Let The Life Lessons Commence

This past Saturday, on a moderately hazy morning, the class of 2018 walked across the football field signifying their entry into adulthood. Many of them will pursue higher education, some of them will join the armed forces, and all of them have hopes for a bright future. “Real life” or life beyond their parents' homes is just beginning. The past 17 to 18 years have passed quickly; time always does.

As a parent, I am amazed at how much my own children have grown and changed in the past three and a half years. Their lives are just beginning, too, in a different sense. Their personalities are still forming, their understanding of the world is vastly and rapidly expanding with each day, and they are actually taking first steps and experiencing milestones at every turn.

Seven months ago, Jordan decided to make his presence known. Reflecting with several of my students who were in the senior speech class that sent me off to the hospital, we were all in such disbelief over how fast those months passed and how quickly the school calendar disappeared.

As a seasoned teacher, I can walk into a class, navigate the unexpected, and feel confident in the curriculum that I have created. While I am always adapting, rereading, relearning, and adjusting, it is a relief to have confidence in the classroom even when my mind is preoccupied. This year, life has taught me, however, that no matter how comfortable I feel, I will still be tested and challenged in new and unexpected ways.

For a majority of this school year, I have not felt like myself. I have struggled emotionally and at home, which has left me drained and some days heartbroken. While I believe I have done an okay job continuing with my daily tasks, my heart was heavy, and my mind often raced to the worst case scenario for Jordan and our family. Luckily, and perhaps unluckily, my nervous and anxious energy defaults into a smile and a need to accomplish tasks. My frenetic energy is calmed by moving, doing, reading, and grading. I am an optimist at my core, but there have been times this year that completing even the most mundane and routine daily activities were a struggle - especially during the winter months when Jordan's diagnosis was still fresh. As time has passed, these feelings of heaviness have been slowly lifted as new understanding and knowledge has allowed me to quell my fears.

Josh and I do not believe God chooses for His people to suffer or struggle. Those aspects of our world exist because our world is fallible; suffering is inevitable because we live in an imperfect world. Our faith, however, reminds us that no matter what path is placed before us, we can choose to be joyful. We can elect to navigate the rockiest of roads in ways that lead to fulfillment and meaning. On occasion, we have to force ourselves to choose happiness while other days, the days where giggles and art projects fill the house, the navigation of life's path seems a lot easier. Those carefree days are the days that make life so sweet and will make those tougher days less bleak.

About a week ago, Jordan had his monthly C.F. doctor appointment, which will now be every two months because he is doing so well, and our doctor celebrated and congratulated us for keeping Jordan happy and healthy (and strong enough to rip the paper off the doctor’s table). As a parent, keeping an infant happy and healthy is a victory no matter the circumstances. What we have come to realize about C.F. is that while he will experience complications that can be life-threatening, he will also live a more normal life than we ever expected. Yes, this disease is chronic, serious, and awful, but many other things in this world can be described in that manner. It has been a difficult journey to accept that C.F. is a part of our lives, but I have made peace with this diagnosis. All three of my children are beautifully made, loved, and will serve a purpose in this world. This is what my faith has taught me to believe.

Jordan at his seven month CF checkup

The TERROR (and Tearer) of Doctors' Paper

We will inevitably occupy hospital rooms and attend many doctor appointments in my household, but we are committed to laughing through those experiences. Will there come a day when the road gets rocky? Of course. Those days will come for us all. Will I still worry, cry, and experience anxiety? Of course, I'm a mom, but I will not allow these emotions to consume me.

This year, I have truly been schooled by life. I now more than ever understand that life is unpredictable. Each unexpected experience can grow and shape us into better people, and while that growing process is not without pain, there is beauty in imperfection. I have also learned that empathy is a life-giving tool. Not only do we as educators need to show empathy to our students and to each other, but we also need to learn to accept empathy from others. Walking with others, showing vulnerability, and embracing our emotions, even when we feel like they expose our weaknesses, are key to growing together. This year, I have had my grit and resilience skills sharpened. I have been challenged in more ways than one to be a better educator, mother, and person; and while I am glad to be closing the door on the 2017-18 school year, I am grateful for what this year has asked me to face.

As commencement celebrations continue to appear and fill our social media feeds and calendars, I am overjoyed with the milestones and successes that I witness my students current and past experience. I am proud of the young men and women they are becoming. As their parents must feel for them, I feel for my own children - hopeful, in awe of what has already passed, and excited about a future of possibilities. 

Each milestone is a blessing. With the closure of one chapter, a new one remains unwritten.

Join Team AJD!

Motivation Check

Morning Crew End of the Year Celebration

The weather has finally shifted in an upward trend, and after a long and arduous winter, the sun is shining and for much longer than before. With the increase in temperature comes an inverse level of student motivation (and teacher motivation for that matter, too). We are all fatigued, and the idea of soaking in some sun has our minds drifting away.  How do we motivate our students to stay engaged in the classroom? What instructional practices and activities can help students recognize the value in our content and curriculum even in these final days? These are questions I have been repeatedly asking myself while planning and adjusting plans to complete required tasks, reinforce critical skills, and make each moment matter in the classroom before the semester's end.

As a teacher, what I want most for my students is to have an opportunity to practice what they have learned this year and apply content knowledge in meaningful and memorable ways. Since school will soon be out for the summer, I hope that they can take skills with them that will aid in further acquisitions of knowledge in their daily lives and even in the coming school year. I find myself repeatedly asking my colleagues, using my best Jamie Escalate voice, "How do I reach these kids?"

Engagement comes from being active participants and drivers of their own learning. Students are creative and have inspiring ideas to share if they have the opportunity (and motivation) to connect with the content that has been presented to them. Through careful planning and a great deal of experimenting with what works best with kids ready to run out the door, here are a few successful (and unsuccessful) learning activities my students have enjoyed:

Public Speaking Opportunities

This year, I have had one of my most challenging groups of students - not behavior wise but regarding their motivation. Utilizing class time and completing assigned work has been a bit of an uphill battle, but in spite of their work ethics, they are kind and have an aptitude for self-reflection. Instead of assigning a formal reflection paper, I crafted a Life Lessons speech, which asked them to not only reflect on what they learned about themselves academically but also what legacy they would like to leave on their peers by sharing three life lessons acquired from the research and writing experience that they have now completed. This assignment has by far been the best experience I have had this year and the highest quality product from this group as a whole. I am inspired, motivated, and proud of their work. They excited for an academic break and certainly eager to talk about what they have learned.

While countless students dread public speaking, when they have the right guidelines and the prompts on which to share their stories, the results can be remarkable. Emphasizing the use of stories, encouraging students to bring in pictures and visual aids bursting with images as opposed to words, and providing them with examples lead to reliable results. We all have a story to tell.

Collaborative Group Work 

In addition to public speaking, the second most sought-after skill employers in any field expect potential employees to possess is collaboration. Being able to work with others, problem-solve, compromise, and create a cohesive product are critical attributes for a student in the 21st century to present. Group work also creates a more enjoyable learning experience and passes the time faster than one realizes.

The greatest obstacle that I find with group work is productivity. To help students visualize their productivity level and motivate them to engage more meaningfully with one another, I have created task charts that I project on the board, allowing each group knows what has been completed and what still needs to be done. These task charts also serve as a visual reminder for me to conference with groups, guide student learning as needed, and hold students accountable. Throughout the current group project my sophomores are completing, students are asked to self-evaluate themselves as individuals and members of groups. These self-evaluations completed via Google Forms has provided me with information on which to conference and has encouraged student-teacher dialogue as well as student-student dialogue. When students are communicating and holding each other accountable for their quality of work, strong results will follow.

Podcasting

With only one week left in the semester, I have found that I have run out of time. This school year, my district shifted the calendar forward so that we could end the first semester before Christmas. This schedule has been wonderful, but it has made the end of the school year even more hectic than it normally is. As a result, the time has slipped quickly away. To spur students to engage in more self-directed reading, I wanted to squeeze in one more unit but now lack the time to have students complete a book talk presentation. How do I bolster excitement among students to discuss their books, share reading success stories with their peers, and keep them engaged?

To encourage students to demonstrate their gained knowledge after reading an independent book, I am experimenting with podcasting. By asking students guiding questions, which encourage them to demonstrate their summarizing, inferring, and connecting skills, I am having students create podcasts about their books. These podcasts will be posted for everyone in the class to access via Google Classroom. Once students have shared their work, they will be required to listen to several of their classmates' podcasts, learn about other books, and discuss reading that they enjoyed doing! I am hoping that this exercise will further interest in reading independently and inspire a few students to pick up a book this summer as they sit by swimming pools. Being shared digitally will also consume less class time and has provided students with a different medium on which to demonstrate communication skills. I am eager to hear their work!

Soundtrap and Vocaroo are great and simple tools to use for Podcasting!

Revision

Reread and revise! These are tasks we ask our students to complete every time they write an essay (or an email for that matter). Do they willingly revise? Typically not. Engaging students in revision has been a crusade of mine this year. I have tried a variety of different methods and have still not found the activity that produces the level of engagement that I hope to see in my students. What has helped is crafting a detailed revision form that requires students to record the number and type of comments that I provide. By asking students to read my comments and respond to them has increased the number of revised papers that are resubmitted to me. Unfortunately, global revision is still not an activity that I would say my students are completing because they are motivated to do so, but I have seen progress.

One of my colleagues has stopped marking comma splices and started incorporating questioning in her comments. She requires students to respond to her questions and identify their own mistakes. I love this idea. My goal is to find ways for students to truly want to revise their work. While I have noticed positive results and heard students admit to how much revision has helped them with the I-Search project they complete in Junior English, I will still look for creative ways to inspire intrinsic motivation about revisions next year.

Reflection

I am always amazed at the candor with which students will share their self-assessments. Teens are unapologetically honest with their assessments - especially of themselves. With the correct prompt that encourages true reflection of self, students are willing to divulge their sentiments on a course, the content, and their own efforts, which in itself can be the greatest lesson they will learn all semester. Metacognitive thinking, assessing their grit and perseverance when given challenging tasks, and identifying what skills they have truly acquired are important aspects of the learning process and can provide students with time to truly consider how much they have (or in few cases have not) grown academically, personally, and in their pursuit of their own self-understanding. High school is a turbulent time of change and growth (let's be honest, adulthood is, too). I love encouraging my students to write reflections at the end of the year. Having students submit their reflections to websites like https://www.futureme.org add a wonderful layer as their reflections will revisit them on designated days and in the moments that they need to self-reflect again (such as the first day of their senior year of high school). I am excited to read the final products that my students will pose to themselves and me at the end of this school year, which is shocking only a week and a half away.

Senior Speech Captains! Time has flown.

I am in awe of how fast the time has flown by this year. Since becoming a mother, the time has hit the accelerate button all too much. Each moment is precious with family, friends, and with students. What I have come to learn from these last few weeks is that while it can be exhausting keeping students in their seats and maintaining some semblance of learning, students will surprise us with how much they have learned and the willingness with which they will speak their minds if given the opportunity and tangible tasks that motivate them to keep the pens and their ideas flowing.

Time certainly is flying!