Post Election 2016

Without going too political, I will say that this has been a difficult election year ending with a most difficult election week.  The day after the elections, I was sad to hear that many of my teachers did all they could to avoid conversations about the election with students.  I understand that our students are young (kindergarten through fifth grade), but they deserve to have their voices heard, too.  My belief in the need for conversation was validated by many other colleagues as I facilitated a Diversity in Action meeting yesterday.



I lead our school's Diversity in Action Committee and realize, now more than ever, that we have a lot of work to do.  Not only do we need to accelerate the closing of our achievement gap, but we also need to continue to teach tolerance at all levels.  At our meeting yesterday, I allowed committee members to choose an article from the November issue of ASCD's "Educational Leadership" magazine on the topic of "Disrupting Inequity."  In the article I chose to read titled, "Let's Talk About Racism in Schools" by Rick Wormeli, he states, "We can't truly create equal opportunities for all until our institutions take specific actions to end that thinking and those policies.  And, ground zero for an equitable, nonracist socitey is the K-12 classroom."  The K-12 classroom.  Not the 6-12 classroom.  We must not wait until they are in middle school to have these conversations.  Wormeli goes on to say, "We don't need to justify having focused conversations about racism in schools."  Why not take a minute to let your first graders tell you how they are feeling?  We can teach kids that we may not always agree, we must learn to work together.  We must teach our students that.  It IS our responsibility.  It is our job.  In my district, it is our mission.



As each member of the committee left the meeting yesterday, I asked them to find at least one way to move the work forward the following day.  I was so glad to see one member took that to heart and pulled together a multi-grade, ethnically diverse leadership group he's been working with on Fridays for the first part of the year. He called an extra meeting to have a conversation on "Campaign Consequences," allowed the students to share their thoughts and feelings, and called them to action asking what they can do to make a difference.  The session ended with students creating peace flags now displayed in the hallway of our school.

Fellow educators, I encourage you to have the conversations in your classrooms.  Teach tolerance.  I ask you to do what Wormeli asks of his readers at the end of the article and identify one person with whom you can have a conversation on race or just about the election.

Anchor Chart Overload?

In October, I had the privilege of attending the Coaching Institute at Columbia Teacher's College in New York City.  The amount of learning that occurred during the week I was there was incredible!  My brain literally hurt and I was exhausted by the end of the week.  I left Teacher's College with a full notebook, mind, and heart.  Many of my future posts will include some of my learning.

One idea I took away from my time at Promise Academy II in the Harlem Children's Zone was the idea of dedicated wall space for anchor chart for core areas.  As we know, anchor charts build a culture of literacy and provide a space to keep relevant learning accessible for students.  Sometimes, in classrooms, I see an overabundance of anchor charts and I'm distracted from the work by the massive amount of charts hanging in the room.  Other times, there are no charts at all.  Even in rooms with what seems like an appropriate amount of anchor charts with meaningful information, they are haphazardly hung on whatever wall space is available.

The teachers at Promise Academy shared that they dedicate wall space for anchor charts for a couple reasons.  First, it provides a set location for students to look to when it's time to refer to an anchor chart.  Second, it actually limits the amount of charts on the wall because you can only put up as many charts as will fit in the space.  Therefore, teachers decide which charts are most meaningful and useful for students and make only those visible.  Others are stored away and brought out when needed.  To make the learning environment even more organized, many teachers at the Promise Academy organize their supplies and manipulatives in areas under or near the anchor charts.  For example, math manipulatives are housed on a shelf under the Math anchor charts.  Brilliant!

Here are some pictures from Promise Academy.

Reading Anchor Charts

Math anchor charts with math manipulatives underneath.

Imagine my delight when I returned to my own school and noticed one of my teachers doing the very same thing!

Dedicated space for essential questions and anchor charts for reading, writing, and math.

We're Going on a Trip in a Little Rocket Ship!

This week, our students are taking virtual field trips using the Google Expedition app and goggles.  We led all our students K-5 on a virtual expedition to places such as the Great Barrier Reef, the top of the Washington Monument, and even to the moon!  If your school has a chance to use Google Expeditions, I highly recommend it as a way to provide them with opportunities to experience faraway places.

Imagine the first collective "oooohhhhh!" from first graders as they spot a giant whale shark lurking above them near the Great Barrier Reef.  It gave me goosebumps!