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.

My Favorite Quotes from Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird

A couple of years ago a dear friend recommended Anne Lamott's brilliant book Bird by Bird to me. I remember my friend saying she laughed and cried as she read the book, so I added it to my reading list.

I  laughed, cried, learned, and loved while reading Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Lamott's book left me thinking about myself as a writer, educator, parent, and person.

My favorite quotes when thinking about being...

A parent

"Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is a wonderfully fertile ground--you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it's going to get (29)."

Actually, this chapter about perfectionism speaks to many areas in my life, but I'm also find as I grow older it's easier for me to set aside a quest for perfection in everything. Writing and creating are messy and allowing myself, my children, my students to muck around in it is well worth forgoing the quest for tidiness.  When it comes to housework, well, anyone who knows me well knows I long ago I gave up on the idea of keeping our house perfectly clean and tidy (there are better things to do in life).

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm on my brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird'"

I just love the story from which Lamott derives the title of her book Bird by Bird. The depiction of a father comforting a child and the wisdom and reality of chunking a big assignment into smaller pieces--relevant to all of us.

 

A writer

"For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really, shitty first drafts (22)."

From a chapter titled Shitty First Drafts, a quote reminding us that nobody is supposed to read our first drafts anyway, so it's really important to get all our thoughts recorded. I totally agree with Lamott and would never get anything written, ever, if I didn't let myself "pour it all out and romp all over the place."

"This is our goal as writers, I think; to help others have this sense of--please forgive me--wonder, of seeing things anew, things that can catch us off guard, that break in our small boarded worlds (100)." 

Ah, wonder! I'm a big believer in the sense of wonder and if being a writer means I might helps someone else cultivate a sense of wonder, then I'm all about it. Especially, when I think about not only being a writer but being an educator.

"Still, I believe in lists and I believe in taking notes, and I believe in index cards for doing both (133)."

Practical tip, of course, and Lamott shares the use of index card. Personally, I keep a small journal and if I'm out and about, I typically use the notes app on my phone.

An educator

"On a bad day you also don't need a lot of advice. You just need a little empathy and affirmation (157)."

A good reminder in many aspects of life, but especially a good reminder for a teacher providing feedback on student writing.

"When we listened to our intuition when we were small and then told the grown-ups what we believed to be true, we were often corrected, ridiculed, or punished. God forbid you should have your own opinions or perspectives (154)."

Another good reminder as educators--we need to listen to students.

A person

Really, the whole book spoke to me as a person, so I selected several of my favorite quotes to share with you here.

"Anyone who wants to can be surprised by the beauty or pain of the natural world, of the human mind and heart, and can try to capture just that--the details, the nuance, what is (101)."

"But you have to believe in your position, or nothing will be driving your work. If you don't believe in what you are saying, there is no point in your saying it (106)."

"Tell the truth and write about freedom and fight for it, however you can, and you will be richly rewarded (109)."

"Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed our soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored (237)."

Sunday Salon: What I Read Online August 18-24

Kentucky 

This important blog post from our state commissioner, Dr. Holliday, discusses possible hindrances to innovation in our state because of new USED action that infringes upon our state rights. A topic of huge concern is that the USED now expects Kentucky to test students on old science standards in the spring of 2015. We've been excited about the new Next Generation Science Standards and our students learning science in more innovative ways, and as it stands now, the USED expects Kentucky to assess students on old standards using a ridiculous multiple-choice test.

In Lexington, where I live, one of the middle schools across town created a new mentoring program for incoming sixth graders. Read about it here.

 Since I've long been passionate about pre-service teaching programs and also teach one class at the University of Kentucky, I was interested in reading about this e-mentoring program for teacher candidates offered by a neighboring city's university. 

I am thrilled to be working in education for a non-profit aimed at encouraging and supporting innovative practices in schools. Also exciting is this upcoming education summit our organization is hosting.


Teaching

In "Building Better Teachers" Sara Mosle writes for The Atlantic about teacher time to collaborate--something American schools don't provide. If you've read some of my own posts this week, you will know this is a topic my husband and I are exploring in our new written conversation series.

Since I now have two middle school sons, I was interested in this article by Michelle Icard, because she offers tips for letting middle school students take risks.

For some time now, I've been following the work of Josh Boldt because he writes about the plight of adjuncts, and for so long, that was the world in which our family lived as my husband worked as an adjunct for years before deciding to become a high school English teacher. In this post, Boldt write about why he, too, left the adjunct gig behind.

The Common Core debate continues, and I was excited in this post to see praise for Kentucky's implementation. Indeed, we have many hard working teachers and leaders who have striven for successful implementation with teacher voices leading the way. The post isn't all about Kentucky though, so read for yourself to see how CC is playing out in various places.

Literacy 

The New Yorker writer, Dani Shapiro, shares thoughts about writing memoirs versus sharing Facebook status updates.

I'm contstantly reminded lately of the importance of stories, so I was excited to learn about this new book, Minds Made for Stories, that's been written by Thomas Newkirk. 

If you're looking for a new book to read or if you want to share book suggestions with your students, check out Malala Yousafzai's suggestions here.

As a woman who's been advocating for education for women and girls around the world, I was excited to learn that Malala Yousafzai's mom is learning to read.


Humanity

For a couple of weeks now, I've been following the story of the killing of Michael Brown, and my heart has ached as a mother and as a teacher. In this post you read about how hard his mom worked to keep him in school. He graduated just weeks before his death and was planning to attend trade school.
Issues of inequality keep me moving as an educator because I can't stand to see students treated differently or offered different schooling options because of their race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. In this New York Times article, I saw hope because one of the largest school districts in America is aiming to reduce the arrest rate in their schools.

I can't help but feel for the family of James Foley. This post honors his life.

Just when we're feeling down about many dire situations in our world, we are reminded by Gwyn Ridenhour that there remains hope for the future.

5 Reasons to Read Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of the Creative Mind

The longer I use Twitter, the more I understand I use it because it connects me to other people, issues, ideas, and humanity.  Because I enjoy using Twitter so much, I previously read Hatching Twitter about the invention of the company.  In that book I learned about the backstabbing and behind the scenes issues the start-up endured on the way to being a successful company.  The one founder who stood out to me most in that book was Biz Stone.  I liked that he was focused on empathy, humanity, and creativity, so he's the one founder I started following on Twitter.  Thus, I learned from a Tweet that he wrote his own memoir on the founding of Twitter.  Biz Stone's Things a Little Bird Told Me:  Confessions of the Creative Mind was an excellent read, a book I recommend for educators, entrepreneurs, or anyone interested in bettering the world.

Things a Little Bird Told Me Reminds Us...

1. Technology without personal connection = pointless

This reminder is apparent in the storyline about how Twitter was originally created.  During a two-week hackathon, Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey worked on a technology that would include status updates from text messages on their phones (pre-iPhone days) to let their friends know how they were doing. The message would appear on a website. They were driven not so much by the technology itself but by the idea of people connecting with one another.

As an educator, I think we should consider this point when we use technology. We could teach the same old boring stuff by placing it in Edmodo or another platform and that would save paper, but what's the point, unless we are in some way connecting people? Instead, How can we use technology platforms to engage students in conversations about ideas, books, community service, etc.?

2. Ideas drive us.  Abandon linear ways of thinking to create good work.
Educators are sometimes known for their linear way of step-by-step thinking and rule following.  Imagine though, the freedom in abandoning those linear ways of thinking and allowing students to abandon step-by-step thinking!  Then we could be learning instead of just completing tasks. We could encourage creative thought and processing. "Plain hard word is good and important, but it is the ideas that drive us as individuals, companies, nations, and a global community.  Creativity is what makes us unique, inspired, and fulfilled (iv)."

3. We learn from failure
In Stone's chapter on the infamous Twitter Fail Whale, he writes about companies liking to put forward the persona of perfection--"we have the best rates! We do the best work! We're awesome! (89)"  We do this in our schools too.  Are we honest about failure and room for improvement? Just as we often celebrate the schools with the best test scores, we also frequently label schools as failing schools, and we don't see that as something positive from which to learn.  How can we be invested in school or education if the primary focus is on obtaining good test scores? We need creativity and authentic learning because everyone is more invested when what we do is about more than a test. “If you are not emotionally invested in what you are doing, failure is pretty much guaranteed...Success isn’t (35)."

4. Some people in the business world DO care about more than the bottom line
So often in the education world we shy away from entrepreneurship and the business world because we think it's only about making money or the bottom line. More and more I'm learning that's true for many businesses, but not for all. My first awareness of this came when I was asked to write an article for a women's business magazine--Cake & Whiskey. C&W's business was created with a manifesto that encourages the telling of stories--connecting women with one another. My belief in the possibility of business being able to do good in the world was then established. Thereafter, it wasn't  a stretch to read Biz Stone write about innovating to improve humanity and finding empathy as a core to personal and global success.

5. We don't have to have a lot of money to give
I related well to Stone's story about being a recipient of free school lunch as a child and appreciated his thoughts on not needing to have a lot of money to give money (or give time). From an early age, my parents taught me this, and I continue to believe it's true and also an important lesson for us to teach kids. Stone's story about giving to DonorsChoose.Org was one of my favorites in the book because he writes about how he and his wife logged on to the site and found a 4th grade teacher who was requesting copies of Charlotte's Web for her class. Knowing young children experienced the friendship of Charlotte and Wilbur for the first time was a personally fulfilling moment for Stone.

Things a Little Bird Told Me:  Confessions of the Creative Mind is well worth taking an afternoon to read.  It's a short 200 pages and will leave you smiling with Stone's witty sense of humor and good natured approach to living life.  

_______

Stay tuned for another post on this book coming soon because Stone had an entire chapter devoted to his no-homework policy--there are lessons for all educators in that chapter.

Why Are the Reading and Writing Scores So Much Better?

Educators often feel like Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, especially at this time of year when state test scores are being released.  As it is each year at this time, it's my hope that we will remember what's important in our profession.

Walking through the hallway with my principal one afternoon several years ago after our state test scores were released, my principal asked me "Why are the reading and writing scores so much better?  What is your department doing?" 

As an educator who has long been an opponent of the "teach to the test" approach to teaching and learning, I was, honestly, not incredibly happy to hear this question asked of me.  My reply-- "we taught our hearts out."  She probed for more information--"surely you had a technique or strategy that helped the scores be better?" 

Perhaps we did, but that strategy was not test prep! Our department utilized Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to plan instruction, study student work, and make adjustments to our approach so we could keep teenagers engaged and interested in learning.  We had a system of grade level teams and each team focused on the needs and interests of the students on those teams.  We also had many young and new teachers who kept all of us on our toes and learning new and relevant strategies.  A nice balance of classic and contemporary print and non-print texts were key; we typically paired texts. Text based discussions were integral to helping students write better.  When we taught writing, we focused on real audiences and specific instructional strategies we knew would help our students think more and write better.

We taught the standards and we used the formative assessment process to make adjustments, but we always focused on issues, ideas and humanity in the informational texts, literature, music and film that our students enjoyed.

In Kentucky today, educators, parents, community members, and members of the media are discussing the release of state test scores.  For the second time, students in our state were assessed over the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics.  It is my deep hope that if administrators ask teachers today what they did to impact test scores (shudder at this question--but know it's a reality), teachers will feel confident in saying "we taught our hearts out."  And that the test prep we all hate so much will not be a stronger focus in schools where the test results are not what people want them to be.  Because, didn't we all get into this profession to impact lives, to have discussions about issues, ideas, the world and humanity?

Informational Texts and the Common Core

& the importance of literature to humanity

As you may have read in previous Learning to Muse posts, I enjoy nonfiction texts, both the reading and writing of such texts.  Reading other blogs, online community boards, and articles, I continue to find a mix of emotions about the teaching of informational texts as required in the Common Core State Standards.   Some people are freaking out because they feel it’s a new mandate that will keep them away from the literature they love; others are making learning what’s best for students and are working with the mandates rather than being used by them.

Four years ago when my then eight-year-old was struggling to read well, I had a heart wrenching conversation with his classroom teacher.  Love her heart—she was in her final year before retirement, and she pounded her small hand on her chest saying “I want him to feel literature here in his heart.”    I shared with her my background as a high school English teacher, lover of literature, and my husband’s work on a PhD in American literature.     A love of literature is not lacking in our home, that’s for sure.  In fact, I concur with a quote read in the March 17, 2012 online issue of The New York Times.

“Reading great literature, it has long been averred, enlarges and improves us as human beings.”

Does this mean we give up nonfiction completely because literature makes us better people?  Not necessarily.  Though I agree with the opinion that literature makes us better people, I believe a balance of nonfiction and literature is what’s best for our students.  You can read more about a few of my suggestions for pairing texts here.

Long before the Common Core I was teaching informational texts, and usually that involved pairing not only non-print text with literature but also informational texts with literature.  We paired poems by Joy Harjo, Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder and haiku by Issa (translated by Robert Hass) with current event articles about the earth found in the local newspaper or various magazines.  One time we even explored Earth Day editions of magazine covers to learn more about audience, purpose, argument, and information. We looked at covers of TIME, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Elle, Outside, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic Monthly, Business Week,  Sports Illustrated , and Backpacker.  

A few of the questions examined in our study of informational text paired with poetry included:

• Who would read each magazine and for what purpose?
• How is the earth portrayed in each of these different magazines to meet the needs of the varying audiences?
• What type of information would we find in each magazine? What information can we learn?
• How is argument conveyed in the cover images?
• How is argument presented in poems? 
• How is the earth presented in poems?

Through Shared Inquiry discussions and student led presentations we enjoyed informational texts and literature together.  Since student interest was an important part of my classroom approach, I invited students to bring articles for us to read in class.  This invitation served dual purposes—it allowed students to take ownership of texts they wanted to read, and it also required them to be aware of happenings within our community, our nation, and our world.

We want students to be productive citizens in a changing world. By allowing them to read the types of texts demanded in the Common Core, we are preparing them for the increasingly complex texts demanded of them in life after high school.

P.S.  Fortunately both of my sons made it past second grade and into the hands of a fantastic third grade literacy teacher who believes in the power of matching texts to readers, and they are both enjoying life as the sons of English teachers (even if they do prefer math).