31 Teaching Truths

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25. Be yourself.

I don't own any leggings and I know next to nothing about popular culture and sports, but these facts don't cause a moment's loss of sleep.

I can pair readers with the perfect books, teach writers how to craft an introduction, scaffold a hesitant math student to confidence, and tolerate the messes that come with scientific experimentation.

Be yourself and you will be the right teacher at the right time for an untold number of students who also don't "fit in" for any number of visible or invisible reasons.

31 Teaching Truths

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24. Lead.

If you've been following these 31 Teaching Truths, you might sense a progression in the last few days. #21 was Trust yourself. An important stance, but we should never forget that the smartest person in the room is all of the people in the room, so #22 was Build a PLN. The ultimate PLN is a professional organization in your content area, so #23 was Join a professional organization.

As important as it is to be a joiner, the ultimate challenge lies in being the one with the vision, the energy, and the stamina to lead. You'll never know what you're made of until you put yourself out in front and lead.

Franki is one of my leadership heroines. She has led in every building where she's served, she's led in our district, she's led professional thinking with her books (kudos also to her co-writer on many of them, Karen Szymusiak), she's led local and statewide organizations, and now she's on the brink of becoming the president of NCTE. Three cheers for Franki!

31 Teaching Truths

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23. Join a professional organization.

A professional organization for your content area is the ultimate PLN. Language Arts teachers, consider joining NCTE. Math teachers, think about joining NCTM. The publications and conferences these organizations offer (you can join the national organization or the statewide affiliate) are invaluable.

Poetry Friday -- Fable

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by James Havard

Fable
by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The mountain and the squirrel 

Had a quarrel; 

And the former called the latter ‘Little Prig.’ 

Bun replied, 

‘You are doubtless very big; 

But all sorts of things and weather 

Must be taken in together,

To make up a year 

And a sphere. 

And I think it no disgrace 

To occupy my place. 

If I’m not so large as you, 

You are not so small as I, 

And not half so spry. 

I’ll not deny you make 

A very pretty squirrel track; 

Talents differ; 

all is well and wisely put; 

If I cannot carry forests on my back, 

Neither can you crack a nut.’

Laura has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Writing the World for Kids.

31 Teaching Truths

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22. Build a Professional Learning Network (PLN).

Because as good as it is to trust yourself (see #21 yesterday), sometimes you need the "hive mind" to come up with the best idea for how to teach that lesson. Your PLN can be as close as your grade level or content team, or as far-flung as fellow educators on Twitter.

31 Teaching Truths

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21. Trust yourself.

Come up with your own idea about how teach that lesson. Think about the process you use to make meaning when you read, think about how you go about organizing your thinking for a writing piece. Trust yourself.

31 Teaching Truths

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20. Go ahead and cry.

Some days are hard. Sometimes the weight of everything those thirty young souls carry around while they are working to master opinion writing and division with decimals and the similarities and differences between light and sound is just to much to bear. Sometimes the weight of everything you are carrying around is too much to bear.

Then pick yourself up and get back at it.

31 Teaching Truths

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19. Be "The One Who..."

First there was CRB. She was the one who unlocked all the rooms on the second floor because she got to work insanely early. (Wait...did she unlock ALL the doors on both floors?!? I wouldn't put it beyond her.)

She retired and Coop inherited her classroom and carried on the unlocking tradition.

I'm the one who makes the candy that gets delivered after Thanksgiving break. There's the one who always organizes the fashion show for Multicultural Day, the one who cleans out the fridge in the lounge and makes the schedule for Friday treats, the one who serves on the district Leadership Academy committee, the ones who are brave enough to sing karaoke in front of all the students in the school. There used to be the one who sang "Summertime" a cappella over the PA system after the buses pulled away on the last day of school. We miss her. No one has picked up that tradition. Hard shoes to fill.

One of the things that makes our building amazing is our community, our culture. It takes everyone being willing to be "The One Who" to make that kind of community and culture happen. It starts with one and it spreads.

Are you "The One Who?" Or is it time you pitched in and became "The One Who?"

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.