Episode 29: Teachers, Please Consider…
REFERENCES:
Litcoachlady.com called Why I Won’t Be Asking, “How was your summer?” Anymore. https://litcoachlady.com/2017/08/20/why-i-wont-be-asking-how-was-your-summer-anymore/
Kyle Schwartz’s transcript of What Kids Wish Their Teacher Knew https://singjupost.com/full-transcript-what-kids-wish-their-teachers-knew-by-kyle-schwartz/
Her Ted Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pcKbf_vpHg
And her book I Wish My Teacher Knew: How One Question Can Change Everything for Our Kids. https://www.amazon.com/Wish-My-Teacher-Knew-Everything/dp/0738219142
And her second book I Wish for Change: Unleashing the Power of Kids to Make a Difference https://www.amazon.com/Wish-Change-Unleashing-Power-Difference/dp/0738285633/ref=asc_df_0738285633/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=366282406038&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17258946024606390265&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008452&hvtargid=pla-788172121653&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=78795692560&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=366282406038&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17258946024606390265&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9008452&hvtargid=pla-788172121653
***I may receive some compensation for these materials on Amazon.com.
INTRO:
As we look forward to an amazing new school year, I’m going to talk about something that came to my attention on social media but also resonated with me as a former first grade teacher. Today, I’m going to share some insights I believe all elementary teachers should consider before assigning a common back-to-school writing assignment.
CONTENT:
As we approach a new school year, I wanted to take a moment to say “thank you.” Thank you for getting your classrooms and work projects ready for a brand new year of eager students. This year is going to be great- Hopefully this podcast and other tools you have come across this summer will help you think about, plan, and create lessons and units that will enhance high-quality learning experiences for your students. Maybe some of this information will spark something in your planning that will help the accelerated student or the one who has a particular challenge. Regardless, I wish all of you listening today a wonderful, productive year of amazing learning!
I remember the few days before a new school year of getting all of my materials ready and setting up my classroom. Don’t we always have in our heads that there’s “so much time” to prepare; shaking our hands like “we’ve got this” or putting off our first week of school planning until the very last minute? I recall, those super hot days of summer in the south where one school year, the air conditioning in the school building wasn’t working. That was the year I re-painted my classroom from army green and mustard yellow (because who could learn in that environment!) to a bright white with royal blue cabinets. A great idea in theory but the old saying of, “slow as watching paint dry” kept going through my head as I watched my new paint not dry until the students entered into the classroom on the first day of school.
Or another year where I was hired literally the day before students walked through the main building doors. Talk about “little to no prep time”! Or my first year in the classroom when I the school calendar I was given said I was to report to school the week before students arrived to “prepare and work in my classroom,” only to find out that 4 of those 5 days were filled with professional development sessions and meetings- you can relate, right?!? Those 8am to 3pm days when you shuffle from meeting to meeting all the while thinking, “when am I actually going to get into my classroom and set something up?”
Many of you are going through these same scenarios right now or in a few weeks. And whether you are starting off your very first year in the classroom, having been re-assigned to another grade you’ve never taught before, or just anxious to get the ball rolling on a grade you’ve taught before, I’m here to help you all. Know that you’ve got this, I’m in your corner, and rooting for you because it will all get done.
Part of my first week of school preparation focused on creating a community of students within our classroom. I wanted to have a classroom environment where we could all be ok with working together, asking for help, making mistakes, and learning. This is something I’m certain we all want for our classes, right because it is the truest and most optimal environment to have. In order to do this, I, like many of you, focused on a series of icebreaker activities to get students to learn about the others in the classroom, learn a bit about me and my expectations for the year, and learn about themselves. There are so many of these types of activities on the Internet these days or maybe you have some that are tried and true. Whatever you select, I hope this podcast today will help you keep a few things in mind and probably learn from my mistakes.
There is a letter, of sorts, roaming around Facebook for elementary teachers. It addresses the first day/week of this upcoming new school year. It’s a letter to teachers that, I believe, can act as a reminder as we all gather our materials and prepare for that oh-so-important week. I don’t know the original author but if you are listening, thank you for putting this out there. Also, please pass some of the information in this letter and this podcast along to your colleagues. It may make or break your goal of creating a safe and successful classroom community of students.
The letter starts with, “Dear teachers, Next week when those sweet faces show up in your classroom for the first time and you want to give that familiar homework of “What I did this summer!”, please consider….”
Ok, Dr. Paige. What are we supposed to consider?- you ask. I’ll get to that in a minute and keep the suspense going for a little longer. What I am about to re-read wasn’t something I was taught in my college pre-service prep program. And it wasn’t mentioned in my professional development sessions- ever. It even wasn’t spoken about in the elementary school where I first taught even though that school was noted as the most culturally and economically diverse school in the district.
But it should have been talked about in all of those places.
It should have been an easy plan.
And because it wasn’t talked about nor planned for, I found out about it a bit harder than any new teacher should have.
I’ll get back to the letter.
So when “you want to give that familiar homework of “What I did this summer!”, please consider….
The kid whose family couldn’t afford a holiday;
The kid who took care of younger siblings because their grown-up slept all day;
The kid who hid under the covers at 2am trying to escape the screaming and cursing;
The kid who is looking forward to lunch because they’ve only had the same sandwich all summer or haven’t been fed at all and have spent their summer looking for ways to feed themselves; or
The kid wearing last year’s clothes because their family couldn’t afford new ones.”
It is a sure bet that we all have kids coming into our classrooms this year where one, or maybe even more than one, of these scenarios were their very reality this summer. I know I sure had some of these kids every year when I was teaching. I even worked with some high school and college-level kids where these situations happened. Given everything that has transpired the past couple of years, and whether you have a few of these kids under your care or your classroom is full of them, we must be aware of these and many other circumstances for which our students have in their backpacks as they come into the new school year. Teacher, please consider.
The letter continues reminding us that “there are kids dreading the first day of school because they have no good answer for what they did this summer when what they really did was just survive.”
Enter my rookie mistake. I remember getting my first graders into a circle on the carpet and having them go around, one-by-one, and share what they did this summer aloud to the rest of the class. I went first and shared my personal summer activities with them which probably included trips to the beach, swimming, eating ice cream, and relaxing. One year I worked at a miniature golf place and a few of my students happen to see me working there- so there was a mention of that too. I remember that some of my students did some fun and exciting things over the summer and had some interesting topics to share. I also remember a few of my students looking at and wringing their hands in preparation for their turn. I remember one student adding additional summer activities to his list after hearing the student before him talk about all of the many adventures her family had had after a 10-day trip to Disney World. You see, I had students from single parent and even two-parent households who had real trouble getting together enough funds to purchase school supplies and pay for the reduced school lunch for the month. I had one student whose mother left the family abruptly last year and she was still dealing with the loss because her Kindergarten teacher informed me that she hid under tables all last year. She was sitting half under and half out of the nearest student desk during this exercise. I had one student whose mother was in jail, and whose brother was seriously acting out as a result of this situation so in order to keep her physically safe, this student kept getting bounced around all summer from relative to relative in various states. I had one student whose parents divorced that summer- and I found out later at the fall parent/teacher conference, that the ugly custody battle was nowhere near a resolution.
When I think back about how I asked each student to sit in a circle and talk aloud about their summer experiences, I almost cringe.
But I give myself grace because I didn’t know- so I didn’t plan.
I didn’t know to think about these things happening to and around my students when they weren’t in school. And I didn’t know to ask something different of them.
But now I know better- so as Maya Angelo says, “When you know better, you do better.” And if you have seen this Facebook post and have listened to this podcast, you now know better too.
So what can elementary (or any level really) teachers ask of their students instead of: What did you do this summer? Here are 5 questions I like- I’m sure you can find others that suit you and your students. I’ve also included links to some websites that may help you in this process. One link is from litcoachlady called Why I Won’t Be Asking, “How was your summer?” Anymore. There’s also a link to Kyle Schwartz’s transcript and Ted Talk about What Kids Wish Their Teacher Knew- along the same lines of what we are talking about here today- and her book I Wish My Teacher Knew: How One Question Can Change Everything for Our Kids. ***I may receive some compensation for these materials on Amazon.com.
Let’s get to those 5 alternative questions:
This question comes from the Facebook letter to the teachers: What am I looking forward to about this school year?
What are you hoping to learn this year?
What is one goal I can help you with?
How do you best learn something new? Or like Kyle did, you can have students complete the following:
I wish my teacher knew _____.
Unlike my other podcasts, I’m just going to mention these alternative questions and not go into a lot of description here. Use whatever questions or prompts you like or find. It’s enough that you have listened today.
Teachers, please consider…. “Don’t make them go around the room or write a paragraph telling about their summer. Sadly, for a lot of kids, the best part is that summer is over.”
OUTRO:
I hope you have enjoyed this podcast and want to listen to more. Please subscribe to Get Off the Dotted Line! I can’t wait to share another podcast with you.
Thank you again for joining me, Dr. Paige Hendricks in today's episode of Get Off the Dotted Line! See you next time!
