The Kids that Need You the Most are the Ones that Show it the Least...

I hope everyone has had a refreshing and re-energizing summer.  I started the summer off by completing my first 100-kilometer run.  After that, I spent June helping out around my school and then July was spent at Camp Mary Orton playing on the outdoor challenge ropes course with various campers and adult groups.

Also spent some time 30 feet in the air with my son. Great bonding experience!

As I have been reflecting on starting my twenty-first year of teaching, I make sure to focus on the students. We just had Meet The Teacher on Friday and since I am moving from a sixth grade classroom to a grade 7/8 classroom, I know nearly all of my students and families already.  That will be an incredibly powerful way to start the year.  I have really strong, positive relationships with nearly all of the students and families, and look forward to getting to know them even better this year.

Lots of teachers have an opinion on moving up (looping) with their students. Chalkbeat.org recently published an article linking this practice to higher test scores, especially for minority students and students with lower test scores.

Even so, I think back on teachers that I have worked with in the past that dislike this idea.  "What if you get ... THAT... student?" they ask. The difficult one. The one that is the troublemaker. The one that always tries to RUIN the class.

I've always been bothered by that thinking. No student shows up to school thinking about how to get thrown out of class.  They aren't sitting at home plotting ways to be sent to the principal or get written up for another detention.  Or if they are, there is a reason for it... And the reason isn't one you want to hear.

The first few days of school are all about relationship building.  You have to take care of the Maslow stuff before you can start the Blooms stuff.  My challenge to you is to build a positive relationship with each of your students in the first three days.  Greet them in the hallway. Tell them you are so excited that they are there today.

LEARN.THEIR.NAME.  Seriously.  My goal is to learn all of my students' names by the end of the second day. As they enter the school or classroom on the third I force myself to greet them by name. If I can't, I ask them their name or I tell them to correct me. I have them call me out if I don't use their name in class (or call them by their wrong name.) So many students will say, "it's ok," when you say the wrong name, but it isn't.

Eat lunch with them. Go out to recess with them (should you be fortunate enough to work at a school that still practices this 'archaic' ritual.) Find out two non-academic interests of theirs. Share your non-academic interests with them.  It doesn't take as long as you may think, and you'll reap the benefits in the classroom.

You are expecting them to learn so many things from you this year. You start that process by learning about them.  If you are looking for ways to do this, message me below or on twitter (@TeacherRunner42) for some ideas!

2017 reflection: teaching

This school year marks my 20th as a classroom teacher.  That has not really sunk in - there are times when I feel like I am that fresh-out-of-college kid with a couple dozen 3rd graders staring at me waiting for me to lead, all the while I'm waiting for a supervisor to come in to observe me.

I remember my first year of teaching well.  I was hired to teach third grade in Cathedral City, California at a school called Landau Elementary.  The school had a year-round schedule where there were four blocks of students that rotated one month off.  My schedule had me starting in July, taking off August, working September through Thanksgiving then off until New Years.  From there I worked January through March, had April off, then returned to finish the year in May and June.  There was a one week "reset" at the end of June and beginning of July, then the new school year started.

This system had pros and cons - but that's for another blog.

It was a very unique system.  It enabled the school to house 25% more students without needing to expand the campus.  The downside from an educator point of view is after each break you were in a new classroom for those three months.

I still remember my principal that year, the music teacher, my co-teachers... I remember my students and my first class photo.  I remember how I arranged the classroom and where I set up my two desktop computers...

Those students - those third graders - are just about 30 years old today.

I wonder if those students or I went back to Landau how similar it would look.  What has changed?

Here is a pop-quiz.  What year was this photo taken?

You might say 2012? 2006? 1998?

What about this one?

Could've been from my first year of teaching... Could be the classroom across the hall from you today.

Let's contrast that to another hobby of mine: video games...

Here is a video game I played in 1997:

Final Fantasy VII

And here is the game in 2017:

I don't own this game system. Accepting donations.

There is no mistaking the game of yesteryear to the game of today.  The same can be said of nearly every other profession. I know that a dentist office from 20 years ago doesn't look like the one I go to currently.  Yet there are classrooms that exist today that look and feel like it is still 1998.

So this leads to my word of 2018: Evolve.

As a veteran teacher (that feels so strange to write) it is easy for me to fall back into routines and previous lessons that 'worked well.' It is easy to fall into 'old habits.'   It is easy for me to have a bunch of 'traditional' lessons with a once-a-month "lookie at what I did" lesson so that I pat myself on the back. It is harder to create lessons, set up a classroom, and develop relationships that engage all students while focus on best practices.  Now is the time to reflect on previous teachings and evolve my lessons.

It is also time for me to evolve as a leader within the education community, both locally and globally. 
And yes, evolve will also apply to my running goals in 2018 as well.  Stay tuned!

Reflections on 2016, Part I: Teaching

Sorry I have been gone - about a month ago I decided to take a break from blogging. There were so many things coming up - our school was moving, holidays were coming up, and then when I was going to get back into it we had a death in my family. Blogging became the item that fell off my plate as I just didn’t feel up to the task.

Since then I’ve done quite a bit of reflecting. I have a two-part blog coming up: one for teaching and one on my running. Today we focus on the teaching!

I had two goals for the first half of my 2016-17 school year: Integrate cross-curricular lessons into as many of my own lessons as I could and gamify my seventh grade math classroom.

I’m really happy how well I’ve done with that first goal. Working with my co-teacher I have managed to put both language arts and social studies into my science lessons. During math we have talked about how math has evolved through time, how Romans used math, and how Rome fell because they didn’t have the number zero in their system. More directly, I tied my rates and ratios unit to maps for scaling and we were able to integrate lots of the social studies standards into the math curriculum.

Riots erupt when plebeians use exact change and see a balance due.

I also got to focus on argumentative writing in math to help language arts. Shelby introduced me to Which One Doesn't Belong at AMLE 2016. This became a focus in my class as it hit MANY of the Standards of Mathematical Practices. Students had to choose an item and write to defend why their answer was correct. From there they had to write counter-arguments as well.

Of course we also went to the math art gallery!

My second goal took on a life of its own. Students fell in love with the gamification process. They were in guilds which competed to help save Mathemagicland. Classes had individual and group awards, followed the leader board, and were rewarded with spells and items which gave advantages to their group. What I really loved is that some students found pretty wicked combinations with the game cards - ones that I didn’t see until they put them into play!

You never know if you are light or dark side until you play a game.

My gamification took a break the same time my blogging did, but the students are excited to return to Mathemagicland in January.

I had a number of other highlights throughout the first half of the school year, but my biggest was going to and presenting at the AMLE 2016 National conference in Austin, Texas. While there I met so many amazing educators. These people are not only passionate about education, but also about middle grades. It was wonderful putting a face and having a meal with people I have interacted with over twitter for the past year or more. I got to watch these people present their knowledge, and many of the ideas I saw I am using in my classrooms now! I’m proud to say that a number of them came to see me present as well (despite the fact I was in the same time slot as educational gurus such as Dru Tomlin, Dave Burgess, and Rick Wormeli.)

Apparently Rick was nervous about me. 

I’m excited to get back to school in January. For those that don’t know, we’re moving into a new building (as in newly built) in January. We have taken a few tours of the building, but have yet to see the space with amenities such as furniture, paint, or in some cases, walls.

I also promise to be back blogging and sharing some of my great and not-so-great ideas in 2017. I hope everyone is having a relaxing and recharging holiday break. Look for my running recap blog on Thursday!