And just like that quarter one is over. In just those nine months, we’ve tried to go to a blue, gold, and why hybrid model that proved difficult to say the least. Then we were brave enough to acknowledge it wasn’t working and shifted to a blue and gold hybrid model with a built in flex learning day, which, in my opinion, is much, much better. With our rising numbers, though, I fear what school will look like in another nine weeks.
Still, I have come to savor as many moments in class as I can. That is something Coach Lingen has preached out our football team: enjoy every rep, every practice, and certainly every game because it could all be gone at any second. We saw this play out over the last few days. On Saturday we lost our starting quarterback to a concussion and our kicker, punter, and running back to a serious leg injury. We have lost several players to quarantining as well. I sure hope those players appreciated every rep, every practice, and every game. I know I did.
This was driven home in my classroom too. When I was looking over revision essays in College Comp I, I was reminded of just how fortunate I am to have students open up a window into their lives and share monument rites of passage, important words, and expertise moments with me. I savored how a College Comp II student came in on a gold day – even though she was in the blue group – just to ask questions in person regarding her essay. Even while waiting in line to get a coffee I was reminded of how blessed I am to teach my students when in the middle of the afternoon I received a text from a student (who had just finished the movie, Inception, which we will analyze and write a paper on soon) that read, “Are you kidding me? My heart is still racing! I’m so mad at that ending!”
Savor every moment with your kids while you still have them in class!
Inside this week’s teaching thoughts, you’ll find –
Book of the Week – The Dip by Seth Godin. This book sometimes gets a bad rap because it’s essential about quitting. Well, strategic quitting. But the real point of the book is to learn to quit the crap that doesn’t matter in order to dedicate that recovered time to work that really matters. That is the only way to survive what Godin refers to as “the dip.” And I happen to think that 2020 has been the very definition of a dip. Let’s quit the stuff that doesn’t matter and focus on the important things as we finally work our way into 2021!
Teaching Thoughts – Check out #39. It delves in to a great article for Edutopia, “The 11 Habits of an Effective Teacher.” How many of these habits do you have? How many do you – (like I do) need to develop?
Why I Teach – It allows me to coach. I know, technically, you don’t need to be a teacher to coach, but it sure helps. There is just something powerful about seeing kids in class and then seeing a whole other aspect to them in athletics. Plus, when you see them in school and even have them in class, you develop a greater relationship with them that allows you to handle them differently on the field than you would if you didn’t see them every day in school.
Podcast of the Week – This is the most recent podcast from Entreleadership. It features the author of The Dip, Seth Godin. This episode is on “The Practice of Shipping Creative Work.” One of my new favorite lines comes from this episode: “Are you creating the future or are you just participating in the present?”
Article of Interesting – This is another great article from Edutopia: “Seven Ways to do Formative Assessment in Your Virtual Classroom.” And – as I said earlier – I don’t know how much longer we will be blessed to have in-person learning. I fear we may all be in virtual classrooms before the new year.
Remember, savor the time with your students. If you struggle with that, just mentally rewind to what ‘school’ was like last spring when we were all adjusting to using Zoom for the first time, struggling to even take attendance and just throwing content at students as we tried to adjust to distance learning. We will sure be better at it if we have to do it again, but I sure dread that idea. Enjoy second quarter!
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