Reflection’s Reality: A Summer Series from the Project 180 Classroom

Confession. Kids do too much work from other classes in my room. Confession. In general, I allow it, but in principle, I am not okay with it. Confession. It’s one of my frustrating fails from this past year.

I did. Really, in this case, I did not. I have been reflecting—more like agonizing–on it for months. And so now, if I am going to live up to my “Do. Reflect. Do Better.” standard, then I have to do better.

Last week, as I processed a Twitter conversation by some of my tweeps, Joy Kirr, Scott Hazeu, and Nicholas Emmanuele, my ruminations presented a possibility of better.

In an end of the year blog post, Joy Kirr, a middle-school ELA teacher and the author of Shift This, shared a detailed, honest reflection from her gradeless classroom.

And while many things caught my attention, one line in particular resonated, revealing one of my own struggles.

 

“Students prioritize other classes first.”

 

Other classes first. When one does not grade practice, when one does not penalize late work, when one does not impose rigid deadlines, when one does not punish behavior with grades, and when one does not adhere to the one-and-done approach to moving through the curriculum, he is going to face the reality of his class sliding down the priority scale. Of course, it is not a surprising reality, for he set that stage, but that does not mean it’s not a disappointing reality. Of course, he wants kids to make his class a priority.

Of course, I want kids to make my class a priority. And I am not alone. Others who offer the flexibility found in a gradeless classroom do, too, but they are not going to compromise principles for compliance. They choose flexibility. It is a student-considerate approach.

Nicholas Emmanuele, an ELA teacher from Pennnsylvania, chooses to make his classroom a “doomless” classroom.

Scott Hazeu, a Canadian high school ELA teacher with the coolest beard ever, shared his own ruminations about the prioritization of work, raising an important question.

 

 

 

“…a problem or an old habit/feeling of control that needs to die?”

 

This one cut deeply. Truth always does. Of course, this is not the first time I’ve been cut by this particular blade. I have reported on my own self-inflicted wounds as I have shared in numerous posts the realities of trading power for influence and the realities of freedom from flexibility in the gradeless classroom. I was already thinking of changes for the coming year when Scott’s question sealed the deal. And I came up with a plan.

A Matter of Respect or Priority?

Though it may seem counter-intuitive and counter-productive, I am going to let kids do work from other classes in my room. I am going to publicly invite them to work on their math and science assignments in my class. Let me explain.

As I mentioned in my confessional above, kids do too much work from other classes in my room. They do. And they do for all the reasons that were raised explicitly and implicitly in the tweets above. And while it would be easy–too easy–to make this a matter of respect, I think there’s something else at play. I am not suggesting it has nothing to do with respect. It does. It does seem disrespectful on the surface, and it is hard not to take it personally. It is my class. My class. But that hints of ego. And my wanting to control how my ego feels does not necessarily make my kids disrespectful. Some of my very favorite kids, with whom I feel a deep sense of mutual respect, took advantage of my flexibility this year.

But I don’t think they were being disrespectful, though my ego may have suggested otherwise at the time. They were prioritizing. They assessed the situation. They made a judgment call. It wasn’t about me. It was about them. They knew that I would take their work late, but they knew, too, that they would be “doomed” (thank you, Nicholas) if they did not have their math assignment done before next period (Sorry math peeps. Nothing against math, but most assignments that kids “prioritized” were math). And now that I can emotionally detach from the situation, I can see that it was a matter of priority, not respect.

But, as I also mentioned in my confessional, I am not really okay with this–in principle. In principle, I want my kids to take advantage of the opportunities to learn in my class, and I want them to commit to the responsibility of this opportunity.

In general, we make a tacit agreement when kids enter our classrooms. When you are in my room, you will work on my work. Of course, some agreements in some classes are more explicit than tacit, giving rise to specific consequences when the agreement is not upheld, and more often than not, those consequences take the form of punishment. I have found in my own “agreement” that things have been too tacit, and as such, I feel I have little recourse when I find kids working on work from other classes. So, I wanted to find a way to make our agreement less-tacit, but in a way that I could remain true to my own principles and not punish kids.

As a rule, I have little interest in compliance. My real interest lies in commitment. So, how do I get kids to commit? I believe that answer is found in ownership. One of the guiding principles in the 180 classroom is student ownership, which invites responsibility. Priorities are a part of responsibility. I want kids to own their priorities. I want them to take responsibility for their priorities. And that requires a level of honesty. And that is another guiding principle in the 180 classroom. I don’t want to “play school” with my kids. I don’t want to operate under the pretense of ostensible roles. I want to authentically experience life and learning with them. I want things to be real.

So, earlier when I said, that I would invite them to do work from other classes in my room, I was being honest. I will. There was, however, a “but.” But I want them to be honest, too. I want them to own it. I don’t want them to hide it. And I don’t want to pretend like I don’t see it. We have to be honest with each other. I want them to come to me and say, “Sy, I have to get my math done.” That is the first step of taking responsibility for their priorities. But their doing so, does not take their responsibilities for my class off the table; it just shuffles the list. They still have to get to my work. That will be our agreement. The first two will be “freebies” (see below). I will trust that they will get it done on their time. The “next times” will require a trade. Time for time. If John needs 15 minutes to finish his math, he will then owe me 15 minutes of his time. He will have to come in during lunch or before/after school. Another guiding principle in the 180 classroom is to grant grace when I can and find fair when I cannot. The Lifeline is grace. The trade is fair.

I will give each kid two tickets per semester. They may use them at any time. No questions asked. Once they have used their tickets, they will have to barter with me. Importantly, I too will have two tickets to spend. There are days when my priorities get shuffled also. So instead of “playing school” and keeping kids busy while I secretly take care of other priorities in my life, I will be real with my kids. I will spend a ticket when I have to. I will take responsibility for my priorities. I will be real in hopes that my doing so creates an authentic experience for all of us.

And that really is the goal of the 180 classroom. To find better. To find different. And yes, this is different. Probably too different for most, and for some perhaps a different that borders on “malpractice,” but if doing the same was the answer, I wouldn’t be seeking better, and you probably wouldn’t be reading this post. We have to dare different at times if we want to get better. I just want to get and make better.

Of course, it’s going to take more than a ticket to create the “better” I desire. I also have to continue to seek better ways to provide more meaningful learning experiences for all my kids. I have to do better. And I will. I have more new “betters” to share, but I will save those for another post. For now, I will be content in my finding this latest better regarding priorities–just another better to learn from, so I can chase the next one. Always a next one.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.