Dear Future Self

Dear Future Self,

I wrote some notes to you on my lesson plans from this week but you will have no idea what they mean. They were hurried and cryptic. When you try to teach this lesson next year, you will struggle to remember what you did with this lesson.

Did we read this independently or out loud? What reading strategy did we do? How did it work out? Did you have to change it midway through 2nd period? Did they learn it well? Did you have a good processing activity?

Future Self, I apologize for just tucking this reading in a folder with the a sticky note that has 3 words on it. I realize that you are now having to re-create this lesson and that you can’t tell how well or how much the kids learned the last time you did it.

I apologize for not fixing the typos or unclear directions on this handout. I apologize for not making a note about the awesome lesson fix I discovered during 4th period that took the lesson from “ok” to “awesome”.

Dear Future Self, have fun recreating this lesson and doing it Groundhog Day Style -- making the same mistakes as before.

Sorry ‘bout that!  Good luck!

-Love, Me-From-The-Past

* * * * * *

I don’t know about you all, but I am not always the best supporter of Future Me. Future Me would be a lot happier if I ate healthier, exercised more, saved more money, didn’t procrastinate, cleaned out the fridge more often, and flossed more regularly.

One of the ways I can help out Future Me is to make notes about how lessons went this year, so I have something to go off for next year!

There’s nothing worse than being halfway through a lesson and suddenly remembering that it bombed last year. Now what do we do?

It sure helps to reflect in writing so you can save your Future Self some hassle.

There are several ideas about how to do this.

1. If you type your lesson plans, go back into that document and highlight stuff that went well and strikethrough things that went poorly. Or, type in your thoughts into another column or box so you can see it next year. Then, you have to get in the habit of looking at last year’s lessons when your Future Self writes the new ones.
2. You can keep a document to yourself in each folder (digital or IRL) of a unit and jot down your thoughts as you go through the unit.
3. If you hand-write your lessons, go back and add another piece of paper or a couple sticky notes. Put your handouts and thoughts in the same folder to reference next year.
4. Grab a notebook or calender and keep it by your desk (or better yet, somehow keep it by your door). Then, as you stand at your door between classes, you can multitask and jot down a few thoughts under the date.

Now -- here’s the hard part!

Making sure your Future Self can understand the notes you write!

Make sure you don’t assume that you will remember the context 52 weeks from now. Make that context explicit.  Try some of these ideas:

• Don’t call it ”the  video”. Make sure to note what video you used.and what you had the kids do with it . Copy the actual link and the length of the video.
• Instead of saying “read section and did questions”, tell your Future Self that you read the section out loud and that the kids answered #1-3, 5, and 8 and that Question #8 was your formative assessment for the day.
• If you found a discussion question or a turn and talk prompt particularly great, make sure to write that down!

I know that different teachers write lesson plans differently -- but it might be what we write AFTER we teach the lesson that might be more valuable to us next year.

How do you tell your Future Self about how your lessons went? Do you do it at all? How can you streamline your post-lesson notes to make your Future Self more awesome?

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

Lessons in Carols

No part of today’s Wednesday email has any educational value. It is purely for silliness and fun. Feel free to sing the songs to the original tunes in your head – or out loud. Hey. It’s almost Winter Break. You can get a little squirrelly too. The kids sure are

“O Come-On Vacation”

(to be sung to “O Come All Ye Faithful”)

O, Come-on, Vacation

Joyful and triumphant

O, come Me, o come Me

To Wi-iii-nter Break!

Come and sleep in and

Ignore all the email

O come let us adore it

O come let us adore it

O come let us adore ii-it

Wi-ii-nter Break!

Rudoloph The Tired Teacher

(To be sung to “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer”)

You know Jayden and Aiden and Kevin and Jackson,

Lilly and Abbey and Diamond and Addison

But do you recallllllll

The most tired teacher of all?

Rudolph the tired teacher

Had a very crazy class

And if you ever saw it

You would only see few pass

All of the other teachers

Seemed to give exams with ease

Kids never let poor Rudolph

Get through any review games!

Then one cool December Day

Teacher had to say

(“No! No! No!”)

“Children, I know you’re so bright!

Won’t you study just tonight?”

Then how the children loved him

And they shouted out with glee

(gucci!!!)

“Rudolph the tired teacher

You taught me some his-to-reeee!”

God Rest Ye Merry Teachers

(sung to “God Rest Ye  Mrry Gentlemen”)

God rest ye merry teachers

Let none get in the way

Remember our vacation

Starts on Saturday.....

To save us all from stress and kids

When we get to go away

O tidings of comfort and joy

Comfort and joy

O tidings of comfort and joy!

Teacher Song

(sung to Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song”)

When you feel like the only adult in town

Who can’t leave work earl-yyyyy

Here’s a list of people who were teachers

Just like you and me

Alexander Graham Bell taught the sophmore-ahs

So did Sting, Robert Frost, and the late LBJ-ah

Guess who eats together in the teachers’ lunchroom?

Jon Hamm from Mad Men and Art Garfunkel

Sheryl Crow was a teacher, Gene Simmons, too

Put them together, what a musical teacher too!

You don’t need long lunches or expensive, fancy bree

Cause you can empathize with Steven King and Mr. T -- both teachers

Shut down your gradebook

Close your textbook too

Former president Barak Obama-kah

Was a professor too.

OJ Simpson?

Not a teacher (!!)

But guess who was? Harry Potter author JK Rowling!

We got Sylvester Stallone and author Dan Brown

Billy Crystal was a teacher -- told kids to calm down!

Tell your friend Veronica

It’s time for vacation-akah

I hope I get a harmonicah

Oh this lovely vacation-akah

So drink your water-tonic-akah

And rest while you yawn-akah

If you really really wannakah

Have a happy happy happy vacation-akah!

Have a wonderful, joyful, restful break!

See you in the new year!

-Tracy

 

Teaching Hacks, The Look, and Monitoring

Teaching Hacks, The Look, and Monitoring

Y’all know that I love Teaching Hacks! You know what I mean? Those Pinterest-y ideas for quick fixes in the classroom?

Here are a few of my faves ...

1. Turn and Talks. All day, every day. Makes kids process learning and therefore RETAIN learning
2. Having kids use Whiteboard markers to write ON the desks. And then baby wipes to remove. (so much more fun than paper!)
3. Using Plickers to formatively assess in under 2 minutes. Because time is EVERYTHING to teachers. (except today they introduced a pay system?)
4. Bathroom pass on a lanyard (because, ewww, where does the pass go when they’re using the facilities?)
5. Written directions for everythingeverythingeverything. Every activity, assignment, everything with written directions on the board or screen. Helps ESE kids, ESOL kids, kids who have auditory processing issues, kids who just weren’t listening, kids who are flakey, and kids who are all over the place. If you write the directions down, half your management improves!

Ok, I’d like to add a new Teaching Hack to your list.

It’s so simple, but so rarely used.

It’s called “Read student work WHILE they’re working”

No, really. Stay with me!

Kids will trick you all the time. They can’t help it. They’re kids.  One favorite trick of most students is The Look.

This is different from the Teacher Look, the Mom Look or  The Administrator Look.

The Student Look is an “I’m innocent look”, maybe an “I’m thinking deeply look”, or even an “I am on task” look.

They use it all the time

Kids are great at looking busy. I used to happily walk around my classroom and monitor my students. I loved to walk around and do what  I THOUGHT was monitoring.

“Thanks for being on task, Destiny!”

“Let’s start our work, Carlos!”

“Brittany, you don’t have any work done! What have you been doing?”

“You’re almost done, Austin! Great job!”

What was wrong with those? I was monitoring for compliance, not for comprehension.

What’s the difference? I used to monitor to see if my kids were DOING their work, not if they were LEARNING what I wanted them to learn!

A kid can write stuff on paper all day but have no idea what we’re learning. They can be compliant by copying their friends’ words, they can be compliant by copying some things out of the book/packet, or they can be compliant just staying quiet and making wild guesses.

Kids can be tricksy. They can definitely LOOK busy but be missing the point.

I was constantly surprised AFTER students turned in their work and it was waaayyyy off, super wrong, or missed the point of the assignment/question entirely!

So how can we monitor for LEARNING? What’s the Teaching Hack here?

It’s so easy. Just read what they write WHILE they’re writing it.

I know we think we’re all already doing it. And maybe it was just me. But I see and hear lots of teachers monitoring around the room talking to kids about DOING work, not about WHAT they’re writing.

As you walk around the classroom, read what they write WHILE they are writing. Are they on point? Are their answers aligned to your question or are they off in left field? Do their answers read EXACTLY like the answers of the kid next to them? Are they wildly making stuff up? Are they copying some sort of answer out of the book without actually understanding it? Are they jotting down “IDK” for every third question?

And then -- when you see them on task but OFF-TRACK (not understanding), STOP and help them right then.

Don’t wait until kids turn in their work. Help them fix it right away, in the moment.

This takes EXACTLY as much effort as your monitoring for compliance does. You DO have to get up and walk around, just the same amount of steps. But it pays out waaayyyy more in student learning.

Totally worth it. Do mostly the same thing you are already doing but make it work better for you and your kids. Don’t get fooled by “The Student Look”. Monitor for LEARNING not for compliance.

Now that’s a Teaching Hack!!

Thoughts? Questions? Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org