The Ideal Classroom

I have to be honest: I was really only feeling lukewarm about a lot of what Katie Martin had to say in Learner-Centered Innovation until Chapter 4. I mean, it's a good book, and she had a lot of important points, but I wasn't really energized about changing my own classroom culture until last night.

I suppose this makes sense since Chapter 4 is titled "What Does Your Ideal Classroom Look Like?" Of course, I can't really explain everything about my ideal classroom since that would take too long, so here are some quick, concrete changes I'm going to make in the 2018-2019 school year to try to achieve a more learner-centered approach.

First Days

I do think that I do some good things in my first days of the year: asking students what good learners and leaders do and posting them for the whole year (thanks, Innovator's Mindset!), asking students to write a letter of introduction and introductory poem, learning their names within the first few days, creating discussion norms, etc. However, I think I could do better!

Poems and Books

First, I want to use something that I learned at Chad Everett's (@chadceverett - worth a follow!) Scholastic Day of Reading workshop. He talked about using a George Ella Lyon "Where I'm From" poem to get to know the students AND to make initial independent reading recommendations! I was floored - I've used those poems (and several variations of biopoems) to get to know the kids, but I have never used them for reading recommendations. Such an easy switch and one that I think will really pay off.

I Wish My Teacher Knew...

Several months ago, I read a story about an activity a teacher did with her students called "I wish my teacher knew...". Students ended up sharing a lot of personal information, some of which was incredibly sad, and all of which was very helpful. I feel like I thought I was asking for students to do this in their introductory letters, but I think I made that assignment too narrow and prescribed for them to really express themselves; I asked about specific things like reading and writing goals, and there's time for that later in the year. So this year, I'm just going to ask them to finish that sentence and see what happens.

What Should School Be/What If?

Here's where Chapters 3-4 start to come in. I love the idea of asking students what they think school should be and changing our narrative from "Yeah, but" to "What if?" (52). I'm sure I've said "Yeah, but" more times than I can count (and I was never permitted to say that as a kid because my father thought it was going to be followed by an excuse - he was right!), and I'm feeling a lot of regret for how many opportunities I let get away. Obviously, you have to be realistic about things, but I don't think "Yeah, but" should be the first reaction to something. I'm going to ask the students what they think school should be (another activity that was also brought up by Chad Everett) and build on that to have them answer the "What if?" question. Hopefully, that will drive some different experiences this year!

Significant Learning Experiences

The last thing that I'd like to get to in the first week of school is the Significant Learning Experiences activity described on p. 104. Katie Martin recommends doing it with the staff, which I think is a great idea, but I would also like to hear about the significant and positive learning experiences the kids have had before. I'm not sure yet how to structure this activity, but I think it will reveal a lot about how the kids learn and probably tie into the "What should school be?" question as well.

Beyond the First Days

I am excited to try these new things, but I am also a realist: I tend to start the school year with a lot of excitement, but then somehow it's December and I have a million papers to grade and meetings to go to and emails to answer and then somehow it's March and the entire year has gotten away from me. So I think I need a plan for keeping on top of the things I want to implement and making sure that they don't just last for September and then it's business as usual.

(Image from https://www.jwfpalmbeach.org/jwf-imagine-the-possibilities-campaign/)

So far, the only thing I have for this plan is to keep revisiting the things the kids do the first few days and make sure we are sticking to them. Make sure that I am honoring their learning processes, giving time for reflection, demonstrating that making mistakes is part of the process, etc. I would love to hear thoughts about systems I could put into place to help me as I am not the most organized person - I have some ideas about executive functioning routines that I think will help me AND the kids, but I'm not quite sure how those will mesh with the learner-centered experiences yet. I take heart from the wisdom of the great Gloria Steinem, though! 

Taking Risks in the Classroom

This week, I read the Foreword, What If?, and Chapter 1 ("The Evolving Role of the Educator") in Katie Martin's Learner-Centered Innovation: Spark Curiosity, Ignite Passion, and Unleash Genius.

The question I chose to answer was about how to encourage taking risks in the classroom. This is something that I've been thinking about for years because I've been trying to reconcile two seemingly opposite needs in the classroom: the need to provide a safe space for mistakes and the growth that comes with them and the need to have assignments that are graded at some point for my trimester report cards.

(image from http://www.wbrettwilson.ca/redefining-success/)

I have a poster in my classroom that says something like "Never be afraid to make mistakes; that shows that you're trying something new" - but it's badly misspelled! I can't remember it exactly and I can't get to it now, but I always think about the student who wrote a reflection about it for her journal and basically said, "That's crap because we always get a lower grade for mistakes, so why try?" 



That idea has stuck with me for years now, even after the student is in college. I started to wonder how to provide genuine opportunities for students to practice and make mistakes and take risks that would eventually lead to mastery of the concepts, and I haven't come up with much, sadly. I don't grade rough drafts except for completion (full credit if it gets done on time, partial if it's late, but nothing about the content is graded - I just use Google Docs to give comments), and I don't grade grammar practices (I assess the concepts taught in the students' writing). However, I don't know about providing a space for "real world" mistakes.

However, I do see a real need for this. I welcome any suggestions and fully support the idea that "Learning is messy. Today's technology provides easy access to answers, but if we focus only on the answers and not on thinking, questioning, and solving, we rob students (and ourselves) of great learning experiences. Perhaps more significantly, we fail to develop the critical behaviors that will empower them (and us) to be lifelong learners" (Martin, 20). Only by making the mistakes and avoiding the easy answers will our students really engage in the learning process that will take them far beyond our classrooms. Only then can we begin to fight the "Is this on the test?" question and the fear of losing points and replace them with genuine interest, perseverance, and the willingness and ability to learn from the mistakes that they see as lessons, not failure.

Guess Who's Back (Back Again)??

It is inconceivable to me that it's been almost a whole year since my last blog post. I always think I'm going to use this as a platform to connect with other educators during the year and then time totally gets away from me. I'll try harder this upcoming year; I already have several ideas about sharing student reactions and samples from new units that I try.

Anyway, this summer, I have the privilege of taking another course with a colleague and friend who ran the Innovator's Mindset course last summer. I'll be reading Learner-Centered Innovation this time around, and I'm really excited about it!

Our first assignment is to post a recommendation for a book that all educators should read. Every time I'm asked this question, I give the same answer: The 5 Love Languages of Children. It's been amazing to me how much parenting books help me become a better teacher - I'm not a parent myself, and I only get to see my students for a specific developmental period in their lives. That being said, teaching is, at its heart, about relationships, and it seems like parenting might be as well. For that reason, I have returned over and over again to The 5 Love Languages of Children. Each person is different in how we build relationships, and I think we often forget that kids are different as well. One student might feel valued by me buying a book specifically for them because it meant that I was thinking about them even when I wasn't with them; another might need me to sit with them and work together on a project to feel the same way. It's important to remember that.

Another thing we were supposed to do was post a selfie. Please enjoy this one of me in my current favorite shirt! :)