Thoughts on Teaching & Learning : Learning from Dr. Gholdy Muhammad

Over the past several weeks, I have found myself doing a lot of reflection trying to get this online teaching right.  I keep meaning to get my thoughts on paper but then get caught up in the day-to-day work of teaching in this pandemic era.  I know if I can catch my breath, there is a lot to learn and reflect on during this time. So, I decided that every day in May, I will share my thoughts on Teaching and Learning.  This is Day 9.

I have come to rely on the weekly NCTE Member Gatherings to keep me energized during this time at home.  As much as I love a live event, I realize how many people I have come to know because of these online events--people who I've never had a chance to hear in person.  Last week, Dr. Gholdy Muhammad (@GholdyM) was part of the NCTE Gathering and if you were not able to attend, you need to watch her talk. You'll probably want to watch it more than once. It's incredible.

She read a bit from her new book,  Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. I have a copy but haven't had time to read it yet. I am planning on it being a summer read and decided to join the Book Love Foundation Summer Book Club so that I have others to think with around the book,

In the video of Gholdy's talk, I keep replaying her words at minute 14:30 and listen over and over to the 60-90 seconds that starts there.  It is one of the most important minutes that we, as teachers need to hear.

In this segment, she talks about the stories we tell about our students. And how often when teachers start talking about students in a deficit lens, she stops them and says, "NO. Start again."

I have been thinking about these words all week--NO. Start again.--such powerful words that make us stop and think about the stories we are telling about a child, a family, a group of students.

So many times, in my 30+ years that these words would have been helpful.  I have gotten much better at speaking up against negative talk about children and families but there are still times when I just don't know what to say.  NO. Start again. Seems perfect.

More importantly, I am thinking about these words for my own self-talk. Without intending to, on days when I am tired or frustrated, I too start telling a story about a child (to myself or to others) that isn't the story of the whole child, that doesn't account for all of his or her genius.  These words, "NO. Start Again." will hopefully pop into my head now, reminding me that the story I am telling is not okay, not true and not necessary.

During this time of online/pandemic teaching and learning, social media is full of stories about children and their families. Let's think a little more deeply about the stories we tell about our students.
What stories are we telling about our students? What stories do we tell about their families? Do we start from a place of love and genius or do we start from somewhere else? And why? If we start from somewhere else, let's tell ourselves, "NO. Start again."

Thank you Gholdy Muhammad for this hour of brilliance and love.  I can't wait to read this book.

{DIY Literacy} #cyberPD

Better late than never, right?

#cyberPD nearly passed me by this summer, but in the spirit of Tuesday's Big Gulp-O-Reading, I read the whole book in one day.

Because I haven't kept up with all of the conversations for the past several weeks, my big take-away is likely redundant:

THIS BOOK IS BRILLIANT.

Summer is winding down. The IDEA of being a teacher again in a few weeks is switching back over to being a REALITY. This book cushioned me as I fell from Summer Mode back into Teacher Mode.

Even though I've been at this gig for decades now, what I love+hate most about it is that every year is new. I never feel like I've got this down pat, like I know where I'll start and exactly how I'll proceed through the year, or like I'm the expert I should be after all this time and practice.

But this book makes me feel like I'm going to do a better job this year than I've ever done before.

At the same time they make me realize that I haven't been doing enough to support learners by even more finely slicing and layering my lessons than I ever thought possible, Kate and Maggie never make me feel like a failure. Instead, their book does for me what my work with it will do for my students -- it will lift me/us to the next level (and the next and the next and the next).

As Franki said in the foreword,  "The ideas are sophisticated, but Kate and Maggie make teachers feel like "we can do this!"" They believe that teachers who are readers and writers themselves have at their fingertips the steps and moves that become the strategies that will help each child learn at his/her level. I love this focus on turning inward and accessing what I already know as the expert reader and writer in the classroom. And this book has given me the ways to make my years of experience into clear and concise tools that will bring my learners along with me.

Hour of Code: It's All About Literacy

Last week, one of our Technology Support Teachers invited me to the district's Technology Center for an Hour of Code. I hadn't paid much attention to Hour of Code as it didn't look that interesting to me, but a trip to the Dublin Technology Center doing something she seemed excited about made sense to me. I knew we didn't need a field trip to participate in this but a trip to our district Technology Center seemed like a real treat and a way to make this a big deal for my students.

I had about 3 days between the time Lynsey invited us to participate to learn a little bit about what this Hour of Code thing was. So I visited the site, watched some videos and played a bit.  I did a few lessons with my kids that introduced coding without using a computer.  The more we chatted, the more excited we all got as we were really learning the language of computers.

The day was a hit and the kids learned a lot. I am certain what they learned will change the conversations we have in the classroom.  While we were there, one of the news reporters asked me why I decided to participate. Was I a coder? A gamer?  Was this about career ed?

Luckily, I had thought about this as I looked at the site and got us ready for our trip.  As a classroom teacher, I am always thinking about how things like this fit into the bigger conversation of what we do in the classroom, especially in the area of literacy.  Obviously, this #hourofcode was worth it even if it was a one hour event and we never talked about it again. The thinking and problem solving kids did in such a short time was amazing. The response to mistakes and trying again made me happy. The fact that we were truly all learning together was powerful.  I am sure that one hour of code impacted them as learners overall.

But for me, this #hourofcode was about literacy. Maybe because I learned it with the kids. Maybe because my head is all around where the literacy is in digital tools. Maybe it was because of where our conversation had been before #hourofcode when it came to authors and decision-making.  But I knew that this hour of code would change the way my students would approach their reading and writing.  I knew that if they understood the behind-the-scenes work of digital creations, they would see what was possible in their own creations and they would also read and view more critically. Just as classroom author visits give us a sneak peek into some one's process, #hourofcode gave us a sneak peek into the whole digital creation process.  My students learned that everything that is programmed by a coder has to be decided upon and they realized how many decision go into a short digital creation.

I remember the first time I showed the clip of the Spaghetti Harvest to my students years ago.  The first few years I showed it, they believed that if something was on film, it must be true. I think that is still true for many of our kids today. Every year when I showed this video clip, the conversation changed as we discovered what the creators did to make it so believable.  The impact on student writing and reading was almost immediate as they began to read more critically and create with more intentionality.

I already see similar things happening because of #hourofcode. My students are already playing on the sites and apps they were introduced to.  Possibilities were opened up when it comes to what they can create.  They feel empowered as they have so many great choices in creation.  But I've seen a different stance in their reading as well and I imagine it will continue--Why did the author/creator do that?  How did that decision make the piece stronger is one we talk about across format, genre, media and this is a question that they now understand a bit more deeply. They understand that a person, a person trying to share a message or create a story, makes decisions about things on every game, website and video they see.  This is a big aha for them. And for me, this is an important piece of critical literacy.

Since our experience with Hour of Code, lots of little things have popped up around the classroom.  From my understanding, there will be a Code Club Meeting on Monday during Indoor Recess. Over the weekend, members were to try out some of the links they had played on and sign up to share their learning/tips.

And on the way out of school Friday, one of my students let me know he was taking his writer's notebook home for the weekend.  He informed me that two of them decided they wanted to create a video game. They weren't sure how to do it but they knew they could figure it out.  And they were going to work in their notebooks this weekend to work on the story and the plan.  

For me, Hour of Code is less about coding and all about Literacy. It opens up possibilities for creation and changes the way my students will interact with all forms of media. 

Last time I checked, over 15 million kids participated in Hour of Code. If you haven't had a chance to take a look at the site, check it out.  And if you want to read the news article in our local paper about Hour of Code, you can find it here.