Have it your Way

I did a quick thinking exercise with my students today. In an effort to explain analysis in a different context, I put a picture of some kind of chili mac casserole up on the screen and posed the question, Would you eat this? Whether the answer was yes or no, I knew that when asked why, they would point to ingredients they recognized in the picture.

"That's analysis!" I explained. "You are breaking something down into its parts to see what it's made of!"

My follow up question was, What would you add or take out to make it a better meal? 

More cheese! Less tomato! No peppers! More peppers! Gluten-free macaroni!

"That's evaluation and synthesis!" I told them. "Writers do that, too!"

Perhaps the analogy was a bit abstract, but I'll keep working on it. Oh, and anecdotally? All the classes before lunch loved the picture! After lunch? They were quite a bit more critical.

Advice from the Coach

The quote of the day today was also the theme of the story we read. What to do with a mistake: recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it. ~ Dean Smith.

And all day long? The lesson was relevant.

"I couldn't write last night because..." a student would say.

"Recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it," I'd answer. "Are you going to write tonight?"

"I don't have my writing notebook. It's just..." another kid would start.

"Are you going to bring it tomorrow?" I asked.

And when they nodded, "Recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it," I'd reply.

"Are you doing your assignment?" I'd ask, and the guilty look was all the answer I needed.

Even so, most kids (heck! most people!) feel compelled to make an excuse. "Recognize it, admit it, learn from it, forget it," I'd tell them and move on.

And so it went. "We should get posters of that!" one of my co-teachers said.

Hmmm.

sk sk sk and i oop

"Are you a visco girl?" one of the students in my small intervention group asked the other day.

"What's that?" I asked. "How do you spell it?"

"V-S-C-O." She laughed. "It's from TikTok-- You have a Hydro Flask, you wear Vans, you have an Apple watch, an iPhone, you like Starbucks and you have a reusable straw... That's VSCO girl. You just need a big t-shirt, some friendship bracelets, a scrunchie, and some lip balm."

"And want to save the turtles," her friend added.

"Wow!" I said, "that totally could be me! But I think I'm probably more of a VSCO Lady."

Too Cool for School

The poster at the craft fair of Dick and Jane running with scissors and captioned, We do bad things because we are bad children. And we like it! made us giggle, so much so, that Heidi purchased the small, hand-sized magnet version of it.

As she paid, the artist chatted her up a bit. "I'm so glad you like it," she said.

"Oh my god!" Heidi replied. "It's hilarious!"

"Thanks," the artist shrugged.

"In fact," Heidi continued, "I'm a teacher, and I just might put this in my classroom."

"Oh," said the artist, wide-eyed, "well." She handed the bag to Heidi. "Just don't get fired!"

Can We Agree on This, at Least?

The times they are divisive! It seems like no one can understand how the people they disagree with could possibly be motivated by anything other than self-interest and fear. Personally, I find not only the current political events stressful, but even the conversation is draining. So much so that I have had to turn off the radio on more than one occasion this week. 

And once I realized that there are actually people who think that what the president did is defensible, I have also avoided reading most of the op-eds out there. Most, but not all. I thoroughly enjoyed the director of the Harvard Writing Center, Jane Rosenzweig's piece in the NY Times called The Whistle-Blower Knows How to Write, especially the two penultimate paragraphs:

Every semester, I encounter students who tell me variously that they hate writing, that they’d rather not write, that for the careers they aspire to they won’t need to write. I explain that no matter what careers they choose, they will have to write — reports, strategic plans, proposals and, if nothing else, many, many emails. 

But I also tell them that learning to write matters because some day they may have something to say that really matters to them and possibly to the world — and they will want to convey it when the moment arrives in writing that’s clear and concise.

Amen! 

Feedback Loop

On the eve of spending part of my weekend grading the first big assignment of the year, my fellow-teacher Mary and I spent a little time looking at the feedback we had received on a unit submitted (not by our choice) to a prestigious international educational organization.

Of the three ratings in each category-- beginning, using, and sharing-- we had gotten an even split between the lowest and the middle. In other words, according to someone somewhere, our unit needed some work. Whoever had evaluated it had written well over 1000 words of advice and suggestions, but to us? Rather than a road map to revision, the prose was convoluted and confusing. Plus, we have no real interest in fixing whatever they think is broke, maybe because the planner is a shadow of what we actually do in the classroom, written during time when we think we have more student-related things to do.

All of this is to say that extensive comments are a waste of time unless the writer values first, the task, and second, the reviewer, a truth I'll keep in mind as I offer my own thoughts to my students this weekend.

Interval Training

I like my work week structured like my workout:

Instead of five steady days this week, I worked one marathon day, took off a day, worked an easy day from home, and then worked two days at a brisk pace, before taking two more days off.

I think such an approach could not only build strength and stamina, but also improve performance.

Just sayin'