Pivot Into the Unknown

Every summer, I end the school year with a final Wednesday Summer Reading List for teachers. You know, a way to kick back and spend time getting around to that stuff you don’t have time or brain power for during the school year.

This year? 

I’m not sure if my brain power will ever come back!

So, if your summer is filled with summer house projects and workouts and actual PLANS and you don’t have time for reading .. good for you! 

But before I do, I want to say thank you. And if I wasn’t paid the same amount you were, I’d buy you all a beverage. 

Thank you! 

This has been the craziest, weirdest, hardest 4th quarter in memory. 

You have gone from the Before Times where we hugged kids and taught in classrooms and had extracurriculars and put on regular clothes and drove our vehicles from our homes to our schools and heard bells ring to tell us when class was over. 

To the Now Times when we sit on our couches all day in PJ pants and never see kids at all and do everything virtually and kids turn in work at 3 am and disappear completely and meet virtually and turn in blank worksheets or else do a week’s worth of work in a day. Where we have video call meetings where we all turn off our cameras and where we use Teams AND Focus AND email to get work turned in. 

You have done a GIANT shift in your teaching and you are amazing. I know you have to bob and weave all the time. It’s what teachers do.

But this was above and beyond the usual. This was huge and wild and different. 

Thank you for your giant shift -- your “pivot” in teaching during this crazy time. 

And now, on with the booklist. 

1. Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman. This book looks pretty cool. It’s based on the idea that humans are hardwired for kindness, cooperation, and trust. In our current political climate, I could really use a book like this. It doesn't come out until next week, but I am looking forward to it.
2.  The Great Influenza by John M. Barry. It’ll be interesting to read about the Great Influenza epidemic of 100 years ago that killed millions while people have been making both accurate and inaccurate comparisons to it. 
3. Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond. This book brings together CRT and neuroscience to bring a “hard science” angle to what equity champions and CRT practitioners already know: that CRT can change everything, literally including the brain of you and your students.*Look for the Equity Department's book study on this in the fall! 
4. Hitting a Straight Lick with A Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance by Zora Neale Hurston. Nothing like a “new” book by one of your favorite (long deceased) authors to get you (um, me) all ready to sit in the hammock and read! Ms. Hurston was a master storyteller and an anthropologist, so these long forgotten stories are bound to be great. I already bought it but haven’t gotten to it yet! 
5. The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women  by Kate Moore. This book about the “girls” and young women who worked in factories making radium dials and (spoiler alert) got sick in the early 20th century looks fascinating. And looks like something I don’t know much about. And that’s always my kind of history! 
6. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein. I have seen these maps but I have never read the actual book. Supposed to be amazing. As someone who lives in Pinellas County, where we could probably draw these maps ourselves based on who lives where. These are things we sort of know “a little something about”, but not exactly everything this book will teach. I can’t wait to learn. 
7. Balance with Blended Learning by Caitlin R. Tucker. I think we have all learned this quarter what DOES work about digital learning, what the benefits ARE. Well, how can we keep those with us when (IhopeIhopeIhope) we are in the brick and mortar classroom in the fall? Maybe this book has some ideas that we can use to blend the good parts of the digital with the good parts of the traditional classroom. I’m intrigued. 

What are you reading this summer? Anything other than the news? I can’t wait to hear all about it! Please share with me! I will be around and I will check my email. I’d love to chat about one of these books (or another one)! 

And again, thank you for your “pivot” and for being amazing all the time -- but even more amazing for your flexibility and adaptability in this time of Crisis Learning. I am so thankful for you! 

Have a great summer. Stay safe and well! 

-Tracy

Summertime and the Reading's Easy

It's about that time, y’all!

The school year is almost over!  We are so close, I can almost SMELL the beach from here!

So, it’s time for my annual summer reading list. You definitely don’t have to read the same book I AM, but I do recommend that you find SOME books to read, preferably the kind you don’t have time to read during the school year.

I fully admit to being academically “tired” during the year and reading mostly flaky stuff. But in the SUMMER, my brain is less worn out and more fresh. It’s a great time to read some “real” books while I have a little distance from the school day and school year. It’s easier to get through “real” books in the summer.

It’s important to do your OWN summer PD your OWN way, and reading books to refresh your thinking and practice is a great way to do that.

Read on the plane.

Read at the beach.

Read on your couch.

Listen in your car.

It doesn’t matter WHERE or WHEN, just read!

So, here is my book list for Summer 2019!

1. These Kids Are Out Of Control: Why We Must Re-imagine Classroom Management for Equity by H. Richard Milner IV et al.  admit to having this one already downloaded and ready to go! So many of us struggle with classroom management. And we also struggle with equity and how to use/apply/cultivate it effectively. And maybe some of us have noticed that the teachers with the best relationships with kids, with the strongest equity practices -- have fewer classroom management issues. Let’s work on figuring this out together! (PS -- If I love this book as much as I think I will, I’d like to do it as a book study in the fall. Who’s with me?)
2. Why Learn History (When It’s Already on Your Phone)? By Sam Wineburg. I admit, I’m already a couple chapters into this one. It’s pretty brutal, leaving no sacred cows alone. Roasting Howard Zinn, TAH grants, Bloom’s Taxonomy, George Washington, Google, pretty much all assessments of the past 100 years, and lots of other things I generally like and think highly of, Wineburg shoots right through all that stuff to the heart of teaching history and to historical thinking. And, despite me really being a fan of things like George Washington, the TAH, and Bloom, this book is amazing so far. It really gets past all the pieces to the Big Question: Why do we teach history to kids, and how can we do that better?
3. The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation by Jonathan Hennessy. This year, I have two graphic novels on my list, in an attempt to see if and how I can use them with students next year. The first is a graphic novel of the US Constitution -- which should be wonderful for students struggling to read and get engaged in Civics & Gov. Imagine giving it to a struggling reader to give him or her a little background before jumping to the actual text of the actual constitution! That could be a great scaffold!
4. The Odyssey, A Graphic Novel by Gareth Hinds looks promising, too! I admit that my third grader read it and found nothing objectionable (and she still gets outraged by the “h” word -- hell). But I don’t know how I would use it -- yet. I have to actually read it to think through that.
5. The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. This book blew my mind. I’m not much of a scientist -- and definitely not knowledgeable enough to be a NEUROSCIENTIST, but this book was practical and easy to understand and explained SO MUCH about our world, about education, about our kids and ourselves. It really amazed me with it’s readability and about how much useful stuff I got out of it!
1. *Caveat: there is a chapter about human sexuality in there. It has nothing to do with teaching social studies, but don’t be shocked when it is in the book. That’s not why I am recommending the book. It's the rest of the book that I recommend!
6. Beneath A Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert King (author of The Devil in the Grove. This is another important, powerful book about racial terror in Florida. You will see the familiar Willis McCall reappear in this book. It looks like an emotionally difficult read, but I can handle that in the summer.
7. Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About The World by Tim Marshall. I am so intrigued, I can’t help myself. Which maps, in particular, explain everything about the world? I have no idea. But I plan to read and find out!  

How about you? What’s on your teacher summer reading list? Want to read one on my list and talk about it via email?Or over fruity beachy beverages? Want to share what YOU plan on reading? Or tell me what you thought of a book?

Email me! I love to know! newmantr@pcsb.org

-Tracy

Summer Reads

Ok, friends and colleagues! We are down to SINGLE DIGITS in our countdown to the end of another crazy school year!!  Six or seven days after today. Woo!!!

As always, I love to share my summer reading list. I usually feel like I have more brain power to spend on more challenging books in the summer. Sometimes, the school year is so crazy, I can’t read anything really intellectual. But summer is when I don’t wear out my brain all day so I have brain power left to read the “good stuff”.

I hope you find ways to  learn something new and challenge your brain while you have more brain power available to you without those pesky kids around all day!

You certainly don’t have to read the same books as I will but I hope you’re starting to compile your summer reading list too. And if we DO read the same book, I’d love to talk about it in the fall!

So here goes! Tracy’s summer reading 2018. Cue the summer jams!   

1. Barracoon  by Zora Neale Hurston. Yes, Zora has a new book out despite being dead for 60 years. But what a subject -- this book is the product of her extended interviews with the last survivor of the middle passage. Yes, in the 20th century, there was an 80-year old man who had been brought over from his native west Africa at the age of 19. He remembered Africa and the journey clearly and told Hurston all about it. Rumor has it that the dialect may be a challenge, but for Zora and the topic I’m willing to work through it. It has languished unpublished in legal confusion until now and I’m pretty psyched about what this WPA-era anthropologist can tell about the horrors of slavery.

2. The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack Davis.  The 2018 Pulitzer prize winner for history is all about THAT gulf -- the one we will all be visiting this summer with our sunscreen. I may have to get meta and read about the Gulf while sitting along the Gulf with my toes in the Gulf. It’s supposed to be a huge-scale environmental history cover everything from continental formations to vacations and Hollywood. I can’t wait!

3. Origin Story by David Christianson.  I also love Big History -- the idea that science and history go together to explain the history of everything from the Big Bang through globalization. Now comes a new one-volume book to explain it all. It brings out my inner adolescent who wants to know “what all these classes have to do with each other”. Origin Story should help me put it all together.

4. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. Another Big History book to help me get my brain World-History-ready for next year! This is Jared Diamond of Guns, Germs, and Steel. He’s really interesting in his emphasis of the link between geography and history. This is not a new book, but I never got around to it.

5. Never Work Harder than Your Students by Robyn Jackson. I have been poking through this one for a couple of months, but it deserves a sit-down, focused-read. It’s brilliant about how to make teaching great (again?) and how to have your kids work harder than you do. She takes some unexpected paths to get there, but that’s what I like about it. Hint -- it’s a lot about relationships, but not just “getting along”. I have been finding this book powerfully spot on and could be a fabulous way to get your kids to work harder while you reduce your own exhaustion level.
6. Building Executive Function: The Missing Link to Student  Achievement by Nancy Sulla. I am fascinated by what I have been learning about executive functioning. Do your kids struggle to START their work? Do they not remember ANYTHING about last week or even yesterday? Do they lose everything? Do they struggle to get/stay focused? Do they struggle to solve a problem (math or real-life)? They’re not just lazy, slackers, or “low”. They might struggle with Executive Functioning. What is it and how can we help them build these skills?

Ok -- your turn! What’s on YOUR summer reading list? How can you enjoy your summer and learn new stuff? As always, I love to hear from you! EMail me at newmantr@pcsb.org and share your summer reading list!

-Tracy

Summer Reads! Makes Me Feel Fine!

Summer READS ... Makes me feel Fiiine. Blowin’ through the Jasmine in my MIIIIII-IIIIIND.....

It’s about that time, y’all. After today, there are six more student days. And then....

Summer.

Ahhhhhh..... The time of year when teachers find they can read for fun and learning again. Beach time. Family time. Frosty beverage time. Travel time. Go-to-the-PD-you-actually-choose time.  DIY house project time. Free-time, time.

With regards to reading, I like to send out my summer reading list. I’m sure you have one, too. If not, feel free to borrow any of mine!

I plan to spend some hammock time and maybe some couch time with my ...

(sing it now!) “Summer Reads.... Make me feel smart! Flyin’ through the book stack on my NIIIIIIIIGHT-STAND!”

Ahem. (cough).

Sorry. That note was a little high for my voice.

Anyway. Here’s my reading list. What’s on your list?

1. “Why Students Can’t Google Their Way to the Truth” article by the always-brilliant Sam Wineburg, rockstar in the study of students and historical thinking. To discuss how students look at news and the internet and information at their fingertips... http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/11/02/why-students-cant-google-their-way-to.html
2. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari -- a “Big History” book  about the history of humankind from the beginning through the age of Empires. I need to broaden my perspective of World History. This might do it for me. https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/0062316095/ref=lp_9_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493385541&sr=1-4
3. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space by Margot Lee Shetterly.  I haven’t seen the movie -- and I tend to not see movies until forever after their theater release -- so I really want to read the book. Fabulous history story I didn’t know much about! https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Figures-American-Untold-Mathematicians/dp/0062363603/ref=sr_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493386070&sr=1-16
4. Unshakeable: 20 Ways to Enjoy Teaching Every Day...No Matter What by Angela Watson  I know teachers have incredibly frustrating jobs. I know how easy it is for teaching to stop being fun. I want to hear how other teachers keep or bring back the fun and enjoyment in their own teaching careers. Maybe it will help me when I encounter other teachers who are feeling that way. https://www.amazon.com/Unshakeable-Enjoy-Teaching-Every-Matter/dp/0982312733/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493386107&sr=1-1&keywords=teaching
5. Mindsets in the Classroom: Everything Educators Need for School Success Those of you who know me know I’m really into Growth Mindset. But how can a teacher create growth mindsets in his or her classroom? This book looks like it will give some practical, tangible ways. https://www.amazon.com/Ready-Use-Resources-Mindsets-Classroom/dp/1618213962/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493386204&sr=1-3&keywords=growth+mindset
6. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys  I love a good historical novel! This novel is about WWII East Prussians trying to flee to freedom. The author was here in Largo a few months ago and I missed her. But the book has been on my digital bookshelf since then. Supposed to be powerful and amazing!  https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Sea-Ruta-Sepetys-ebook/dp/B00YM34WM8/ref=lp_17437_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494960371&sr=1-4

What’s in your bookshelf? What are you reading this summer (it definitely doesn’t have to be work-related!)

As always, I love to hear! Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org

Ch-ch-changes

Ch-ch-ch-Changes!  

Things change.

Change is tough.

This is the time of year we are just hanging on. We haven’t seen our 4th period in a week, due to funky testing schedules. There are some huge tests going on or coming up. We have a handful of dances, banquets, awards assemblies, field trips and graduations to organize.

And we’re starting to wrap our heads around our summer plans, both professional and personal.

Our summers are definitely the time for relaxing and recharging our “teaching batteries”.

But for many of us, summer is when we get to slow down and occasionally think about our work, while we’re removed from the day-to-day craziness.

I’d like to suggest that you find a way to do PD and refine your craft at some point, in some way. We, of course do AWESOME professional development during the summer. There are some great TED talks and books and podcasts and MOOCs out there. I promise to curate a list and get that out to you all before the end of the year.

Really, you need and deserve some wonderful vacations, whether you are travelling the world or vegging on your couch.

But when you get some R&R out of your system, don’t forget to learn more about your content, pedagogy, management, tech, or just something that will help you out next year.

It’s common for teachers to be frustrated about  “one more thing” and “this, too, shall pass” and “why do they keep changing everything?”..

But honestly, we are all trying to get better and update our practice to the latest body of knowledge in our fields.

And that field of knowledge is always changing, just like the medical field is always changing. Remember a few years ago when eating eggs was bad for you? Well, now it’s good for you. Not because “those people” are idiots, but because our understanding of effective practices changes.

Think about how you plan to improve and refine your professional practice over the summer. This is not the PD you do because your evaluation or your Deliberate Practice says you have to. This is the PD you do because you WANT to.

Do it on your time, in your style, with your interests.  

Just do it. Grow your self and your practice.

I promise -- if you choose it because you want to learn it, you will get way more out if it!