More Than Just "Making It"

Yesterday I saw someone I hadn't seen in quite some time and as usual, the question gets asked, "How are you doing?"  My standard response is "I'm making it." And when I saw her face after saying that, I could tell that I was being a "Debbie Downer" to her at that moment with my response.

At my school, we used to have a teacher that when asked the same question, would always reply with "Living the dream, living the dream!"  It would catch me off guard and make me think, "Yeah, you know any day above ground is a good day!"  I've taken to ending any email I send out with a salutation which reads, "Have a blessed day!" and I truly hope that whoever reads it does.

As I've stated in some other blog posts, teaching is a ridiculously hard profession.  Things change rapidly, day to day, even moment to moment in a class period, and there is an almost unreasonable amount of stress that comes with educating students, communicating with families, and just staying current on content and other things.  So, shouldn't we do everything in our power to build each other up instead of tear down?

I'm not sure what season your staff are in where you are, and I don't mean literal season like spring, summer, winter, or fall, but encouragement, disillusion, reenergized, defeated, etc.  But it seems that during this time of the school year and during the middle of the spring semester too, that we as teachers get weary, worn out, feeling defeated and we need to be encouraged daily.  Some folks are born encouragers who leave you feeling better for just seeing them, knowing them, listening to them, etc.  Some folks are not and need to be encouraged.  I think we all fall into both of these categories depending on the season of life we are in.  We need to "carry our own weather" as The Leader in Me program says.  We need to "be kinder than required at all times" as I saw posted in a class at my school.  We should not be merely surviving, not just "making it", but thriving.  The moment we are just surviving, we need to seek out those born encouragers, but not to be their Debbie Downers, but to get some refreshment so we can always give our students our best effort and not just a partial effort.  I hope you are more than just "making it".  I hope you are thriving.  I hope you are helping others to thrive and speaking life into them.

Maybe you need some Educational Reassurance?

Maybe we just need to count our blessings and Find Some Good?

Maybe you need some Twitter-ment or help finding your marigold to encourage you?

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The Great Irony

As a teacher in the classroom every day, I knew my students better than anyone.  I knew what made them tick, what motivated them, how they processed information, how they learned best, etc.  I knew my kiddos better than anyone.  

As an instructional coach for the past four years, I experienced walking that delicate balance between administrator {which I am not} and support teacher {which I am always}.  I could observe in a class, help you figure out how to work certain aspects into your day, how to help you manage your students, group them, arrange your class to run more effectively and efficiently, etc, but I could and will never pretend to tell you how to teach your students, because you, the teacher, know the needs of your students better than any data report I can pull, better than any observational time.  I could coach you into more sound pedagogy practices, but not teach for you. 

So, herein lies the great irony.  As a teacher, we are told by so many to "Do what's best for your students.  You know them best."  But we are also told, "You must teach this concept this way, and don't deviate from this curriculum."  "We must do it the way the district folks say so."  And as a teacher, we're left wondering if I should just do what I know to be best for my students or choose to do it the way I'm told and prescribed and not rock that proverbial boat.  If I step out of that boat and make waves and I fail, well then I get laughed at, penalized, talked badly about.  But if I step out of that boat and I succeed, then others want to emulate it and I become a "success story."  So, what's a teacher to do?

I will never pretend to know what the perfect, right answer is.  But I completely understand the great irony and know that each teacher has to make that choice daily to do in their heart what is right to help their students succeed or do what is told so as not to cause problems.  What I am certain of, is that no one person, not even a team of folks can make a single curriculum, single lesson, a single strategy that will work for everyone.  In my district we are nearing 120,000 students, so no way can something work for every student.  That's why we need caring, daring, studious teachers to take the time necessary to never give up on a single student and keep trying, keep motivating, keep changing till they "get it", and keep pouring into our students every day.  I always try to keep in mind the thought that if this were my own child, how would I want them treated.  Having three kiddos (Kindergarten, 6th gr, and 11th grade), I know and understand that what works for one may or may not work for the other.  

I know I'm not alone in this great irony.  It's one the echoes through the generations, across socioeconomic statuses, and across the country and world.  And I know that it won't soon go away.  So to each teacher I say, study your students, learn what makes them them, and never give up.

Why Blog?

I started really being faithful in blogging this summer as a challenge from Kasey Bell on her blog.  I wrote about it in a previous post.  

I am a total Math/Science person at heart.  Structure, logical thinking, numbers, black and white thinking.  But, I am also a person who reflects.  I don't have a quick wit.  I so often think of what I should have said or done long after something has happened.  So, blogging affords me the opportunity to stop and think about my own learning and experiences and then become intentional about choosing my words and thoughts carefully.  It also allows me to link my learning from a variety of places to a post so that I can find it later.  

Blogging isn't for everyone, but reflecting should be.  When I blog, I'm putting all my thoughts and written words out there for others to read and then make their own opinions about me and I have to say that not all my blog posts have been met with smiles, but with each one, I learn something.  Reflecting should be a natural extension of our education.  We do something, we reflect, we learn from it, and then we change something about what we do for the next time.  Most teachers who have multiple classes see this in their day to day teaching, where they do something in their first class and depending on how well it went or if kiddos are "getting it", they change their strategy or activity.  So blogging is to me.  I write something, I reflect, then I take time to do something different  from then on.  I think we should be teaching our students how to do this too and giving them an opportunity daily to not only reflect upon their learning, but upon their day, their choices, etc so that in this they can learn to become deeper thinkers, and deeper learners.

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I hope you take time today, this week, this month, this school year to really reflect.  As one of my Master's Professors said, "We are in the business of practicing our craft."  Which to me means, we are practicing, constantly learning from, modifying, changing what we do to better ourselves and what we do to help our students and staff.  We will never perfect it, because we are reflecting and learning continuously.

"Fostering Reflection" ASCD Article by Lana Danielson

"What Meaningful Reflection on Student Work can do for Learning" by MindShift

Just 4 Fun

Part of my becoming more balanced this school year, includes doing things just for fun.  My husband is teaching me this one.  I am a total cheap skate, so much that he can hear Lincoln screaming from the penny.  I budget to the point that I'd rather eat ramen noodles for lunch rather than order out for a birthday celebration.  But this weekend, my family had the privilege of walking/running the Color Run Houston, seeing a movie, and spending time together.  I realize that not everything fun has to cost money, but this weekend it did.  And we had a blast!  Doing things just for fun might be different for you and your family, but I'm learning that we all need things that are just 4 fun.  

I didn't become an avid reader until I was an adult, already in my career of education for 5 years.  I know this may sound crazy, but it's just the honest truth.  I read because I had to, because there was an assignment attached to it, a grade with it.  You get the point.  My middle daughter who was due in early May, leaving me plenty of time to rest and then teach summer school that year, didn't arrive until May 24th, so I was instructed by my district that I was a liability so stay home.  So, after having her, and buying and moving into our very first home 2 days later, what was I to do?  A former teaching partner of mine recommended a young adult book called The Skin I'm In by Sharon Flake and I was hooked.  I went on to read Money Hungry by the same author that summer.  And when I was done with those two, I became very restless.  I've already said that I have a really hard time just sitting still, so I gave this friend a call and said, "What else do you have?  What do you recommend I read next?"  She recommended Janet Evanovich, who writes mystery/romance and I spent that summer reading everything she had written up to that point.  See, I had just not found a genre that really connected with me or a book I liked.  It wasn't that I had more time on my hands, having my second child and my older one being 5 years old and moving into our first home, I certainly had plenty to do, but this joy of reading became something to me that was just for me, just for fun.  Nowadays, I'm an avid reader who consumes nearly 100 books a year and I love every minute of them.  I'm grateful for someone taking time to listen to me, find out what I like and recommend stories to me!

Tonight as I sat at dinner, my oldest, who is now 16, relayed the same feeling I had all those years ago.  She loves to read.  All my girls do, and for that I'm grateful!  They always have a book nearby and usually carry one when we go places so they can sneak in some reading time on the road, waiting in lines, etc.  But she told me that she hates it when it's attached to an assignment or has a grade dependent on it.  Makes me sad that this is what reading has become so often.  It reminded me of an article I read this summer that I discovered through Twitter, called "At Any Given Moment We Have the Power to Stop the Hatred of Reading" by Pernille Ripp.  I hope you take some time to read her blog post and reflect on our teaching practices of reading and find ways to help kids LOVE reading.  And I hope you take time to discover something for yourself that is just for you, just for fun!

We're Watching You...

Yeah, yeah, I know fair is not always equal.  I've said it to my kids, to staff, even to my own students and lived it too, but we are still watching you.

I write this blog post tonight not to start a war or offend anyone, just to start a conversation after we reflect upon our own practices.  Every blog post I write is my way of reflecting from my own point of view, whether it be right or wrong, well that's up to you, but it's still my opinion.

In the personality colors test, I came out yellow first, then blue secondary.  Meaning, I like order, routine, following rules, structure...the yellow side of me.  Then there's the blue side of me, who cares about your feelings, what you think, wants to people please, believe the best in others and wants to encourage you.

I've experienced some situations where I felt slighted, unfairly treated, or left out, because favoritism came into play from others.  And I don't feel comfortable calling out those folks in any form.  I move far away from controversy, no matter who or what it is, even if this post suggests otherwise.  But what do you do then to address the situation?  I honestly don't have a solution to this, just wanted to write this to help us all think and reflect.  Are you playing favorites?  Do rules, policies, laws only apply to certain people and bend for others or get completely set aside?  And whether you do this consciously or unconsciously, know that if you do this, others see it, experience it, feel hurt by it, because we're watching you.

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When I started in education, my Mother in Law warned me about the politics of education, of this very thing, but I refused to believe.  However, having lived through some of these things, and yes, we live THROUGH them, not in them, it's not fun.  It shapes who we are, who we trust, what connections we choose to make, even where we choose to teach or work.  The very act of teaching has got to be the hardest job on the planet, no matter if you are at a well to do school or a very needy school, so then why would any leader choose to let politics, favoritism, whatever you call this enter into our schools.  We are ALL equal, so treat us fairly.  A leader is not a leader if there's no one following behind them.  Treat us with integrity, honesty, transparency, and without favoritism.  When you do this, you build a culture of teachers who feel valued, connected, supported, care about their work, and want to stay around for many years.  When you don't it tears down the climate of any staff faster than anything I know, and you have rapid turnover and folks who just don't care about their work.  The crazy thing to me, is that following the same set of rules, policies, and laws for all staff is something that costs you zero dollars, so it's FREE to build up your campus, staff, and students.

Here's an article for teachers to ponder upon: "Playing Favorites?"

And an article for bosses to ponder: "How do Deal With Favoritism in the Office"

And here's a book I found through Google about Stepping Into Administration: How to Succeed in Making the Move, which I will be purchasing that has some valuable info about this topic too.

Analysis Paralysis

At my campus, we're beginning to get some baseline data from our beginning of the year tests and quizzes.  As with any assessment, there comes a point when you've analyzed enough, and it's time to put some action to it all.  Sometimes, however, it's easy to see all the vast needs of your students, your teams, your campus and just be paralyzed by all of it, not knowing where to start.  It's a lot like starting a deep, spring cleaning after your teenage daughter had an overnight sleepover at your home.  You look around and really just don't know where to start.  So much work to be done.  The same is true for beginning of the year data.  No matter the content, at this time of the school year, you know (or should) your students needs based on observation and based on hard academic data and you know there's much to do.

For me, when I get to this point, and it happens every year, I have to take all my data, consult with folks smarter than me, and then sometimes, just start.  Like the old Nike commercial, just do it.  You bathe your students in small groups religiously.  You start other types of interventions that your campus may have access to.  You call parents, set up conferences, solicit their help at home, find ways to motivate your students to read at home, do contests to keep them motivated, etc, etc, etc.  Bottom line, you just start moving forward with your students needs in mind and don't stop, don't give up.  I'm not telling you it's going to be easy.  I'm telling you it's going to be worth it.  There will be times when you are worn out, want to give up, but it's usually in those times, that a holiday comes up.  And I hope you leave it all at school for those times, and take the time to recharge with your family and friends, so that when school starts again, you aren't paralyzed, but recharged and ready to go.

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