Most schools across the nation are underway. Icebreakers are done. Schedules are adjusted; syllabi are signed; textbooks are distributed; assignments are entered.  First-few-days distractions are done. Things are routine. Time to get down to the business end of school. So it goes. That’s the story.

It’s the some old narrative year after year. And while on some level it is a necessary narrative–we have to get to the work, it’s also a story that largely fails to truly compel and inspire kids to love learning and find joy in the journey, especially by the time they reach high school. They’re numb to the saga that invariably begins and ends the same way, every year.

“Let’s start with an icebreaker activity.”

Groans.

Groans? But why groans? These activities are generally fun, lighthearted, and better than starting with the content. So why would kids groan? Because, for the most part, they know. They know it’s usually a contrived, kumbaya moment that barely lingers before fading fast and the people in the room give way to the content in the room. They know. They barely bite, passively playing along, for they know it’s simply a going-through-the-motions moment. It won’t last. It never does.

For most of us, our intentions are good as we seek to learn our kids and make fun our classes. It’s a good way to start, so we do. Nearly all of us. I wonder how many teachers googled “icebreaker activities” this fall. We want to get off on the right foot. But why don’t we stay on the right foot? Why do so many of us find it necessary to send the message that our kids and their energy are an important part of our classroom, only to neglect it, letting the ice form again, as we skate through our days, covering our content?

I am not suggesting that content is not important. But I am suggesting that it’s less important than the kids in our rooms. Oh, I don’t think there are many if any of us who would argue, but I wonder how many of us make intentional our walk with this particular talk. I wonder how many of our kids would say that they feel important. And not just the first few days. The entire year.

By now, many have likely guessed that I am going to insert a plug for Smiles and Frowns here. Guilty as charged. It is the most important work I do. It keeps the pond open and free of ice. It connects. Last week, one of my students from last year delivered a gift, and it confirmed my beliefs in the power of sustained connections in the classroom.

It is not enough to just break the ice. We have to vigilantly keep it bay, for a frozen pond will not ripple. No ripples. No connections. Connections matter. We have to create and sustain connections. Smiles and Frowns can help.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

...begin with Smiles and Frowns.

… hear mindset mantra.

…use a “bridges and barriers” activity to identify connection and division in Freedom Writers.

…reflect in our Journey Journals.

…end with a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Monday.

Do. Reflect. Do Better. 

Skyward. Most schools across the country use an online-grading system. Our district uses Skyward, as do most school districts in the State of Washington. It allows teachers to post grades so students and their parents can “see” how they are doing in class.

See. They see numbers, which are generally averaged to represent a grade, which is generally accepted as indication of learning. High percentage equals learning. Low percentage equals no learning. So the story goes. But I wonder if there’s more to the story. I wonder if students and parents wonder if there’s more to the story. I wonder if teachers would reveal that there’s more to the story. There’s more to the story. 

Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to sit down with parents at our annual Open House. I got to introduce myself. I got to put faces to names. I got to let parents know a bit of my philosophy/approach. I got to “read” the preface to the learning story that will take shape over the course of the year in room 206.

I shared my “select-and-support” approach to grading.

I shared my “assessment-for-learning” beliefs.

I shared my “students-own-their-learning” convictions.

I shared my “this-is-a-culture-of-possibility” paradigm.

I shared my “it-doesn’t-need-to-be-complicated” three-point scale.

I shared my “practice-is-not-for-putting-scores-in-the-gradebook” spiel.

And then…

And then I shared that we had a problem. I shared that Skyward would be the bugaboo that’d get in our way. I shared that I was tethered to a system that could not simply average the stories that the kids and I would write about their learning this year.

Having already shared that a “2” on an assessment was a “near miss” for meeting the standard, I now had to share that Skyward could not translate such language and would speak a falsehood as it presented this achievement as 66%, a D. And the old tale would be spun, as parents and students conditioned to see and accept the numbers before them as the Word.

In short, we have problem. But problems love solutions. Simplest solution would be to take Skyward out of the equation, but I cannot break that chain. The best solution, at least until I find better–always chasing better–is to go to the source. There are two people in the room who know best the story. And of the two, I am but a consultant. The other holds the pen. She writes the story. It is her learning. So I ask her to pen that paper every day in her Journey Journal. I also ask that she send an explanatory email to her parents every two weeks to share the details and nuances of her personal (shouldn’t learning be personal?) and complex (is it really as simple as an average?) story.

Perfect? Not even close. Different? Purposefully. Easier? Come on. Respectful? Ask her. Better? Has to be.

At worst, it invites a conversation between parents and me about learning. At best, it creates an opportunity for kids to take some authentic ownership of their learning. If either is a problem, then they are problems I can live with. Have to. Can’t turn back now. Won’t turn back now.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…continue viewing Freedom Writers.

…reflect in our Journey Journals.

…end with a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Friday, all. Have a great weekend.

Do. Reflect. Do Better. 

Yesterday, I asked my kids to take home a letter to their parents. In the letter I highlighted the things that I want them to know about me and my classroom as I accept responsibility for their children’s journey in 206 this year. I shared the letter in yesterday’s post. Today, I will share the highlighted sentiments from the letter.

What I want you to know.

I want you to know that I care about your child.

I want you to know that in my room I want your child to feel connected, empowered, valued, respected, challenged, and supported.

I want you to know that communication between us is important.

I want you to know that I believe that your child owns her/his learning.

I want you to know that I value learning over grading.

I want you to know that I understand the strain that homework can place on you and your child.

I want you to know my approach to life and teaching: Do. Reflect. Do Better.

Tonight, at our Open House, I will ask parents to share what they want me to know. As they enter my room, I will hand them an index card, asking them to write down what they want me to know, to understand about their child. And as I am giving my ten-minute spiel on my class, I hope in earnest they share with me some valuable information about the most important thing in their lives. I hope they see our relationship as a partnership in helping their youngster navigate adolescent life. I hope they sense that I above all care deeply about their child’s well-being in my classroom.

Of course, my unorthodox methods are not always readily received by some parents–they too have been conditioned to expect and accept more conventional approaches, so they harbor some skepticism at the outset, but I hope with some time and effort, they come around to seeing what I am trying to do for their kids. On the other hand, many warmly welcome my approach, especially the freedom of flexibility and the promise of possibility. Either way, either group of parents, I have my work cut out for me to earn and keep their trust. And that’s why I am here every day, publishing my classroom, learning my way, chasing my better.

It’s work I welcome.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…finish up Anticipation Guide for Freedom Writers

…view the first segment of Freedom Writers, looking for examples of division and connection,

…reflect in our Journey Journals.

…end with a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Wednesday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

Rules on day four? Well, kinda. I don’t actually call them rules ’cause…well, they sound too “ruley.” Instead, I present my policies and procedures as “Roles, Routines, Rights, and Responsibilities.” The four R’s. And while they are important to our journey, they still take a backseat to the “R-est” of R’s: relationships. That’s how we began our journey last week. We started with the people. This week, we can begin with the policies.

Here are the documents that I will share with students and parents this week. We won’t cover them all in one day. We will do a little bit each day so the kids don’t have to take in or process too much at once. I also share them with you. And though I know my longtime readers know how I conduct business, I want others to know that we do more than sit in a circle sharing Smiles and Frowns in room 206. There’s a business end to things, too. But the business never overshadows the people. People matter most, and I hope one can see that in the way I conduct business.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…discuss Roles and Grading Policies.

…introduce our Essential Question for the semester (write about this tomorrow).

…complete an anticipation guide.

…reflect in our Journey Journals.

…end with a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Tuesday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

“The most important thing in the room are the people in the room. So, we begin with the people in the room. That’s why we do Smiles and Frowns. Every period. Every day. No exceptions.”

Yesterday, I wrote about drawing lines, indicating that the lines we draw are changeable constructs, lines in the sand that can shift, disappear, and be redrawn. And while I believe my own words, I also believe there are some lines that should be barriers with no budge. For me, one of those lines is the Smiles and Frowns line. Yesterday, I drew that line. I introduced Smiles and Frowns to my kiddos.

For those who don’t know, Smiles and Frowns is an activity that we use to start our day. Each in the room has an opportunity to share a smile and/or a frown from their days. But sharing is not required. Importantly, kids always have the right to pass. Listening, however, is required, for it as much about learning your peers as it is about sharing yourselves. So we listen, we share, we learn. We acknowledge and honor the people in the room. It is the most important thing I do. So, I do it. Without fail.

Last year, I invested over a thousand minutes in Smiles and Frowns. This year I will do the same. We had our first go yesterday. It was a little clunky and awkward, but that will soon change as we settle in to our community in the coming days. And while the coming days will bring plenty of content to the table, the content is secondary to the people at the table. Content matters. People matter more. That’s my talk. Smiles and Frowns is my walk. People matter.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…complete our “Meet Me” activity.

…end with a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Friday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

“You can’t hide.”

“You have to make eye-contact with everyone.”

“You have to sit so close to others.”

“When you talk, all eyes are on you.”

Yesterday, our discussion about community wrapped up with a final question, “Should classrooms be a community.” In general, the kids thought, “yes.” But the discussion also meandered down the path of though all classrooms are a community, not all classroom communities are the same. Some are healthy, and some are…well, not healthy. We explored reasons for this from the teacher to the arrangement of the room. It’s the latter that elicited the responses above.

I asked my kiddos how many of them were not excited about the desk arrangement when they walked in yesterday. Many hands went up. And with the hands, came the explanations. In short, the arrangement placed them outside their comfort zones, which in most classrooms has taken the form of rows where they stare at the back of someone’s head and speak at the teacher or into the air. It’s what they’re accustomed to; it’s what they’ve been conditioned to expect and call comfort. I offer different. And by the end of the conversation about community, the kids came to understand that I am intentional about the different I offer. I want a healthy classroom community, and that doesn’t happen by accident. So, I placed the kids in such a way that they had to see, they had to acknowledge, they had to engage with each other. For many, it was the first time. For all, it won’t be the last time. Community is a yearlong endeavor, and I am in it for the long haul.

Lines

We didn’t get too far into our “Meet Me” presentations yesterday, but even so, I learned a lot about my kids in a short while, and by the end of the day Friday, I will know much about each of them. But of all the things I learned yesterday, maybe the most important thing I learned was where the lines exist. In particular, where the line for each exists when it comes to sharing, speaking publicly. Of course, and not unexpectedly, most don’t want to share/speak, especially in a new environment, but they get over it and share anyway. A few relish it. I can see the sparkle in their eyes as they volunteer to go first. And another few, shut down. And it is from here where I am first put to the test. Will I budge? Will I see and hear their anxiety? Will I show empathy to the young lady with shaky tears sitting directly to my right, telling me she can’t do this? Of course. Of course, I will. The last thing I am going to do on day one is hold the line on something as scary as public speaking. Such lines are simply scribbles in the sand. They are not hard boundaries that won’t budge. I saw. I heard. I reassured with a pat on the shoulder and a promise that I would never make her do something that she doesn’t want to do. But, ya know, though it may not be the full-meal deal, I believe she will give it a shot. It’s up to her. And in the meantime, I will remember and revisit the lines I drew in the sand this summer on the Washington coast, for they are a promise, a promise to kids that I understand that each has her way, and I can help her find it.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…get our school pictures taken (kids get them taken during LA)

…complete our “Meet Me” questionnaires and/or create our activity cards.

…share “Meet Me’s” if time allows.

…end with a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Thursday, all. FYI, I started a YouTube channel for my Sappy Sy Rhymes. Link below. Have a great day.

Do. Reflect. Do Better. 

Hard to believe I begin my twenty-third year of service in public education today. But with summer behind, and another year ahead, I am eager to continue serving, learning, and building as I chronicle another 180 days through Project 180.

And while I will make and share changes to 180 after a summer of reflection, I will begin where I’ve always begun: with the kids. Of course, as the years have passed, I have become better at giving more time to them, delaying the presentation of policies and procedures, for I have come not only to realize but also practice that there’s nothing more important in front of me than the little humans I serve. So I will give them–us–time to learn each other. This year, I am setting aside the first three days for laying the foundation for our community. My first and most important My Room standard is that I want kids to feel connected.

When we feel connected, we feel like we have purpose and support. I will begin building connections today, and as my faithful readers know, this will be an ongoing building project over the course of the year. I deign ice breaking, using cute little activities like checks on a list; no, instead, I relish foundation building from where I build and build and build, one connection at a time.

Meet Me

Today we will begin with an activity called “Meet Me.” The kids and I will complete this “interview” of sorts and then share it with the rest of the class. Beyond, the getting-to-know opportunity, it also provides practice speaking in class.

Nothing fancy, but something intentional. The seating arrangement is also intentional. We have to look at each other. I use this seating arrangement all the time. I have found that it’s hard to connect with someone when you spend fifty-five minutes staring at the back of their head, so I don’t use rows. For connections, we have to make visual contact.

To further connect our learning, we will also consider and answer the following questions over the next few days.

What is a community?

What communities do you belong to?

Do we create community or does community create us?

How would you create a classroom community?

And so, the building begins. So glad to be back here with you building a better experience for kids. We can change education.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will...

…connect with each other.

…reflect in our Journey Journal.

…end with a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy first day, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

I tried.

I failed.

I am trying again.

I will succeed.

Until I fail again.

One of my biggest disappointments last year was my dropping the ball with our Journey Journals. Long story. Quit making a priority a priority. Time got on. Never got back to it. And just like that a priority became a memory. Kind of a painful one. So now I will seek to do better. Here’s the plan.

Tried to keep it simple and straightforward. One thing I have discovered is that it takes many kids awhile to warm up to the reflective mode, especially when it comes to getting them to move beyond the “what” of things. I want them to get to the “so what” and “now what” of things in their entries. I will offer support and practice patience. I will present my “Story Stems” again this year to help them get started down their reflective routes.

Of note, perhaps, is that this year I will include their Journey Journals as part of the select-and-support grading process. Admittedly, this is a bit uncomfortable for me, as I do not want it to create compliance. As you know, I have little interest in that path. I prefer to travel down the commitment path. I don’t want kids to reflect because they have to. I want kids to reflect because they want to, because they see the value it adds to their learning. So I will keep my eyes wide open to this as we journey forth. I will not give points. I will not penalize for missing entries. I will leverage commitment by engaging the kids about their reflections, both formally and informally. I will also leverage their commitment by pointing to the fact that we have no homework, only school work, and as part of their commitment, I expect them to work when they are at school, when they are in my class. Reflecting is at the center of our work…well, at least that’s the goal.

I am not using notebooks this year. Instead, I am using sheets. I know this may seem a bit old school, but I think it will make it more manageable and efficient. Why not digitally? Thought about it. But the reality remains: we still don’t have continual, immediate access to tech, so I am going with paper. Here’s the template we will use.

We do. We reflect. We do better. This is my next better with Journey Journals. It’s all I can do until I come to my next, next better.

Do. Reflect. Do Better. 

New room this year. Lots to unpack before the kiddos show up in two weeks. And just like the boxes on my classroom floor that need unpacking, I have containers of ideas in my head that need unpacking, too. And just as my room will begin to take final shape over the coming days, so will my approach this year in the 180 classroom. It’s a messy process, unpacking.

Here’s some of my mess.

Priorities, Priorities, Priorities

Lots of priorities. But three will take center stage this year. They, above all, will be my primary priorities for designing learning in my classroom this year. Conferencing. Reflecting. Sharing.

Conferencing. Not a new concept to the 180 classroom. In fact, as I have shared at other times, conferencing with kids about their work is where I truly–and maybe only–feel as if I am making a difference. So, it’s not the addition of conferencing that’s new. It’s the making it priority number one, that’s new. And to do that I had to confront a formidable obstacle in education: time. There’s never enough time. Never. But I am going to try anyway. And to do that I had to re-imagine what learning looks like in my room. To conference with kids I have to make time for kids. To conference with one kid, I have to create learning opportunities for the other kids.

Here’s a glimpse at my rough plan in the form of a weekly schedule (still have some details to work out). I will share more specifics in the coming days.

Mondays will be personal reading days. It’s an intentional, make-time-for-reading move. It’s also a great way to ease into the week. Open, “walk-in” conferencing available.

Tuesdays are QUESTions days. Each week we will set our course using three questions. One to do with our overarching question for the semester (this fall: “How does the human experience connect and divide us?”). One to do with reading. And one to do with writing. We will use the bulk of the day to front load the necessary elements that will guide our work for the next two days: Discovery days.

Wednesdays and Thursdays are Discovery days. It is here where the kids will do the work, seeking to answer the week’s questions. It is here where I will conference with kids. These will be scheduled conferences. There will be a rotating schedule week to week where I will get through half the kids in each class over the two days. In the past, I have had a more “open format” for such times, but it has not allowed me to meet consistently with every kid. This year meeting consistently with every kid is the priority.

What about the other kids? Well, to help them stay engaged in their own work, I am going to provide both structure and choice. I will write more about this in the coming days and certainly share what I learn over the course of the year, but for now I will share the basic idea .

The goal here is work. In my room work must take the form as one of the following activities.

The kids will create four 3X5 card placards with the above words. Each card will be folded in half. Whatever is facing forward is the work that that student is doing at the time. It gives me an opportunity to visually note who’s doing what. And as I transition from conference to conference, I can quickly engage some of the other kids in what they are doing. Each kid will reflect on their specific work for that day in their Journey Journal (more on that soon), and they will keep track of the type and patterns of work they are doing. As for behavior, the kids and I will determine community expectations for Discovery days.

Fridays are Checkpoint days. We will check in as a community sharing our work from the week. I want this to take on various forms, but some of my initial thinking is that we will simply discuss our work around the week’s questions. In addition, and of significance, we will also have scheduled sharing opportunities for kids to share their work with the rest of the community (more on this later, too).

That’s a bit of my mess this morning. Glad to be back.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

Morning, all. Not quite back into blog mode yet, but I have been tweeting some thinking as a warm up. Sorry if it seems the easy way out. I’ll get back to it soon enough–maybe too soon. Cannot believe it’s the end of July.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.