“Hey, Sy, is there a way I can check to see what assignments I am missing? I know that you don’t use Skyward, so..”

“Wait. What? I use Skyward, kiddo.”

“Well, nothing shows up.”

OH. MY. GOSH. For the last four weeks I have been entering practice assignments to communicate completion to parents and students, only to discover yesterday that they have been unable to see what I have been entering. Great communication, Sy.

Here’s the problem. Apparently, Skyward, our online grade book that we are required to use, will not show up on the family or student end until there is a “scored” entry. All of my entries have been entered as “no counts” because they are not used to calculate a final, percentage grade. I only use Skyward to communicate completion of practice and proficiency on performances. For both, I use a 3-point scale. I communicated all of this to parents in my grading policy letter I sent home and at open house, promising that I would still use Skyward to communicate. And, up till yesterday, I thought I was, and so did my grade-level partners who were just as dismayed as I upon learning about our blunder. So we met after school last night to come up with a solution, acknowledging that there was no good solution, just the least-bad solution. Here is what we decided.

We are going to keep our 3-point scale. But now we will enter it as a “count” score, which will generate a percentage grade. And though this is not what we wanted, for it runs counter to our approach, at the moment it is our best plan. The challenge is going to be making sure that both students and parents know that what they see on Skyward in terms of a letter and percentage is not the student’s grade. To be sure, students will still select and support a grade at the end of term.

Really, the “Skyward grade” is just a progress indicator, mostly communicating completion of practice to parents. It does also include performance scores, but those scores are more clearly articulated in our biweekly learning logs that the kids take home to their parents. It is not perfect, but we think we can make it work, beginning with our sending out a letter and email to parents, explaining the situation. Today, I will also apologize and explain my mistake to my kids. Ugh. Bummed by this oversight, but I am thankful that Hannah brought it to my attention yesterday. Good thing I have my Do-Reflect-Do-Better tool with me.

Today’s Trail

Today is going to be a cluster. The entire school is doing a college/career day called T-2-4, which will be a good opportunity for the kids, but it’s going to be wacky schedule, so we’ll just roll with the punches.

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…discuss the Skyward issue.

…discuss this week’s Life is Lit passages.

…reflect in our Journey Journals.

…end with a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Thursday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

Performance time. In the 180 classroom, our work takes on two forms: practice and performance. Guided by our ten focus standards and corresponding learning targets, I provide practice opportunities that lead to performance opportunities. Practice presents kids with opportunities to work and grow from feedback. Performances present kids with opportunities to demonstrate proficiency in the selected standard(s). In the end, I am looking for kids to “consistently” demonstrate proficiency; therefore, they will have multiple opportunities to prove proficiency. Today is their first opportunity to demonstrate proficiency with simple and compound sentences.

It is neither an overly complex nor difficult performance, and that is by design. It is the kids’ first go, and I am simply trying to take “formal” measure of where they are with simple and compound sentences, primarily focusing on subjects and predicates. As with all performances, it is open-resource, which means they can use their own self-generated “My Sources” or their teacher-generated “Sy Sources.” In the real world, people use resources. In my class, we use resources.

I will provide an overall performance score (3, 2, 1) and a sentence-level performance indicator (+, √, -). For both, the general approach is either they hit the target or they miss the target. For misses, I indicate a “near miss” or a “far miss.” On performances, I provide no comments. One, it’s about time. Two, it’s about kids having to take some responsibility for next steps. We will do a general follow-up as a class, where I will share some general feedback regarding “misses.” From there, I will ask kids to come to me for the things that are still not clear to them, then giving specific, individual feedback. All performances go in their portfolios as evidence for supporting self-selected grades at end of term.

I am eager to cheer my kids on today. I am eager to see if the practice and feedback are moving them along the path to proficiency. I am eager to learn, so I can do better.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns. Every day. Even on performance days. This is priority number one. Always.

…take the performance.

…reflect in Journey Journals.

…end on a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Wednesday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

She didn’t say it, but her eyes couldn’t hide it. Again. You want me to do it again?

I do. I thought back.

Moments earlier. “Sy, will you take a look at my theme?”

“Of course. Let’s take a look,” I replied, positioning her paper on my desk so that she and I could both see it as I scanned her work.

“Okay, Bec,” you waded out into the pool and discovered an important theme. Thank you. But in your clarify, you are still leaning toward summary, not analysis,” underlining the the two key ideas in her claim (theme). “You have to address, explain, and defend your discovery, not the cite.”

“Yeah, it is kinda summary still isn’t it?”

“Yep, but you are moving in the right direction. In the end, I don’t really care about the cite. I care about your thinking. That’s what I am looking for. I want you to try something. Take this home this weekend and clarify your claim without referencing the cite. I think it will force you to focus on explaining, defending your thinking. Then, I want you to compare it with what you shared with me right now. Finally, I want you to do it again (third time), finding a happy medium between the two. Okay?”

Though I believe that Bec (she’s that kid) likely did as I asked over the weekend,  the challenge of “again” is real, for kids have not been conditioned to work to learn; they have been conditioned to work to get done. And that’s the reality I face–have faced for years: one and done. So I am trying to change that, and de-emphasizing grades has been a big step in the right direction. There is no “grade” attached to the practice that Bec and the rest of my kids are doing. It is simply what I name it: practice. And in my class practice pays for no grade, but it does purchase feedback, the food of learning. In the past, grades served as empty calories, spoiling the appetites of my kids. Grades given, they quickly asked to be excused from the table. But now, after getting a taste of feedback, I have them asking for seconds, even thirds. Of course, not all my kids are where Bec is, but I believe I can get them there. I believe I can get them to, if not embrace, then expect “again” as a necessary step in learning, but it’s not going to happen overnight.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns. Love starting each period with this. Feel like we are really coming together as a community. Proud that each day our work begins with sharing a bit of our lives with each other. Laughter, applause, and empathetic gestures make my heart sing. Had the kids publish a sentence from their Seedfolks entry in their Journey Journals. Appreciated Evette’s statement. Yes, Evette. It takes work to build community. Glad that we work on it every day.

…begin the next phase of Mindset Mantras. For the past two weeks I have been saying the mantras. “You are valued members of this learning community. You are readers. You are writers. You are learners. You are awesome.” Today, and for the next two weeks, we will replace “you” with “I.” After this, we will move to “we” for the remainder of the year.

…distribute our third Life is Lit passage. This week we are looking at two passages. I am seeking to give the the kids some additional practice and feedback opportunities before our first performance next week.

…continue drafting narrative essays. The next two days are “We are writers” days. Plan is to just let the kids get their first drafts done. Will begin scheduled conferences next week.

…reflect in Journey Journals.

That’s the day in 211. Gonna be a long day for me. I start teaching an education class at Eastern Washington University on Monday and Tuesday evenings. Happy Monday, all.

Sometimes I think my mantra, Do. Reflect. Do Better., is more a convenient rationalization to my wandering than a beacon of inspiration on my horizon. In part, it’s due to the allure and blur of my ideals, a mirage of confidence in my dreamt-up, drawn-up plans as I head down the trail with my not-yet-tested “better do” in hand. In other part, it’s due to my Superman-shirt-wearing-induced ego, which compels me to believe I can achieve superhuman feats. Put together, the parts create a crazy whole, a madman pushed to his limits, forced to confront the confounding reality that he is human after all.

This has been a hard week. My ideals and realities have collided, and the aftermath has placed me in a state of super stress, affecting both my professional and personal lives. And that’s not okay. So I had to get better. It’s all I know, and after a week of reflecting, yesterday, I found better. Yesterday, I got better.

The Problem

I bit off more than I could chew. Suffering from “Supermanshirtis,” I thought I could somehow get a feedback form filled out for each of my 120 kids, indicating hits, misses, and next steps on four learning targets. FOUR. Hmmm. Well, turns out there are only so many hours in a day, and only so much energy in the human body, even for those humans who wear Superman shirts. And even an extra helping of grit did little to help the situation. So, after days of delay and spontaneous surges of “feedbacking,” I found my better. Had to. The edge was near.

The Solution

It was in front of me the whole time. The kids. I was trying to do all the lifting. So, I came up with a plan to share the load.

• I created a model with an example and non-example. Ideally, I would have used a student model, but this is our first go; I have not yet a bank of models.
• I made the criteria for the targets as student and first-time friendly as I possibly could, reducing them down to yes/no responses.
• I then shared my model, matching it against the criteria, and I asked the kids to do the same. If the answer was “yes,” they wrote it on the “hit” side of the form, “no” on the miss.
• I then had the kids determine their own next steps based on their own feedback.
• Finally, I told the kids that if they wanted more feedback, they could submit it to the feedback folder, and I would take a look and respond. As of yet, no one has exercised this option; I hope that’s a sign that our shared approach was effective.

Importantly, the kids will have an opportunity today to apply their learning to an identical practice opportunity with this week’s Life is Lit text, which should reveal if growth is occurring. We’ll see. If not…well, there’s always my mantra.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…apply new learning to our Claim, Cite, Clarify task.

…clear the clutter from the trail.

…read in our personal reading books.

...reflect in our Journey Journals.

Hard week. But a hard week full of lessons. Felt so much better yesterday after I gave myself a break. Glad I leaned on the kids. Glad, too, they leaned back. We make a pretty good team. Have a great weekend, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better. (for realsies this week).

“What about Smiles and Frowns?” Twice yesterday I launched into our day, forgetting about Smiles and Frowns. The kids immediately caught my mistake. And that pleased me, for only two weeks in, it’s become a part of our culture. Our first five minutes always begins with the people in the room first, and then we get to the work. Sixth period, I had to run down to the office, and so, trying to save time, I asked the kids to conduct S&F on their own, which they reported went very well–guess I am already unnecessary. Anyway, it’s such an important start to our day. Some kids are still passing, but the majority are sharing, eliciting empathy, laughter, and even applause from the class as they share brief bits of their lives.

For our work, we did an activity for compound sentences that got the kids to consider, construct, and visualize how compound sentences are formed. I wanted them to have a “visual anchor” to draw from as we head further down the trail with complex sentences and phrases. My room now has a few hundred visual examples of compound sentences.

Task

Using Seedfolks as your content, with your partner, create compound-sentences. Follow the guidelines below.

1. Write 6 compound sentences.
2. Use one ½ sheet of printer paper for each simple sentence (independent clause). Write in marker.
3. For each simple sentence, draw a vertical line that separates the complete subject and predicate. Circle the simple subject. Underline the simple predicate.
4. Connect the simple sentences using one of the 3 types of “glue” (see sentence handout and examples on the board). Literally glue the pieces together with colored connectors.
5. 2 of your sentences must use a comma and FANBOYS. (pink)
6. 2 of your sentences must use a semicolon. (blue)
7. 2 of your sentences must use a conjunctive adverb. (yellow)
8. Check your work.
9. Tape your sentences up on any open wall space around the room.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns. Unless I forget. The kids won’t let me.

…determine, discuss, and defend themes from “The Pedestrian,” using our Claim, Cite, Clarify approach. Here, based on what I discovered from last week’s efforts, I will seek to steer the kids away from summary in their clarify.

…reflect in our Journey Journals.

And that’s the day in 211. Sorry for the late, short post this morning. I had to get some feedback done for the kids. Have a great day, all.

Yesterday, despite my staying and working later than usual, my desk was still buried beneath student work. But that’s a load I am accustomed to, an endless cycle of never ahead, just less behind. The teacher’s lot. And after 22 years, it no longer fazes me, I just sigh, turn off the lights, and retire for the day. But yesterday, my sigh lasted a little longer, the dark was a little darker when I flipped the switch, and though I walked out the door, I never really left. I remained.

In a quiet little corner of my room, I remained, seated next to Cee Jay, a tear trickling down her face as she shared the weight of her young world, asking for feedback on her hook, and whether it got my attention.

“My story does not begin with ‘once upon a time.’ That’s the stuff of fairy tales. My life is no fairy tale.”

Yes, Cee Jay, it got my attention. It still has my attention. And it likely will for some time. And you are not the first. Many have held my attention over the years, and because I still carry remnants of their shared stories, I know this one will not soon fade from my memory. You, as they from my past, have come to rest on my shoulders, and I will carry you as I have them for as long as my memory’s intact.

And that’s the burden and the beauty of connecting with kids around their stories. That’s the risk and the reward of forging relationships with them. And though I have known that for a long time, it always catches me off guard a bit as each new year unfolds and I get to know my kids, get to know their stories. Thus, I have remained many a night in my room, inspired and haunted by the lives that I learn, leaving parts of myself behind to honor in silence the trust they have placed in me. A heavy load that, but it’s the load we carry. It’s what we do. We are teachers. We carry the world.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

...finish Seedfolks.

…build compound-sentence tracks using characters and themes from Seedfolks. I will share the activity and results in tomorrow’s post.

…reflect in our Journey Journals.

And that’s our day. Shout out to all my peeps who also carry the beautiful burden of lives learned. I know what you carry. Thank you.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

Maisie: This is hard.

Me: Yep. You’re not wrong, Mais. How can I help?

I don’t try to sugarcoat things with my kids. Writing is creating, and creating is a messy, hard affair. But it’s also a deeply satisfying affair. There’s a certain satisfaction to be found in work. I want them to find that satisfaction, to discover that reward. And that reward is not limited to the “perfect paper” in the end. It is open, wide open, to the pursuit of progress, the grit in growth. My kids are in such a rush to “write to get done,” slaves to the product, that they don’t know how to embrace the process, which I believe is the real reward, the beauty in the mess. And so, I am glad that they find it hard. It is a necessary struggle, a struggle I am eager to support.

Yesterday, Maisie found the struggle in starting. And I found a struggle to support. So I sat down on the floor, back resting against the wall, looking up at her, listening to her, asking questions, offering suggestions, until she found a path. And purposefully, I was not quiet. I wanted the other kids to hear about her struggle and listen to my support. I wanted them to confront their own struggles, to solicit my support, too. They did. And I “supported” my butt off for the rest of the period. And, in that, I engaged in my own creative work, discovering beautiful messes from one kid to the next, digging into the difficult, reveling in the connection of shared work.

I live for those connections. And to help create those connections, when I can, I do the work with the kids. I am writing along with them, sharing my own struggles and successes through the process. Yesterday, I introduced hooks. And while the kids have had experiences in the past with hooks, I seek to raise the bar. I expect three things from a hook.

1. It gets the reader’s attention.
2. It helps create context.
3. It resurfaces in the end.

In addition, I try to put the following notion into the kids’ heads.

Hooks are not something we do for readers; hooks are something that we do to readers. I add, then, that writers are manipulators. We use language to plant seeds, to paint scenes, to suggest views. We use our power to put the reader’s mind where we need it to be. And so, nothing is neither a simple motion, nor a random act. Everything is intention. We write with intention, and that intention is not without consideration of audience. Indeed, we cannot manipulate that which we have not considered. So we consider audience.

Okay. But what’s the end game? How does this serve in the real world? Well, whether it’s a cover letter for a job application, an essay for a scholarship, an answer in an interview, or an essay for a college application, there is real-world power in making oneself standout, making oneself memorable. I tell the kids when they begin filling out college and scholarship apps next year, I want them to have the ability, the power to be the kid who gets remembered from the hundreds of others against whom they are competing. And simply going through the motions of putting words on a page leads not to that end. They have to write with intention, they have to be manipulators. They have to be writers.

Yesterday, I asked them to evaluate how I tried to get their attention and if I helped create context with my own hook. I projected and read my example.

I wore them to bed that first night. No one knew. I even had to be sneaky about getting into my top bunk, turning off the light early so my brother wouldn’t see as I climbed the end of the bed. Mission accomplished, I settled in, seeking slumber, but it eluded me, I was too excited.

I still couldn’t believe it. Nikes. My very own Nikes. I must have traced the swoop a hundred times, falling just short of calling them “My precious.” I was excited, not crazy. And though I didn’t make it through the whole night with them on my feet–they got uncomfortable, I would wear them to school the next day. The next day I would be cool. Nikes. My very own.

For attention, they discovered my intention of not immediately revealing “the object.” They tuned into the “sneaky effect.” And, they noted my allusion to The Lord of the Rings. All intended.

For context, they noted I was young (bunk bed, school). They understood that I had gotten and was really excited about a new pair of shoes. And they also guessed that maybe I was not in the cool crowd. All intended.

And then, I shared the required “basic situation” and “my message.”

Basic situation: In fourth grade, I was humiliated for wearing a pair of “used” shoes.

My Message(s):

Bad Experiences can provide important lessons.

How we view ourselves is more important than how others view us.

From there, we set to work. Before starting their hooks, kids had to identify their situations and messages. I also asked them to review the hook handout I provided for them with eighteen different hook types, definitions and examples (shared in yesterday’s post). And today we continue. Today we work.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…continue our work on our narrative essays.

…reflect in our Journey Journals.

Happy Tuesday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

And it just sat there. Walked by it all weekend. At times, it was forgotten. At times, it beckoned me as if it were the beat of my telltale heart, echoing in my brain, “They need feedback, they need feedback, they need feedback, they…”

Of course, I could just as well have left it in my backpack, but I needed it for the fair to carry water and jackets for my family Saturday night. But even left in my backpack, the steady chant of guilty reminders would have been inescapable. And so, it really didn’t matter where I left it–school, backpack, end table by the couch (where I left it); the pile of papers requiring my attention is still sitting there at 3:30 AM this morning untouched.

Oh, I have my reasons–excuses maybe. Daughter decided that she just had to have the horse this fall, so my past few weekends have been filled with fence building. And while it is only 400 ft. of fence, I can’t do anything halfway, and I err on the “overbuild,” so it has taken a lot of time. I try to stay fit and ride my bike on weekends (no ride this weekend). I have a set coffee date with my lovely wife every Saturday morning (she’s also a teacher, and we like to see each other on occasion, so we schedule time). There are ten cords of wood that still need to be stacked, a yard the size of a city park that needs to be made ready for winter, and…(the list goes on). And on occasion, I just like to sit down and relax, which rarely happens. But despite my reasons, the papers sit unmoved, unsympathetic to my plight. They need attention. They demand attention. And they will get it.

As teachers do, I have already twisted and tweaked my schedule this week, so I can get to them. I have convinced myself that there is still time, that the kids really don’t need to get them back till Thursday. But that’s just the pile of papers. I also have all the planning and preparing for this week. I wish I could just “have the kids write” for the next two days, but I have to model; I have to conference; I have to teach. And then, of course, there’s life outside of school, too.

And I know I am not alone. I imagine there are more than a few of you reading this this morning who are in my shoes, and, too, you are frantically reorganizing, re-prioritizing your personal and professional schedules to steal time this week; time that doesn’t exist, but we will try anyway. Won’t we? Mad we are. Crazy as loons. Scrambling on a Monday morning, starting our “psycle” all over again.

Though I can feel the papers staring at me across the yet-dark room, I am not going to let them push me over the edge. I can’t. I have too many kiddos depending on my attitude, my energy this week. So, I will don one of my fifteen Superman shirts today, and face the trail, making it happen as I always do, slipping back and forth between my human and hero self, as all my colleagues do, frenetically confronting time, hoping to win, learning to lose. Alas, we are teachers.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…pick up our Life is Lit passage for the week. Week two for Life is Lit. This week we will wander into the world of Bradbury. Our guiding question for the week, “Do we control technology, or does technology control us?” We will continue working with theme. This week I will ask the kids to point to specific elements from their “Identifying Theme” handouts that helped them arrive at their choices for themes. I hand this out on Mondays. It is due on Thursdays.

…start drafting our narrative essays. Sometimes the best way to get started is just to get started. I will do a mini-lesson on hooks using the resource I created for the kids below (using the topic of growth mindset). The goal here is to write a narrative along with the kids, but I will likely get little in-class time to write, for I will be helping kiddos. Today, I just want them to try some of the approaches and get something down on the page.

…reflect in our Journey Journals.

And that’s our day. Hope my Superman shirt sees me through. Happy Monday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.