Welcome Back and Adjust Expectations

 

 Welcome Back, my friends and colleagues, 

I HAVE MISSED YOU ALL SO, SO MUCH!!!!

I am so glad that you are back, whether you are back to traditional classrooms, virtual classrooms, some of each, or blended classes. 

Welcome to what is going to be the weirdest year on record! It “otter” be a wild year!

This is my 20th year in teaching. I was in teaching during 9/11, Hurricane Irma, the year of the 5 hurricanes, the year our school got a new building, the year of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas shootings, the year we didn’t know the results of the presidential election for weeks, and even the year Swine Flu (or was it SARS?) taught my middle schoolers to fling hand sanitizer on each other and snap the elastic of masks at each other.

Nothing could have prepared us for this. 

Whether you are at peace with the school year now, whether you are not that worried, or whether you are crying into your adult beverage nightly, here we are. 

The world has changed so much since you left your classroom. 

There are 4 major events that have occurred. They may not all have been major to you. But be aware that it’s pretty likely that at least one has been major to the kids in your class and the colleagues in your building -- and different events have hit differently to different people. 

1. Coronavirus -- of course, the ‘Rona is the most obvious event. The global pandemic is a big deal. 17,000 Pinellas County residents have tested positive. 500 have died. Hundreds have been hospitalized. This has been big and scary and traumatic for us and for the kids. You and they likely know someone who has had the virus, maybe someone who has been really sick or someone who has died. 

2. Economy -- As of this week, in Pinellas County, nearly 150,000 (16% of the population) is identified as “food insecure”, meaning they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Families that have never needed food banks or financial help before may need it now. Maybe that’s your family or your neighbors. It’s definitely some of our students. Small businesses & folks in hospitality have been hit especially hard. This happened fast and it hit families hard. 

3. Loneliness -- A lot of us or our kids have quarantined and limited our interactions a lot. We have not gone to Disney or to bars (us) or to camps (them) or travelled or to many other places. We have been lonely. This has affected people differently, but know that people (kids and adults) are fragile. Things we could have handled with ease last year will be tough this year. Some kids literally haven’t seen another kid in 6 months.Others have been to day camps or have spent plenty of time with friends. There’s so much variety, but virtual interactions are not the same as in-person and it shows. 

4. Racial Reckoning -- With the violent death of George Floyd seen by all of us, America’s anti racism movement went mainstream. Kids who, before, felt that nobody heard their cries of racism -- suddenly felt that a lot of somebodies heard, and felt empowered. Americans of all races, ages, and socioeconomic groups took (and are still taking) to the streets in mostly peaceful protests.... And then there are students coming from households that are pushing against this movement, households where racism is still acceptable (or where it is an invisible topic and thus racism is still acceptable that way)

Whew, friends! That’s a lot to work through. 

Things are going to be different. 

So, so different. 

Today, I’d like you to let them. 

Let them be different. Adjust your expectations.

The only way to a) be safe and b) keep your sanity is to NOT expect things to look like normal. We’re going to have to adjust our expectations. 

• Your classroom can’t look like it usually does

• Your teaching style can’t look like it usually does

• Your supply requests can’t look like it usually does

• The kids are deeply affected by some (all?) of the above Big 4 events. They won’t act like they usually do. 

• You can’t see each others’ faces like you usually do. 

• You can’t do the same classroom culture building you usually do. 

• You can’t pass out supplies and handouts like you usually do.

• Kids can’t even walk down the halls like they usually do.

EVERYTHING. WILL. BE. DIFFERENT. 

(or at least everything is “on the table” for being different). 

Our wedding anniversary was last week. LAST YEAR for our wedding anniversary, my husband and I went to the Bahamas. So, uhhh... we had to have different expectations this year. The pandemic changes everything. Instead, our kids (both in elementary school) threw us an “anniversary party” (for just the 4 of us) with some decorations we picked up from the order-and-drive-up at Target, some art they made, and some Thai food take-out. They even used streamers across the dining room and made us have a ribbon cutting ceremony. 

I will never forget this anniversary. It cost next-to-nothing, had no travel, no date night, and not even a babysitter to get away from the kids. But it was meaningful and lovely and sweet.

In a pandemic, we have to adjust our expectations. And out of new expectations can come different beautiful things. 

We humans can adapt to anything. You, my colleagues, showed us this in the spring, showed us all how amazingly adaptable you are. I was constantly amazed and awed by you all. 

So here are my two pieces of advice for you as we start this school year. Maybe they’re my wishes for you, like little blessings. 

1. I wish for you to be adaptable and flexible. Put away your expectations of certain types of

2. collaboration and specific notebooks you like and favorite classroom procedures that won’t work in the new normal. Try something new. And if that doesn’t work, try something else. And if that doesn't work, try something else. Don’t stick to your Old Ways because they’re habits. It’s time to form some new habits. Adjust your expectations. 

3. Take extra-good care of yourself. The best parenting advice I ever got holds just as true for the classroom. As every airline safety video says, put your own oxygen mask on before that of your children. You have to be so, so aware of your own mental health this year, now, more than ever. Be aware of your signs of stress and signs of being overwhelmed. And step back and care for yourself. You can’t care for your kids if you aren’t caring for yourself.

I know you all. You will teach through a freaking pandemic and be rockstars. You will find safe ways of making meaningful connections with kids through masks and through computers and through plexiglass and through all the chaos to come. 

But we have to adjust our expectations before we can create new ways of doing things. 

I wish you flexibility and self-care. Those tools will serve you well in this wild year. Don’t forget we are all in this together. 

I hope to see you all (virtually) at DWT or elsewhere soon! Stay safe! 

-Tracy

  

Ten Ways to get Kids to Talk About Content

Ten Ways to Get Your Kids to Talk About Content (and not about other stuff)

Teachers talk too much, myself included (I apologize to everyone in every PD I have ever facilitated). We know that LISTENING is not the best way to learn. It doesn't help us process information. Listening alone is what makes content go in one ear and out the other. 

In order to make content stick, you have to DO something with it. No, not YOU-the-teacher. The KID has to do something with it. 

Talking about it helps. Talking about the CONTENT helps us all learn the CONTENT. Teachers can talk less and kids can talk more (about content)

(Shhh. Sitting quietly while we do a worksheet or read or while the teacher talks does NOT help us learn the CONTENT!)

10. Turn and Talk -- It’s a classic for a reason. Because it works, because it’s easy, because it requires little to no planning. Pose a decent, open-ended question to the class. Show them how to physically turn so that they face each other. Have them talk about the question. Teacher should physically walk around the room, listening to the conversations. (It’s not eavesdropping if it’s in your classroom!). Teacher should share what they heard from students. And if the kids struggle? Model it in the front of the room with a willing volunteer or another adult. Show them what it looks like. Sometimes, they’re not sure you’re serious about it. Be for real about all of it -- the turning part, the talking part, the “on-topic” part, the sharing what you heard part! 

9. Make them write it first (white board?). Sometimes, kids don’t know what to say. They don’t know what to think about content right off the bat. Sometimes, they need a little processing time. Just like they get scratch paper in math, it’s ok to let them jot down a thought or two in your class before they say it out loud. Whiteboards are brilliant for this, because they allow kids to erase every scrap of evidence that they ever had an answer or an idea that they suddenly feel is “dumb” or “wrong” or that they wouldn’t want their peers or teachers seeing. So give them a minute to get their thoughts together before sharing their words. 

8. THINK -- then pair, share -- How many of you have done a “Think/Pair/Share” -- but really cheated the “think” part? I have! Ten seconds is not enough think time, Tracy!  Make sure to give kids the THINK time before they Pair and Share. It honestly makes a difference in their conversations and in their understanding of content. 

7. Debate it -- Teenagers love to argue. It’s developmentally appropriate (not to mention bolstered by social media and election season). So give them a great question and as much or as little structure as a particular class needs and let them verbally duke it out. Nothing is more fun than arguing! Kids will suddenly care about stuff they didn’t care about before. Do you have a particularly boring unit or piece of text? Ask about the “best” or “most important” or “most significant” part and voila! Suddenly that boring topic is fun! And kids are talking! And engaged! And thinking and learning! 

6.Make it a court case --  Have kids argue famous court cases so they have to think about both sides of an issue. Whether it’s Marbury vs. Madison or the Trial of Socrates, it’s helpful for kids to see the arguments for and against a side and have to talk those out. 

5. Give them an interesting conversation topic --  I’ll be honest. Half the time a student conversation activity fell flat was because I had a not-so-hot conversation topic. Make kids pick the “best” or “should they?” or “most important” or “if you were” (but never about slavery or the holocaust!). Make them relate it to their lives or to something else they know or learned about. Make it interesting enough that it piques their interest.

4. Social Media -- Have them type/write it like a social media thread. There’s nothing like a Fakebook Post or a back-and-forth text-looking conversation to get kids involved in a way they prefer to communicate anyway Don’t judge them because they communicate differently than we old-grown-ups. Run with their strengths. Or, have them START with their strengths on fake social media/texts (try https://ifaketextmessage.com/ and then continue the conversation out loud

3. Sentence Starters/Historical Talking Tools -- Sometimes, kids don’t know what to say. Or, they don’t know where to begin. Or, they know what to say in a kid-way, but not in an academic way. Enter, sentence-starters or Historical Talking Tools! Start them off so that instead of saying “you’re stupid!” or “no! You're wrong!” they say “I disagree with you because...” or “Although you say __, I believe __”

2. Silent Conversation -- Put a quote or a short piece of text or a political cartoon on a piece of paper. And put that same piece of paper in front of every kid, but the kids are in groups of 3-4. And give each kid 1-2 minutes to write to respond to that quote/text/cartoon. Then, within the groups, have them pass the papers around to another group member and each kid will respond to what the previous group member wrote. Then, the pass it again to another member of their group, read what the previous two wrote, and add to that conversation. And another time (if you have 4 kids in a group). It’s brilliant for getting kids to dig deep into a great quote/text/cartoon and to have conversation with each other in a way you can structure and monitor. 

1.Model it -- Kids don’t always know how to collaborate effectively. So SHOW THEM! Literally, act it out in front of them and model it. The more explicitly you show them what you want, the more they “get it”. Modelling is a great way to help them get better at what you want them to do, the way you want them to do it. 

Non-negotiables -- These things are non-negotiable when it comes to student collaboration. 

• 
  Walk around and monitor their conversations by joining in. As kids talk, teachers can’t sit back. Teachers need to be monitoring and listening to every student conversation. And it's ok to join in conversation with the kids so you can ask them probing questions. 
• Raised hands is NOT student talk. Having kids raise their hands is STUDENT talk. Studnet, singular. As in one student can talk while the other 28 cannot. So, one kid is thinking about content while the other 28 are thinking about pizza or sports or their crush or whatever. It is the least efficient way to have students talk. It’s like painting your whole house with a q-tip. Least efficient tool for the job. Why wouldn’t you have ALL the kids talk so ALL the kids are thinking and learning?

How do you have kids talk about content? How can you mix it up and do more student-talk about content, more often? As always, I love to hear from you! Email me newmantr@pcsb.org

Traffic School Fun

So, a couple of years ago I got a speeding ticket. 

I know, I know. It was the beginning of summer, I had just dropped the kids off at the one, only week of camp where they both were gone all day and I was FREE ... and feeling good and cruising along, jamming out to some great song on the radio ... about 10 miles per hour more “free” with the gas pedal than I should have been.

I tried keep the points off my license so I did online drivers school. 

If you have never done online drivers school, there are a lot of options — including one hosted by a stand up comic. 

I chose the stand up comic. 

Why? Because when learning is more fun, it “sticks” better. 

Nobody goes home on the weekend and does worksheets or reads textbooks.

But we do play games, solve puzzles, and talk with friends. Some of us act or make art or do other creative things. Some of us compete in sports or other competitions. Some of us read interesting books and watch movies or documentaries. 

I know y’all. I know a lot of y’all. 

You are some AMAZING teachers. But you are amazing on your downtime, too! You all lead the scouts, work part time jobs, do stand-up, bartend, teach Sunday school, sing, dance, act, paint, build, climb, paddle, run, mentor, hike, volunteer, camp, cook, travel. (This is why I’m friends with y’all)

We continue to learn even when we aren’t at school. 

As adults, we learn through fun things. 

Kids learn better through fun things, too.

I don’t mean entertainment. There’s a difference. I mean actual learning - that happens to be fun and enjoyable, not miserable. 

 I mean when you are enjoying your learning, you experience a little bit of endorphins. When your brain releases a little bit of endorphins, it learns a little better. 

It sounds overly simplistic, but when you can smile through a learning task, you learn better. When you grumble and frown and argue and groan through it, you don’t learn as much 

(No comment about some PD or meetings being more conducive to learning than others)

It’s why I actually learned more from the online Drivers School hosted by the stand up comedian than the plain, dry, boring one, where someone just clicks through slides and narrates them. He wasn’t hilarious. But he was way better than just the slides! 

I believe that adult learners (that’s YOU, the teachers, in this case), learn better with fun and enjoyment, too.

I’m hoping our DWT next week is full of fun and enjoyment, too. We have some cool things planned.

Your colleagues who are presenting and facilitating sessions have some cool things planned. 

I hope you enjoy your learning at DWT. Relax and enjoy learning something new. And then I hope you can take the spirit of that fun and enjoyment and bring that to your classroom so your STUDENTS can enjoy THEIR learning. 

It’s so easy to forget about the fun and enjoyment part. But it can make a huge difference in making the learning “stick”. 

What makes learning enjoyable for you, as an adult learner? How do you make learning fun and enjoyable for your students? More importantly, how do you NOT FORGET, like I do half the time? 

And how do you make sure even something like traffic school can be fun?

I always love to hear from you! Email me your fun and enjoyment teaching ideas! 

-Tracy

Previews for Curiosity

I love movie previews. I have seen the previews for EVERYTHING and then they make me WANT to watch the movie!

A good preview can catch you in and make you want to see a movie you thought you had no interest in. It can make you say “Wait a minute! I DO know something about that movie! It’s the one that has so-and-so in it. It’s the one about such-and-such! That’ actually looks cool!”

While a lesson is not ALWAYS as fun as a movie (Although,  I have seen some of your lessons. They are pretty dang fun), but sometimes, we have to get the kids interested with a preview. Sometimes, they’re not automatically interested on their own. Sometimes, we have to drum up a little interest.  

I have seen three quick and easy ways to preview a lesson that take little to no preparation. You can do them at the beginning of a lesson or you can do them at the end of the day before to get the kids curious about the next day. 

Curiosity is a powerful tool. It gets kids engaged. And we all know that kids who are engaged are learning while kids who aren’t really engaged are just going through the motions, which means they aren’t really learning. They’re just doing busy work

1. Have them skim a text or reading to find the one or two most used words that are going to come up. But give them a super-short time limit so they’re not actually reading. Give them 30 seconds and make it a game. They’re just skimming. Then, based on their skim, ask them what they’re about to read about. Now they’re curious. Why are we going to read so much about the word “states”? Or about the word “nobles”? Or what’s a “silk road” going to be all about?

2. Give the kids 3-5 words from the upcoming lesson and have them work with a partner to put the words in a sentence. They should not be entirely unfamiliar terms, because the kids can’t do much with a pile of unfamiliar words, but mostly familiar words. For Post-classical china, I’d use “silk, trade, great wall, paper, ideas”. For the lead-up to the Civil War, I’d use “North, South, Slave, free, election”. See how well their sentences explain what they’re going to learn. Then, if you want to get FANCY, have them return to that sentence after the lesson or unit and fix up that sentence. They can even do a “I used to think ___ but now I think__” to reflect on how much they’ve learned”

3. A third way is to just ask a big question and have kids turn and talk. “How can you get silk from here to there? What if it’s something heavier and breakable like porcelain?” What should we do if Texas wants to leave the USA? Should we let them -- or make them stay? How does the government try to guarantee our rights? How can it do a better job?

Let’s continue to be intentional to build curiosity and engagement in our students so they WANT to learn!

How can you use previews to build curiosity and engagement in your lessons? How do you already do this? I’m SO curious!!

Email me! Newmantr@pcsb.org 

The Candy Is About To Kick In

Happy October! It’s time for (some other people in some other states) to bust out their pumpkin spice lattes, sweaters, and halloween candy!

Don’t worry, y’all. I’m still sweatin’ right here in FL with you.

But I’ve seen the Halloween candy, too. It’s calling to me. I’m trying to behave  -- but it’s only Oct 3!! Only 28 more days until Halloween (when it’s socially acceptable to eat all the candy).

Here as we begin October together, I have been seeing a BUNCH of  classrooms where teacher-student relationships are amazing. I have been seeing some places where the kids who are unwilling to work in Class A are doing the hard work of thinking, growing, and learning in Class B. I have been seeing students who will yell and cuss at one teacher now settle in and practice self-correcting their language for another teacher. Kids who refuse to participate in one class actively leading a group in another class.

But I have also seen the Halloween Candy and I know where it’s going. Straight into those kids’ bloodstreams, ready to pump them up and give them a reason/excuse to act up.

Here is your friendly Public Service Announcement to remind all teachers out there that our students .... are not adults

They’re kids. Adolescents. Tweens & Teens.

Even sugared up, they’re still not adults (especially?)

And they’re still learning. They’re each a “work in progress”.

And they mess up. A Lot.

To be fair, I mess up a lot, too. Here are some examples of the many manifestations of my own imperfection:

• My house is a mess right now.
• I literally can’t remember when I last cleaned the inside of my fridge.
• I haven’t worked out in 46 days in a row.
• I ate cake three times last week.
• I sent my kids to school with the wrong lunch boxes (each other’s)
• I can’t get my kid to eat vegetables.  
• I check my phone at stoplights.
• I forgot to pay a weird walk-in-clinic bill in a reasonable amount of time because I thought insurance covered it and now it’s on my credit report.
• I didn’t go to the dentist for a whole year.
• I was snarky and checked my email a lot during a training last spring.
• I had side conversations through a meeting recently.

I’m not perfect with responsibility and organization and timeliness either. Thank goodness that my boss (Hi, Michelle!) doesn’t dock points (or worse, dollars!) off me every time I do something less-than-perfectly.

My bosses, colleagues, and friends have always let me know where I need to improve. And honestly, natural consequences do that, too (Don’t clean? Have dirty house. Don’t turn in bill? Have to pay late fee.)

But they have never punished me because of the once-a-year day that I leave my laptop at home or because I forgot to fill out a form correctly (thanks, Kim!) or because sometimes a Wednesday email goes out on a Thursday (uh, life happens). When I mess up, those people in my life help me figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.

So -- how can we do more of that for kids? Kids have a LOT LESS experience with these things than we adults do. Kids are still learning and need support.

If we can forgive ourselves and the other adults in our lives -- why can’t we do that for our students? If the adults in their lives don’t have it all together perfectly yet (and some of the adults in their lives are really struggling!), why do we expect the kids to have responsibility and self-control and social skills and prioritization mastered?

I know that we know that kids aren’t “finished” people. They’re “still cooking”, still growing. So how can we assume goodwill and assume that a kid isn’t being an intentional jerk -- that he or she is instead feeling frustrated, confused, forgetful, unvalued, or like a failure.

When a kid acts out or doesn’t do what we ask or gives up or turns things in late (or not at all), or checks his phone, how can we help the kid do better next time?

How can we remember to approach student behavior from our relationship with the kids and from a point of helping the student actually learn from his or her mistakes?

What do you do to help you remember that they’re kids and that they’re still learning? How can we do more corrective help and keep up those relationships (even in candy season)?

I always love to hear from you! Email me at newmantr@pcsb.org

And have a piece of candy for me! I struggle with impulse control sometimes, too, just like the kids.