Unprecedented

By August or early September each year, I find it hard to listen to the radio. The hit "songs of the summer" seem to be in steady rotation on every station as they play what seems like the same four songs over and over again. I just get tired of it. That same thing has happened to me now with the word "unprecedented." This adjective has found its way into almost every conversation over the past few months. Whether people discuss the virus itself, or the many other social issues going on right now during the pandemic, the term "unprecedented" seems to find it's way into the conversation. What I've noticed is that people are using it to justify an action or inaction because we don't really know how to respond to things right now. The claim is that we don't really have a clear path because we have never been here before. 

Maybe I'm unsettled because the history teacher in me scoffs just a little at the use of this term right now. The 1918 flu pandemic presented our nation with some of the very same medical, social, and political challenges that we are seeing today. By definition, that means today's situation isn't "unprecedented." This event is just new to us as individuals and people have a very tough time learning from history as well. In 1918, school systems nationwide struggled with the decision to open or remain closed. Several larger systems like New York and Chicago did decide to open because they felt that children were safer and more sanitary at school than at home or on the streets. Those schools that opened had students wear cloth masks. Schools had nurses and worked with local health departments to symptom-check and isolate students. Students were not allowed to crowd outside of the schools but had to report directly to their teachers each day. Despite their efforts, the absentee rates at schools were out of control. If all of this sounds familiar, then we are not living in unprecedented times at all. 

I don't make this point to compare COVID-19 to the flu or to debate language usage or history with those that probably know a lot more about it than I do. My point in the observation is that we made it through 1918. We returned to normal lives, we prospered again, we grew and forgot all about that "unprecedented" time. You all are doing such an amazing job, and while you're tired from the new requirements that we face, you're learning skills and pushing boundaries that we didn't necessarily have to do before. And while the problems of handling our situation today seem difficult and without an end right now, we will make it through again. 

Say Something

I have dozens of stories about my intern experience. I learned a lot from an amazing teacher with a larger-than-life personality. On top of that, the school was in a cultural upheaval and my clinical teacher was leading the charge. My clinical teacher had tons of quips and sayings that stuck with students and teachers that knew him. One of the most memorable things that he ever taught me was, "If they read it, write it, hear it, and say it, chances are they'll know it." It was his way of enforcing repetition and appealing to multiple learning styles. It sounds simple, but there's certainly some truth in there.

That saying has been on my mind this week as I started doing classroom observations. Classrooms look different, but the content that we are teaching and learning is the same. But the smaller groups seem to be inhibiting one of those things that my clinical teacher mentioned. Students don't seem to be talking as much. I'm not sure if it's the masks, the fact that things aren't "normal" yet, or if the smaller groups tend to make students feel more singled out. Maybe it's a combination of all of that. No matter what the cause, we have to figure out how to bring student voice back into the classroom. 

Studies have shown (see here) that student talk is correlated with their achievement. However, it seems that right now we need to be a lot more deliberate with how we get that. Here are a few recommendations to get students talking more:

1. Start each day with a welcoming ritual. Get their thoughts or ideas on literally anything to open the day.

2. Plan consistent opportunities for students to speak. Use this as your opportunity to introduce higher order thinking skills and more open-ended questions.

3. Ask students about their lives beyond the classroom. This builds their relationship with you and the class and breaks the ice to speak later.

4. Ask for student feedback - and use it. This validates that what they say is important and will encourage more talking later.

Sharing ideas and thoughts is going to be essential to getting small group instruction to work and that means that we have to get students talking. Who knows, they may have something important to say if we do.

The Power of But

I'm guilty. Sometimes I can't help myself either. It takes so much self-restraint. Even when you do hold back, you just want to scream. Most of us have been there. You get frustrated at something you see or some experience you have and you take to social media somehow and you rant about it. I can hold myself back on politics, religion, and lots of other things, but I can't hold my tongue sometimes on supporting kids and schools. I spend too much time on it and I'm passionate about it and sometimes things just set me off. That happened to me last week and I learned something that I hadn't planned on learning. I learned the power of the word "but." 

My rant was simple. I just wanted parents to spend a little time checking in on what their kids were supposed to be doing. I feel like we need parents as partners right now. It's hard engaging kids that we don't have in our classrooms and just having an accountability partner in the home makes a huge difference in what a teacher can accomplish. To my surprise, my eight-sentence rant was shared out hundreds of times and passed along by many people that I certainly don't know. Apparently, I had struck a nerve. I'm curious about people, so I looked at the comments of the people that I didn't know. They don't know me and they certainly don't owe me the courtesy of being polite or agreeing with me. The overwhelming majority was supportive and there also appeared to be a lot of educators. There were a few others that caught my attention though. There were the people that agreed, but not really. Their comments ranged from things like: 

 "So true, but what about the teachers that don't reply back?" 

 "I know I should help, but I'm a single mom and don't have time." 

 "This is true, but Canvas doesn't work." 

There were a lot more like this and most were pretty similar. What I found odd was the use of the word "but." It took me back to a high school English teacher that taught me that when you use the word "but" no one cares about what you said before it. How true that is. Go back and look in the first paragraph of this blog post. I did it. I said, "...but I can't hold my tongue sometimes on supporting kids and schools." Nothing before that mattered to me. I know I shouldn't run my mouth on social media. It doesn't solve anything. I certainly don't think anyone has ever changed their opinion based on a social media rant, BUT I just couldn't stop. The BUT was too powerful. 

So what are your BUTs? What is just to powerful from doing what you know you probably should do? Maybe yours are personal and maybe they are professional. Maybe you're human and have some of both. We grow by addressing those BUTs and by doing our best to cut them out. Do an experiment and try to catch yourself on your BUTs. You might be shocked at how much you use them and what they tell others about you. I'm going to try to correct my social media rant BUTs. Even though it can be so satisfying.

Now What?

An accurate representation of teaching right now

On the afternoon of August 21st, I breathed a sigh of relief. We had made it through a week of school and 
for the first time in a while, I slept through the night. Then we made it through a week of Track 1. We learned a lot, changed a lot, and some of us cursed a lot. The difficulties of tech issues, managing tracked out students, engaging virtual students in real work, and communicating with students and parents occupied all of our time and energy. So many of us left last week deflated and wondering if this was the new normal. Then this week came and while it certainly still isn't perfect, we seem to have found a bit of a groove. We tracked down most of our students and started to get something out of them. At the end of this week, I'm left with one question, "Now what?"

Now that we are settling down and finding ways to mitigate problems, we are getting back to the business of school. We have a School Improvement Plan to update, a testing calendar to review, and all of the usual things that schools do each year. In the hustle to create plans for change, those "normal" things slipped to the background, but they're back now. Most of those things that I listed are administrative things. They are not day-to-day teacher issues. So now what for teachers? I sincerely hope that answer is teaching. 

Your classrooms are smaller and while your kids are focused on completing Canvas assignments, I hope that each of you finds a way to take advantage of the personalized learning that smaller groups give you and uses it to teach your heart out. While we've asked you to get good as technical details and controlling the spread of the virus, please don't forget what you really are. You are teachers and now is the time to teach. The ultimate purpose for choosing to open our school on Plan B isn't to meet a political agenda or to provide daycare for children so that parents can work. Our purpose is to provide them with an education that we know that Canvas modules don't fully replicate. Now is the time to go and do what we are good at. Now is the time to teach.