of the classroom and working in other education settings, I met all kinds of people who have grand ideas for how to improve public education and how to make it more innovative. I read about teachers (and met many of them) doing cutting edge things. Imagine the pressure I could have placed on myself to try and do everything I learned upon returning to teaching.

Even with all the cool tech ideas and innovative teaching strategies I learned, probably the most important idea I learned while away from teaching was the idea that we learn from our failures. As a former leader in the "I expect perfection from myself at all times" club, learning from failure has been a major undertaking. My hope is that by learning from my mistakes, I can teach students how to learn from theirs. I hope I can teach them not only how to learn from failure but that mistakes are okay.

Here are 5 things I'm doing this year...

Building relationships. Our principal challenged us this year to see each student, and building relationships is one way to be sure I see my students. My strategy for building relationships is ongoing, but one concrete thing I do is have each student create a name tent on card stock. Inside the name tent they write things about themselves they want me to know, and during my planning block I read the inside of the cards. At first I had students pick up their card each time they came to class, but after I started learning their names, I started passing out the cards so I could pause and chat with students about what they wrote on the inside of their cards. I do this quietly while they write in their journals.

Developing habits of mind. I've been teaching my students how to be effective readers and writers by teaching them habits of disciplined writers and readers and practicing these habits daily. Every day when they enter class, we set a timer and write in our journals for 15 minutes (classes are 90 minutes long). Sometimes I write with them. Sometimes, I use that time to learn names, take attendance, etc. Though I provide a writing prompt for their consideration, students are free to write whatever they choose as long as they just keep writing. One student is working on a short story and another is writing poems. Others are using the writing time to decompress and de-stress from the busyness of their day. Periodically, they choose a journal entry to revise and submit. They use words from their individualized vocabulary lists in their revisions when appropriate.

Photo by my colleague Sophie Schwab. Used with permission.

Making thinking visible. I've been teaching students how to make their thinking visible by teaching text annotation strategies and other visible thinking routines. We've analyzed artwork and photographs and advertisements. In my arts and humanities class, we've learned how to critique artwork using elements and principles of art. We've studied color theory and painted. In my English classes, we've analyzed images and read a variety of complex texts. We've focused on individualized vocabulary learning.

Establishing routines for class discussion.  I've taught all levels of students how to have active text-focused discussions using the Paideia Seminar approach. We've set class goals and individual goals for discussion, and we've learned how to converse on controversial topics. A student last week even went home and told his parents about our Paideia discussion over one of the texts because he was so energized and excited about it (and yes, it was a text in our district mandated curriculum). The student's parents told me how excited he was about the discussion when I saw them at open house Thursday night. The big take-away comment from a student-- "we need to see issues from multiple perspectives and respect the viewpoints of others."

Practicing gratitude. Every morning before I go to school, I write in my journal and I include my gratitude list.  At school we practice daily gratitude, too. At first we used post-it notes and I had students write what they're grateful for on a post-it and place the post-it on the board anonymously, but then I realized I'd never be able to afford the continued purchase of that many post-it notes, so now we're using slips of paper that I collect and shuffle to keep the anonymity as desired by many. Since I am a "floating" teacher and don't have my own room, we all need time to pack up at the end of each block, so after we pack up, I read the gratitude slips aloud for the last two minutes and we end the block with a smile.

I know that I influence the students I teach with my attitude and perspective on life and learning. I am human. I am self-loving and self-forgiving. I am okay with not doing everything perfectly. I hope they realize the same.

Running and Teaching: Lessons Learned

With the first week of my return to teaching complete, I slept soundly last night and woke up feeling refreshed and ready to settle into the weekend with my family. Friends and family have been texting, calling, instant messaging, and otherwise wondering how it was for me this week. Well, I'll tell you--it was incredible. Incredible like it is when you return from a run feeling tired, yes, AND on top of the world because you're exerting yourself to the fullest.

My 19th year in education & my 12th year as a teacher.

I believe what I've learned from running over the past year and a half applies to teaching too.

1. I can set and achieve audacious personal and physical goals.
2. Career and working all the time are not the most important things in life.
3. The ugly days (and runs) got me to where I am today.
4. I need to take care of myself before I can tend to others.
5. Being consistent and having a routine makes a difference.
6. Incremental changes matter.
7. I can't (and don't need to) fix, manage, and control anyone or anything.
8. It's okay to ask for help (there's a whole community cheering for you).


"Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you're going to while away the years, it's far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive then in a fog, and I believe running helps you to do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that's the essence of running, and a metaphor for life..."  Haruki Murakami

Photo from April 30, 2016
Coincidentally, the very first race I ran
 was a 5K fundraiser for the marching band
at the school where I now teach

Why I am Returning to Teaching

School starts August 16th and for the first time in nearly 8 years, I will return to school with rosters full of students in classes I'll teach. I am scared a little and excited a lot.

After holding four different education positions, facilitating dozens of PD sessions, taking 96 trips for work, reading hundreds of books, and meeting thousands of people, I am finally ready to return.

I always said I would return to teaching when the timing was right, and I never expected that timing to be in the midst of me leading a big statewide initiative. But it is the right time because everything is going well, and I'm not running away from a miserable job in search of greener pastures. I  have a great job and work with dedicated professionals at a local education cooperative and we are doing amazing work with teachers as we expand the Common Assignment System statewide. So, I'm leaving all this behind because the timing is right.  

I'm returning to teaching because I want to work with students. I want to put into practice what I learned while I was away.  When I left the classroom, I certainly never intended it to be a permanent thing. Rather, it was a chance to learn, grow, and challenge myself in new ways while taking a breather from the day to day stresses of teaching. I've learned some things along the way, and it's my hope that what I've learned helps me be a better teacher the second time around.

The story of my decision to return...

In 2015-2016 I started the National Board (NBCT) renewal process by borrowing a classroom and getting to know students in the same school where I'll be teaching this fall. Life events that academic year led me to defer my NBCT renewal while I regained my bearings and figured out what was next for me in life. After soul searching and transforming all areas of my life, I picked up the renewal process with unfettered enthusiasm again in 2016-2017. During this process I was at the same school and working with a dear teacher friend who graciously loaned me her class (again) so I could get to know the students before teaching them for my renewal video lesson. It was there in that classroom that I began to see myself teaching full time though I wasn't sure when, where, or how.

The thing about the NBCT process is that it promotes continual reflection and learning. One of my favorite parts about teaching has always been building relationships with students and mentoring them, and I’ve found that teaching students to set goals aids in this process because students can then take ownership of their learning. In the short time I had with students for my NBCT renewal, they established individual goals for our lesson. Since students were working toward the development of an opinion-editorial (op-ed) for a larger unit, they explored claims and counterclaims in the print and non-print texts we read for our Paideia Seminar discussion. When I watched my video of that lesson, I recognized things that went right and analyzed the things I could have done differently. The students I taught were curious, inquisitive, honest, and invested. They became the impetus for my deeper look at returning to teaching.

More soul searching and prayers for guidance.

I contemplated my list of things that were challenging in teaching and realized if I waited for those things to change, I'd never return. Instead, I looked inside myself and saw how I had changed. My attitude, perspective, and outlook are all different now. No longer do I believe people are doing things to me; no longer am I carrying a heavy weight of everything that's wrong about public education system. Instead, I am focused on what's right and what I can do to change my world and influence the people with whom I interact.

Unexpected opening.

One day in late June, I checked our district's website and noticed an opening at the same school where I completed my NBCT renewal, an unexpected opening due to a teacher relocating. Having prayed for a sign about timing, I took this as one possible sign that it was time to pursue the return to teaching now rather than later. I applied online, submitted information for my background check, wrote a letter of introduction, updated my resume, and sent both off to the principal and department chair. Two interviews and several weeks later, I was offered a position teaching ninth and tenth grade students English and Arts/Humanities.

Three weeks from now, I'll return to school at the place where I feel I am meant to be with new students and new colleagues and my new outlook on life. My principal reminded me recently  when he first met me four years ago as I led the Common Assignment Study and teachers from his school participated that I told him I am someone who takes leaps of faith...here we go...I'm doing it again...and I look forward to what awaits.

My Journey into a Career in Education

I didn't set out to be a teacher.

As a high school junior, new to yet another school (my tenth in 13 years), a high school counselor told me I would never make it to college. Maybe he said this because my parents did not graduate from college. Maybe he said this because my family worked hard but received assistance. Maybe it was because I had moved so many times and barely had the right credits to graduate in a new state. Most likely he said this because I took the most basic courses, not college preparatory courses. 

Determined, driven, and intent on being the first college graduate in our family, I set out for college and majored in political science/international relations because of a long time interest in worldwide Human Rights. I didn't stay at the first college I attended. No. I continued the familiar pattern of moving. It was only when I finally landed at Piedmont that I began to settle and make peace with my former transient life style. At Piedmont I selected psychology as my major with hopes of working with disadvantaged youth. During an internship where I taught relationship courses at a learning center for teens, I discovered my true interest in not just working with teens but in teaching. After graduation, I got married and began a two year Masters program which also led to a Georgia teaching certificate.


Foxfire & Rabun County High School, Rabun County, GA.
My experiences in the classroom began during my year-long internship at the rural Rabun County High School in Tiger, Georgia. Two full semesters of teaching and observations under Foxfire facilitator, Angela Cheek, provided me a solid foundation for establishing my own classroom in 1998.  If you don’t know much about the Foxfire approach to teaching and learning, you should check it out. The heart of Foxfire’s success is student choice.  The approach to teaching and learning is experiential based and student-centered. 

Following my student teaching experience in Georgia and the completion of my Master’s degree, my husband and I moved to Sylva, North Carolina so he could work on a Master’s degree. I certainly was not prepared for the shift to a small community of public schools interested only in hiring local folks. I spent that first semester in the fall of 1998 teaching English and science at a small private school and teaching adjunct English courses at a local community college.

Cherokee Indian Reservation, Cherokee, NC.
An outsider like me was welcome though at Cherokee High School on the Indian Reservation of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. When they offered me a position teaching high school English in January of 1999 I jumped at the chance and launched head first into an amazing experience for my first five years of teaching. Grounded in the idea that students should have choice in learning, I ran my classroom as a facilitator of learning and became a master at differentiation. 99% of my students were Cherokee, and they all had different learning needs. Again, I equate any success experienced at Cherokee to student choice in learning. They appreciated it, and I fine-tuned how to provide student choice and meet the state required objectives and curriculum through Project-Based Learning experiences.

The highlight of our project-based learning experiences together was no doubt the Renaissance Festival the students selected to create as a way to learn the required British literature curriculum.  Student centered and community involved, we even had the Asheville television station run a segment on our event as part of their Never Stop Learning series in October of 2002. Leaving Cherokee after five years of teaching was tough for me because I felt successful as a teacher and had even earned an award for 2002-2003 Cherokee High School Teacher of the Year.

Fayette County Public Schools,   Lexington, KY.

Alas, we had to move again because it was time for my husband to pursue a PhD at the University of Kentucky. So, two weeks after giving birth to my second child, we moved to Kentucky where I obtained a teaching position at the county’s most inner city school. 

This brought new challenges in part because I thought I had figured out how to teach and was comfortable in the profession. Maybe a shake up was exactly what I needed to become an even stronger teacher. In Lexington, the school where I taught had a very diverse student population. The experience of dealing with diversity brought new challenges and caused me to question what I thought I knew about being a teacher. But I was determined to meet my students' needs. New state. New school. New colleagues. New parents. New community. New students. New standards which were skill based. New content area, too, because in addition to teaching English, I taught arts and humanities. It was at this new school when I decided to pursue National Board certification. Earning my NBCT status was a highlight in my career because the process brought professional learning. Analyzing student work, writing and reflecting on my teaching practices, and producing evidence of my practice and my students' work were fantastic ways to help me improve as a teacher which ultimately led to me being recognized in the district teacher spotlight segment in 2008-2009.

The NBCT process also taught me more about being a leader because it required me to show evidence of how I was a teacher leader, not something I had given much thought previously. When you take the time to think intentionally about what you are doing, it improves your outcome. The year after earning NBCT status, I became department chair for our 13 member English department of young teachers. My leadership experience and demonstration of effective teaching were important and relevant factors for my position, which still required me to teach a full 6 courses. I taught everything from arts and humanities to AP Language, AP Literature to elective courses such as Shakespeare and Women's Studies to general 10th grade English. There was no release time for building capacity of other teachers. We really caught our groove though and created a cross disciplinary literacy team and started on a literacy plan based on meeting the needs of students in our school. Two years after achieving NBCT status, I decided I needed a change of pace.  Leaving the classroom was not an easy decision as you might have noticed if you've been following my blog. If you haven't been following, you can read more about that decision here, here, and here. 

State Department of Education In the winter of 2009, I accepted a position as literacy consultant at our state's education agency. Three months into this new position, a key piece of legislation (commonly known as Senate Bill 1) was passed into law. This sent our entire state into an era of new reform. I went to this position very naive about politics in education. I paid close attention and spent time learning, reading, researching, and listening.  Needless to say, it was a very interesting experience. 

It's About Kids Support Services (District Office). After weeks of soul searching and even conversations about returning to the classroom full time, I accepted a position in late August 2012 in my home district in Lexington, Kentucky. Returning to Fayette County Public Schools was a rewarding learning experience. I served as Secondary English Language Arts Specialist for the district and spent my time working with teachers. I visited classrooms, facilitated professional development sessions, provided Literacy Design Collaborative Training to English, Social Studies, and Science teachers in collaboration with teachers in those disciplines, planned for Response to Intervention work in the district, planned for literacy teams and writing program reviews, started a new blog, and contributed to the district Innovation Team. 

A Nonprofit Organization.  In the spring of 2013 I was recruited for a new position with a brand new organization designed to promote change and innovation in Kentucky's schools.  After more soul searching and a realization that I should walk the talk about taking leaps, I accepted a position leading an initiative for a curriculum project and research study with schools in Kentucky and Colorado collaborating to create units of study to meet the needs of their students and the demands of the Common Core State Standards.  Because we are a brand new organization with only a few employees, I also contribute the blog and initially helped run some of the social media accounts.  (I love this!)  I remain steadfastly committed to raising the voice of teachers and students in public education in my new position.  We need changes in our system, and my new position is offering me additional opportunities to promote changes and to encourage teachers along the way.
_______________

NOTE: This post used to appear on my About page, but when I decided to update that page today, I wanted to preserve my longer bio, so I updated this a bit and added information about my decision to get into education in the first place.

~~~Please tell me about your journey in the comments area below~~~

Building Strong Teacher-Student Relationships

Post #2 in a written conversation series between husband (PhD and first year high school English teacher) and wife (NBCT English teacher w/11 years in HS classroom and currently trying to impact the profession from outside the classroom)

Renee

In our last conversation, Chris, you referenced the stress of always having “to be on” as you maintain classroom order and you even acknowledged classroom management being a non-issue in your college classrooms. Since classroom management tends to be a big concern for first year teachers, I’d say you are not alone in your pursuit to determine the best way to maintain an environment conducive to learning. In fact, I remember my early classroom days well at Cherokee when I entered my first high school teaching assignment to teach a class that had been taught by a substitute for several weeks before I was hired. I had been warned of potential chaos and was told to be prepared. Well, I was prepared as I could be, and I also knew that my approach to classroom management would be based on building relationships with the students. Equipped with my student teaching experience in a Foxfire program, I knew I needed to learn as much as I could about my students and their lives because that would be the best means for ensuring an environment where we could all learn. Five years later, my reputation as a teacher who cared and held high expectations was well established, just in time for us to move to Kentucky and for me to begin at a new high school. Again, I was warned that the students could be unruly, and again, I planned for learning about my students and for building relationships. From reading their personal narratives, to attending the football games and school plays, I made it my job to know my students so that we could all learn together.

It’s exciting for me to see you taking this same approach. Instead of ruling with an iron fist/Dr. Boss knows everything approach,  I see you spending time getting to know your students and building relationships with them, and I’m encouraged because all the best teachers I have ever known use this positive approach. Clearly, it’s much more complex than just building relationships, but this is an important first start.

Christopher

So, yes, I think that I don’t know as much about Dewey as I should, but I totally buy into the pragmatic philosophy of life and teaching. That is, to be very pedestrian about the whole thing, I do what I see will be the most practical way to get my students engaged. In the climate that I teach, that involves showing them that I care about what is most important to them. So, my students are super involved in school sports. To show them my interest, I had them sign my shirt on the Friday of a game with the cross town rival. I’ve worn the shirt since then, and the students made comments suggesting that they really liked being able to do that. They got the sense that I cared and that I was willing to get over myself for the sake of their self-expression. I mean, who really wants to walk around with a shirt filled with student signatures. You get funny looks in public. But, it was totally worth it because I believe it helped me build relationships with them.

I’ve also found that being able to reference rap lyrics has been effective in building street cred with my students. I quoted Notorious B.I.G. the other day and I heard side comments like--”man, he even quotes the lyrics.” So, it’s just a way to connect. And students at this age need to know that you can and WILL connect with them.

Renee
In addition to your willingness to go to great lengths to build relationships, even when it means doing fun and silly things sometimes, I also enjoy hearing you tell me stories each evening of times you tell your students they have to read texts carefully and write essays because you care about their education. I believe your high expectations are also earning you a deeper respect from your students.

Christopher
They often enter class and sigh when I tell them we have work to do. Work I assign isn’t a set of worksheets; rather, it’s work that causes them make connections and think for a while. One day last week, they said, “C’mon Boss! You’re killing us. It’s Free Friday.”  I said, “Oh, my bad. I’m really sorry that I really care about your education and that you develop your mind.” I said that and I saw a couple look at each other and say something like “man, this guy’s funny.” I think the students want to know that we aren’t assigning work just because it’s “school.” They are really interested in knowing that what we are assigning is meaningful. And, so, if we are truly engaged in the work, and if we only assign work that is meaningful, I think they ultimately get that and on some level appreciate it--even if they come across as uninterested and “too cool for school.”

Sunday Salon: What I Read Onlline August 25-August 31

 Posts from Kentucky that Matter Beyond Kentucky

Because she knows I'm interested in improving as a writer and blogger, my boss shared this woman's website with me. Suzanne Gray lives in Frankfort, Kentucky and writes about creativity and art and has this beautiful website not to be missed.


You may have heard by now, but Kentucky is seeking feedback to make changes to the Common Core State Standards in KY.


This week we celebrated the anniversary of a woman's right to vote. Read this blog  by Heather Watson to learn how women from Kentucky played an important role in passing the 19th amendment.

Jason Linden, a public school teacher in Louisville, writes about homeschooling his daughter because the school system places too much emphasis on test prep. I can relate completely, even though my children still attend public school. If you read my blog, you know how much this issue matters to me!

Lexington teacher, Liz Prather, writes about why it's important to pronounce students' names correctly.

Speaking of Lexington, my city made the list of top cities to live for a quality life.

Health & Well Being

Since I was having my cast removed this week, I was eager to read this article about when I might be able to use my right leg again and drive. When I visited the doctor, he confirmed what I read in this article--12 weeks after the break. Well, I'm 6 weeks down with 6 to go...

Helen Bamber, a therapist to torture victims, died this week. Read about her life here.

A World Enough and Time

...and so begins...a written conversation series between husband (PhD and first year high school English teacher) and wife (NBCT English teacher w/11 years in HS classroom and currently trying to impact the profession from outside the classroom)

Renee

Since I’ve blogged previously about leaving the classroom and listed lack of time to plan, grade, etc. as one of my reasons for leaving, I’d be curious to know what you remember about the stress I faced was when I was in the classroom, especially with regard to having time and balancing life while trying to be an effective teacher and also being a mom & wife.

Christopher

Yes. I remember your stress very well. And I remember how I thought, “Good grief, it’s not worth it. 70 hours a week for that salary?” And I can’t believe you were able to do it when our boys were toddlers. Wow!  You really are amazing. I also remember wondering if you weren’t giving yourself more work than was necessary. Now, I realize what you were doing as I am doing it myself. To be effective, particularly with the content we teach, it requires daily feedback. And that takes a lot of time (for sure) but also mental strain--and I don’t think anyone has ever really taken that into consideration when they make our schedules and dole out our requirements. To write comments to 100+ individual students requires extreme mental effort. That doesn’t enter into the equation of contracts, and that’s a bona fide problem in education, especially for English teachers.

Renee

Since you are coming from the college setting where instructors typically don't teach all day every day, how are you adjusting to your new schedule of 5 classes back to back in a 7 hour school day five days a week?

Christopher

Teaching is exhausting!  One thing I’ve observed about teaching high school is the amount of concentrated effort it requires. Teaching college classes, I always had a break of at least one day between meeting with those students. That break allowed me time to reflect and rest and get prepared. Teaching high school classes that meet every day means there is no break, so to speak. Further, teaching high school requires one to be “on” pretty much non-stop during the day. From bell to bell, I have to be engaged, obviously. But, what’s different is that there’s virtually no time between classes to gather one’s self and get ready for the next task. I mean to say, from period to period there is five minutes time. But, students start arriving at any moment and I have to engage them and be ready to go as soon as the bell rings. During that five minutes, there are always various questions to answer (like, students who missed the previous day need to know what they missed or a teacher comes to you and asks a favor, etc.). It rarely happened teaching college that I had two classes back to back. And even when I did, there was at least 15 minutes and really, and most importantly, there wasn’t the need to be “on” in the same way. In high school, I’m finding that I have to be “on” in ways that maintain classroom order.  In college, classroom management was basically not an issue.

Time to prepare is really an issue for me teaching high school.  I don’t have it. Because I teach writing and reading, I have to spend physical time and exert considerable mental effort to respond to student work on a daily basis so that the next class can proceed. That has to happen after school, during the time that I also need to be tending to my family, eating dinner, exercising, going to whatever extra curricular activities my children have, and, oh, sleeping. So, it’s really hard to do the job I need to do with the schedule I have. I do have a planning period, but, honestly, that’s 50 minutes spend responding to emails, “sweeping” the halls, managing a student aid, and just catching my breath.

So, I really think that the high school schedule needs to be revised. I think that teachers should be required to teach three classes and expected to use the remainder of the day grading, planning, and doing the necessary research in order to provide quality instruction. The current schedule of teaching 5 classes in a 6 period school day isn’t sustainable. No wonder teachers get burned out and are ineffective. They aren’t given the time to do the job that they need do. Now, what do we do about the teachers who wouldn’t use that time as needed.  Well, I hope you’ll ask me about that because I have tons to say about the profession and what constitutes being a member of the teaching profession. 

“Had we but world enough and time.”  Ah, one day!

 

Intro to a Written Conversation Series on Teaching and Elevating the Profession

A year and a half ago I wrote about how our original sole purpose for moving to Kentucky was complete when my husband finished his English doctoral program at the University of Kentucky. Since then, I've blogged about his graduation, search for a job, and our family vacations. If you read regularly, you've also read posts about my travel for work, my musings on a new job, my thoughts about literacy instruction, and my personal reading goals.

NEWS UPDATE: The most recent family and professional news to share is that my husband finally found a job, and he found that job right here in Kentucky when he decided that the world of higher education and academia left plenty to be desired. What interests him most is teaching and impacting lives, so he entered the world of K-12 education and accepted a high school teaching job in a neighboring town. Two and a half weeks ago he entered the high school English classroom and now teaches juniors and seniors. Fortuantely, the school recognized what he has to offer and also has him teaching a dual enrollment class for seniors earning college credit and high school credit at the same time.

The best part for me in all of this (other than that I get to stay in Kentucky for now)? Each evening I get to talk about teaching with Chris (Dr. Boss), and I get to collaborate on planning lessons with him. You know how much I love teaching, right? But, you likely also know that I left the high school classroom a few years back because I was weary and in need of a change. Since leaving, I've made it my mission to raise the voice of teachers and the profession. This is not a job for a single individual or even a small group of individuals, so I hope you will join me and my husband as we work together to impact the teaching profession. Stay tuned for future posts because Dr. Boss and I have a plan for sharing some of our conversations about teaching and elevating the profession.

Post 1: A World Enough and Time
Post 2: Building Strong Teacher-Student Relationships

Musing on Classroom Discussion Methods

In my third high school in as many years, I was not a vocal participant in class discussions.  However, when my English teacher said our grade for the Lord of The Flies unit would depend upon how much we participated in class discussion, I decided not to let my reticence hinder my grade.  Each night I would read the required chapters before the next day’s discussion and then I would read the Cliffs Notes for ideas about what I would say when the teacher started asking us questions.  Since we sat in rows and I sat in the back, the teacher had no idea my insightful remarks were actually not my words or my insights. 

Flash forward six years to my senior year of college and a poetry seminar where my reticence once again threatened to take hold.  This time, however, I did not turn to cheat sheets or someone else’s ideas because our professor took a different approach to our class discussions—an approach that required us to dig deep and to think critically and carefully about what we were reading.  We typically sat in a square facing one another, so hiding behind rows of students was also not an option. Fortunately, this professor did not just expect us to read carefully, he taught us how by modeling it, and by asking careful, prodding questions about each line of the poems we read.  This is the same professor who introduced us to Vladimir Nabokov’s Lectures on Literature by way of asking us to take a quiz on the characteristics of a good reader, emphasizing the importance of re-reading texts for deeper understanding.

It’s this quest for deeper understanding I aimed for when leading my own students through complex texts during class discussions.  Without experience or strategies, facilitating classroom discussions with teenagers was challenging.  I gave it my best shot, modeling what my professor did when he led discussion rather than what my former high school teacher did.  Still, I struggled for the structure some classes of teenagers need, and I also struggled with strategies for ensuring students like me were participating.  The same few students typically had the most to say while others sat quietly.

Enter Shared Inquiry and the Great Books Foundation—my school received a grant to participate in trainings using the Shared Inquiry discussion method.  We learned how to facilitate discussions that were student centered and focused on deeper understandings of text.  We also learned how to establish procedures for ensuring all students participated.  From the beginning of our grant, I was a huge fan and later an advocate of Shared Inquiry because I saw the difference it made in my teaching and in my students’ understanding of the texts we discussed.   

Years later I had an additional opportunity to participate in a Paideia Seminar training.  Paideia and Shared Inquiry share several of the same goals and operate very similarly, except with Paideia you are not focused on a set curriculum like you are with Great Books/Shared Inquiry  (Honestly though, I used the Shared Inquiry method even when I wasn’t using the Great Books curriculum).

Here’s what I like about both discussion methods.

o   You focus on deep understanding of a text (print or non-print)

o   You let the students do the talking

o   You encourage everyone to participate by facing one another with name placards posted, and you (the teacher) join the circle, sometimes drawing out students

o   You have students set personal goals and have the group agree on a group discussion goal as well (e.g. refer to the text when talking, everyone speaks, build on the ideas of others, ask clarifying questions, use names of classmates etc.)

o   You map the discussion for use during reflection (see picture below)

o   You complete the bulk of your work pre-discussion when you create open-ended opening questions and possible questions to use if/when the conversation is dragging

o   You end the discussion on a high note—leaving students to want more

o   You encourage participation without requiring hands to be raised to speak

o   You allow silence and don’t try to fill it—you wait for students to speak (can be really tough and uncomfortable for everyone at first—but it’s great!)

Discussion of Autobiography of Malcolm X w/pre-service teachers

The best part of both discussion methods is that you never grow weary or bored, and you always look for opportunities to participate or facilitate discussions because the more you participate, the better you become at facilitating the discussions too.   Just last week I had the opportunity to participate in a discussion when I visited a history class at a local high school—a highlight of my week, for sure.

What about you—What are your favorite discussion methods?