31 Teaching Truths

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18. Be prepared.

Sometimes I forget how smoothly things flow when I make extensive and detailed plans. Last week when we were ramping up our long division skills back to where 4th grade leaves off, I not only created strategically mixed-ability small groups, but I also planned out where in the classroom each group would work. Gone was the chaos of choosing a partner and finding a spot to work.

If only there were enough hours in the day to plan that way for every subject every day all week long.

31 Teaching Truths

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16. Build in choice. (they raise their own bar)

Choice is one of the most powerful teaching moves we have in our toolkit. It's one thing if you offer a list of choices for work time, but your classroom community operates at a whole new level of trust when you teach a couple of adding fractions math games and then, in making rounds and checking in with partners and groups, you find that some boys have invented their own game which requires them to practice adding fractions in a WAY more complicated (and interesting) manner than any of the games you offered. A reminder here that when you see something going on in your classroom that doesn't look like what you expected, slow down and get information before you fly off the I'm In Control Here/Do What I Say handle.

31 Teaching Truths

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16. Raise the bar.

Up the ante. Kick it up a notch. Set a deadline and stick to it. Is teaching your job, or are you a professional?

Oh. You thought I was talking about raising the bar for your students. Well, yeah, raise the bar for them, too. That's what we do all the time as we build their understanding of more and more complicated ideas and content.

But if we're going to apply this saying to the work you ask your students to do, then please remember: when you raise the bar in a game of limbo, you make it easier to get under. So every now and then, maybe you should raise the bar for the wiggle under and not the vault over.

And how about this: if we change the spelling of raise, we totally change the nature of the game: raze the bar. What would that look like in your classroom?

Poetry Friday: Saying Goodbye

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Saying Goodbye

The storage unit is pitch black. 

The boxes 

are stacked right where we left them. I kick one with my shoe 

and wonder what I’m going to do with these boxes 

once I get them home. There will be new 

piles of boxes 

in our basement. I’d rather have you 

back than all these memories stuffed into boxes.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

This Golden Shovel was written for the March 2018 Ditty Challenge using part of a line of a poem by Devon Hope. I wrote it to remind myself that I can write in this form. (I wrote one last April for Malvina Reynolds.) I wrote it because of my poem-a-day challenge for April (coming up at the speed of time). When I began my "sort of a Slice of Life Challenge but not really" for March, I hadn't decided what I'd do for my Poetry Month challenge. I was talking to my students about the goals and challenges writers set for themselves and one of them laid down the gauntlet. Our classroom family has since grown from 29 to 30, so...why not. I've never in my career had 30 students (never again, please), so why not write a poem about each child? Never one to make things easy for myself, I've had each student choose a quote that resonates with him/her. 

In April, I will write a Golden Shovel for/about each of my 30 students using the quote they chose as the poem's "striking line."

(Eep!)

Linda has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at TeacherDance.

31 Teaching Truths

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15. Notice.

Every day try to make sure you really SEE every student. Every single one. 

Especially notice the ones who work hard every single day on every single assignment. Notice the ones who are always quiet in line. Notice the ones who come right to the carpet when you invite the class to come close for a mini lesson or a read aloud. Notice the neat work. 

But also notice the head down, the clouded face, the grumpy demeanor, the short temper.

That old saw about teachers having eyes in the backs of our heads? So far from the truth. We are ALL eye, because one of the most important things we do all day long (every minute of every day, in case you were wondering why we're so exhausted when we get home) is...

...notice.

31 Teaching Truths

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14. Celebrate risk-taking.

Value the words, "I'm not sure, but..."
Cheer on the "I used to think, but now..."
Validate "Would you check this to see if I'm on the right track?"
Honor "I think I know!"

31 Teaching Truths

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13. Plural possessives will happen. But probably not on your timeline.

J. was working on his opinion piece this afternoon. I had given the class articles from ReadWorks about the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and the Shasta Dam. Their job was to choose the most amazing of these two human-made structures and back up their choice with reasons and facts from the articles.

The article about the dam told about ways the dam was harmful to the native salmon, but also some temperature control innovations that helped the salmon. I nearly fainted from joy when J. asked, "Where do you put the apostrophe if you've got lots of salmon?" We had a quick lesson on singular and plural possessives. He was ready to learn. Even more than that, he had identified exactly what it was he needed to learn.

Today I was in the right place at the right time. When that happens, savor the moment.

31 Teaching Truths

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12. Improvise. (A mashup of yesterday's Mix It Up and The Power of Routines from the day before.)

There was an unused spot at the top of the word study section of our big language arts bulletin board last fall. On a whim, I used one 12x18 sheet of paper to write "Be" and another next to it to say, "_______". Our first word was AWESOME. We started the year being awesome.

Somewhere along the line, we decided it was time to change up the word, and at some point it was decided that would happen when we change desks/spots every two weeks. The person who chose the word gets to choose the next person.

A routine was born, not because I planned for it, but because I accidentally made the space for the class to invent it. We improvised. We made it up as we went. It's one of our favorite routines because it's 100% ours. (Bonus payoff--it keeps us looking at the word study section of our language arts bulletin board!)

So far this year we have encouraged each other to Be...

awesome
creative
respectful
cool
responsible
positive
calm
risk-takers

31 Teaching Truths

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11. Mixing it up now and then is just as powerful as solid routines.

The surprise factor. The juicy, delicious fear of not knowing what's about to happen in the lesson. The eagerness. The heightened awareness. You need all of this this just as much as your students do. Have solid and comfortable/comforting routines. And mix them up now and then.

31 Teaching Truths

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10. Routines are powerful.

Routines are like paved paths through a beautiful, well-groomed park (aka your day). They get you from point A to point B in a relatively efficient manner, everyone knows what to expect from them, the sights you see and the stops you make along the way are comfortingly familiar. After you've walked the same path for several weeks in a row, you can close your eyes and walk it in your sleep. Key words: efficient, comfortable.

If you know me, or if you read Truth #3, you know this isn't the end of this story. Stay tuned for Truth #11 tomorrow.