Definitely didn’t see that coming!
Long time elementary school teacher, author of Demystifying Discussion and co-author of We're Gonna Keep on Talking
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Definitely didn’t see that coming!
It looks super fancy! That's very impressive!
As a classroom teacher I struggle with this. I can’t really do anything to make sure my kiddos are doing well in specials but I also have them more than any other teacher so I feel some responsibility. I do try to suggest things that I have found work with any group of students.
My fourth grade team compartmentalizes so I teach two groups of students math and science. My teammate teaches those kiddos language arts and social studies. Said teammate had a birthday yesterday. Mine is tomorrow. I am still, even before tomorrow, more than twice her age.
Listening to @mrchase.bsky.social and @clehmann.bsky.social discuss their book, School 2.0, on it's 10th anniversary is giving me life. That sounds hyperbolic, I know. And maybe it is. But also, these podcast episodes are keeping me moving forward. (When I get more organized I'll link to it. Sigh.)
Oh, Kevin, I am so sorry. That definitely sucks. Sending hugs.
My 22 year old is doing her student teaching in a high school theatre classroom in a school that bans phones. She is relieved both as a teacher and as a person. She’s on her phone less. She’s more present. She’s spending lunch reading. It’s beautiful.
At Open House today I got to meet many of my fourth graders. One brought me flowers and chocolate and another brought an About Me page they’d completed. I am so psyched about this year. (Students have never brought me anything at Open House so this is exciting.)
This thread feels so real as our oldest graduated college in May and the we dropped the youngest off for freshman year on Sunday. The fifth year of college move in and it’s still hard.
Definitely not for the new baby! 😝
Learning to say no is such a crucial life skill! And being able to do so around wedding stuff is huge. (As an elementary school teacher, I'm always trying to help my students learn strong self-advocacy skills and I hope it helps them plan their weddings someday!)
The only thing that compares to this is the lists of things you "need" when you're having a baby. It is absurd what people register for and buy that they never end up using because they're told how critical it is.
Every part. And questioned by admin, boards of education at various levels, families, and just random folks. It’s a bit exhausting.
Yes, data from a variety of activities and sources rather than always collected in the same way. Seeing your data collection is awesome inspiring. After learning about Reggio Emelia, I wanted to have a visual collection of our learning across the year but never got it rolling. Time to rethink!
I was not familiar with NWEA MAP but I’m in a new district this year and just last week I got the email to set up my login info for it. Now I am super curious about it! (Not hopeful, but morbidly curious.)
Using it in any meaningful way is definitely part of the problem.
You have so quickly identified so many of my frustrations. My previous district (I changed this year) talked a lot about street data and I got hopeful. But there was never a place or time for street data to be discussed or used beyond individual teachers.
I can't wait. Quite seriously. That's fabulous.
Oh my goodness, yes! How often is the data we value outdated long before we're actually looking at it?
No one cares about how excited my students are about reading and writing, but the test scores from the state in those areas are crucial. Sigh. Yes, I hear you.
That definitely gets at one of my greatest frustrations. Data have such a specific definition so often and it is quite limited.
Good point! We have so much data that isn't impacting daily instruction and classrooms.
Also true. Data are not neutral.
Oof, yes, that is a valid point.
I think you’re right and that is a significant part of the problem. Our values around data are clear and, I think, not fabulous.
I hadn’t considered that but it is a very good point.
Possibly unpopular opinion: I think the laser focus on data in education has contributed to deprofessionalizing teachers. I’m not completely anti-data. I am concerned that teachers are not trusted unless they have numbers to prove what they know.
Well that is somewhat unexpected. But positive.
That’s what I was just thinking. I changed districts this year to the district next door. We don’t start at the same time. Districts in the southern part of my state start much earlier. This seems absurd.
I don’t always find Audrey’s writing easy to read because she is brutally honest about the realities with technology. That’s also why I find her writing so critical to read. It’s important to know.
And they bring you joy, don’t they?
Our kids are 21 and 18. Yesterday we drove up to NYC, saw three Broadway shows, got up this morning to meet friends for brunch, hit an art museum, and see one more Broadway show. We’re almost home again. These moments are precious as I know they won’t last forever.
Completely reasonable. Also, welcome to the neighborhood. Hope your stay is a good one.
This is a thing @mattrkay.bsky.social and I talk about every time we get the chance to speak to a group. Being in classrooms for years and currently is something we’re proud of. It’s far too rare to hear from teachers. Those are crucial voices.
I appreciate the brilliant people I follow, like you, who open my eyes again and again so that I can do better.
This thread feels far too familiar to me. This fall, as I begin my 28th year of elementary classroom teaching, I will be teaching science and math to two groups of fourth graders. I can’t do what we are being told to do in literacy instruction anymore.
I had no idea of this history. I hate to consider how unknowingly I add to white supremacy through the language I use.
Her mom taught voice students at my college when I was there. I accompanied many of them and Helga Bullock was such a lovely woman in every interaction I had with her. This was when Speed was filming and coming out and hearing her talk about Sandy was so sweet.
Same. It does feel like an important connection to make.
I am heading home from the ISTE+ASCD conference in San Antonio and I have mixed feelings. I spent time with amazing people and have a lot to think about. As one who has attended both ISTE and ASCd previously, I’m not sure yet how I feel about the joint conference.
I will definitely be taking those responses forward with me.
I was surprised. I don’t feel like I am super informed so it seems like others should know the basic information I know.
Good point. I’m sure there are those things I’m completely clueless about.
I’m at the ISTE+ASCD conference and had a casual conversation about AI (not in a session, just chatting with folks) with people I greatly respect. I raised concerns about the environmental impact and some people seemed surprised and somewhat unaware. How many people don’t recognize this issue?
On the ground in Charlotte for a brief layover on the way to San Antonio for the ISTE+ASCD conference so waving to @thetattooedprof.bsky.social!
I’m also watching this with my oldest, recent college graduate. So much of the application process is automated and I don’t understand why emails aren’t sent to those who didn’t get the job. It doesn’t seem like a difficult thing to do, most of the time, and otherwise people are just waiting.
I'll admit to living in serious denial and assuming the US won't be bombed at all, but this is the most I've ever doubted that.
Oh gracious, good point. So many of us are going to be right in the line.
This is definitely one of these moments when I fear I live just far enough outside of DC to die slowly from a nuclear bomb...
Thank you! I owe you an email and I will get to it now that both graduations (college and high school) and my end-of-year chaos is all over!
I will miss the students and families but I am surprisingly ready to make this change. In some ways I wish it were harder but after all these years, I am ready to leave this school district.
My classroom stuff is all in storage units & I am looking forward to next year. I will be teaching fourth graders math and science at Fleet Elementary in Arlington.
After 27 years of teaching, 17 years as a parent (those periods of time do overlap), & 7 years as a student in FCPS, I will no longer have any formal connection to the district. (That total is equal to my age so this feels right.) I am retiring & my children have graduated.
I love that the two of will chat! Chanea, Kassia is an amazing editor!
Well, people of Virginia, if you care at all about transgender kids, you need to vote for Spanberger, Hashmi, and Jones in November. And, then lobby for good legislation.
I've been a public school teacher for 27 years. I know how much local elected officials impact our public schools (and so many other things). @schoolmarmadvisors.com is someone I'd love to have as a local elected official and I am happily supporting her campaign financially.
I am so here for this.
I can't believe this book has been out in the world for two years. I will be forever grateful to @mattrkay.bsky.social for inviting me into this work and for sharing all of his wisdom and the energy he'd put into Not Light, But Fire.
The Trump team thinks Confederate traitors who killed Americans are worth honoring. But Americans who fought at Normandy in D-Day like Medgar Evers, or served in the Navy like Harvey Milk and Cesar Chavez, or worked as a spy for the US Army like Harriet Tubman, well, they are NOT worth honoring.
I offer some more advice to my soon-to-be-a-teacher grandson a week before I retire —-Advice for Beginning—and Veteran—Teachers www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...
I have wanted that project for years. Identify the nice white people in every single CRM photo and attach a family tree.
I often feel like I am the only classroom teacher in the room (with professional organizations, policy discussions, and such). Teacher voice is needed in so many spaces. That said, the concerns and challenges voiced in the comments are valid.
It is the end of the day on a Friday with 2 1/2 weeks of school left. My 5th graders have been reading silently for the past 45 minutes because they got their book club book choices and they are all in. Thank you, children's book authors (and illustrators, but these are all novels)!
My kids' high school did this in their renovation about six years ago. The front entrance is now actually facing the street that matches the school's address but it's on a completely different side of the building from where it used to be. I'll have to check on their test scores now...
Today we finished @medenkuyatt.bsky.social's Good Different and my fifth graders were thrilled because they loved it and sad that it was over. One girl said, "Every time you finish a book you're reading to us I think, 'Now I want to read every book by that author.'" Feels like a win to me.
I have long enjoyed Naomi Shihab Nye's poetry and the one shared today on poets.org is no exception. It is beautiful and heartbreaking.
I know my kids won’t be in my home for these conversations forever so I try to stick it out when they want to talk. But keeping my eyes open for state testing today was more challenging than I’d like to admit.
Y'all, your young adult children (mine are 18 and 21) think this is the perfect time to talk with you at length (now being 9:45 pm and past my bedtime). Parenting changes and some things get easier, but I definitely wasn't prepared for this.
I got a little red wagon for an early birthday (maybe 2nd or 3rd). My dad and uncle put it together. I'm amazed they survived. They kept reading about axel A and axel B which appeared to be exactly the same but why would they have different labels? They managed to get it together somehow.
If you’re looking for short options, I love the collection that The Moth put out.
The last couple of weeks have been a lot in our house. I had the retirement ceremony for my school district. My oldest graduated from college. My youngest had their final high school production (they were the stage manager). I'm an emotional wreck. So I wrote.
That's a great phrase.
My oldest graduated Saturday. I hear you. And now she's deep in the what-do-I-do-next-and-who-am-I-now phase and I feel for her. Best of luck to your middle one and to you!
13 years ago, the senior class asked me to speak to the graduating seniors as their convocation speaker. I thought the words I said then might still be relevant, even if the pop culture references and inside Mary Wash references might not be. techist.mcclurken.org/umw/2012-umw...
Short thread here from Matt, but worth recognizing. I have this problem with physical stuff and have to learn to pull back.
Seriously, we are living in the upside down.
@jenorr.bsky.social, co-author of We’re Gonna Keep On Talking, talks the pandemic’s impact on students’ behavior and learning: www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...
It truly is. (Pretty sure this kid’s mom came to pick him up.)
So true. There is much wisdom on the playground at recess, but sometimes one has to really hunt for it.
Overheard on the playground with fifth graders: Oof, never trust a fart. I think I just crapped my pants.
Why is this so hard for us to say? What is it about that label that feels so elite and hard to achieve, even as we write regularly? Also, go you!
And I've have someone to talk to when I needed to think through a scheme or plan. It's a win all around.
I have not ever questioned Tressie's brilliance and yet I am still able to be impressed. This is perfection.
This is a lesson I am trying so hard to teach my children. Of course, I'm teaching it by what I say far more than what I do.
If you see this, post your getaway car.
I hadn’t thought about how it changes those chores. My kids are older now and we all just share all the work of meals (making, putting away leftovers, cleaning up). When they were younger I think we did bring it all to the table more.
I hadn’t realized! We’ll have to talk about that on Monday.
If it’s just us, we usually serve in the kitchen and go back if we want more.
One of our class jobs is Date Writer. When I modeled it at the start of the year I just wrote the day of the week and the date. The kids always do more when they take over.
Exactly! A lot of kids have also been making posters about the missing hamster all on their own. I love it so much!
I do think our fifth graders should write The Adventures of Nugget now! I'm going to suggest it to my class and I can't wait to see what they create.
The teacher next door has a class hamster. This morning he was not in his cage and, after nearly two hours of searching by many, is still missing. He is either terrified (seems to be most likely) or having an amazing adventure. Hoping for the best for you, Nugget!
One of my boys came over this morning during breakfast, completely unprompted, to share the ways he connects with Seylah, especially when it comes to lots of noise. I so appreciate books that offer kids these connections. Thank you!
I’m reading my fifth graders @medenkuyatt.bsky.social’s Good Different. Our school has an unusual number of students who have autism (we’re on a military post with a hospital so our community has a variety of medical needs). My students are connecting strongly with this book. I am grateful.
One of my fifth graders is our date writer. Every afternoon they prep this board with the next day’s date. Some date writers have added pictures but recently they’ve been adding jokes. I was glad to see no spelling errors in this one.
I mean... Wordle 1,408 3/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Sometimes I wonder if all my good luck is showing up in NY Times word games... Wordle 1,407 2/6 🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
If the case against Montgomery County Public Schools goes the way it looks like, I’m ready to gather people to begin suing school districts for the texts or lessons they use that are not inclusive. There have to be ways to use these same tactics to create schools that support all kids and families.
I want to believe that anyone who takes a moment to think, would immediately see what Jenn is saying here but if that were true, we wouldn’t see such a statement in a book.
“This dude is a snake oil salesman.” This might be the first time I’ve really understood how snake oil salesmen have done so well for generations. I needed to see it in the perspective of our current day. It is an absolutely apt description for Elon.