(edit: I wrote this yesterday April 4th but forgot to post)

Today I have the day off from the classroom, spending a little time learning and sharing. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the conversations I have been having with teachers. I think a lot of people during Covid forgot about teachers. This isn’t to complain, there was just a lot going on. Our jobs changed and changed again, we are now “back to normal” but things have changed. The job at times feels infinitely harder to keep up with to keep our heads above water.

This past summer I felt that I was about to literally drown. I was at the lake with my family and a tube got away from my little niece. I was happy to swim out and grab it but I had no idea how quick the depth of the water changed. Tired from swimming I went to put my feet down and sank. I struggled and while folks just watched from shore telling me I was close to more shallow waters I truly felt as though I was about to die. It didn’t help after the fact that my sister said she had a dream someone was going to need CPR at the beach that day (Umm if that was the case why didn’t y’all stop reading and get your feet wet?)

Thinking about the current state of mind so many teachers share I remembered this moment. Anyway here is poem 4 🙂

Drowning
The water slides over my face as I struggle to keep my head above water
Legs tired
Arms drained
Gasping for breath 

I can almost make it but land is out of reach
People on the shore calling out directions 
Not interested in getting their feet wet to show me the way 

What failure means flashes before my eyes 
A final kick and my toes grazes sand
I won't drown today

"Aren't you glad we told you how to get to shore?"

Sure 

Inspire by Befoe the Internet by Phil Kaye

Before the Internet

Playing football in the school field 
the only timer was the sun
Knee Deep in the Swamp trying to catch frog
worried if the net would do the job
We would ride our bikes behind the old church
To the school playground just to sit on the roof and chat
Cards in the basement
Movie nights
Sleepovers

Running through the little forest across the street
Chasing rabbits and dragonflies 
No plan for if we caught them

Sneaking out from our backyard camping adventures
Creepy walks around the lake

It is funny how quickly these things just fade away
No kids playing outside anymore
Almost silence in the summer

Uncertainty 

When the unknown seems like an endless expanse of dark
Dreams
A spark 
A fire to lead the way
Not certain where we are going
But with a dream there is comfort there

Strength 

It is funny how strength fluxuates
Some days I feel like I can move mountains
Other days a step feels
Impossible 
In my gym I have the words of Rudy Francisco on the walls
"Remember, you are still here"
I think about the weights I lift everyday 
adding a bit more each time
The sore shoulder reminds me
 I am still here
Somedays we are limited
Sore 
Tired
Uncertain if we can lift anymore 
Folks add to bar
Plate after Plate
Perhaps today we hit our limit
or

A new record. 

I often start my blog posts with a title in mind. Today I am just going to type and like I say to my students, “perhaps a title will come.”

A few years ago I was a basketball coach, I use that term loosely because really I was just the hype guy because I knew virtually nothing about the sport but I was and will continue to be a Superfan for our student-athletes. Covid kind of put an end to basketball the last few years but this year we finally were back on the court. Both our Pandas and Zeniths had great teams full of talented and awesome kids. The seasons prior to Covid our fan sections started shrinking, kids were not coming out like they once did and I was really worried as restrictions were lifted that we would see the damage done to the fan base but really the opposite happened.

Kids and families from all over the community started coming out to the games, perhaps it was that sense of normalcy returning but I think more likely it was the energy our Zeniths and Pandas brought back to the town. Our fans dressed up to cheer them on, trading cards made and kids lining up for our athletes to sign them. A student cheering section that is the envy of southern Alberta, handling themselves with class (most of the time) and lifting our teams up.

I am grateful to our basketball players because they brought a community back together after a LONG off-season. I am grateful to them because they gave kids and a community something to look forward to and celebrate. I am grateful to them because they carried themselves with so much grace and dignity and represented our community well. They have made us all so proud.

The Zeniths were the number 1 ranked team in the Province. They traveled all over to face much larger teams from much larger schools and they proved they deserved the number 1 ranking by only losing twice in the regular season while bringing home the zone title. Beyond their athletic achievements, these boys were kind and wonderful examples to the elementary kids who looked up to them (literally one of our players is 6’7″). Unfortunately, their season did not end how they had hoped. At the start of this week 4 of the 5 starters and a number of the bench came down with a “non-covid” illness that took their strength. They tried, you could see the pained look of exertion as they tried to keep up with opponents despite just starting to recover from a week-long illness. You could see the heartbreak.

As their final games of the season came to a close I just wanted to tell them how proud of them I am. I still will at school on Monday but I worry it might fall on ears not looking to hear it. We are proud of them. They brought joy to a community desperately in need. They worked their behinds off every game to pump up a crowd. Laughter and conversation returned and often times was born around admiration of this team of talented young men. So I guess I just want to say thank you and I am proud of you. Your parents should be proud of the work you put in. Your coaches should celebrate your sacrifice, the time that it takes to be elite is a lot and you sacrificed so much.

Our Pandas are such a joy to watch. The smiles on their faces even when things are not going their way. The growth they demonstrated as a team moved them up the ranks until they were one of the last two teams standing. Facing the challenge of very impressive player on a good team the Pandas stepped up each time. The number 1 ranked team played our girls 3 or 4 different times and tonight our Pandas almost took home the gold. Two communities on the edge of their seat for 5 minutes in the fourth. I am grateful to our Pandas for many of the same reasons I am grateful to the Zeniths. This team of incredibly talented girls will inspire future generations of Magrath girls looking to become a Panda.

Student-Athletes often get a bad reputation for a lot of reasons. They also have to deal with a fickle fan-based that is often only around for the wins and become armchair experts in the moments of loss. Because I am blessed to teach these kids I know of their brilliance first hand, not just on the court but off of it. I know in moments some adults tend to forget you are only 15/16/17 years of age. I know some adults have said things that hurt. Please know that your community is proud of you. We are grateful for you. Thank you for leading us on the journey back together as a community. The season is over but your impact will go on much longer.

Now to plan the annual Ice Cream Sundae Party.

Every day I sit and consider the work I ask my students to complete. WHat tasks we will be exploring. I think about how I am honoring their time. This last week we started a new semester.

We did some quick writing tasks. I made sure to take the time to share. I find we forget about that a lot. I wrote alongside them. We talked about good books. On day 2 we looked at the course outline and talked about the Grade-less approach I use in the classroom. Day 3 we talked about Multimodal work and then listened to the incredible Jason Reynolds perform For Everyone.

As students listened they wrote down the phrases that stood out to them. After watching they had so many lines written down. The next step will be to take those lines and create. Playing around with multimodal representation kids will explore. Last semester kids made movies, musical representations, wrote lyrics to an inspired song, and created works of art.

Ultimately students always ask,

“Mr.G, how much time do we have for this before it is homework?”

“How much time do we need?” is always the response.

I think one of the reasons beyond just the brilliance of her words that I like to put Dr. Muhammad’s words on our walls is because I want my students to know I mean them. I want visitors to room 157 to know that my beliefs cover our walls.

I am always so impressed with this first project with my students because it gives them a chance to sit with their thinking. To dig into new ideas and play around. By laying out the grade-less thinking before we start the biggest roadblock to learning is removed. Students become chance takers.

While the semester is just getting started and we all know there is a lot to do we need to remember to take the time to sit with our thinking. To allow things to take root so we have a stronger understanding. Urgency kills creativity. The idea that we must be ruled by deadlines doesn’t encourage students to create or take chances. I don’t know an assignment that is more important than letting our students find that genius within. There shouldn’t be a timeframe for that.

Here are a few examples of past work from this assignment.

Just give them time and space to grow. They will.

As we entered the school year there was so much talk of “learning loss”. This idea that the interruptions of covid have done mountains of damage to our students has been peddled by many. Have there been interruptions? Absolutely. Have those interruptions led to some wide-scale loss? That has not been my experience. Have kids forgotten how to take tests? Maybe… but I have to ask once you are outside of school when was the last time you had to write a high-stakes test? Is test-taking itself a skill we can’t afford to lose?

The pandemic ironically gave me a chance to stop, breathe, and reflect. I reflected on my practice, how I was assessing my students, how we could possibly keep testing them and assess them in the same ways we had been in the classroom when our students had to shift online. The answer was we could not. So I looked for better. I explored ways that my students could demonstrate their learning and their growth in ways that made it meaningful. It is a work in progress but it is working.

This week, as the semester is coming to a close, students are turning in their inquiry projects in one class and their multigenre projects in another. As I comb through the piles of work I see the brilliance of these amazing essay writers, creators, filmmakers, poets, songwriters, and dreamers. Students talk about how they are grateful that they get to write about what they want, how they want. They are relaxed, grades have become less of a focus (for most) and growth has become our goal.

Today I listened to the first song written and performed by a student. She spent her inquiry time exploring the process of songwriting as well as recording. The final product and a guitar-backed song with multiple layers of voice with some serious Taylor Swift vibes, all about her stress and anxiety. Another student tried his hand at creating a graphic novel, he discovered it was wicked hard but he tried. Today I read about the history of basketball shoes and watched an instructional video on how to do a crossover (it won’t help me but it would help others more basketball inclined). I read about the different theories around Amelia Earhart’s disappearance which took on a true-crime podcast-type feel, I read about the history of ballet told through poems. I learned a little about what it takes to be a veterinarian and also what horseback archery entails. Can someone point out where the learning has been “lost” because it is all I have found.

My senior English class has been working on a project for weeks. An exploration into legacy and the people, place, and things that make a mark on their lives. I have watched short films, read stories, poems, memoirs, and even the concept write up for an EP. Students are creating art work and recording songs. It is some of the most beautiful work I have be blessed to read. We are not writing an analysis of book written in 1960, we are writing our lives and their genius shines through. So much of the work has helped me learn more about my students. It has also helped them see how brilliant they are.

We often lose track of learning when we get lost in numbers. Things completed, things done “correctly”. In these last few years during the pandemic I think we are finding ourselves in room 157 (also the theatre because it is fun to learn in big spaces). We are looking past the numbers.

To close out this post I want to share one of the poems this week. Grateful for the learning I have found when I let them shine.

Where am I going?

Well, that’s easy 

I’m going to sail through the sea of stars. This little unnamed kid from a No Name® town in Alberta is going to be an astronaut. A good one too. I’m going to be the best role model for kids just like me. The representation that I never got. I’m full of untapped potential and I’m going to do great things one day. 

That’s what I would have said a few years ago.

The future doesn’t seem so clear anymore.

There’s not one specific event that I can blame for my change of heart. I don’t know when I decided I would never be good enough. All I know is that I have an awful habit of giving up before I even start. It’s just that you can’t really fail if you never even try.

Sometimes I feel as though I’ve been given a blueprint for a successful life.

A list full of Do’s and Don’ts 

Ten Easy Steps To Get Rich Quick

but as I sit there with the sheets spread out all around me, I realize the instructions are in another language and I’m left to make do with the pictures.

I don’t doubt that I can make…something,

I can’t guarantee that it’ll be structurally sound.

I can’t guarantee that it won’t collapse under my weight.

how would I know where i’m going?

i don’t even know where i want to go anymore.

I still feel that ache, that burning desire to achieve something great.

When it all gets to be too much, I’ll drive out to an empty spot late at night. Away from all light and humanity. I’ll sit cross-legged on the ground, back hunched and neck straining. 

Early mornings and mosquitoes be damned. 

I’ll greet the Moon with a kiss on the cheek,

and rhapsodize about her beauty,

so she might understand how I adore her so.

I’ll look towards Polaris,

Feel its warmth like an embrace, 

a reassurance that I’m not as lost as I feel

I let Orion fend off the doubt’s that threaten to drown me, 

that want to tear me apart like wild beasts 

I let myself be wrapped up in the Milky Way, 

the same familiarity as a baby blanket

It’s here my heart yearns the most.

If you look close enough, somewhere between Ancha and Albali of the constellation Aquarius, you can see it.

It’s a little rough around the edges but still glowing and bright.

Worthy of its place among the stars

Breathtaking

Exalting

It’s all I could ever hope for

It’s just out of reach.

All I have to do is stand up.

Shake off the dirt, and stretch.

I might need to find a stool, or maybe ask for help, but I can grab it.

I know I can.

All I have to do is just stand up

but i dont

My hands are cold

My legs have since gone numb,

and yet I just can’t seem to pick myself off the ground

So I remain seated

content to watch a little while longer.

Where am I going?

i don’t know

So now that you have read it tell me again about “learning loss”

Jess Lifshitz, a phenomenal educator, extended an invitation to bring a poem with us into 2022. In the past, I have had resolutions and then shifted to goals and then dreams and then plans and then and then and then. I loved the idea of a poem guiding my thinking heading into the new year. I have sat with this poem, I have written this section up in my gym. Things are so hard right now, in the world, there is so much weight. I have been guilty, for the last few months, of allowing it to weigh me down. So it is time to stand up straight, lift my chin- and call it exercise.

I still have plans, goals, dreams, and intentions for this 2022 and years going forward. I want to continue working out and getting into better shape, I want to continue to better myself as a teacher, I want to steal time to read and find that part of me again because aside from student work and school reading and researching I have had very little bandwidth for joyful reading. So I will be taking that back.

The last thing this poem really made me consider is that while there is a lot of bad there is also a lot of good. I am blessed. I am wicked strong. I can stand under this weight, I can lift it. I need to recognize that more and complain less.

Life is hard

Life is heavy

My burdens are mine

I am training to lift them

Stand up straight, lift the chin-call in exercise.

Happy New Year

Chase after what brings you joy. We all deserve it.

I got to spend some time with teachers talking teaching and books last week. I think it is my favorite thing to do outside of working alongside students in the classroom. We talked about ways to help students expand their reflections on texts, and how using these strategies can help students develop into deeper thinkers and writers.
I started the day reviewing Notice and Note with them. I have used Notice and Note since attending PD with Bob and Kylene years ago. I love it so much. I think a common stumbling block teachers face with Notice and Note is helping students move beyond just identifying signposts and surface-level reflections. The anchor questions that are provided serve as a great starting point to dig but the only way dirt is being moved is with the exploration of those questions. With my students last week we modeled this with David Robertson’s The Barren Grounds. Morgan, one of the main characters, is a young girl in the foster care system. She has moved around to many different homes after being removed from her birth mother. A result of this is a general distrust and seeming dislike of most everyone, especially her foster parents. As we read students identified the volatile nature of her personality. At one point early in the story, the students identified a Contrast and Contradiction when Morgan is kind to her new foster brother Eli after attempting to leave him behind. Later in the story, another moment of cruelty directed at her brother had students out of their seats. Talking about what they had decided was her jealousy that he had a connection to his family and culture that she never got to experience. Students didn’t just notice this shift in behavior they wanted to discuss their thoughts on the cause. We had great conversations with many hypotheses shared. Ultimately these discussions and the signposts that mark the start of them helped students to gain a better understanding of characters and their actions as the story progressed.
The second piece that I shared with teachers was another tool from Kylene and Bob’s greatest hits. We discussed ways to expand student thinking when organized in the Book-Head-Heart framework that is introduced in Disrupting Thinking In the past I have used poems and picture books as a means to elicit a response. Books like Love by Matt de la Pena and Loren Long or a short selection like Mama by Jaqueline Woodson. These lessons have always done well to introduce the concept but the thinking largely remained at the surface, especially when we got to the heart category. This time around I considered trying things a little bit differently to see how responses and discussion went. I decided to work through multiple pieces of texts as scaffolds for each other. Building and developing background knowledge that supported the next piece of text. Starting with an image students practiced writing in the BHH framework.

We then discussed potential ideas. The conversation was good and students thinking and impressions of the image were varied. We then moved to another piece of text while I read the first few pages of Nikki Grimes Garvey’s Choice. If you haven’t read it I highly recommend it. As I read students recorded their thinking. The impact of the apple image followed by the first few pages of the text had students recording a ton of thoughts and feelings and our discussion grew. Students who often didn’t participate jumped in with thoughts, the phrase “going off what X said” was used more times than I have ever encountered before as students built off one another thinking. The best part was that we were not done yet. As a final piece, we watched a Disney/Pixar short entitled Float. This film is hard-hitting. I gave additional instruction for the kids to pay attention to the production elements of the film. As we watched and wrote you could hear the gasps as elements of the film stood out to the students. The conversation could have lasted an hour with so many thoughts pouring out. It was the best BHH generated discussion that I have been able to facilitate. I can’t help but think that the additional scaffolding and background knowledge that our discussions established brought much-needed additional depth to student responses.
Over the course of the PD with teachers, we discussed a lot of things. DIfferent ways students could represent that thinking, how to build more efficient conference into our timetable, but mostly we just talked about helping students increase the depth of their answers.
Too often I think teachers, myself included, forget about the building blocks because our thinking is focused on the tower. As I work with students to go deeper into texts I know that I need to provide the tools for the dig. This past week we looked at ways to ask better questions, read alouds, think alouds, multimodal representation, class discussions. No tests, no worksheets. Thinking, sharing, talking, learning, growing, digging. This is the work we are taking the time to do together, slowly and purposefully because rushing through everything seems to be getting us nowhere fast.

Check out LiftingLiteracy.com 🙂

I was originally going to title this post I believe in Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, but it is an assignment for University and I was not certain that my Professor would think it fit the assignment. We were asked to follow the model of the “This I believe” essay from NPR to express a belief statement of our own. This is what I settled on. Grateful for Dr. Gholdy Muhammad and her work and message that inspires my practice.

This I Believe

I believe the children are our future (Houston, 1986) 

I laughed when I thought about starting this assignment with the great Whitney Houston. While it is true, I think ultimately at the core of my beliefs are students and their unique genius. I believe that all students are genius, and it is our job as teachers to nurture and support that genius. My thinking on this shifted the first time I listened to Dr. Gholdy Muhammad speak. As she outlined her incredible framework for learning, she said regarding our students, “We must start their stories and identities with their excellence.” This phrase hit me so hard that I wanted to keep the reminder with me all of the time and it now sits above my head in my classroom. So, we start the year talking about our excellence. 

Too often, our students are viewed for what they can’t do, not what they can. The testing culture of society wants our students to fit into the same box, and when they can’t, we subject them to interventions. We forget about all the things they can do because of the things they can’t. Their story becomes one of deficit and failure.

I believe we must focus on their genius. 

Dr. Asa Hilliard said, “I have never encountered any children in any group who are not geniuses. There is no mystery on how to teach them. The first thing you do is treat them like human beings and the second thing you do is love them.”

How simple and powerful. But we lose sight of that simple truth through all the noise. 

The student who creates brilliant pieces of art in response to simple lines from text, genius. 

The student who teaches his classmates about the intricate workings of a tractor, genius.

The student lost in his drawings, genius.

The student who sings, genius.

The student-athlete, genius 

The poet…genius. 

When I made the shift in my classroom to recognize the genius first and foremost not only did my instruction change but the whole environment did.

 Last year I had the most beautiful class; scheduling made it necessary for me to teach English 10-1, 10-2, 20-2, and 20-4 classes all together at once. At first, I didn’t know how I would deliver instruction to 4 different courses with different curriculums in a way that served all my students. Then I asked them, “what do you want to learn about?”

We explored so much as they discovered their genius. Students blogged, created picture books, wrote chapters of novels, crafted incredibly heart-wrenching poems. We explored multimodal work. Words turned to images. Students took risks. 

Beyond just academic growth, something else started to happen. Students began to see and celebrate the genius of others. Students began asking if they could present poetry or show off their creations. We so often talk as teachers about how we can inspire our students. How do we help them shine? I think I have the answer.

            We stop telling them what shining must look like.

Ultimately, I believe in the individual genius of all students.

I believe in their excellence.

I believe it should be celebrated

Nurtured

In my favourite movie, Stardust, as the climax is reached and it seems like all hope is lost, Claire Danes character Yvaine proclaims, “What do stars do? They shine!” 

I believe that when we trust in our students’ genius. When we see it and give them the space to grow, they too will shine. I have seen this in action. I have witnessed the impact students who see their excellence and genius validated has. In an education system that sees countless students unable to achieve a standard, we need to start asking ourselves about the standards we are setting and how we measure success rather than asking students to fit inside a box. 

Like Gholdy says, 

“We must start with their genius and their joy.”

This I believe.