The sweet spot. The place where learning happens. The place where teaching happens. The place where I meet my kids. It is here where I make the difference. I call it the feedback-response process. They have done, and now, together we will DO BETTER.

And it is this that I use to encourage my kids to DO, telling them that I cannot teach them anything until they DO something. It is also the same message I will share with parents when I connect with them concerning (not) learning–because of not DOing. Simply, I need your kiddo to DO, so I can DO, and, then, together we can DO BETTER.

As I shared in Part One, I initially (passively) communicate this in Skyward (our online grade book) with a .6, which is an invitation to DO. If this initial, passive communication does not yield any action, then I take a more active approach by contacting parents, concerning learning. And, again, here, the frame matters.

I want both kids AND parents to understand the role of DOing in my classroom. We DO to DO BETTER. We DO to learn, to grow. That is what I want them to know.

And so, to that end–DOing BETTER, I also offer an invitation.

.7 = an invitation to DO BETTER

When kids and parents see this in Skyward, I want them to understand that there is an opportunity to DO BETTER. A .7 means not only have they DOne but also they have feedback waiting for them so they can DO BETTER. A .7 means that the feedback-response process has begun, and there is an open opportunity to continue DOing BETTER, one engagement at a time. Until, they reach a 1, which signifies done (they have met standard).

1 = DOne (Did)

Above is what the Learning Record (grade book) looks like in my classroom. I use this hard copy to capture movement (color shows movement). Circles indicate I have entered it in Skyward. As you can see there are a lot of .6’s. A lot of Didn’t. A lot of learning missed. And that’s not okay. I have too many kids not DOing. And that’s why I wrote this post. I have to DO BETTER. I know this. And as I shared in Part One, I am compelled to DO BETTER, which I believe always begins with a question,

better Builder: How do I get my kids to value doing in my classroom?

Tomorrow, I have an opportunity to begin again with a new semester, with a new group of kids. And though I have experimented with this point system for a while now, I am eager to renew my view of DO in the 180 classroom. I need to turn Didn’t to did–for each kid.

Not sure if you will find much value in this reflection, but I needed to work out it here, where I have worked out so many of my betters before. Thank you for letting me share my messy journey.

Happy Monday, all. Day off for me. Mid-winter break for us.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

Doing establishes a place and time for learning, for reflecting. Learning is forward. As I suggested in yesterdays’s post, it’s an important action for an important effect: growth. But, for one to grow, one has to know where and when one began.

The image above was a recent attempt for me to visually frame reflecting for my kiddos, especially in regards to their doing leading to their learning. When they do, they begin the 180 cycle. They have established place–there and here; they have established time–then and now, both of which create the context for the learning forward cycle of looking back and forth between the place and time of their (continuous) doing, which I try to sell as learning (as growing).

We do to learn. We do to grow. And I believe reflecting is the most meaningful measure of growth. Learning is personal, and I think it becomes deeply personal when we get to a place where we feel like we own our learning. So, that, then (again) is the frame I offer my kids.

It is their learning. Though, sadly, most do not believe this. They think that school is being done to them, that it is something out of their hands, that it is about complying, not committing.

I am trying to change this by putting it in their hands, by getting them to do–not to comply with me, but to commit to themselves. Thus, the cycle. Do to Reflect to Do Better.

To my kids:

Do for yourself so you can see for yourself where and when you are in your learning.

We can’t reflect until we do. We can’t do better until we reflect. That has to be the way forward as we just keep moving through the Do-Reflect-Do Better cycle.

At the end, if they didn’t do, they didn’t reflect; they didn’t do better. They didn’t grow (as much as they could have). I want them to grow. But more, I want them to want to grow–for themselves. And I want them to see that for themselves, in themselves, of themselves–in their own reflections.

Tomorrow, I will wrap this up with DOing BETTER.

Happy Sunday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

I don’t/won’t fail kids. For any reason. And I have my reasons, not the least of which is my not being so sure it’s not I who failed (the kid). For my longtime readers, this is not a revelation. I have not been quiet about my refusing to fail kids in a system that has long failed, still fails, and will continue to fail kids. No F’s in the Project 180 classroom.

So that leaves the D. D is for diploma. D is for dummy. I’ve heard both (and others). The former is technically true. One can get a diploma with straight D’s. The latter is…well, dumb. Regardless of the fourth letter’s storied past, in the 180 classroom, D has come to mean “didn’t.” Didn’t Do. So, didn’t (couldn’t) Reflect. And didn’t then (have the chance to) Do Better.

Simply, didn’t learn (as much as they might have).

DOing

There is value in doing. Action is an important cause to an important effect: growth. In the classroom, doing is an important part of learning. Seems obvious. Seems simple. Seems. But its value often escapes the obvious and confounds the simple. Because, as we know, kids, for various reasons and in various ways, don’t do. I call it the Do Dilemma. If all kids did, and if all do’s were true, we’d face no dilemmas with grading, with reporting, with learning. But didn’t “dilemmifies” our work. It has. It does. It will. So, then, I am compelled to build a better.

better Builder: How do I get my kids to value doing in my classroom?

I head back to the kitchen.

Here’s my latest batch of better for doing in the 180 Classroom.

First, the frame.

Dear Kiddos,

I don’t want you to do to do in here. I want you to do to grow. I can help you grow. I am trained for it. I am experienced in it. I’m actually kinda good at it. I can. If you do. That’s where I meet you in your learning, which is where my teaching begins. I need that from you. I need that for you. So, I will earnestly encourage you every day to do to learn, to grow. It’s why you’re here. It’s why I am here. Your doing leads to my doing leads to our doing. We do to learn.

It is this or something like this that I will share with my new group of kiddos this coming week for framing our work. I want doing to have value greater than a score in the book. So, to that end, I make minimal the numerical value. I record and report not doing (Learning Checks) as a .6 in Skyward. I do not record or report practice. I only report and record the things in which I engage with kids in the feedback-response process.

Of course, that does not mean that I don’t promote practice. I do. And I am very intentional about making sure there’s a clear connection between practice and performance. I want the kids to discover that there’s value in doing the practice as it prepares them for the performance. And that is why I ask them to do it. And “ask” is a key word here, for that’s really what it is insofar that practice is not something I make them do; it is something that I ask them to do, which is why I call them Learning tASKs. In order for a do to be true, kids must commit, kids must choose. They must choose to take responsibility for their learning. And so, I try to provide a frame for that home in which they must live–for the entirety of their lives.

.6, yes, that’s 60%. Yes, it’s a D. And, yes, that’s as low as I go. That’s the floor of the learning frame I provide in my room. And if it so happens that by the end, a kid didn’t do, then I will record and report that as a D, for that’s what a D means in my room. Of course, kids and parents will know that on day one, not day forty-five, and from day one, they both will come to understand more clearly its meaning as I engage with them, not in the deficit of not doing to fail, but in the concern of not doing to learn.

If they don’t do, then I can’t help them grow. That will be my constant and consistent messaging to parents, which begins with the letter D, which the will see in Skyward along with the key:

.6 = Invitation to do

And with that, I will end Part One, Doing.

Soon, hopefully tomorrow, I will get to Part Two, REFLECTing.

Hope everyone is well. Good to be back in the blogosphere. Happy Saturday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.