Gift

Nov 4 What was the nicest gift that you received from student/parent/colleague?

I don't do well with superlatives. "Nicest"? "Best"? I could no more choose the "nicest" gift than I could choose my favorite child. The one in front of me is always the best. 

But I did receive a special surprise last week, a playbill from ISU's fall production of "Spring Awakening," sent to me by the mother of the play's director, Stacy Hansen, drama director at Valley High School--and my former student. I knew it was an honor for Stacy to have been invited by her alma mater to serve as a guest director, and I was delighted her mother had thought to send me the programme. 

I met Stacy when she was thirteen; I was twenty-three, a first-year teacher, and fueled by far more energy than expertise. Ten years later, during Stacy's own first year of teaching, she called me from a speech contest, crying. She was in a strange city, responsible for a dozen high-school students, and someone had stolen her purse. I was a little flummoxed as to why was she calling me instead of her own mother, but as I helped her think through her options, I realized why she'd called me. She was trying to hold it together as a teacher--so she'd turned to her teacher.  

Over the years I've delighted in watching Stacy's trajectory of success. She faced down the Westboro Baptists haters when Valley produced "The Laramie Project" in 2006. She consistently helps her students reach All-State levels in speech competitions.  During National Teacher Appreciation week one year I received a note from students in the Valley drama department, telling me that although they didn't know me personally, they were being "taught" by me through Ms. Hansen. It was a touch-the-future teacher gift, one I won't forget. 

Stacy's not on Facebook, but her husband occasionally posts pictures of their children: son Lincoln and daughter Scout, named for you-know-who in the book we read during Stacy's ninth-grade year. She sends her children's beautiful handmade (recycled!) holiday cards each year, sometimes late, always appreciated.

As I flipped through the playbill her mother sent, I found the the director's notes, eager to read Stacy's commentary on the production. What I found there was this lovely gift, the nibble of a Madeleine, taking me back to 1983: 

'

Three Postage Stamps

What are you most proud of to date in your teaching career?

Yikes. It's only day three and already I'm wondering if I can take a month of my own horn-tootin'. Since a prompt is just that--a nudge, a prod--I am going to allow my gut rejection of this question to bump me towards something I'd rather write about: today's one-inch postage stamps.

Postage Stamp #1) "Wacky Food Wednesday" editors pushing each other in grocery carts in Hy-Vee to create video footage for the opening of their new show. I'm not sure what they were learning, but it involved physics, spatial awareness, and the science of laughter.

Postage Stamp #2) My "difficult student" spoke politely to me. Our one-step-forward, two-steps-back dance pattern took a couple of steps forward.

Postage Stamp #3) "I need another book." Music to my ears. 

More than a lanyard

Nov 2 What is one small delight in the day that you always look forward to?

I carry my keys and school ID on a button-bedecked yellow lanyard. I jingle when I walk. Students tell me they know it's me because they hear me coming. I tell them it's like the bell on a cat's collar to warn the birds.

I began wearing a lanyard years before our school required all teachers to wear their IDs visibly because I needed a way to keep my key to the copy room at hand. Over time this literal identity badge has become a figurative one as well: it is a talisman, an epitrachelion, my Olympic gold. 

When I pull into the school parking lot in the morning, I put on my lipstick, loop the lanyard around my neck, and become Ms. Berryhill. The small ritual is always filled with optimism. I sling my computer bag over my shoulder, shut the car door, and jingle toward my day.

Un-sung perks of teaching

Nov 1 - What are the best aspects of being a teacher?

Each time I see this question, I answer it differently.

Sometimes I appreciate the outlet for creativity. Sometimes I relish a job that requires me to roll around in poems and words and books and writing. Friday two students stayed after class to sandwich me in a hug, sensing I was having a rocky day. Last month I got two notes within one week from college freshmen thanking me for my impact and teaching. Who wouldn't love this job?

But today I will focus on some often under-appreciated advantages of teaching:

I can stand up and walk around if I want to.

I can talk whenever I feel like it.

People listen to me when I open my mouth to speak.

I decide when the lights are on or off.

I get to rearrange the furniture.

I've been thinking of these perks after reading an essay that was buzzing around the internet a few weeks ago. A teacher had spent two days shadowing students and was dismayed by how much time students spend in apathetic stupor, sitting, waiting, following someone else's directions; how little control students have over their choices throughout the day.

My blog is titled Schoolblazing because I am determined to blaze new trails, light out for the territory ahead of the rest, so to speak. Central to this mindset is my effort to give students ownership and control in our classroom, to over-trust rather than to under-trust. This means deliberately providing students with more control than they usually have in the school setting.

In this vein I try to extend the perks of Room 408 to my students too--keeping "student led" at the forefront of my lesson planning and decision making. I try not to abuse the inequality of power in the teacher-student dynamic. If I myself value choice and freedom and being listened to, I want my students to experience these as well.

So today's reflection reminds me that we all crave a sense of control. My job title hands me the reins, and my teaching philosophy urges me to share the reins with my students.

Some of the "people" I spent time with today.

Face-off with Self-doubt

If I weren't afraid...

I would put a Ping-Pong table in my room. 

If I weren't on a budget...

I'd hire an interior decorator to make my room look like Mrs. Hartwig's. (The decorator might tell me to nix the Ping-Pong table--)

If I weren't responding to this prompt...

I would write about what this month of blogging has taught me. Here goes...

Whew. I have blogged every evening for 30 days straight. The first day I was excited. The second day less so. By the end of week one I was sick of listening to myself. Week two? I knew Dread as my own little buddy. I then slogged through ennui, blither-blather and awe-shucks. One night I didn't post until 11:58 p.m. 

But I had made a public commitment on the ICTE Facebook group page and was inspired by my blogging partners: Melissa and Brittany. I wanted to be in their club--so I kept cranking out the blog posts.

I also wanted to prove to myself I could hush the mice in the jar.

So each evening I traded luscious reading time for a face-off with Self-Doubt, embracing vulnerability, exposing my imperfect thoughts in imperfect words. And I lived to tell about it. Seriously, I feel like I just completed a marathon: it mattered to me, even if no one else is that interested in hearing about it.

I also was reminded how important feedback is. Thanks to you who left a comment on the blog or Facebook. I felt less alone.

I'm still not sure who I am as a blogger. Frankly, the genre might not suit me well. But the @teachthought Reflection Challenge did invite (force?) me to think on the page about what I do in the classroom. And since it didn't kill me, it must have made me stronger.

Thanks for listening.

Journalism student adding grid guides to her phone's camera. The nasty sofa is just one of the furniture items my fantasy interior decorator would replace in my classroom.

Day 30: What would you do (as a teacher) if you weren’t afraid?

Reflection: I'm glad I did this challenge. And I'm also glad it's over. 

I used to be...now...

I used to be marbles rolling every which way; now I'm marbles rolling mostly in the same direction.

I used to be a gale-force wind; now I'm a stiff breeze.

I used to tell it slant; now I tell it straight(er).

I used to um, uh, lose my train of thought; now I uh, um--

I used to carry my school work home in a huge cardboard box; now I carry my school work home in a huge Google Drive.

I used to think I was teaching my favorite students; now I think I'm teaching my favorite students. Happens every year.

I used to teach poetry; now I share poetry.

I used to be chartreuse; now I'm jade.

I used to be Pop Rocks; now I'm Life Savers.

1985 - My second year of teaching.

I used to be chin-deep in student writing; now I'm up to my elbows. 

I used to dog-paddle; now I sidestroke. 

Day 29: How have you changed as an educator since you first started?

Reflection: I'd love to hear what some of you used to be...are now. Please share!

Who Gets the Spotlight: Tech or Students?

About 10 years ago, the Atlantic School District Foundation and school board generously funded my request for a set of laptops that would "belong" to my students. This was in the earliest days of 1-to-1 programs, and although our entire school wasn't ready to hand every student a laptop, I was. My set-up (pre-cloud era) allowed each student to "own" 1/5 of the computer and rotated privileges to take the machine home. 

I spent the next two years learning to manage the technology alongside my content teaching. But as time progressed, the tech slid to the background, becoming support to augment my content rather than demanding center stage as it had at first. 

My entire school went 1-to-1 this year, and many of my colleagues are now learning to juggle TECH demands in their classroom while adjusting to new ways of teaching.



I do mix technology into my daily teaching, but it is in response to the question "How can I increase the engagement of all students?" or "How can I deepen students' understanding?" rather than tech for tech's sake.

Here are the ways I used tech this week in my Comp class. 

Monday: Kids watched the TED Talk  “The Fiction of Memory” by Elizabeth Loftus and group-annotated related online texts from the New Yorker or the Atlantic Monthly.

Tuesday: Using the "See History" feature of Google Docs, my students reviewed two sets of comments from me about their writing. One set was "golden threads"--highlights of lines and phrases that sang to me. The other set is red marks for mechanical issues. This coming week the students will listen to Voice Comments. I use the tech to change up the type of feedback the kids hear from me.

Wednesday: I used a Google Form for formative assessment of my students' preparation for class discussion. We then used a Padlet to share our key questions in preparation for group discussion which I videotaped (using PhotoBooth) for my own analysis.

Thursday: Students had the choice to be a hand's-up student or backchannel notes while watching a grammar PowerPoint lesson. Giving students choices for expected engagement cuts down on that "sit and do nothing" choice they'll otherwise default to during whole-class instruction.

Friday: Because I was at a meeting, my students' assignments, including a quiz, were posted online. Students also submit their Friday papers through Google Docs, which has saved about 420 sheets of paper so far this year. 

Nothing on my above list will inspire wild applause. The tech sets the stage, provides some props, puts a little grease paint on an otherwise ho-hum task. But it is the students who are the stars of the Room 408 show. They get the spotlight.

Day 28: Respond: Should technology drive curriculum, or vice versa?

Reflection: I use a lot of tech in my room daily, but it is no longer something I fret over or stress about. It's in the background, where it should be.