Last week in the middle of group work time, just a week after our return from Leadership Camp, Mia suddenly stormed out of the classroom, followed rapidly by Kareem. I found them sitting on the bench in the hallway. Mia was crying; Kareem was gently apologizing, but Mia was having none of it.
Sigh … today’s primary work wouldn’t be math instruction, it would be managing adolescent social relationships.
As I dug deeper into the situation, it became clear that several students, all seated in the same area of the classroom, had been involved in “capping on” each other, or exchanging put-downs. Several of them insisted that this had all been in good fun; although others remained silent on the matter. The insult that had pushed Mia over the edge and caused her to flee from the classroom was that she “looked like a leprechaun.”
Some days it’s hard not to laugh. As insults go, looking like a leprechaun wasn’t so bad. It could have been so much worse. But it wasn’t funny to Mia.
The end of the school year is in sight. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
And yet there are so many things that must be done between here and there that the light can be hard to see.
It’s the time of year when students become squirrely as the weather warms up and summer break beckons, the pressures of standardized testing are all too real, and there remains a whole lot left to do with not nearly enough time to get it all done.
By May, teachers are running short on energy and enthusiasm, but every moment in the classroom counts. As Jack likes to say, “We only get 180 shots; we can’t waste any of them.”
So how do you push through the final weeks of the school year, so both you and your students can finish strong?
Teaching can feel like a marathon run at the pace of a sprint. It really can be that intense and exhausting, and teacher burnout is real and concerning. I wrote this post a little over a year ago. It contains statistics and strategies for understanding and combating burnout.
Be the light for each other. Kindle someone else’s flame. Lean on each other when you need to. Ask for help and support, and give it in return. Be each other’s navigational stars.
Femi Adebogun was failing algebra as a freshman in high school. He reports that he was generally getting the answers right, but by not being able to show his work he was getting lower scores and losing interest not only in math, but in school. He remembers feeling as if he wasn’t very smart.
A confounding part of the problem with that self-doubt was that Femi couldn’t make it match up with his reality. He was repairing websites in his spare time outside of school. His spending money came from companies in his community in New York City who paid him to build or fix their company websites. He was making connections, growing a list of clients, and managing professional responsibilities as any other businessperson would. Outside of school he was a professional technician. But at school he felt as if he was just another struggling math student.
Jack with Femi at #YAS2018
So why was he on stage this week at Facebook Headquarters in Menlo Park, California, at the Youth Activation Summit, telling his story to a room full of superintendents, principals, administrators, community partners, and students?
His circumstances changed. His parents placed him in a different school where a teacher took interest in him, and provided him with a tutor who noticed his skills and interests. This tutor saw that he kept getting the right answers, so she allowed him to work ahead of his peers. She pushed him harder and faster than his algebra teacher could. His interest in school and in math increased exponentially, and he experienced success. As a junior, he completed calculus.
Today he is out of high school and running his business. Very recently he helped launch Scholarmeapp (@scholarmeapp and scholarmeapp.com) a company committed to becoming the common app of scholarships. He is passionate about helping other students get into a position to achieve their own dreams.
He is a youth activator. He is a teen who had a vision for how things could be different, and was able to work within and without the system to achieve his dream. He still is working with his own resources to help activate a vision of the world that many of the rest of us can’t yet see; working to improve things that many of us have come to take for granted.
It’s that time of year. The days are longer, and a warm breeze through an open window tempts even the hardest worker in your classroom. You may even find yourself lost in reverie looking out the window as a student taps you on the arm.
Worse yet, disjointed schedules from spring break, testing, and end-of-the-year activities are interrupting your careful routines, and students are predictably responding by misbehaving. Nothing major, at first, but not their best selves either.
We are tempted to separate students from each other or to follow the examples many of us saw in our own traditional classroom experience:
Spread student out into the hall just so they don’t accidentally bump into one another and upset our carefully created equilibrium,
Drop our academic expectations, however imperceptibly, in the hopes that they will get something - anything! - done,
Lower our behavioral expectations in the hopes of getting a last few conflict-free days out of the year,
Have a movie day,
Have a make-up day … or three,
Have an “okay you can do _________” although it was against the rules all year
We are tempted to do this because these tiny compromises seem a small price to pay to enter the summer in a mood other than a seething rage.
But what if our instincts and our experience are wrong about this? What if the easy way out - the movies, the “make-up days”, the “okay you can listen to your phone today since you worked so hard on the test” days are not the way to peace.
What if these compromises that we hoped would PREVENT conflicts at the end of the year are the very things that CAUSE the conflict? Students sense the lowered expectations, they feel the change in requirements and rules, and their natural inclination to push boundaries is accelerated rather than calmed down.
Science suggests that teachers who change their expectations and stop asking students to learn at the end of the year are their own worst enemies. Instead of creating peace, these solutions cause unhappiness.
Students are happiest when they are in a state of play while learning. This state, which was referred to as “flow” by the behavioral scientist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, can actually be induced in the classroom and in individual students. It involves carefully calibrating the level of difficulty of the work, changing the time allowed for completion, and manipulating other clearly defined variables in the classroom. In short, you should pretty much do the opposite of the advice above.
The following articles will take you further down the road to understanding how you can create flow and concentration in the classroom - right up to the last minutes of the last day:
Outwardly, I remained calm, and replied, “Oh, hmmmm, well, we haven’t really discussed that yet.”
But my internal monologue sounded different. “What?! That was last year. We did that because our cycle theme was Change, and it was so much work and so stressful. What do you mean, ‘What are we doing this year?’ We’re not doing anything this year. That is not an annual thing now. That was a one-time deal!”
I didn’t say that out loud, however, and Shanice remained persistent. Every week she asked me the same question, “What are we going to do for our Change project this year?”
Truthfully, I was simultaneously both incredibly proud and horrified at this question, and while Shanice wasn’t the only one asking, she was the most insistent about it. Last year, our students worked to bring awareness to issues of gender equity and raised nearly $1,000 to send girls in underprivileged countries to school. It was an amazing experience – for them and for us.
However, we had no plan or intention to repeat this. It had taken a tremendous amount of time and energy. The thought of doing it again was a bit overwhelming. A part of me wished that Shanice, and the others, would quietly forget all about it. But deep down I was thrilled by their commitment and motivation.
Ultimately, the choice was not ours. Current events would propel us into motion over the next several weeks.
Jack and Krista on Rise to Shine! Radio (Not my best selfie!)
Last Saturday Krista and I were honored to be guests on Eric Kearney’s Rise To Shine! radio program. Every Saturday on 101.5 FM, Eric hosts this show in his role as the President and CEO of the Cincinnati African-American Chamber of Commerce.
The focus, in order to be of value to his audience, was on the process of writing the book and going from having ideas, to blogging, to securing a publisher, to writing and editing and finally publishing. It is a unique perspective on the Angels and Superheroes story and - we think - worth a listen.
One highlight in the video is that it starts before the radio show starts, and it rolls through the commercials, so you get some of the show behind the show, including a detailed discussion about how the cover came to exist, which is not on the actual radio audio. (Exclusive content!)
The main show, however, is a fun conversation with an interesting, thoughtful, and curious friend who created a space for a great conversation.
We hope you find it engaging or useful.
Eric livestreams this show on his FB page, which should be available here.
The Chamber’s audio link is not up yet, but it will be available at this page:
About a year and a half ago, after Jack saw a presentation by Craig Weber, we both read his book, Conversational Capacity: The Secret to Building Successful Teams That Perform When the Pressure is On. We both were deeply impacted by Craig’s work, professionally and personally.
So we did what any true fan does: we called him up. For some reason - perhaps remembering the conversation he had with Jack after his presentation - he was willing to talk to us. One of the stories he had told during his presentation was of a teacher who used his strategy to successfully navigate a difficult parent conference. It turned out that Craig’s brother was a teacher, and they were very interested in how these ideas could be used in the world of education, and not just in the corporate world where Craig’s work had taken him.
Over the course of the next few months, we had several conversations about the overlaps in our work and the various writing projects in which we were each engaged. Jack and I were pretty sure that we were getting the better end of the deal, but we were thrilled when Craig indicated that he was hoping to use a graphic we had created in his forthcoming book.
However, the most exciting thing happened entirely by accident.
When I learned that Rick Steves was going to be the keynote speaker at the American Montessori society annual conference this year I was surprised. I am used to hearing from prominent Montessori educators at this conference . He did not seem to fit either description: Montessori or educator.
I am familiar with his travel show on the radio and the TV show on PBS and the many guidebooks that he produces to help people travelled mainly through Europe. I have many friends who are big fans of his work, though I never was. I find him mildly entertaining, and I presume – or even hope – that there will be a time in my life where I will purchase a book of his or view a couple of his videos in preparation for my own European trip.
So I expected to hear amusing anecdotes from his travels and to be moved by a couple of his stories. I expected a sort of sales pitch, I think.
I was surprised to learn that much of his presentation was based on his 2009 book Travel as a Political Act, and I certainly didn’t expect to be convinced that I was in the presence of an American hero, who could help define what it means to be a citizen and a patriot.
Jack and I have regularly had the opportunity to speak to groups of teachers and parents who share our vision. There is great joy and inspiration in doing this part of the work.
Far less frequently are we issued an invitation to present to a wider audience — an audience whose members may not (yet) be convinced of the importance and nobility of the work that is teaching. It is in these moments that we truly have the chance to effect change.
Yesterday, we were grateful to have been given a forum with Brian Thomas on AM talk radio. Although we certainly come at the issues from different angles and with different agendas, we found common ground on the need to support children as individuals and to nurture them accordingly. It was exciting to get to share our message with such a wide range of people.
This week we also recorded a segment for WLWT’s Issues, and will post that link as soon as it becomes available.
We have upcoming interviews as well with WCPO and WVXU “Cincinnati Edition.”
If you are a Cincinnatian, please plan to join us for our book launch event at The Mercantile Library on April 10th from 6:30-8:30. All educators in attendance will receive a free membership to the library (a $55 value).
We are also participating in the Local Author’s Showcase at Joseph-Beth Booksellers on April 28th from 2:00-4:00, and we have an event at the Public Library Downtown on June 6th at 7:00. We hope to see you at one of these locations!
Thank you for all the support you provide to the students and teachers who are part of your circle. You are making an impact in your own little corner of the world.
As a young teacher, I remember the enthusiasm another teacher on my team expressed about math and science day at the local ice rink. We had gotten an email a couple of days earlier that hit all the important details of a field trip - at least in my way of thinking back then. They offered:
supervised time away from the teachers
free transportation
lunch
some math and science worksheets
It seemed perfect. Easy, free, food, and no prep.
As a bonus, only a couple of the teachers needed to go, while others - “like the English teacher?” I hopefully suggested - could stay behind and enjoy a light supervision day, getting some important grading done.
Once, when I viewed field trips as a form of self-defense, this was the ideal day.
I was so wrong. I now know that several key elements were missing from the experience. Here are elements of a meaningful experience for our students:
clear tie to current curriculum and theme
pre- and post- work in the classroom
structure throughout the experience including seminar, journaling, and a leadership rubric
We were a long way from an ideal field experience, or even a good one. We were merely taking a field trip.
You should never take another field trip with your students. But you should definitely structure chances for your students to work together outside the classroom, in tightly coordinated excursions that are true field EXPERIENCES.
Here are some examples of how to structure your experiences outside of the classroom so they do more than provide self-defense against time with students:
