Before I started this blog post, I read through everyone’s entries on their “something learned” that would impact students—all the posts are so inspiring, and I can feel the positive energy!

I am actually surprised how much my instructional plans are changing this year. Since my externship mainly involves working with teachers, I wasn’t sure how much it would translate into my teaching right away. However, thanks to both talking with and getting ideas from you all and the professional development we received, I am more willing to try out more nontraditional ideas in the classroom. 

Three things I have already tried out this week that have been very successful while still keeping my classroom orderly, focused, and peaceful:

1. The first one was minor, yet representative of this year’s change, and it all started from a mild disappointment. I was moved (not my choice) to a much smaller room, and had to figure out how to fit 28 desks in a way that would accomodate 18 year olds! This is a rough view of what some of my coworkers and I came up with:

This picture doesn’t really tell the whole story of the seats, which are carefully angled and staggered to create the most space possible. My coworkers came and helped me design it after I kept hanging out in their rooms to plan because I didn’t even want to look at mine.

In six years of teaching, I have always had my desks facing front in straight rows. This new method lets me be really “in” the classroom instead of just standing in front of it. It’s much more squished than my old room, but I’ve taken to calling it “cozy.”

2. Making sure that students have a chance to move at least once EVERY CLASS (except on test days). I’ve thought of very simple ways to do this, like: I had a students do a quickwrite related to that day’s lesson. Then, instead of just discussing as a class, I had them get up and give it to someone on the other side of the room. They wrote a response to that student’s quickwrite and wrote down further ideas for that person to consider. Then I had them get up and trade again. By the time it came to class discussion, they had gotten two chances to stretch their legs (important during a 90-minute block, yikes) and warm up to the discussion. I ended up getting MANY more hands raised than I usually do at first.  

3. Attaching short, creative activities to more standard assignments. For example, after an analysis assignment on the essay “Homeless” by Anna Quindelin, I had students grab colored paper and some art supplies–that I made sure I am fully stocked with this year–and had them write the word “shelter,” draw whatever they associated with “shelter,” and then write down words and phrases they associated with it. I then had them turn the paper over and do the same thing on the back with the word “Homeless.” Each student then did a short presentation of why they picked what they did for both sides (this and grabbing the art supplies was their stand-up for the day). This actually turned out to be VERY valuable and had the students realize stuff about themselves and their assumptions about others that informed our discussion of the article.

I deeply appreciate being able to make connections with talented teachers across the state who shared how they use innovative classroom techniques to help students. This week has taken a lot of extra work on my part, but I’m loving it. Next stop, more technology (maaaaybe after I catch up on all this grading…)!

I had been putting off my Ah-Hah! moment post for a while because I wasn’t sure which of the million moments to write about, but the past few days have given the words to me.

I was going into this school year so excited about all the possibilities for further change at my school. We as a school have been working so hard during the past few years to make our school truly great: academic strength, high expectations, a responsible student body, and teachers and administrators who respect each other and band together in the face of adversity. And it works! Today I saw the data that showed my school’s composite EOC scores have gone up over TWENTY PERCENT in the past five years (which is, not coincidentally, the exact amount of time our principal has been at our school….). And all that’s WITHOUT one bit of prescribed curriculum and WITH complete respect for us teachers. 

And then, two evenings ago, he sent us an e-mail: he is leaving our school and moving up to a position at the county level. Since every staffer loves him just as much as I do, we have been absolutely devastated. Our school completely turned around when he came, and I think the announcement brought forth fears that it would go back to the way it was before he walked through the door. I got texts and e-mails of sadness and disappointment all night from my colleagues.

The morning after this announcement was made was when Vicky and I had to do our presentation about the Kenan Fellows program. Both of our hearts were heavy and we didn’t know how it would go. How could we be cheerleaders about this program during this time?

We presented. And we were cheerleaders. And talked about how we could use the fellowship to enact change. And guess what? I think the staff found it interesting. Vicky described the benefits of the fellowship and why our teachers should get involved, and I proposed to form a cohort of teachers from our school to take the Seize the Data class we learned about this summer.

Since then, several teachers have come to ask me about how they can apply to be a Kenan Fellow. And several more have asked to be part of the data class cohort, which is more than I expected! 

So I guess this is the Ah Hah! moment I’ve experienced transitioning from the summer externship back to school life. Sometimes we feel like we can’t make significant changes from our position as classroom teachers: that we have to be promoted into other levels of education, or rely on other higher-ups to do it for us. Our principal has been wonderful, and good school leadership is essential, but teachers supporting each other and being willing and able to speak up for ourselves is essential too. The Kenan Fellowship helps teachers see that this is possible, which is probably a huge reason as to why 95% of Kenan Fellow alumni stay in education.

How cool is it that, through a brief presentation, Vicky and I were able to spread a little of that around during a tough time.

Well, anyway, to all the awesome Kenan Fellows:

Credit: Nestle Corp.

To explain how this summer will impact my students, I would like the begin with a story. 

For some reason when I first started high school, I got placed in “advanced” math, which moved at a dizzying pace (I have a theory that kids who excel at certain parts of school are just assumed to excel at ALL parts of school, and so are placed ipso facto into solid advanced classes). All I could think to do was write down every word the teacher said, but none of it made any sense when it came time to do my homework. After a few weeks of this, I began to get extremely anxious about math class. How could I ask questions if I had no idea what was going on? During tests, all the studying I did somehow did not seem to apply to even one test question. (A now-hilarious and then-miserable memory: memorizing the acronym SOHCAHTOA for a geometry test, forgetting it all during the test and thinking that no, it was supposed to be SACAGAWEA, and spending the rest of the time trying to figure out what SACAGAWEA stood for.)

SohCahToa graphic designed by teacher Luke Miller. This still makes 0% sense. Please do not try to explain it to me; I am an adult and I celebrate that nobody can make me learn it anymore.

Sacagewea, from the U.S. Postal Service. She does not look like a math equation.

Fortunately, I was switched down into the “standard” class, which I did fine in because the tests were exactly like the study guide, we got graded on the completeness of our notes, and I was one of the only people in class who actually paid attention instead of being weird (the guy who sat behind me tried to bite my neck once???) and/or disruptive and/or sleeping. However, the anxiety remained.

Due to my very different humanities and music brain, by senior year I had a whole semester’s worth of AP college credit and some music and academic scholarships. But one thing stood between me and the colleges I wanted to go to: completing the PRECALCULUS REQUIREMENT. After much sorrow and gnashing of teeth, a tiny note from my teacher appeared on my yet another 0% quiz: “re-take at home.” Relieved, I took it home, sat at the kitchen table, and realized I could breathe and think again. I passed the quiz. With the individual help of my teacher and the math tutor he suggested my parents get for me, I ended up passing the class. Now, I would never let kids takes tests home to re-take them, but I think my teacher did that because he was creating a kind of post hoc separate-setting accommodation that I might have received on a 504 if I was attending school now. 

So now flash forward to this summer: even as an adult, the thought of math–even seeing a bunch of numbers on a board!– makes my chest feel tight, and I have stayed as far away from it as possible. Imagine my surprise when—and I still have no idea how this ended up happening—my Kenan project has ended up being completely research-based. I consulted with a statistician in the department (who has awesomely become like my second mentor) who made it clear that in order to turn the results into something valid and meaningful, there would have to be statistical analysis. Immediately I got that familiar chest-tightening feeling. 

I began to work through some introductory statistics online tutorials, and I realized something. Everything I learned I actually understood because I was constantly working out how I could apply it to my actual research project. For the first time in my life, Standard Deviation made sense because I knew how I would use it and why it would be effective.

My fellowship notebook, including lots of notes on the statistics I need to understand for my project. This is the exact stuff that, in my bottom-of-the-barrel “Numeracy for Humanities Majors”–seriously, that’s what it was called–class I took in college, made me tear up while handing in my final exam, making the professor extremely uncomfortable.

Math made sense and it did not cause me anxiety because it wasn’t a random word problem my textbook was torturing me with at 3 a.m.; it was something I was applying at every single step.

This made me think about my students who probably get that tightening in their chest when they think about reading and/or writing. I have had many students tell me that my class was the first English class they ever succeeded in, and the first class where they made it to the end of a book. I think this is because I structure my class in a way that I hope makes them comfortable enough to believe they can do it: I rely on predictability in grading, homework, and classroom routines; scaffolding tougher material while throwing in some stuff they already feel confident doing; and a ton of encouragement.

But during our transition to Common Core (and all through our Kenan professional development this summer!) I keep hearing: change the routine! Minimal direct instruction! Put your students in UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATIONS where they have to GRAPPLE with the material! Um, my struggling readers are in an uncomfortable situation whenever they open their books; is my goal really to make them MORE uncomfortable?

However, finally being successful in math by learning through application made me think that perhaps there IS a way to introduce tough material with less direct instruction to struggling students and making them—if not “uncomfortable”—at least placed in situations where they are having to deal with a brand-new challenge. If we deviated sometimes from the background lecture-read-analyze-activity-assessment cycle of the traditional English class, if we helped students through independent and group applications to create something they find meaningful, connected to the world, and non-arbitrary….could that make the same difference for some kids as this made for me?

I wish part of all this was realizing exactly how to DO that with my students, but I guess that would be too easy! I dunno….do you all have any ideas? School’s going to start before we know it!