Appreciate!

There are a lot of times when we, as teachers, don’t feel very inspiring. There are days when we feel like we don’t make much of a difference and we don’t do much to change the world.

I’m here to remind you that you’re wrong. On just this. :)

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week. I want to let you know how appreciated you are.

You are appreciated by your students, like I appreciate my former teachers

• Ms. Vitti, my kindergarten teacher who taught me to read, and paint, and sing, and all those other life-changing kindergarten things.
• Ms. McConnaughey, my fifth grade teacher who taught me to have better handwriting (I promise, the current handwriting IS an improvement) and organs of the body.
• Ms. Stockman, my 6th and 8th grade Language Arts teacher who taught me to enjoy literature. And to understand grammar. And to write well.
• Mr. Stocker and Coach Farrell, my high school AP Euro and AP US history teachers who taught me about the world and about how to learn & study and how to make content “stick”.

But you are also appreciated by your peers, like I appreciate my colleagues ...

• Ms. Cooper, (now at BCHS) who taught me how to have quiet, one-on-one chats with students to improve my relationship with them and to improve their behavior.
• Mr. Malinka, (still at MMS) who taught me how to read student work for National Boards -- and to figure out how much my students were learning.
• Mrs. Kreger, (now at NEHS) who taught me how to plan for and set up PD, and how to think about art as a learning tools.
• Mr. Bernard, (still at GHS) who taught me how to start a school year right and how to keep those kids in the palm of your hand for the rest of the year..
• Ms. Salvesen, (still at AMS) who taught me how to manage a classroom of struggling students and make it look easy (I know it’s not)

There are a hundred other teachers in this district who have taught me wonderful things -- but I’m 

going to start sounding like a long-winded Oscar speech.

I don’t know all of your students, so I can’t remind them to show their appreciation this week, but I hope your students and administrators make a big fuss.

But I do know YOU.

I want to remind you that the power you have to change lives isn’t just isolated within your classroom.

You have the power to assist, empower, and enhance the teaching of your colleagues.

I see it all the time -- in a casual hallway conversation, when you do real common planning, when you problem-solve as a team, when you share ideas and advice, when you meet after school for “social time” and adult beverages and work out problems, when you fix each other’s projectors or share cool resources.

Teachers, I hope we all appreciate our colleagues. Please tell your colleagues this week how much you learn from them, how much help they are, and how much you appreciate them. When we appreciate each other, we strengthen each other.

What teachers do you appreciate? As always, I love to hear! Email me any time

6 Top Lies I Tole My Students

I lied to them all the time. Here are a few of the most common lies I told my kids.

6 . “I’m really 73 years old”. I just use really good moisturizer. I did this purely for my own amusement.  It was funny to watch middle schoolers try to decide if I was telling the truth or messing with them. They still want to believe in crazy stuff. PS  -- I was in my 20s when I told this. It was more absurd then :) I stopped telling it around age 30 when they stopped asking me if I was teasing.

5 . “That’s against my religion” My catch-all excuse for anything I didn’t want to deal with was that it was against my (fake) “religion”. Class parties were against my “religion”. Free time was against my “religion”. Candy was against my “religion”. Chewing gum was really against my “religion”. Texting in class was against my “religion”. It took a while before some kid asked what my religion WAS.

I now tell them that I am a Newmanite (since I’m Newman). My maiden name was Berlage so I was Berlagian before that. The kids realized it was a silly way of saying things weren’t “My Way” of doing things. They would tell new kids about things that were against the teacher’s religion. I still tell this lie to students.

4. “I will lose my job if you do ___” I told kids that the things they did would cause me to lose my job. I often made things more dramatic than they actually were. But it scared the heck out of my kids when I used this line about opening the windows of my classroom (a no-no, true, but not lose-my-job worthy), kids breaking stuff (like my projector or a desk), or about them cheating on tests

I was probably not going to lose my job over those things. But certainly fewer kids did them. And that’s saying something. I don’t really have to tell this lie much anymore. But it works when I do.

3. You really need to know this. They don’t, really.Not all of it. Especially not the details. At no point in my life -- even as a Social Studies Teacher(!) has anyone ever asked me in what year the Maryland Colony was founded or what happened in the Tet Offensive. Not once. Not even on Trivia Night! I got over this lie and I hardly ever tell it anymore.

2. I don’t have favorite students. I tried. I really, really did try! I tried to care about all the kids the same. But some kids are just more likeable than others. Some kids were easier to connect with than others. Some kids drove me crazy! Some kids I got through to  -- and some, I didn’t. But I could never admit that to my students. I couldn’t afford to lose the occasional attention of Jasmina by telling her she was annoying. I couldn’t afford to lose the connection with Javonte by letting him know that he got on my nerves. I couldn’t lose the rest of my class by letting them all doubt whether I cared about all of them or was just pretending. My relationship with my class was too important. I lied about that every day. Now that I don’t have my own students, I don’t get to tell this one. But I totally would.

1. You can’t do this so I will do it for you. I honestly believed for years that my kids couldn't do a lot. They couldn't read the textbook. They didn't have the background knowledge for the content I was teaching. They just couldn't do it.

So instead of teaching them how to do things, I did the things for the kids. Out of kindness and love. Seriously!

They couldn't read the textbook and glean the important info? I would put that important info in a power point! They couldn't understand important cause and effects? I would tell them the causes and effects! They couldn't write well? I would let them write short answers or bullet points! Their lack of background knowledge made them struggle through understanding of complicated pieces of history? I would simplify the moments into a cute worksheet or handout so they didn’t have to wade through the messy stuff.

When I believed that my kids couldn't do things, then I was right. My kids didn’t do those things. And I didn’t make them!

But -- the only way to get better at something is to practice. Can I keep my non-swimming kid on the beach for her whole life? Or do I teach her to swim? Buy her velcro shoes until she’s twenty? Or teach her to tie her shoes?

Do I stop expecting my students to read, write, and think -- or do I teach them and make them practice and practice and practice -- until they improve?

The biggest barrier to student success is a teacher who thinks they can’t.

I definitely don’t tell this lie anymore.

You know what made me stop telling this lie? The slight streak of competitiveness in me and a little ego. I heard someone say “Tracy, your kids can’t do x, y, and z”. And I thought “The heck they can’t!!! I will make ‘em do x, y, and z!”

And it was hard work and I had to try some different, out-of-the-box things. But, dangit, my kids DID do it! Who said they can’t?

I challenge you to look at the lies you tell -- especially this last one. Do you tell it? Or do you find a way to teach the skills your kids need? Struggles and ideas? As always, I love to hear from you! Email me! newmantr@pcsb.org

Beyonce and Lincoln: Public and Private

There was a small internet kerfuffle recently when photos of superstar Beyonce -- without makeup -- were leaked online.

Beyonce, of course, has tons of public pictures of herself available to the average Googler. She’s a pretty big star and has been for almost twenty years!

But there’s a difference between a picture Beyonce meant to share and one she didn’t. There’s a big difference between public and private.

The internet is full of the problems like that from politicians to starlets to regular Joes. Because, really, we write and create things for two different purposes -- for public (published) use or for private use.

When we look at history, documents tend to fall into the same two categories -- public (published) and private. Meaning, stuff that’s meant to be read and stuff that’s not. Often, there’s a difference between the two.

Abraham Lincoln is a person who sometimes wrote one thing in his personal writings and said something very different in his public writings and speeches.

For example, what did Abraham Lincoln REALLY think about slavery?

His private letters say:

"Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly, or indirectly, interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume IV, "Letter to Alexander H. Stephens" (December 22, 1860), p. 160.

But another private letter says;

"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Letter to Albert G. Hodges" (April 4, 1864), p. 281.

But the Emancipation Proclamation says

“all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free;” Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation January 1, 1863

What beliefs were personal and which were political? What did he really believe? Did his beliefs evolve? Or was there a big difference between public and private beliefs?

It’s complicated.

And, it’s hard to tell without a lot of context surrounding the documents.

And, it’s possible to be anti-slavery without being an abolitionist. Politics are complicated. People are complicated.   

When we read historical accounts, we find documents that were meant to be read by others -- newspapers, speeches, legislation. We also find documents that were NOT necessarily meant to be written by many others -- shopping lists, receipts, diaries, personal letters.

We do this personally, in our own modern lives, too. Sometimes we post things publicly on social media or in emails where we expect others to read them. And then sometimes, we write things just for ourselves -- like lists, receipts, notes.

So while the idea of writing for public OR private readers is not new, it’s time to transfer that idea to our classrooms.

We have two basic types of writing in class:

 

·         We can have our kids write for public -- that is, for publication, for others to read, for a 

red pen and a big grade. We can have them do final writing assignments where we expect fully-formed thoughts, correct grammar, and real punctuation, like essays, articles, posters, blog posts, final projects.

AND SOMETIMES

·         We can have our kids write for private -- for learning, for themselves to read and think through. “Thinking is clarified by writing” says the DBQ Project’s Core Beliefs. We give kids “writing for learning” tasks -- lists, brainstorms, quick writes, document analysis sheets, exit tickets, etc. -- writing where kids are thinking-on-paper and figuring things out. Writing where kids don’t necessarily have to have all the right  answers or use full sentences. (This is the kind of writing I LOVED as a teacher because I didn’t have to grade it too closely.)

It’s okay to do both. Really, it’s important to do both.

“Writing for publication” is often used as a type of summative assessment -- to see how much the students have learned.

“Writing for learning” is usually used as a type of formative assessment -- like a check-in to monitor student learning and see where our students are with content and skills and how we need to adapt or adjust our teaching.

For ideas of “Writing to Learn” assignments, check out this handy list from Colorado State University http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop5.cfm

Take a look at your assignments. Are they “writing for publication” or “writing for learning”? Are you getting to both in your class?  What does each type of writing tell us about Abraham Lincoln’s views on slavery? What does each type of writing tell us about what our students are learning? As always, I love to hear! Email me newmantr@pcsb.org

-Tracy

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: Making Connections

Do you remember the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” that went around the internet a few years ago? In the game, players try to see how many degrees of separation are between any single actor and Kevin Bacon, who has been in wide variety of movies.

For example, Elvis Presley’s Bacon Number is 2. Elvis was in Blue Hawaii with John Archer who was in the Little Sister with Kevin Bacon.

The game, which has spawned two websites and several apps as well as a Google search (‘Bacon number: Elvis Presley’) is even touted as the “precursor to social media”. Twitter thanks you, Kevin Bacon!

It’s fun to make connections.

Like we talked about last week, our students really struggle with Level 3 thinking. Level 3 thinking often involves thinking abstractly, making connections, and planning with evidence.

I want to challenge you to have your kids use Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (or a number of connection strategies below) to help them think about connections within and outside of content.

Here are my caveats:

a.            Don’t tell them the answers! Please..... no matter how “off” they are. Make THEM come up with better answers.

b.            Model the Thinking! Demonstrate how you would do this. Show them what it looks like!

c.            Gradually Release it! You do the strategy. Then, try it whole-class. Then, do it in small groups. Then have them do it on their own. That’s how skill-learning works!

So here are a BUNCH of strategies to help kids practice Level 3 thinking. I challenge you -- I double dog dare you -- to try to use one every day. Mix it up or keep it consistent. But do SOME Level 3 thinking every day.

1.    

Agree or Disagree – WITH EVIDENCE

a.            How? Have kids decide if they agree or disagree with a particular statement AND give evidence from text.

b.            Like? Statements like “The Red Cross is the most helpful International Organization” or “Brown vs. Board was the biggest event in the Civil Rights movement” or “The executive branch has more power than the judicial branch”

c.            Why? If they can use evidence to justify their opinions, they can recognize when it’s used elsewhere.

2.   Hypothetical Situations

a.            How? Have kids create plausible hypotheses about what they know about government – and defend their hypotheses with evidence.  

b.            Like? For example:  “Abraham Lincoln would believe _____ about federal income taxes based on…..” Or “If there was a major hurricane to hit Tampa Bay, the organization _____ would be the biggest help to people in need because … ”

c.            Why? One of the “types” of Level 3 thinking is making predictions and using evidence as support.

3.   Reason and Draw Conclusions –

a.            How? Help the students to practice drawing conclusions based on a reading that doesn’t explicitly state them.

b.            Like? For example, have students draw conclusions about what group(s) the 14^th amendment was talking about when it was passed and what groups might be debated  about, under the 14^th amendment today.

c.            Why? One of the types of Level 3 thinking is “reasoning and drawing conclusions”.

4.   Now and Then –

a.            How? Have kids apply certain principles to historical and modern scenarios.

b.            Like? For example. What might have been an example of the “right to bear arms” during colonial times and what might be a modern example – and why are the two examples different?

c.            Why? Another facet of Level 3 thinking is applying a concept to a new situation

5.   Compare and Contrast (with nuances) –

a.            How? Have students compare two different constitutions, amendments, court cases, international organizations. They need to come up with more than just one similarity or difference and they need to get past the obvious.

b.            Like? For example, Plessy vs. Ferguson and Brown vs. Board are not just different because they had different “answers” to separate vs. equal. They’re different because one involved an adult, the other, a child. One led to MORE segregation and the other to LESS segregation. Look at the justice’s opinions they gave.

c.            Why? Comparing and contrasting with evidence and nuances is a Level 3 skill.

6.   Explain a pattern –

a.            How? Have kids explain a certain pattern.

b.            Like? For example, give them two different years’ electoral maps and have them explain the difference in the voting results. Give them two different federal budget categories and have kids hypothesize or explain why spending rose, fell, or held steady.

c.            Why? Explaining a pattern is another example of Level 3 thinking

7.   New Situation –

a.            How? Give kids a scenario and see if they can apply a Civics concept to that new scenario.

b.            Like? For example, how does the 1^st amendment of free speech apply to online bullying? How does the concept of social contract apply in areas with extremely low civic participation?

c.            Why? Being able to apply a principle or concept to a different scenario is another example of Level 3 thinking.

8.   Evaluate effectiveness –

a.            How? Have kids evaluate the effectiveness of an event, a law, or a concept, using evidence.

b.            Like? How well did Brown vs. Board desegregate schools? How well did it desegregate America as a whole? Where did it work best? Where did it work least? How well did the Federalist Papers influence Americans and modern politics? In what aspects of modern life do people still believe in its concepts? Where don’t they?

c.            Why? If students can evaluate the effectiveness of something, they first know enough and second think deeply enough about a topic to make those decisions. They key is WHY

I double-dog dare you to try one of these every day until your EOC to give your kids consistent practice in Level 3 thinking.

Did you try one? Or more than one? As always, let me know! And who’s your favorite Bacon connection?

By the way, my Bacon Number is infinity. Because, you know, I haven’t been in any movies. But Charlie Chaplin has a Bacon Number of 2! Who knew?

-Tracy