Spring Break Has Sprung!

With the ringing of the bell yesterday afternoon, Spring Break #31 began!  Nice...and needed.

It's that time of the year where much emphasis is placed on preparing for the state-mandated tests, knowing there's still so much to cover yet so not enough time (or energy on the part of too many of my students) to cover or review all that is needed.  That time when you wish you could back up that date...or have scheduled earlier so that The Test would just be over.  

Year 31, and I still cannot determine how to cover all that needs to be taught AND conquer the many variables of student apathy (partly leftover from COVID and grace over grades and AMI days and...) and the attendance issues of so many, while rewarding the faithful and not allowing oneself to be caught up in the vortex of it all.

The answer to this dilemma?  Just keep on keeping on.  AND plan more (and again) this summer for Year 32, for I am not ready to retire on this note.  I really want to go out like I came in:  high energy, high content, high test scores.  BUT...are those days gone?  Times are achanging.  No doubt.  BUT...I have always said kids are kids.  Yes.  BUT...are parents still the same?  Is society still the same?  Am I still the same?  No.

I can compare little from Year 1 to Year 31.  Not sure that is all bad or wrong.  Just different.  Just changed.

Last week, I put my desks back into tables for the first time since March 16, 2020.  Felt right.  Exciting.

This past week, I did not assign seats and permitted the kids to choose where to sit; some switched with every class. 

This past week, I felt again some of that prior excitement.

But first...a week off to think and renew...and then back to Quarter 4...with tables and projects and no state test looming.  Good times.  They are 'coming!

To AMI...or Not

Since COVID hit, education has taken advantage of online platforms to continue the education of today's youth.  Or not.

Having now taught part of three years using this format, I can attest, due to my own very active research, that students do not gain from Alternate Methods of Learning...or AMI, as we refer to it here in Arkansas.

Hindsight, as we know, is 20-20 or is much closer to the truth, and had we all this to do over, I, for one, would vote again all things AMI.  Absolutely.

Why?

1. Students are not conditioned nor capable of learning in this format, and the research from these past three years will prove it...or had already proved it, and we, in times of desperation, chose to ignore it.
2. Parents are not in the business of education.  They climbed on board and, right along with educators, made the best of what was just a no-good situation.
3. Our initial motto was "Grace over Grades," and too many took advantage of that grace.  These students' knowledge base will forever be damaged and, unfortunately, so will their work ethics.

Active Research

1. Assignments could be nothing new.  This year alone we have now taken seven days.  
2. During AMI days 3-4, more than 60 of my students did not even attempt to complete any of their AMI work on the days assigned.
3. Some do not have Internet access.  Some have slow Internet access (to this I can attest!).  More, though, just will not do the work.  Work that contained no new information.
4. Educators did not get in this business/career/calling/passion to teach like this.  I know I did not.

Other Research

1. Granted, I have not conducted much research, but from the first article I opened, this author made these two claims:  1) "Stress impairs learning."  2) "The brain is a social brain."
2. Living in a pandemic is stressful.  Very.
3. Brains are social and need to be social and need to be in social settings with trained persons who encourage that social well-being.

Outcomes

1. We will never go back to normal.  Not for a while yet.  Those norms will have to be taught again.
2. Too many good teachers will retire.  Too many more will keep on keeping on, feeling like failures as they cannot help but remember the "good ol' days."
3. Too many low expectations have become ingrained; not sure that I want to even visualize what that means for the future.
4. Yet...I love this word...dispite all the above, I have witnessed young leaders rise and young minds strive to be more.  My hope lies in them.

Tell me:  what have your experiences taught you?

22 in Intentions for '22

I began this tradition of writing intentions instead of resolutions about a decade ago after reading a blog post rationalizing the word change...gives one more grace when one initially fails at a resolution.  Grace...a beautiful thing.

Wow!  22.  Twenty-two.  Better get started on that list!

1. Read Gone with the Wind.  I never have.  I am choosing this one as my Independent Read for Quarter 3.  Pressure...and assignment...is on!
2. Watch Gone with the Wind...only after having completed #1.
3. Lose 52 pounds...one pound a week.
4. More water...less sodas.  
5. Read an average of one book a week.  Hummm...see #1!
6. Read the Bible through...again.
7. Read The Christmas Carol and complete a Bible study connected to this book.  (AND I received another book regarding this same book.  Must be meant to be!)
8. Attempt to complete this book challenge:  52 Book Club's Reading Challenge.  Why this challenge?  To push myself to read books out of my comfort zone!
9. Read one professional read every two months.  I need to read one a month...but...  I have not grown professionally during this pandemic...as surviving became the goal and little energy or want-to was left to read books, other than ones of personal choice.
10. Re-read the Harry Potter books!  
11. Find good deals on books and buy/stock them up for 2022 Christmas gifts.  I gave books this year...and I have enjoyed doing so.
12. Give books as gifts for birthdays.  This one will take some planning, as birthdays tend to slip up on me!
13. Send birthday and thank you cards much more diligently!
14. Blog...more.  Write, reflect...just write.
15. Finish all the quilts I currently have started or promised to others AND make more quilts for others...and for me.
16. Paint.  
17. Put away and pick up...especially in my car and house!  Family gatherings will more often be hosted within our home; much less work to be more diligent about keeping it consistently presentable.
18. Focus on my One Word:  knowledge.  Maybe refer to all the above intentions that deal with books?!
19. Continue making time for my friend groups:  Meeting of the Minds and the Wildcats.
20. Be even more involved in ALA and WRLC...two literacy groups.
21. Spend quality time with the fam, especially The Man and The Daughter.
22. Create and grow even more beautiful flowers than I did last year.

Did you notice that many focus on books?  I just really like books!  2022...going to be a good year!

How about you?  Resolutions?  Intentions?  One?  22?!

A Model I Am?

Again, this year, I am asking/requiring my students to post to their blogs.

Again, this year, I continue to implement components from Penny Kittle's Write Beside Them.  Or am I?

For nearly all assignments, I do the assignment with my students, providing models for them, sometimes, to use word for word or, more often, as a guide on the side.  I have, too, have a class blog where I post here.  Yet. (Such a powerful little word.)  Yet...I seldom blog on my own personal blogs, often using time as my rationale.  Truth is that after teaching...still all day during pandemic guidelines...I often want to leave school at school.  Anyone get that?  Understand that?

Yet...writing here is a catharsis of sorts, one that has often been a healing time for me, a place where my thinking is tapped onto this blank canvas, and, while a work of art does not always develop, a result does occur that remains therapeutic for me.

Additionally, just have to say, hypocrites get on my last nerve...just bless them.  Yet...is that not what I am if I do not blog and post my thoughts?  Hummm...I see that thinking and tapping bringing thoughts and conviction to life.

Here's hoping that weeks, if not months, go by without my checking in here!

Sidenote:  Google removed blogger from student accounts.   Ugh.  I have yet to read a reason.  Thus, I implemented Plan B, which has resulted in a small delay of creating student blogs and in my decision to use Edublogs with my students this year.

2021-2022: Top Eight...so far

Eight days in...and having a great year, as we continue teaching in a pandemic.  Good to be back face-to-face!

For those eight days, a list of my favorite thoughts so far on this year and this group of students:

1. Great kids.  This group as a whole seems on track more and ready for the learning to begin.  Nice.
2. Books...all had a book checked out by day eight...and off we go on our independent read journeys.  My book?  One a student recommended as her most favorite book ever.  How could I resist?!
3. Ordered more books...always this is part of check out week as I do not ever have the exact titles or need more titles of certain books.  Speaking of that...need to order two more right now (I need to re-read Divergent series...and somewhere along the way the first in another series walked way.
4. Book Clubs...one boy, when I mentioned we would be reading The Crucible, asked for another book about the same subject.  I just happened to mention my paired text.  Before the conversation finished, two more wanted a copy of A Break with Charity.
5. Evenly numbered classes...meaning all my classes have about the same number of students.  Love this, as last year I had one with 29...and then one with five.  
6. Educators Rising...new name for the Teacher Cadets...and...wait for it...17 students signed up for the class!  These students either are future teachers or have some interest in learning about education (or the class was chosen for them!)...they total up to an amazng group of young leaders.  Yes.
7. All year-long projects are set up...except for creating their blogs...which will happen on Monday and Tuesday.  At that point, we are ready to dive into our first nine-week units.
8. New Schedule:  a modified block on Mon-Thurs and Fast Friday, where we meet with all classes.  I like it.  Days are a blur, which means, of course, that this year will again fly by!

I hope you have had an amazing beginning to a 21-22!  What have been your highlights?

Thirty Years Complete

That number...30...seems surreal.  As I left campus today, I completed 30 years of teaching in the classroom.  Amazing.  Blessed.  Chosen.  

Besides 30 years, 4000 students.

Besides 30 years, 5,700 paid days spent aspiring.

Besides 30 years, more days added to that number above, unpaid.

Besides 30 years, four school districts, four classrooms.

Besides 30 years, numerous teacher friends.

Besides 30 years, friendships in abundance.

Besides 30 years, adminstrative leadership guiding us. 

Besides 30 years, multiple preps each year.

Besides 30 years, lessons planned and presented.

Besides 30 years, hundreds of books read.

Besides 30 years, mistakes, too many, made.

Besides 30 years, goals achieved...and not.

Besides 30 years, never one paid vacation.

Besides 30 years, sick and personal days covered all needs.

Besides 30 years, in one pandemic taught.  Thank goodness.

Besides 30 years, living what I was born to do.

Besides 30 years, after June, ready to plan for another.

This list could go on, yet, if you have taught, you know:  there is no tired like that end-of-year tired.  For this reason, I pause here to rest and recline, for on this evening of day 5,700, my math has reached it max capabilites!

Amazing.  Blessed. Chosen.

The Return to Reading

Meeting and surpassing my 2021 reading goal I am!  Just click on the above 2021 Reading List to check out my titles thus far.

I question myself:  why so many books in such a short time span?  My love of reading has returned after having lived in a dessert entitled "Pandemic and Busyness."  After the atrocious first semester during which time was not my own, I decided...and since have affirmed...that I needed a diagnosis of normalcy.  Therefore, I committed again to reading one book a week, reading books I owned (still have bought plenty...for that is very normal!), and reading books I enjoy...yes, even fluff...and young adult...and suspense...with a few witches thrown in!

Then, that love of reading began to return...not because I needed to meet a deadline (book clubs often place that pressure on me!  Yikes!)...but because I absolutely love to immerse myself in a good book.  Now, I feel more like me than I have in a long time.  Yes!

One of my more recent reads The Distance Between Lost and Found (bought based on a student's recommendation) reminds me so much of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, both about a girl bullied who lost...and then found...her voice.  Books on this topic remind...oh, why do I need to be reminded?!...of the power of the bully and to evermore take a stand against such violence.

Also, I have read three books by authors from my home state of Arkansas...have bought another...and reserved a copy for another.  Such talent we have!  Here are the titles of the ones I have read thus far...all very good:

1. Vilonia Beebe Takes Charge by Kristin Gray - middle grade
2. Eventide by Sarah Goodman - young adult
3. Letters on the Table by Pattie Howse-Duncan - adult

I certainly hope your love of reading has continued...and should you have taken a break (of whatever kind or length), I encourage you to dive back in with a book that speaks to you!

Happy reading!