I Blame the Former Administration

 We were doing a quick mini-lesson on rhyming couplets when a student raised her hand to clarify. "Rhyming words don't have to spelled the same," she confirmed, "they just have to sound the same, right?"

"Exactly," I told her. "Rhyming is a sound tool. Take for example these words-- and I wrote sleigh, way, and Santa Fe. I made my way to Santa Fe on a sleigh," I laughed.

"That's stupid," said another student. "There's no snow in Santa Fe." 

"I beg your pardon," I said, "there certainly is. In fact, both times I've been there, it has snowed."

"No," he insisted. "It's too warm to snow in Southern California."

"Santa Fe is New Mexico," I said.

"Whatever," he replied. "It's hot in New Mexico, too."

"Not all the time," I told him, "and Santa Fe is in the mountains. Have you ever been there?'

"No," he shook his head dismissively.

"Well, I have, and I've literally seen snow there twice!" I said.

"It doesn't snow there," he repeated. "It doesn't snow there."

"Why don't we move on with rhyming couplets," I suggested.

Time and Again

Some friends of ours attended a formal, evening wedding last night, and shared some pictures over social media, he in a tux and she in a full-length, fishtail style gown with a flirty ruffle at the hem. Her hair was pulled back into a chignon, and his was combed back. 

"They look like they're from the 20s!" I said when Heidi showed me the picture. Then I laughed, because they are from the 20s, just not the 1920s that I was thinking of.

I thought then that the more memories I accumulate as I age, the more curious time and its passage seem. One week ago I was at the Elton John show, three years ago my mom was admitted to the hospital for what would be the last time, and seventeen years ago we were sitting at our dining room table celebrating Emily's birthday a day early. The boys were 10 and 13, Vic and Judy were there, and just as we sat down to eat the phone rang. It was Jordan, with the happy news that Richard Oliver had been born. We all cheered and drank a toast to the newest member of our family.

A lot has changed since then, but not celebrating Richard. Happy Birthday to him!

The Right Clothes

Today dawned gray and soggy as the remnants of Hurricane Ian continued their slow pass over our area. After having received my COVID booster yesterday, and still nursing that nasty cold, hunkering down at home with a blanket and some hot tea seemed like a good plan for the day. 

So much so, that I was a little surprised to see people walking and driving around outside, because my hurricane response was just that sensible. But one thing gave way to another: first, the matter of breakfast got me out of my chair, then the dog needed to go out, a shower seemed prudent, and a trip to the grocery store was also nearing necessary. 

So I chose to outfit myself in jeans and boots and a long-sleeved t-shirt, took a couple of Advil, popped a baseball cap on my head and zipped up my LLBean raincoat. Once outside, I realized that fresh air, and activity, and engagement with the larger world would be much better for me than sitting around all day, and I even felt a certain sense of satisfaction at being properly attired for a day like today. 

It reminded me of the Norwegian expression, There's no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes, which is a little more true around here at this time of year than in the hot and humid summer, and I resolved to make it a point to get outside a little more often.

Says Who?

 The American education system is failing its students," a sixth grader told me the other day.

"How's that?" I asked.

"It was created over a hundred years ago," he told me rapidly, "and it hasn't changed at all since then. It is preparing students for minimum wage jobs that won't be here in ten years, because robots will do them."

"Better give me your iPad then," I said, "you don't need that to prepare for a non-existent job."

He blinked.

"No really," I said. "Where's your evidence for this claim?"

"Oh, I have lots of evidence," he assured me. "Lots."

"Like what?" I probed.

"The system was created over a hundred years ago, and it hasn't changed," he repeated.

"I know for a fact that it has changed," I told him. "It's changed in the 30 years I've been teaching in it, not to mention the time before that when I was a student myself."

"The jobs we're preparing for won't exist!" he insisted.

"Maybe not," I agreed, "but that's why we're teaching you how to think and problem solve, and to find and evaluate the information you need for that," I told him. "So where is your evidence and what is the source of it?"

But it was a debate I couldn't win, because he was stuck on his premise, so I told him we could discuss it more later. Still, when I saw him next a couple of days later, I just couldn't resist needling him a bit. "Good morning!" I welcomed him brightly to class. "Here I am, ready to fail you another day!"

To his credit, he laughed, and I did, too, especially knowing that our argument unit is coming up next.

Practicing Practice

"These kids!" my friend Mary announced with exasperation this morning before the bell rang. "These kids are going to drive me to retire! I'm not sure what I'm missing, but they're not getting it!"

"I know how you feel," I answered, "I'm feeling it, too. There's just no flow, yet."

Another colleague popped her head in the door. "I'm glad someone else is feeling it, too!" she said. "Everything seems like such a slog, so far."

But notice, dear reader, all the words in red. That is classic growth mindset language. So even in our moments of frustration and impatience, deep in our teacher's hearts, we express confidence that we and the kids, with the right kind of effort and practice, will improve our current situation.

What more can we hope for?

No Sick Day Here

I've lost my voice, but with no fever and a series of negative COVID tests, I've chosen to report to work anyway. Part of the problem is the difficulty and inconvenience of making sub plans with productive activities. Unless I'm here to lead the lesson, it's hard to move very far forward or keep up with the other sixth grade teachers. 

Oh, sure, I know that there are times when taking off is unavoidable, but I'm worried that a positive COVID test, along with the mandatory 5 days out, is inevitable at some point this year, and so I decided to slog through the day. My throat is dry, though, and I had a couple of embarrassing coughing spells when I had to talk too much. For the most part, the kids have been pretty good, but my last class of the day was a little rambunctious. 

"Listen," I said, "I'm losing my voice and I'm losing my patience. One of those we can't do anything about, but the other? You and I have equal control over. What's it going to be?"

Bless their hearts? It wasn't pretty, but we made it to lunch with only a few hoarse redirections from me.

No Confidence

We have adopted a new textbook this school year, and today I made the first assignment from the online version. The learning curve was moderately steep, as neither the students nor I had never used the interface, and I couldn't see what their end looked like until they pulled it up in class. It was relatively intuitive, though, and I was up front with them about how new the tools were. 

Even so, I spent the class circulating through the room, checking in and troubleshooting as best I could. Some of the support I offered was more content-related, and that was fine, too. We were reading the lyric poem, "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" by Maya Angelou, and answering the pre-formulated questions, something I have rarely done in my career. 

I have designed my own lessons based on student needs and interests for 30 years, but this publication is touted for being closely aligned to and supportive of our state standards (and hence the test), so who am I to kvetch? One of the items was phrased in such a way that many students were confused, however, and I found myself clarifying the directions over and over. 

The students were supposed to Annotate: In lines 13–21, Highlight the phrase that is repeated in most of the stanzas. I think the disconnect was that it wasn't clear that they were looking for one phrase in that section that was repeated throughout the poem. As a result, many students spent time trying to find repetition within that particular passage, which wasn't there, beyond the pronoun 'I'. If I had written the question myself, I would have revised it after the first class so that it was less perplexing, but we were stuck with it. 

After I helped one student, he came up to me reproachfully a little while later. "You told me that I was supposed to highlight "Life doesn't frighten me at all"! he said indignantly. "But when I looked at Lucas's, I saw I was wrong. He highlighted 'I' all the way through!"

"Really?" I replied, looking over my glasses with raised eyebrows. "You looked at another student's work after I helped you, and you think his is right and not yours?"

"Uh," he hesitated.

"Why don't you go back and help Lucas correct his," I suggested, shaking my head.