Morning, all. A little tired and uninspired this week. Sorry.
So, I think I will just share the “form poem” I created for my kiddos on Friday.
I searched online for a template, but I couldn’t find anything I liked, so I made my own.
One, I wanted to thank my kids. So, for the example, I wrote them a poem. Two, I wanted to give them a form to follow so they could write a poem to someone in their lives for whom they were thankful.
And they did. As a challenge, I asked them to actually deliver and/or read the poem to the person in the poem. Lots of moms were the subjects of their poems. My hope is that those moms get to see or hear the words.
One of my kiddos decided I needed to hear her poem, and she stayed after class to read it.
“Sy, will you listen to this and see if I did it right.”
It was a poem to her mom. It wasn’t even close to the form. But it was a beautiful poem to her mom.
“Yes, Lissa, you did it exactly right.”
Not sure there’s ever a wrong way to thank mom.
Happy Thanksgiving, all. Hope everyone has a chance to rest and recharge. Thank YOU for being here.
Something had to give. So, we both gave. And we both got.
Mutual promise. Compromissum. My kids and I have arrived at a compromise. We had to. As I said, something had to give. We were out of balance. And better needs balance. So we sought balance for our better.
Phones. Been a problem. Are a problem. Will be a problem. And the last year and a half has not helped as we have turned to technology to deal with the distance and isolation. Many of us, young and old, have found ourselves living more regularly with and depending more deeply on technology than ever. Our imbalance is immense. And we (I believe I am not alone) have discovered that this is no more true than in our classrooms where our kids daily display their out-of-balance behaviors. Something had to give.
I told my kids as much. I told them that things had to change at quarter. And this is the plan I proposed.
[Note: Part of the pronounced problem here at CHS is that we went to four, 85-minute periods this year. This and myriad other challenges with COVID, etc. has made for a difficult transition.]
This was my plan. I thought it was fairly firm plan. But I forgot about one of my key weaknesses: I listen to kids. And so, I should have known that they would speak and I would listen. Of course, I suppose I knew this when I asked for feedback, and I also knew that my “fairly firm” would become “fairly flexible.” So, the day before, knowing that we would have our “Phone Summit” the following day, I posted this as our daily discussion.
We had a great discussion. The general consensus? We give to get. Something had to give.
And the next morning, after reading some of their feedback, especially on #3, I knew I would be the one giving. And I shared my premonition on Twitter the next morning.
It should be. It should be as simple as a policy. And I suppose some will think me weak for compromising, and maybe I am but, I stand by my assertion: it’s as complex as a conversation. And if compromise were an easy conversation, then we likely didn’t arrive at a compromise.
And so, we talked. I listened. They listened. We listened. And we compromised. I didn’t get everything I wanted. They didn’t everything they wanted. But we left the discussion content with the balance we found, with the better we built.
Perfect? Nope. Better? I believe so. But there’s work ahead. Better is practice, not a plan on paper. Over the coming days and weeks, we will regularly reflect on our routine, and we will keep seeking to balance our better.
And I will continue to reflect on my being more flexible than firm, hoping to balance the faults I find in myself and my work as I chase betters around the bend.
Morning, all. Sorry I missed last week. Been a busy, stressful last couple of weeks both professionally and personally. Technically, this is week 10, but I am just going to call it week 9. Thank you for understanding.
It’s the end of term one for us. Our school went to a different schedule this year: 4 period days and a half year equals one year of credit. It’s been an adjustment for sure, but we are getting/doing better as we go.
One major adjustment is kids’ having to select-and-support their grades only nine weeks in. A quarter now equals a semester, so here at the quarter mark, kids are selecting and supporting a final, official grade for their transcripts. Ready or not.
And regardless the schedule, I am not sure we are ever fully ready to reconcile the wreck where grading and learning meet. But I have discovered, I am less unready with select-and-support grading. The wreck is less-messy when I ask the kids to help me make sense of their learning, their stories. Here’s how we capture it at the ends.
And in the end, it’s really nothing fancy. It is simply an opportunity for kids to consider and capture their learning. And though it’s not as easy or natural as I’d like it to be (they are not accustomed to such agency), they constantly amaze and humble me with their honesty and integrity. One of the “raised concerns” for this approach is that kids will take advantage of it. But that has not been the case in my four years of experience with this. If anything, kids are too hard on themselves, not trusting that there’s more to their story than the “record” in Skyward. And so, when they are too hard on themselves, when the evidence suggests otherwise, I exercise my option to “upgrade” them, as I did here with Adam.
Of course, we don’t really arm wrestle, and usually–eventually–kids find ways to “live with it.” And, of course, some might think it unprofessional to engage with kids in such ways about something as serious as grades, but I have found that when we take such a serious tack with grades, we make the meaning of the grade less-authentic for it creates the “this-is-something-that-is-being-done-to-me” context rather than “with-me.”
And that is what I want for my kids: with me. As in, I am with them. They are the me in this. And even when it’s a little less-silly, and I have to disagree and “down-grade” on the basis of an imbalance between the select and the support (a rather-rare occurrence), I want my kids to feel that I am still with them. As such, I peddle possibility, giving them opportunities to demonstrate their learning, so we can “balance the books.” I also take it as an opportunity for “reachable moments,” as I try to reach them where they are currently so that we may move forward with building a better for next quarter with sentiments as such.
“Let’s both commit to staying on top of things a little better next quarter. We share in this responsibility, so let’s make sure we are consistently committed to helping you get to your learning goals.”
In end, I just want them to make sense of their learning, and I have found when they find themselves in this place (holding the pen), it makes more sense than it ever has, for it becomes our sense in common, something we found with each other.
