Are We Truly Listening?

Since March, my voice has been very quiet. Almost, crickets quiet. One morning, I woke up with an irritating pain in my back that quickly escalated into me being unable to walk, sit, or drive. Excruciating pain so intense I couldn't think. I tried everything in my arsenal (rest, heat, ice); nothing worked. I sought medical assistance. I kept saying the same thing. I need answers. What is causing this? How can we repair it? I didn't want to slap a bandaid on it, but work towards regaining my healthy, active life. Over and over again I said this as doctors, medical professionals, and my insurance company failed to listen to me. It took me 13 weeks to jump through countless (worthless) hoops until I finally was able to find a doctor who listened. Truly listened. He ran tests, formal and informal. He asked me for feedback. He communicated with me regularly...even out of office hours. He (and the fantastic physical therapist that he recommended) made themselves available to answer my questions, soothe my anxiety, and help me work toward my goal of a healthy back. Having them gave me a positive frame of mind that I could reach that goal even if it still may take several more months.

One day, as I was reclined on an extra-large ice pack, it occurred to me that many of our students may be on parallel journeys to this in their learning lives. They may feel completely overwhelmed by the expectations in our classrooms. They may have obstacles that seem insurmountable. They many feel that their voices are hitting an abyss and that no one cares enough to hear them, see them.

I couldn't help but ask, are we being the kind of teacher that truly listens? Are we talking to them? Asking questions? Listening not only to what they are saying, but what they are not saying? Are we building a foundation of trust with our students so that they know we care about them, not as just a student in our classrooms, but as individuals? Do we run formal and informal diagnostics and formative assessments to determine exactly what they need while giving them an opportunity to set their own personal goals? Do we soothe their anxiety, cheer them on, and provide guidance that they can build upon? Are we willing to go above and beyond what is "expected" as a classroom teacher to give our students what they need? Again, I ask, are we truly listening? Because if we are, it can make a world of difference in the life of that student even long after they have left. That's what they need. That's what they deserve.

What Great Teachers Do Differently

While I was at ASCD, I had the opportunity to hear Todd Whitaker speak. Some of the thoughts that he expressed have really been rolling around in my brain lately. His advice is plain old common sense, but like one of students said, "You know, common sense isn't so common." Sometimes, we may need reminding of these things to give us some persepective....especially as the school year is winding down and we are making plans for the next year.

We have a choice of what comes into our room whether it's positive or negative. As the teacher, we set the tone. We are the filter as to what gets through to our students and impacts our days, positively or negatively. We must treat every student with respect every day for the entire school year. We all know that learners who are treated with respect will, in turn, treat others with respect. This creates a positive culture where students feel open to exploring new ideas and trying new things.

Parents send us their best kids. I laughed when he said this, but as I pondered it, I realized that it is absolutely true. Those kids are the best the parents have. It is our job to nurture, educate, and give them the best that we've got. Making excuses does not help anyone. It's a waste of energy.We know that students don't have a choice in where they live, their socioeconomic level, or their family situation. Our job is not to judge them, but work with each of them, nuturing their talents, finding their challenges, and empowering them with the ability to be successful people who can make a difference in this world.

Great teachers are intentionalists. In a great teacher's classroom nothing happens randomly. Great teachers plan and guide students into correct behaviors instead of fighting those discipline fires that will continue to pop up throughout the year. They understand that they have the ability to respond to something or not to respond, remembering what is best for each of the students within our classrooms. In a great teacher's classroom, the students don't know how to push their teacher's buttons because they've never seen their teacher's buttons. It's easy for us to pulled into the "reality show" mentality where using sarcasm, insults, and outrageous behavior is acceptable. However, it is our job to make sure students know that being a teacher is an honorable career. We are professionals who carefully and intentionally make educated decisions for ourselves and for them.

Here's the good news: what teachers do matters. The bad news: what teachers do matters EVERY day. We never know what will stick with our students, good or bad. Sometimes a flippant response to one of them can stick in their minds for the rest of their lives (some time I'll have to write about why I became a teacher). We all have those days where we are exhausted, stressed, sick, or feeling blue. However, we need to remember that everything we say and do in the classroom has an audience. What we do matters. One comment or action can really impact our students positively or negatively. We are the professionals. We need to remember it's not about us...it's about them.

I know at this time of year, in spite of being exhausted, all of us are planning for our next group of students. I hope that these bits of wisdom help you (as they've helped me) to focus on what's most important...our students.

photo credit: mkrigsman via photo pin cc

Best Laid Plans...of a 5th Grade Class

Yesterday didn't go as planned...at all. I had a plan of what I thought would be an enjoyable and engaging math lesson. I recently bought the book Math-terpieces: The Art of Problem-Solving by Greg Tang. I planned on reading the book and letting the students have some fun solving the problems that related to the masterpieces of art on each page. I thought it would be a nice change of pace and a way to review previously mastered skills in a new format.

My students came up with other plans. Although several of them immediately "closed down" when I first got out a book to read (see this post), by the second page, they were all glued to the pages waving hands in the air to find different solutions to the problems in each of the poems. Before we could get through the book, they started offering different ideas to our day's plan.

View their Math-terpieces Storyjumper

One student asked if they could create math poems like the ones we were reading. Another student chimed in and said that for them to be like the ones Greg Tang wrote, they would need to use art masterpieces as the inspiration. Then another student suggested that instead of using a famous masterpiece, maybe they could create their own. To which another student suggested not only writing the poems and creating the art but publishing them in a StoryJumper so that all of the students that they collaborate with could read their book too.

Wow! This all happened so fast it was amazing. My learners had found inspiration in a book that I thought would hold their attention for about thirty minutes and turned it into a two day project that tied together reading for inspiration, writing for an authentic audience, creating for a purpose, and publishing it to further the learning of their peers across the country.

Within a few minutes, they were searching for inspirational artists to begin creating their own masterpieces. They asked to get out different art mediums, each one wanting to be unique. Once their masterpieces were done, they began searching for math concepts within their art and began brainstorming ideas. As with all of our writing projects, we had conferences throughout their writing process where they explained their ideas and they searched for vivid language. Then my students set up a new StoryJumper and began guiding their peers through their publication of their own math-terpieces.

Did we follow the prescriptive curriculum? Um...not these two days. Shhh! Don't tell on us. My kids were so excited and learned so much, how could I possibly have taken this away from them? I guess we'll have to keep all this learning tightly under wraps. Next time I make out my lesson plans, maybe I should turn it over to them. They all definitely come up with much more clever ideas than me. I'm so glad that my day didn't go as planned. I wonder what we'll do tomorrow. I can't wait to find out.

What is Homework?

A couple of weeks ago, I read a tweet that has really stuck with me. It said that homework wasn't about learning but about behavior. I wish I could remember who tweeted that so that we could continue that conversation and so that I could give them credit for saying it.

I have to say in my evolving journey as an educator, I have been questioning a lot of practices and wondering about their validity in truly and rigorously educating our learners. I teach in a system that requires a certain number of grades per grading period. In some cases, they go so far as to tell us which assignments must be assigned and graded and how many of those assignments we have to give each grading period. Then our school administration has each grade level break down those assignments/categories even further to turn into them. These categories are given a percent value for the final averages for each grading period. All of this is done for the sake of continuity across the district. I agree that there needs to be some continuity across the district, but are we more focused on continuity and losing sight of what's important? Doing what's best for our students.

Even within those tight restrictions, I have to say that I've moved away from creating these rigid homework assignments because, as the mystery tweeter mentioned above said, it is really measuring a behavior than actual learning. Many of my students go home with younger siblings to an empty house. They are the one in charge of caring for their siblings, helping to feed them, making sure they get baths, and they get to bed. If one of those students, slaps something down in a workbook to turn in without giving it thought, or by reinforcing the wrong thing by doing it incorrectly, what good does that homework assignment do? Is actual learning being evaluated? I have to say, "No."

To complete many of the required assignments, I've broken my class down into small group, learning centers, where I can meet with small groups of students to find out who really understands principles and concepts and who needs more help. These small groups change day to day and sometimes minute to minute based on what the learner understands and can apply to the project/assignment at hand. Once a student grasps something, he/she moves on to higher level activities that involve problem solving and critical thinking. Doing this I can accurately measure what each of my students understands and has learned even within these tight grading constraints.

Often in these small groups, we have really deep conversations and they make outstanding connections between life outside the classroom walls, their background knowledge, and their personal reading. These students often go home and do extra work to bring back and share with their peers. Sometimes, they gather up supplies and conduct an experiment with the class that they found while doing extra reading because their interest was so peaked by something we discussed in small group, they wanted to extend their learning and share more. I've also had kids create costumes and come to school as a historical figure, create presentations or games for the class, and find all kinds of interesting online resources to share. We've created a class wiki where we can house many of these activities/resources so that the students can further extend their learning beyond our classroom time constraints.

Now which one measures learning? The workbook pages that kids do, often incorrectly, or these amazing activities that they do that enhances and sparks enthusiasm in their peers often setting off a chain reaction of amazing learning events that they pursue on their own? Well, of course, anyone, including my 10 year old students, can see it's the latter. They know when they are working on something in the classroom, they are responsible for providing me with evidence of their learning and their thinking. I keep a file of all of this work, but because of our strict grading parameters, much (not all) of this extended learning is not reflected in their grades.

So how do we fix this? This is an excellent question, one that I'm still pondering and reflecting upon daily. Isn't traditional homework doing a disservice to our students? I think so, but I'd love to hear your thoughts about homework.