I want my students to feel like they matter as individuals. Frequently, we begin our time together with what I call “Smiles and Frowns.” Each kid has a chance to share a smile and/or frown from his or her life. It’s a great way to start our time together. It’s a great way to build community. It takes five minutes. Before, in my more-traditional mindset, I wouldn’t take the time, and, if I did, I felt guilty about “stealing” instructional time. Now, if I don’t do it, I feel guilty about stealing community time. I plan to do it everyday next year. It’s important to me, so I have to support it. I choose to support it. It’s possible.

Last July I had an opportunity to share how I create a classroom culture with the Teachers Going Gradeless folks (TG2). The words above, from the article, A Culture of Possibility, reflected one of my most important commitments this year, making my kids feel valued and respected as individuals by giving them a daily chance to speak their lives through what I call Smiles and Frowns. And so far we have not missed a single day. Even when I am absent, my kids do it on their own, taking charge of it, despite the fact that there is a sub in the room. Just yesterday, I had to run to the store to fill my Cup Noodle pantry for my hungry kids, but I was out of time during my planning period, so I asked my grade-level teammate and Project 180 contributor Jenna Tamura to join my kids in Smiles and Frowns while I ran to the store. A frequent visitor to my second-period class (it’s her planning period), Jenna fit in perfectly with the kids, sharing her own smile and frown. I walked in just at the end, shared my smile, and we got the rest of our day underway. I am proud beyond measure of the impact that Smiles and Frowns has had on our culture this year. I will have spent over a 1,000 minutes of instructional time by year’s end on this entry activity. In my twenty-years, it may be the best investment I ever made.

But there’s a problem. For the next two weeks, I am going to have to betray my commitment to individualizing and humanizing my kids’ experiences in my classroom. For the next two weeks, I will reluctantly bow to the standardizing force that will disrupt our culture. For the next two weeks, I will not be able to do Smiles and Frowns with my kids as we face the reality of state testing. I have thought of doing it anyway, putting the start of the test on hold, but it may qualify as an “irregularity” and have to be reported to the state, invalidating my kids’ tests. Irregularity. Yeah, beginning each day by honoring my kids is an objectionable threat to the sanctity of the deified data that we are about to collect.

So, what does one do on the last day before state testing? He does Community Circle with his kids. What else would I do? It’s the first Friday. Made a promise. I’ll keep a promise. But what about my other promise with Smiles and Frowns? Oh, I have not yet given up. I will have something up my sleeve Monday morning. Promise. Pinky Promise.

Today’s Trail…

Along today’s trail we will…

…deepen our the culture of our community with Community Circle.

Happy Friday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.