Blue-Sky Teaching

 I've been thinking a lot about joy in the classroom this break. Right now education feels like we're not supposed to have joy in our classrooms, and if we do, we're probably not being rigorous enough.  It's funny, but when I'm happy as a teacher, I do my best teaching.  When I feel trusted and free and like I have enough time to think, I love being a teacher.  And when I really know my students and can do what I feel is best for them at that time, there's a lot of joy in the classroom. One particularly joyous day last semester jumps out.  It was a Tuesday morning in November, a few weeks after my class's obsession with Nic Stone's Dear Martin started.  The day before, I had put the final touches on a surprise Skype conversation with Nic, and now I was nervous that we'd have technical difficulties, or some of her biggest fans would be absent that day, or that we wouldn't have enough to talk about and Nic would think it was a waste of time. 

Walk into my classroom during the first twenty minutes each day and I love what you’ll see.  Students are sprawled around the room reading, some in desks, some on shaggy carpets, and even one on his stomach draped over an exercise ball. It’s quiet except for pages turning and me wandering around with my notebook, or sometimes not.  Because I believe strongly in choice, independent reading and in having a classroom library plentifully stocked with books that real kids want to read, reading time is beautiful at this point in the year. Our end of the semester celebration letters left me smiling with the number of pages read, the favorite books found, the authors my students want to meet.   Despite all of this good, there is more work to do.  Always, right?   For close to fifteen years, I taught a middle school language arts class and worked hard to integrate choice reading and writing. Students were always reading an independent book, and were always writing about their own top

If you read my last post, you know that I was inspired to have my students end this semester by focusing on successes instead of doing a final assessment that highlighted all the skills they still don't do well.  I wanted to give students a chance to explore and tell about the ways they had grown as readers, writers, speakers, listeners or learners. I would like to be one of those teachers I read about in books, who thoughtfully plans and implements lessons and then shares the beautiful, breath-taking results with you. You know, the kind of thing we all gush over, but secretly hate just a little? In my world, life seldom goes like that. Learning in my classroom and for me as a teacher looks more like a scene from Vacation with Chevy Chase driving the family station wagon while dead Aunt Edna is strapped to the roof. We keep it real in J207. This project was a stellar example of that kind of chaos. With one exception: it didn't look that way from the outside. 

It's December and that means the end of the semester is rushing at us, faster than Joe Rantz's boat in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin (sorry, just reading The Boys in the Boat ...fabulous, by the way). Despite the fact that I allow retakes on every assignment all semester, somehow the realization that it's December wakes up many of my students, and now the work pours in.  There are also final projects, conferences, revisions, book groups, portfolios, grading (and more grading), study sessions, finals ... and stress. DID I MENTION STRESS?! Students are stressed. Teachers are stressed. And parents are definitely stressed. This is the time of the year when I wonder why I didn't take a sabbatical this year. I could be in the English country side, curled up next to 17th century stone fireplace that's hung with fresh pine boughs and ribbon, sipping a steaming mug of coffee, the snow softly falling outside the window, all while writing that book I've talked about for

I, too sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. - from I, Too by Langston Hughes It's two days until Thanksgiving. Students in my classes are beyond ready to go, off to families; off to meals of golden turkey, mashed potatoes with pools of yellow butter, and smooth, cinnamon-sprinkled pumpkin pie; off to sleep in. As I think about my own family traditions at Thanksgiving, it's the table that comes to mind first. The good china, dusted off and laid carefully on quilted place mats. Candles flickering and casting golden light around the room. And the people, everyone I love gathering close. The table in my family is a place of belonging, a place where everyone has a voice in the conversation, where everyone is valued because they are there. Langston Hughes' poem is a strong reminder that this is not always the case.  In so many ways in our country today, pe

Here's a little throw-back to last year's NCTE conference in Atlanta -   #NCTE16   It was an amazing experience of solidarity.  There I was among the nation's leading voices in ELA education, soaking in their ideas and energy, feeling empowered like I never had before. And, now, in just 2 1/2 hours, I'm on my way again, this time to present with my friend Jess Giah about the importance of diversity and globalization in classrooms.  How do we celebrate our differences and find our connected humanity?  Then on Sunday, many of us who got Book Love grants will gather with Penny Kittle and talk about books in classrooms.  I am elated to get to spend time with these fellow Book Lovers!  If you're in St. Louis this weekend and you see me looking lost and dazed, or perhaps like a fourteen-year-old at a rock concert with her favorite band, please pull me aside and say hi.  Connecting with my tribe in real life will be the best part of the whole conference! Happy Thur

Dear Teachers, It's November.  The time change has happened so it's a little lighter in the morning but, if you're like me, your body wants to go to bed at about 7pm.  All that dark coziness lures me to put on my pajamas, grab a book, and snuggle under my covers. November is a time when the end of the semester become a faint light, growing brighter with each passing day.  This can mean two things for students who are struggling.  It can be the time when my high school kids completely check out, having given up hope that they'll pass because they're too far behind. Or, November can be a time of renewed energy, when realizing the end is coming, students suddenly scramble and want to do work that previously didn't seem all that important.  Caution: this might not happen until the day they come back from Thanksgiving break.  Or the week after that. So, what do we do when a student suddenly decided to flip the switch near the end of the semester?  Do we look

It's October, although here in mid-Missouri it's having trouble acting like fall.  Yesterday's high was 85.  Lately, I've found myself drifting off into daydreams where I live in a small cottage tucked into the towering orange and red maple trees of Vermont.  It has a huge gray stone fireplace and big windows overlooking the mountains.  A velvety couch has cozy throws and pillows.  And it's always raining and blustery outside so I have to stay in this warm, dry room with its soft candle glow.  I have on a sweater. I'm reading a book.  I'm holding my favorite butter yellow mug and drinking steaming French vanilla coffee. It's not just the weather that's calling me into this fantasy retreat.  It's the general busy-ness of life.  School is full of endless learning targets, lessons planning, strategizing about how to re-engage this student or that one, feedback to write, papers to grade.  Home is more of the same.  Three kids in middle school means

Forgive me while I rant today... I just started reading the updated edition of Sark's New Creative Companion: Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit .  On page 7, she describes how in first grade she "began to invent illnesses so [she] could stay home from school and read, write and create.  One year [she] missed 92 days." 92!!?? Is that not screaming, "SCHOOL SUCKS AND IS KILLING OUR MOST CREATIVE KIDS!" ? Flashback to summer...  I spent a lovely 8 weeks getting ready to ROCK this school year.  I mean, ROCK IT.  I read books on creativity and choice:   Shift This  by Joy Kirr about getting kids more engaged by getting them to own learning at school; Unstuck:  52 Ways to Get and Keep Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work and In Your Studio by Noah Scalin (Where the heck is school in that title?!), which has tons of fun ideas to inspire passion - to get you out of your rut;  and  How To Be An Explorer of the World by Keri Smith, about living more w