Real, I’ve come to find, is rarely ideal. It has blemishes. It will always have blemishes. It’s real–it has to. And though some think it unappealing and unattractive, it is authentic, and I think authentic is beautiful.

Of course, on some level, this may simply be my rationalizing my own reality, but I have little interest in “playing school” with my kids. To be sure, that is not to say that I have no interest in their learning. In fact, it’s their learning that compels me to dare different in the first place, which often leads me down a different path for I am afflicted: I have an aversion to playing pretend. I’m suspicious of the “look of learning,” believing we can–and often do–dress things up to make them look like–what we believe–to be learning. Of course, this is not to say this always the case, but in many cases we seem to have this idea that the compliant classroom is the model classroom. I don’t accept that at face value. But I suspect by now that comes as no surprise to my readers, for I have long pushed the commitment-over-compliance narrative, believing true learning comes from commitment, not compliance. And in my experience that means things have to look different, and different is not always pretty.

Yesterday, we had a personal-reading day, and not wanting to play pretend with my kiddos, I offered this message to set the stage.

Kids made choices. Were all those choices ideal? Nope. Some chose their phones. Some worked on math. Most read. Not ideal. But it was real. So, you let kids hang out on their phones and do math during reading time? No, I let them make a choice. And then, I asked them to own it in a record/reflection at the end. Am I remiss in my duties, then? I don’t know, but a choice is not a choice if it’s not a choice.

There is power and promise in choice. One of my kiddos pointed that out during Smiles and Frowns.

One will not find the ideal in room 206. That is a choice that I have made, and I will own that choice. Yes, I want better, but better is more real than ideal. That is the reality I welcome in my classroom.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will experience…

…connecting through Smiles and Frowns.

…self-assessing work with theme.

…preparing for our next Learning Check on theme.

…reflecting in our Journey Journals.

…hearing a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Thursday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.