What has taken shape in the world with COVID 19 has given me pause to wonder what matters most in life and as an educator a chance to query about what matters most in education. I am quite sure that for all of us, the COVID19 pandemic is uncomfortable, disruptive, scary, and deeply saddening.

I am also quite sure it is a rare chance to rethink how we do many things from how we spend each day to how we do schooling.

Now, I have been a middle school educator for decades trying in one capacity or another to ensure the growth and wellbeing of young adolescents. It’s been a steady joy to work with and on behalf of this amazing age group who are inquisitive, energetic, idealistic, and a whole lot of fun.

In those years I have observed that our habitual patterns of schooling all too often undervalue the two most powerful needs of this age group and perhaps the two most influential variables in student learning and life: relationships and relevance.

Right now, as the world throbs with difficulty and discomfort, I feel called to revisit these two needs and consider their importance in middle grades education.

Relationships

Relationships have always been touted as the number one priority in middle school education and for good reason.

Every middle school teacher knows that young adolescents (all of us, really) are often most invested in school because of the friendships they find and develop there. Ask any middle school student what they most look forward to at school, and many say “lunch” not because they love our food, but because lunch is their chance to be with friends. While we all hope students engage in our program of studies, curriculum alone, even the best most relevant and student-centered curriculum, has rarely been the sole motivator for middle schoolers.

Right now, as a result of the COVD19 pandemic, our students are disconnected from their friends at school and friends in their communities. Many are left bereft of what sustained their motivation to do school, and supported their social growth as caring and empathic beings. They express longing to be back at school not because they yearn for that lesson on igneous rocks, or the elements of fiction, or the Dust Bowl.

They are eager to be with others.

Many middle schools were prepared for this challenge.

They had in place some sort of arrangement that emphasized relationships. In the middle school world, this has often been called “Advisory” or “Morning Meeting,” a time that can afford students the guidance of one adult and the fellowship of a small, caring group of peers.

While Advisory programs vary by name, or configuration, all aspire to promote a sense of belonging, to insure every child is known well by at least one adult, and to engage students in activities and discussions that help them build healthy social skills and caring dispositions.

These should always have been among the educational ambitions of every middle grades school, but our current circumstances make it abundantly clear that if we had not been serious about relationships, we’d better get serious now.

Little did we know however, that one day we would be required to do this virtually.

What could a virtual Advisory look like in these times of change?

If you’ve been lucky enough to have had an Advisory style program in place, you have history and momentum. If for you or your school, time for deliberate relationship-building is still new, it’s not too late to implement a virtual version for the fall. Every school and every teacher has the chance to craft plans for learning that put “relationships” first.

Here are a few ideas to consider as you journey ahead:

1.Reconnect with the big “why”: Relationships.

As I take in current projections about how life may unfold with COVD19, I hear expressed concerns about lost academic learning. While of course I share that concern, I am far more concerned about the disappearing opportunities for young adolescents to learn how to get along with others, to cultivate empathy for those different from themselves, to engage in self-reflection and to learn to value a caring community.

Young adolescence is a potent developmental window during which the lines of social character are engraved. When we take that seriously, and spend time building relationships, the results are extraordinary: heightened investment in school learning, a stronger sense of social efficacy and the development of the social skills needed to live a better life.

COVD19 has brought out the best and worst in our culture, reminding us that while we may have what it takes to get there, we have a long way to go towards building a fair, just, kind, sane and caring nation and world.

2. Tap into how you are experiencing all of this.

If we hope for more humane middle grades schools, we have to first and foremost allow ourselves to be more human.

In short, we need to bring our fullest and most human selves into our classrooms.

Take stock of how you are experiencing the loss, stress and disruption associated with this pandemic. Notice first and foremost how this is effecting you. I have had sleepless nights, restless days and times when I felt I was not able to be productive.

Students and families will experience these same ups and downs.

I hear some arguing that we should “keep calm and carry on”, which may be well and good, especially the calm, but really?  I would argue that pretending things are far better than they are is not helpful.

Emotions are running high for all of us and here’s a chance to honor emotions and feelings as part of being human, part of learning and rightfully, part of school life.

3. Make everyday personal.

I am learning from COVD 19 that empathy is a capacity that needs our collective attention. Easy kindness is simply not enough. Even the face to face struggles that emerge when we are confined with people we supposedly love, puts deep empathy to a daily test. Can we understand this person right in front of us? Are we able to care about his or her welfare even when they are terribly annoying?

A sure COVD 19 lesson for me is that relationships demand so much more than we think. They demand a recognition that we are all perfectly imperfect and inextricably connected.

We now teach on the edge of our students’ doorsteps, and as such we have a unique opportunity to make every day more personal. Using whatever platform we have, students can share their lives in new ways, introducing us to special parts of their lives. Maybe they have special hobbies we never witnessed or treasures tucked away at home they never had the chance to share. Students need to feel a sense of belonging and connectedness with us and their peers and sharing real life stuff matters now more than ever.

Above all, this pandemic has the capacity to move us toward greater interpersonal intimacy. We are all equally vulnerable.

As such, this is a lesson in our common humanity we don’t want to miss. Keep your classroom plans open to feelings and emotions, and give yourself and your students permission to bring up the tough stuff. Structure time each day for some sort of check-in, whips around the room, or share time. Most of all, make it human and make it personal.

4. Stay close and connected to students.

While Advisory meetings held on Google Meet or another virtual platform enable students to see friends and experience fellowship, students also need our support in more individual ways.

5. Consider weekly Dialogue Journals with your Advisees.

If you don’t have Advisees, you could initiate peer Dialogue Journals. Students can write to you or a peer, and you or the peer write back. I find this a powerful way to gain tremendous insight as to how students are doing emotionally.

If you try peer Dialogue Journals, students can use a shared doc, and share with you once a week. Peers can shift partners after several weeks. This will allow you to see into the hearts and minds of students you were once able to discern from a face to face glance.

There are of course many other ways to let students know you care. As you see certain students struggling or losing heart, try to reach out by email, phone or facetime. Obviously, it would be wonderful if we could google meet with every student but that may not be realistic. We can however, reach out in many different ways. A short note can mean the world. Even snail mail notes can be a lovely and fresh gesture of caring.

6. Play more and often.

If ever there was a time when we need humor, laughter, joy and play, it is now. And, there is considerable research on how play can enhance well being and improve sense of belonging.

To smile things up, one 7th grade team at Stowe Middle School, took to wearing different, playful hats each week to virtual Advisory. It was fun — even funny —  and always created good feelings that were contagious. Try games, like Charades, or Pictionary or other virtual friendly games. Infuse play and laughter in some way in Advisory or in your classroom life.

At Stowe Middle School, a leadership group of Advisory Advocates have been giving feedback on virtual Advisory. They all declared two things to be critical during COVD19: daily check-ins where we share our lives and playing games where we remember to have fun.

Relevance

Right now, as a civilization we are facing a world challenge of grave importance. It has nudged many of us to question much of what we once took for granted.  The current conversations in print or media repeatedly recount a renewed appreciation for quality relationships, the pleasures of a simpler way of living, the sacredness of the earth’s resources, the critical importance of civil discourse, and the certainty of our interdependence.

On the school front, educators and students alike are experiencing in sometimes painful ways, a hard truth about the school learning. When stripped of the trappings of school life including lunch with friends, sports, proms, graduations, what is left, is not all that compelling.  Students talk of missing friends and teachers, but algebra apparently is not that memorable.

Over the past several decades, educators have used the word “relevance” to capture a sought after quality in school learning.

The hope has been that somehow what students learn in school could be compelling: real and relevant to them.

Ambitious efforts have been abundant as creative teachers have designed projects that address real life issues and often engage students directly in working on such projects right in their local communities.

These projects generally win enormous student investment so much so that at the close of a school year, when asked about what learning had been most significant, it is only these projects that students can remember and recount.

While these projects have a powerful impact on student enthusiasm for learning, they also have had a tremendous impact on skill development, and abiding understanding of how the world works.  In effect, they represent relevance at its best in contemporary school learning.

Authentic school projects, while wonderful, have historically only punctuated the typical school curriculum.

The hefty load of student studies often consists of addressing a massive number of content standards in fragmented and discrete subjects that are only indirectly connected to life as it is being lived. This is not to suggest that the disciplines of knowledge (eg; history, science, math and so on) are not needed and useful in human inquiry. They are. It is to suggest that they are only useful, relevant and meaningful when they are applied to address the questions or problems of living.

All of us know this truth: knowledge stays with us when we need it, yet so much of school knowledge is given to students without relevance. Content without a cause is content lost.

Today, as this pandemic has the attention of the world, we are asking students to engage in doing assignments that have little to do with this enormity swirling around them.

Like us, students have a zillion questions about COVID19, about how any virus spreads, about how families, communities, states, nations are dealing with this crisis, but instead of exploring those very questions in school, they are heading into on-line assignments that suggest nothing has changed.

Here’s the hard part: hasn’t this been a pattern in education?

And, isn’t this the very reason why what kids miss from school has nothing to do with the curriculum?

I am not suggesting that everything that students should be invited to explore in their on-line learning should revolve around COVID 19 because it is the issue of the day.

I am however, advocating for serious and planned attention to the questions this raises for students and for us. After all, an issue of such complexity if it is to be understood, would demand that we call upon a wide array of knowledge, drawn from many disciplines or subject areas.

• When this pandemic ends, what will our students have learned about it?
• What will they have learned from it?
• Do we have to wait until this life changing event is over and logged as a chapter in a history book before we dig in?

There are many ways to ensure that life as it is being lived can become the curriculum of study.

As one example, we could begin by culling from our students all of the questions they have about this pandemic, identifying those dominant questions we and our students have in common, and then crafting pathways to explore, understand, and share our common learnings.

With the work of serious investigation and sharing, the transferrable skills needed for lifelong learning would be emphasized.

Ultimately, this curriculum would be a democratically created curriculum and as such enormously relevant to those who created it.

Students could effectively specialize in areas of most concern or interest to them (personalization), while also providing a service to their peers and communities, by sharing their new knowledge and wisdom with others and applying it to crafting promising solutions to real local problems.

Imagine students working alone and in small groups charged with investigating different identified areas of inquiry and then finding many ways for them to share, report and extend their learning and ours.

No doubt this would be an integrated unit of study, where the separate subject boundaries are blurred. A unit like this could go on for many months, letting all dig deep.

The products students could create could become a legacy of sorts reminding us all of what we’d learned from this crisis and helping communities garner wisdom for our lives ahead.

No doubt it would be messy and imperfect, and would demand team teaching, but imagine the authenticity and relevance of such a learning model.

Imagine the many critical skills students would be honing in this kind of work.

Imagine the capacity of such a curriculum model to be a great equalizer.

Most of all, imagine the relevance of using school learning to study this unimaginably challenging problem.

Lastly, imagine all school learning centered on addressing the real life issues of personal and social significance as students and teachers collaborate to create a worthy education.

This is not a new idea.

Some years ago, James Beane advocated for such a novel approach to curriculum planning. He called that approach curriculum integration: to propose a school curriculum centered on life itself.

He wrote:

“Curriculum integration is …concerned with the organization of curriculum around significant problems and issues, collaboratively identified by educators and young people, without regard to subject area boundaries…In curriculum integration, organizing themes are drawn from life as it is being lived and experienced.”

The true dream for curriculum integration was that it would not only be compelling to many more learners, but ultimately by its very design, would model the purpose of being educated.

That knowledge and research are essential to managing our own lives and to creating a saner, safer, kinder, and better world for all.

There are too many Americans who were happy to exit school style learning and are fairly committed to staying clear of it for the rest of their lives.

Some are now middle school parents.

When I talk with the adults who hated or merely completed school, they tell me they could never see the point.

What they often say is what students at times will confess:

‘When will I ever use this? What does this have to do with anything real? Why do I have to wait until I graduate to explore issues that demand real knowledge in real time?’

It is time to craft better answers to those questions, not so much to please students or merely engage them, but to ensure that school is about what matters to us all.

While it may seem fitting to engage in such a progressive model of curriculum only now while we are in the midst of this pandemic, this is a model we need to take seriously as a promising pathway to better schooling in the years ahead.

I once heard a talk by behaviorist B.F.Skinner entitled “Why we are not acting to save the world”.

In that talk, Skinner argued that human beings tend not to make huge needed changes unless the pain is sufficient to force them to do so.

As a student, I wanted to believe that Skinner was wrong and that humans were capable of dramatic proactive change.

But maybe he was right.

Maybe it takes a pandemic to get our attention. I know it has prompted me to rethink many aspects of life.

The crack in our schooling foundation has us all buzzing.

We are all wondering what to make of this new way of doing school.

I say we use this hefty nudge to think bravely about bold steps we can take to make middle grades education richer in both relationships and relevance.

Most of all, I want to clear out the clutter we now know is strikingly useless and replace it only with what will lead us all towards living life more humanely, more creatively, more sustainably and more equitably.

Everyone who is watching this? Deserves a high five, a pat on the back or the happy dance of their choosing.

You.

You have made it through what could be described as one of the most challenging, confusing and heart-breaking few months of history in your lifetime, and likely ours, too.

So as you finish up the school year, all of you students and teachers out there deserve a hearty thank you, for sacrificing, for caring for each other and for showing up, and pivoting to remote distance learning rapidly, and for offering each other grace.

We know it hasn’t been easy.

We know you all gave up some of the most nearest and dearest experiences in this moment, and that you suffered significant loss, of beloved family or friends, or once in a lifetime experiences. And you did this to help other people, most of whom you have never met. In fact, your actions, your staying home, staying physically distant, your hand washing, directly impacted the lives of others, helping them stay healthy during this crisis. YOU did that. And we have you to thank!

And teachers? Whoo! You have led with love.

You have called, emailed, video conferenced, coordinated, created, shifted, so many things, all in service of caring for your students and colleagues. This was a monumental task. We have been incredibly moved, inspired, and touched by your expressions of care, love and connection with your students. To you, we are forever grateful.

And now, to the ones moving on.

To the ones changing schools, launching into middle school, launching into high school, and the ones launching into life post-high school. It is you we wanted to bring this message to. It is you who gives us hope for the future. Why? Because during all of this, you met the moment with creativity and perseverance. You are both missing the culmination of your learning experiences, and are launching into uncertain times. But you are also the generation with the greatest amount of compassion for each other, poised to push our society into a new era, one centered on a shared humanity, one that we see in each one of you when you tell your story, when you advocate for new laws and policies, and when you check in on your friends, neighbors, and communities.

We need you.

The adults in your world have left much undone. There is so much to dismantle and to recreate. Our society continues to perpetrate oppression, to separate, to label, to devalue and harm. There is so much left to do, and we believe in you and will join you in this work.

We salute you, as you move on to new horizons. Know that you can always redefine who you are, and who you want to be. This is your chance to decide. To change course if you want to. And to work toward the values and vision only you can know.

Raising a toast to you, graduates, students, and teachers. You did this incredibly hard thing, under the most difficult circumstances, and we congratulate you. You made it.

Ah, the end of a school year. Always frenetic, and beautiful, and tear-filled and inspiring. Filled with rituals that educators and schools have developed with and for their community to bring closure.

And now, this year.

How can we develop new rituals or modify existing ones to honor everyone’s hard, hard (hard) work at the end of this particular year?

We can respond by taking what we know works, and fitting it to the tools we still have on hand in spades: kindness, curiosity, courage and the genuine excitement of meeting this important milestone once again.

1. Student reflection

End-of-year reflection allows students to consolidate their learning.

It allows them to document their learning to share with their communities. And in the current moment, it is a vital process that allows everyone to process their emotions and prepare for the transition to summer break.

Teachers learn so much from these final reflections — what has worked well and what needs fine tuning. Families find out more about who these wonderful creatures in their home really are. And in some cases students add a capstone piece to their PLPs for the year.

Schools such as Burke Town School, in West Burke VT, have used online student led conferences as a way to wrap up the year.

Or if this feels like too much, perhaps consider the toned-down student-led check-in. “Informal conversations that connect school, home, and student” that can pivot around these prompts:

• What are you most proud of from this school year and why?
• Where do you think you’ve shown the most growth?
• What are your goals for next year?
• How can your family and teachers better support you?

Coordinating conferences or check-ins does bring a host of logistical issues. There are many different ways to frame student reflection within the context of a class or team. Check out the six ideas shared by Facing History and Ourselves:

1. Final journal entry
2. Digital portfolio
3. Notes of appreciation
4. Digital goodbye graffiti board
5. Hopes and fears related to summer
6. Email to self

You know your students and what will work for them in this moment in terms of depth and format. Even a very simple and low-key prompt or activity can promote reflection and inform your planning for next year.

2. Celebration

One of the most amazing things about this current time is the creativity some educators and leaders have shown in bridging the distance to celebrate their students. John Craig, assistant principal at South Burlington High School, in South Burlington VT, has a joy that cannot be contained.

Literally.

He is out and about (safely and masked up), driving to his students’ homes and making joyful noises right outside.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Tons of thumbs up and smiles (underneath our face masks)! So great to see so many #classof2020 #sbproud families today!

A post shared by John Craig (@oldmancraigsbhs) on May 19, 2020 at 7:35pm PDT

Now, many of the existing traditions from your team or school may translate into remote environments with a bit of a creative twist.

Snail-mail a surprise for each student to open together at a virtual gathering. One of the five ways to end the school year remotely from Maneuvering the Middle is to mail awards home and have students open them at a virtual gathering.

Don’t discount the virtual exhibition of learning. If students are working on long term projects or products, you can still have an exhibition! Online culminating events can still be a go.

Looking for a meaningful 8th grade graduation? Many of the ideas in this edutopia post related to high school graduation are applicable to middle school as well. Lyndon Town School is looking at the possibility of a car parade while Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School is compiling a video.

At Randolph Middle School, the 8th grade team developed The Last Hurrah mini-project. Students develop a one page reflection with photos, quotes, and reflection on learning. These will be compiled as a sort of digital yearbook that will serve as a collective celebration.

One last note about these celebrations: bring thoughtfulness and creativity to making sure that all students are included. Students with disabilities, students without internet connectivity, students who have been less than fully engaged with remote learning, etc. all need to participate to make this a truly collective celebration.

3. Transitions

For transitions into or out of middle school, the Association for Middle Level Education has some guidance. Some of their practical tips include arranging student or adult mentors for transitioning students. They also mention the possibility of current students writing letters or emails to incoming students, which would be a form of student reflection as well.

This year will be different and more difficult, but it is important to try to make the best of it in order to provide students with some semblance of closure.

4. Grading & assessment

Yes really.

Now, grades communicate to students and families the educator perspective on where each student is at the end of the year. They are, right or wrong, their own particular form of closure.

But assessment? That’s where you as an educator can tell your student in detailed terms what their learning journey has meant to you. You can bring your knowledge of each student, the amount of time and effort you’ve seen them bring to your classroom and to this hard moment, up to the light. You can present that feedback to them and their families as a kind of portrait of who that student is right now, in this time.

And right now? It’s especially important to show that students are seen, known, and cared for.

Grades-wise, there is widespread consensus and guidance from the Vermont Agency of Education  to “hold students harmless” during remote learning. For elementary and middle schools, this means that letter grades or proficiency scores are unnecessary right now. Many schools are using pass/incomplete determinations with the assumption that students will receive “incomplete” in only the most extreme circumstances.

Most schools are including some sort of narrative or comments for each student. These can be on a narrow range of indicators, as shown in this example from the Two Rivers Supervisory Union:

Or the feedback can be more holistic.

Districts and schools can frame the end of year reporting in a way that does not overwhelm teachers while helping them focus on what’s most important.

At Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School, in South Burlington VT, teachers are given two half-days to write narrative comments for each student.

The teacher leadership team worked with administration to create a guidance document that laid out the purpose, rationale, expectations, and supports for the end of year narrative comments.

The Kingdom East School District built support for teachers right into the Educational Engagement Summary template. The template provides guiding questions and links to external resources. It notes that the purpose is to “celebrate our students and show parents/caregivers that we have been care partners in wellness and education during this remote learning time.” At the middle school level, teacher teams can decide whether to write a holistic narrative or to provide subject specific feedback.

And these comments can be personal and heartfelt. Now is the time, today is the day: tell the student what you’ve seen of them as a learner, as a do-er and as a try-er.

Draw on student reflections to mirror what students are noticing and feeling. It will make those students feel seen.

5. Educator reflections

We know you didn’t get a lot of notice before we all went into this emergency distance learning dance. But now that we’re moving out of it, into summer, there’s space to process the highs and lows of the last few months. This is helpful on a basic emotional level but also to inform what you might want to keep or change when school starts again. In whatever form that takes.

In some cases this reflective moment will be an individual one, such as through the evaluation process. Or it may be through informal conversation with a trusted colleague. It can be purely private via a journal or scrapbook.

As a community of educators, you can think about and discuss what has been working for remote learning. A survey can work well for this, both to check in on needs and also surface thoughts on what has been successful or which practices are worth keeping in the fall.

Conversations on this can be vital.

At Bethel Middle School, during a virtual staff meeting teachers were provided with time to create a slide that responded to two prompts

• When did you feel at your best when teaching in a remote environment? And what should we carry forward?

Then the facilitator opened up space to have a conversation. The “what’s working” portion generated positive energy and reminded everybody that their hard work and steep professional learning curves would have benefits in the future. The responses were summarized so that they could inform planning for next school year.

We hope that educators reflect on the way that we’ve have collectively reprioritized relationships and equity. Educators have gone to great lengths to stay connected to students. Schools have brought creativity and urgency to ensuring that systems are in place so that no students are slipping through the cracks in terms of what they need for mind and body.

May that energy continue, no matter what comes next.

Give yourself credit

Alex Shevrin Venet provided some amazingly helpful advice at the beginning of this emergency remote learning period: educators should take care of themselves first, so that they have the emotional capacity to provide students with what they need.

As this school year wraps up, we hope educators will exercise self-care by processing what we’ve all been through and giving themselves full credit for their amazing learning and accomplishments.

You should be proud of everything that you’ve accomplished in getting to the end of this year, no matter what.

Hello friends.

I’m waving hello from my seat on this roller coaster called the “new normal.”

We got the message on Sunday evening during dinner, just a few hours after my wife and I were notified that our COVID-19 test results were negative. Our district was closing schools immediately. As I considered the complexities of homeschooling I lost the appetite that I had only recently regained from being ill.

On Monday morning my two daughters, 7 and 10 years old, developed a schedule for “Super Sisters Academy,”  (.pdf) as they named it. The first week went surprisingly well. We refined our schedule and processes day to day, and solidified it over the weekend.

Going into week two we were feeling like the homeschool part of things might be more manageable than expected.

You see where this is headed, right?

On Monday #2, homeschool started late. Somehow we were all exhausted even though we have been “sleeping” extra hours. When we finally got things underway, I suggested we start with math, hoping to recapture the “how I got my math teaching groove back” feeling of week one. Oh how naïve I was.

Within 30 minutes, we had one girl expressing hatred of math and the other claiming that she was bad at it. There were tears, bursts of anger, blaming and shaming. I soon found myself alone, head in hands, wondering where it had all gone wrong. My own children had been possessed by negative math mindsets!

I had failed as both an educator and dad, two of my most precious identities.

So yeah, this stuff is hard.

I’m in touch with enough teachers to be able to say that pretty much everybody is struggling right now, regardless of how impressive some folks seem on social media.

Super Sister Academy righted itself eventually (adding a morning meeting has been a huge help), but I feel like every day brings new highs and lows. I’ve been focusing on a three-part mantra to keep me going:

• Go easy on myself – I’m doing the best I can. Don’t compare myself to anybody else. Whatever I manage to pull off, it’s enough.
• Stay compassionate – Other people are doing the best they can too. Everybody is dealing with the current moment in different ways, and that’s okay.
• Be human – Fully feel all the things: fear, joy, pain, laughter, sadness, love, vulnerability, empathy. Connect with others as authentically as possible.

Vermont educators have managed to center compassion amidst all of the technology overhauling, problem solving, and paradigm shifting. Even as teachers, administrators, and school staff have worked incredibly hard to set up infrastructure and new processes, our schools and communities have emphasized relationships and emotional well-being.

Mr. Rogers’ mom told him to “look for the helpers” during a crisis. Don’t forget to look in the mirror, folks. Thank you for everything you do.

Balancing my professional and personal lives is something I am flat out terrible at.

I know it’s hard for me and it continues to be something I fail at. But school breaks are always great for reminding me just how out of balance I am. Sometimes the universe takes it upon itself to send gentle reminders to make some adjustments.  During this most recent break those messages came fast and furious.

Looking Back

At the Tarrant Institute, we often start our Wednesday staff meetings with a fun prompt to connect with each other. They invite the sharing of personal likes and interests, such as current reads, favorite recipes and podcast recommendations. Back in January, our first meeting of the new calendar year was no different. I don’t remember the specific prompt but I clearly remember my answer: I pledged to my colleagues that I was going to focus on balance.

Well, it’s March, and I’d give myself a “Needs Improvement” on the report card.

Formative Feedback from the Universe

Coming into break I felt myself getting sick. How do our bodies know when it’s okay to get sick? Not feeling well is the first piece of formative feedback the universe sent me. Just a cold, but enough of one to make me grumpy. And I noticed my routines and pace didn’t change: still checking that dreaded email, reading work-related articles, and making those all-too-familiar to-do lists.

Then the universe stepped up its game.

It was a sunny and unusually warm morning. My daughter woke up early (for once) and asked to go skiing without any prompting from me. This never happens! I was immediately conflicted. What about work? I have things to do. (I see school breaks as a time to catch up. Unhealthy, I know.) However, the eight year old was determined and “no” was not an acceptable answer. Little did I know this was the start of something powerful.

I committed to taking a few runs, but not the whole day. We get to the mountain and she gets suited up on her own and is impatiently waiting for me. Soon we find ourselves on the lift head to the top. I notice how beautiful the trees are, covered in snow. The sun was bright and warming. Time seemed to be standing still. I looked at my phone after what felt like a few runs and… it was 3:00. Where had the day gone?

It was as if the whole week was building toward this moment.

I was reminded that there is so much to enjoy other than work. I really like my work but I also was reminded how much I really like the outdoors. And I came to Vermont because of all the outdoor opportunities. It was a top consideration when choosing a college. Slowly, as life got busy, I lost touch with many of connections I have made with the world through the outdoors.

I am beyond happy the world sought to remind me that balance is healthy.

So Here’s My Commitment:

I will continue to work towards a more healthy balance between my personal and professional worlds

How do you find balance? How do you hold yourself accountable?

Much happening this week in our worlds. And equally much to look forward to as we approach not only school vacation but also the shortest day of the year. A deficit of light, yes. Yet we celebrate the turning of the tide toward longer access to sun. We’re eagerly on our way toward the gift of more sunlight.

I encourage you to work with your colleagues and students to collectively to shine the light on all the ways you’ve learned together as a community. Learning exists in relation. Despite the hustle & bustle of this final push, we can and should pause to celebrate the learning environment you’ve mutually created.

And if you need inspiration to do so, find a way to carve out time for an ‘awe’ inspiring activity. Researchers found in a recent study that “awe may help stop us from ruminating on our problems and daily stressors. Instead, awe seems to pull us out of ourselves and make us feel immersed in our surroundings and the larger world (which may help explain its tendency to inspire generosity and a sense of connection with others).”

May you be inspired and stay connected for this last work week of 2019.

And until then, know that we see you, we appreciate you, and we want you to get some rest. *mwah*

(We also may want you to try putting reindeer antlers on your cat, but those of you with cats probably know how that usually works out. Whatever your self-care method, we salute you.)

Yes yes, usually we do book recommendations for the upcoming winter break. However, let’s try something new: flavors of winter 2019! Here’s a compilation of some new and not so new favorites. We hope you enjoy!

Jeanie:

This time a year I find that my intake of butter, sugar, and flour goes way WAY up!  As an antidote, I create variations of Smitten Kitchen’s endives with oranges and almonds. (I love Deb Perelman’s cookbooks and her blog is a regular source of dinnertime inspiration.)  Here is the basic formula:

• A crunchy leaf that serves as a boat: endive works great but you can use lettuce leaves if you don’t like the slightly bitter taste
• Dab of something creamy: cream cheese, chevre, blue cheese, brie, avocado
• Bit of something fruity: sections of grapefruit or orange, a slice of apple or pear, a spoonful of cranberry sauce, chutney, or currant jam, a scattering of pomegranate seeds (my personal fave)
• Touch of something salty: salted almonds or pecans, a sliver of smoked trout, a sprinkle of fancy salt
• Drizzle of something acidic: vinaigrette, vinegar, olive oil
• Sprinkle of something green: chopped parsley, chives, cilantro

I love Deb’s original, but I’ve also tried these combos:

• chevre, grapefruit, pomegranate, pecans, olive oil, and sherry vinegar
• cream cheese, cranberry sauce, smoked trout, and chives
• blue cheese, sliced pears, Marcona almonds, and parsley

Once I’ve eaten a few of these (or maybe the whole plate) I’m ready for some butter, sugar, and flour.

Emily:

Winter flavors equal soup flavors around here.  And one of the most important elements of a good soup is the stock.  Lately, I’ve been honing my stock skills- of both the vegetarian and omnivore varieties.

Veggie stock turns out to be much simpler than I expected. I found this quick and easy recipe that requires tossing a few key ingredients (like onions, peppercorns, garlic, and bay leaves + other aromatics of choice) into a pot of simmering water for a few minutes, straining, then building your soup from there.

For meat-based stocks, I’ve been collecting bone & veggie scraps during meal prep. Later, I throw them in my Instant Pot with the aforementioned veggie stock ingredients, plus a little apple cider vinegar to pull the minerals from the bones.  Three-ish hours later, voila, bone broth. I feel compelled to also mentioned that I also keep a case of ready-made stock in the pantry because a) time, b) energy.

My most favorite soup of late is this Garlicky Kale and White Bean Stew. It’s highly adaptable- make it with vegetarian stock or not, swap the kale for whatever greens you have on hand, use whichever canned beans you have in the cupboard, add sausage or not…you get the idea.

And, just for you, I’m willing to share my favorite soup hack of late: don’t throw away your Parmesan cheese rinds! Keep them, and when making a pot of soup throw a couple in for a gorgeous, rich umami bomb of flavor.

Finally, I must tell you that the highlight of my soup season is our annual Soup Swap.  We gather with friends over snacks and drinks in mid-January. Each swapper brings a few quarts of their favorite soup, and we all leave with a variety of delicious, warming soups to stock our freezers and warm our bellies for weeks to come.

Katy:

I don’t really bake. But this recipe is handed down to me by my mom, who also doesn’t really bake. And if she can do it, so can I.

Pumpkin Bread: notice I didn’t say low fat. Or low sugar. Or healthy. I’m talking sweet, delicious pumpkin bread with a buttery, pretty glaze on top.

My mom bakes dozens of these loaves of pumpkin bread and freezes them. Then she hands them out to friends and colleagues in the days before Christmas. She is famous for this, and folks look forward to her pumpkin bread with great anticipation.

So I am trying it this year. It is a nice affordable present for people, one they are bound to enjoy. It won’t fill up the landfill, only you and your loved ones’ stomachs. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. And your kids can help you make it (like I said if I can bake it…)

Also, not a pro, but a tip: It is much better to double this recipe. You’ll want two loaves anyway, and then you don’t have to worry about using up the rest of a can of pumpkin.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 2/3 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• dash of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 cup warm water

Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, and oil, mix well. Add vanilla, flour, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg. Mix baking soda, and warm water in a separate bowl, add this to the other mixture (a little at a time). Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Cool. Top with glaze (see below).

• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon water

Combine and boil until thickened. Spread on bread with a brush, pour the rest over the top and cool completely. Enjoy!

Life

After the River of Light festival in Waterbury last week, a few of us got together to make some sushi rolls.

Growing up, my Japanese grandma would produce a seemingly infinite supply of these rolls, called nori maki in Japanese. Sometimes we would make them as a family, competing in categories such as speed and quality. No surprise that grandma’s were always the tightest and most delicious.

Last week we brought a big batch of miso soup. It used to be a lot harder to find the ingredients, but these days the three basics are available at most grocery stores:

• Kelp (seaweed)
• Bonito (fish)
• Miso paste

You create a dashi stock by boiling the kelp for a bit, removing, and then simmering the bonito for a while. Put the bonito in cheese cloth to make it easy to remove, or just strain it.

Then add the miso paste and anything else (we like tofu and scallions) before serving.

Pro tip: no spoons required. Slurp drink straight from the bowl for maximum soul warming effect.

Audrey:

Y’all it is so cold outside. So cold. And there is basically no time to cook in the evenings anymore. No time. So.

Enter: Indian-ish, by Priya Krishna, and her amazing super-fast and well tasty weeknight dal recipe. One pot, four ingredients, no fuss and super warm. Vegan too, which makes it perfect for both vegan households and vege-flexible ones. You know who you are. It pairs well with Krishna’s sag paneer recipe, where the role of the paneer is played by feta cheese (not vegan). Because greens are important for winter health, and feta is salty and delicious. And both of those go well with: my Windfall Pears Chutney!

<Greg Wallace “Let’s Cook!” Masterchef gif goes here — someone please make one for me I am so tired>

Windfall Pears Chutney

• pears (like 2lbs, whacked into small pieces)
• a cinnamon stick
• half a red onion, diced
• 3 fresh jalapeños (or more, no judgment)
• some chopped fresh ginger (look, chutney’s not an exact science)
• yellow mustard seeds (….a tablespoon maybe?)
• exactly three cloves
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• handful of raisins

First off, if it’s not in small pieces when you start, turn it into small pieces. Then put the whole noise in the bottom of a Dutch oven, on the stovetop. Leave it uncovered so you can watch it, and put it on low/simmer, and it will eventually turn into a choppy, lumpy chutney. Also your house will smell amazing. I take it off the hob when all the liquid has disappeared, but you do you. And finally please note: this is not for canning. I do not can this. Lasts in the refrigerator about a month. Goes with dal and sag paneer, as mentioned, but can also jump in and mediate Those Discussions about cranberry sauce at holiday dinners, if you know what I mean (and I think you do).

Scott

Okay, funny story! Last time I was at the dentist my hygienist was talking about the same cookbook Audrey references above. Indian-ish, by Priya Krishna.

This has been my goto book for winter recipes ever since. Ironically, as someone who really digs protein, my favorite standout has been Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Green Pea Chutney. Amazingly simple, satisfying, and filling. So here’s what you need:

For the cauliflower:

• 2-3 pound whole cauliflower
• liberal amount of olive oil
• Kosher salt to your liking

For the chutney:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• 1/2 tablespoon whole peppercorns
• 1 small green chile
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro (stems and seeds)
• 2 walnut halves
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

To get going, rub the cauliflower with olive oil and salt. Toss it in a 400 degree preheated oven, until golden brown, abut 50 minute. In a pan toast the fenugreek and peppercorns in some oil for a minute or two. Add the chili, garlic, and onion and sauté until translucent. Add the peas until warm. Then throw the cooked mixture in the blender and add the rest of the ingredients. Cut the cauliflower in half, plate the chutney and serve.

We hope that however 2019 comes to an end that it involves a great meal, family and friends, and perhaps some giving to our communities. Also, we hope you can take a moment to reflect on the past year and recharge. 2020 will be here soon. We know you will be ready.

Susan

Happily sharing a holiday go-to recipe of Curried Mango Chutney Cheesecake with all of you. It never fails to be a hit with a crowd in part because of the surprise savory factor to this cheesecake. And, the topping! The green of the onions, the red of the cranberries, and the shredded coconut white adds to the festive factor.

Full disclosure. I am allergic to mangoes, or more precisely the oils on the skin (who knew mangos were part of the poison ivy family of plants?). So, I tend to shy away sadly from anything mango-related. Yet, I happily make this savory cheesecake spread at least twice a year. It’s that darn good.

For those of us who tend toward the savory, but do like that sweet/salty thing, you’ll love this. Seriously, always a hit; a curious Camilla (cat in the photo above) thinks so too.

Rachel

Like Emily, something that I crave during winter and the holidays is SOUP. I love that soup is satisfying, stores well, and often feeds me and my family for days.

One of my all-time favorite soups is Roasted Vegetable Soup from the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. It plays off the Contessa’s Roasted Winter Vegetable recipe and adds a few things to make a delicious soup. Something I admire about this recipe is the flexibility of ingredients; there are some suggestions – like sweet potato, parsnip, and carrot, but she encourages the cook to make use of whatever you have around. Leftover mashed potatoes?…add ’em in!

When you make this soup, I take a shortcut and use an immersion blender straight in the same cooking pot. It saves on some time and on dishes to wash later on.

Make sure you don’t neglect the garnish. It really makes a difference to cook up the delicious homemade croutons (use your stale bread!) and sprinkle on that chopped parsley. I also like to add a dash of olive oil on top. Then you get that simultaneous magic blend of sweet and salty in the end. When you’ve made your soup, bring in some crusty bread, whip together a leafy green salad, and you have a perfect winter meal.

Please feel free to share your favorite recipe!! We’d love to expand our palate.

The Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education’s recent book, Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades, published by Harvard Education Press, places Vermont in the national conversation about deeper learning, personalized learning policy, and postsecondary access and success. The book is a synthesis of the institute’s research into school change and education for young adolescents. In addition, the book shares examples from across the state of how schools are transitioning to more personalized, meaningful, and engaging learning experiences for students in grades five through nine.

Since 2009, the Tarrant Institute, funded through a generous gift to the University from the Richard E. and Deborah L. Tarrant Foundation, has been partnering with Vermont schools to support student centered, tech-rich, innovative school change. The book, along with an interactive online companion platform, celebrates ten years of the institute’s partnerships with Vermont schools.

The book focuses on how personalization, combined with a focus on deeper learning, can increase student agency, engagement, and purpose. It illustrates how educators are leveraging personalized learning plans to place students in the driver’s seat of their own learning. It chronicles lessons learned from the implementation of state legislation that mandates personalized learning plans and flexible pathways for students in grades 7-12. These can include internships, service and project-based learning, early college and blended learning experiences. 

Teacher-curated examples in the book demonstrate how effective personalized learning, responsive the developmental and learning needs of adolescents, is implemented in these Vermont schools. The authors were overwhelmed by the generosity with which educators shared their work. “This book truly could not exist without the kindness and collaboration put forth by our Vermont teachers. We’re incredibly lucky to work with such talented and innovative educators,” said Katy Farber. 

Dr. Bishop is an associate dean in the College of Education and Social Services, Dr. Downes the executive director of the Tarrant Institute, and Dr. Farber a longtime Vermont educator and Tarrant Institute professional development coordinator.

Engaged, on-topic…and talking over each other?

Here’s a scenario: student book groups.  Everyone’s read their assigned chapters and prepared for their meeting. The group gathers to begin their discussion.  Except what happens is this: the first question is posed, and instead of listening to one another they all begin talking at once, leaving little spaces for each other. No one appears to be listening to what anyone else says. It’s as if they’re all delivering simultaneous soliloquies.

or

The group meets and begins “discussing”, yet each student’s response is directed right at you – the teacher, as if the other students aren’t there at all. They are merely performing for you.

Sound familiar?

Scaffolding discussion skills

Many of us have observed this phenomenon:  prepared, enthusiastic, and engaged students who haven’t yet built the conversation skills they’ll need in life.  When I came across this situation in my fifth-grade classroom this year, I remembered a technique I’d been introduced to in my teacher education program: the Socratic Seminar.

Enter: Socratic Seminar

In case you are not familiar with the technique (or you’ve never seen Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure), a Socratic Seminar is a formal, student-led, content-focused discussion in which students engage in conversations about their learning with their peers. Socratic Seminars provide students with opportunities to practice and improve transferable skills, such as clear and effective communication and responsible and involved citizenship, and self-direction.

Would it work in fifth-grade?

Yes: your ten-year-old students can engage in a successful Socratic Seminar discussion.  But it takes some carefully laid groundwork.

Community as the foundation

A strong classroom community is the foundation of, well, everything that’s good.  I began the year slowly and with explicit expectations about everything: from how to sharpen a pencil to how to raise your hand.  Being crystal clear about expectations takes the pressure off students. When they know exactly how to do something they worry less about feeling awkward and can instead focus on being engaged.

We also spent a lot of time sharing with each other and making connections through personal interactions.  These two practices helped us gel together as a community. Once things were moving along relatively smoothly, I knew we were ready to try a Socratic Seminar.

Setting the stage

There are so many ways you can do prepare students for this experience. Essentially students need to know what a Socratic Seminar is, why you’re going to do one, and what that will look like and sound like.

In my classroom, we did this in three stages.

Build background knowledge

To introduce the concept of Socratic Seminars, I used a Prezi to introduce the Socratic Seminar. The original version by Tiana Fox was intended for a high school audience so I adapted the language and formatting to fit the needs of my classes.

The overview included key details, such as Highlights of the Prezi include:

• The definition of a Socratic Seminar
• Who Socrates was
• How the classroom will be set up? Classroom Setup
• How to speak & use evidence

We also watched a video of other students engaging in a Socratic Seminar and analyzed it together.  This helped my students get a sense of what it looked like, and what to expect.

Map out a plan

Once we knew what a Socratic Seminar was and how it worked, we began to map out what it would look like in our class.  We decided to do a fishbowl-style seminar, with students sitting in two concentric circles. The inside circle would be engaging in a Socratic discussion, while the outside circle would serve as peer observers, offering feedback to their classmates. To get this rolling, we carefully laid out the different roles of the inside and outside circles.  Then we practiced each role.

Giving (& getting) feedback

Students taking a turn in the outside circle would be responsible for giving feedback to a partner in the inside circle. Then they would switch roles. To prepare, I created a peer observation sheet and we practiced using it.  This scaffolding prepared each student for success.

Socratic Seminar Observation form

In addition to peer observations, I used a checklist to keep track of each students’ participation. The observation sheet and this checklist help me assess each student’s role in the seminar.

Co-create the expectations

I also engaged my students in creating rules and expectations to follow during the Socratic Seminar. Co-creating rules and expectations together increased student buy-in and helped students feel empowered. We revisit these expectations each time we prepare for a new Socratic Seminar, and at the end we reflect on what went well (a ‘Plus’) and what needs to change (a ‘Delta’) next time.  Returning to this planning and reflecting loop gives students a chance to improve.

Plan the launch

We also agreed together on how to begin each discussion. With a little guidance, my students decided that each book club group should have a chance to share the title and author of their book and a short summary. This gave my students a chance to ease into unfamiliar territory before diving into questions and engaging in free form conversations.

Finally, to scaffold and set each student up for success, we brainstormed a list of sentence starters and posted it as a resource for students to refer to during the discussion.  This chart was extremely helpful in giving students the confidence they needed to fully participate.

Dive in!

At some point, you have to stop preparing and just dive in. So we did! And it was a roaring success.

At first it was a little awkward, as students were still a little unsure how to proceed.  Many were looking to me to get them going. But I stuck to my role of observer, and eventually, one brave student got the ball rolling.

Once kids got in the groove it flourished! So much so that when reflecting on their first Socratic Seminar, a majority of the students asked for an even longer discussion time.

They loved it

These discussions were full of rich conversation, deep thinking, and respectful and responsive interactions. I was extremely impressed with the students’ abilities to create connections between their novels and other texts while tying in takeaways from our Social Studies units.

Students even used the sentence starters to politely draw quieter classmates into the conversation and build on each other’s comments.  This deep, inclusive, respectful communication is one of the most valuable skills we can teach our students.

Reflecting and improving

In addition to peer and teacher feedback, we’ve even videotaped and critiqued ourselves in our pursuit of improvement.  This has been a powerful way to reflect and improve the quality of discussion. We return to our ‘Plus, Delta’ reflection chart to note both what went well and what needs improvement.  

And it’s working!

Some students felt that they did not have an opportunity to participate as much as they wanted. As we dug a little deeper into that reflection, students recognized that when individuals speak too much it can be harmful to a discussion because it does not allow all perspectives to be shared. We continue to be aware of and work on for the remainder of the year both in our next Socratic Seminar and in our classroom.

Transfer-able skills

The Socratic Seminar discussion model has proven to be quite portable.  The fifth graders built the skills to engage in student-led Socratic Seminars in my Humanities class, but with a little work and cross-subject collaboration, they have been able to replicate the model in other classes.  

First, their art teacher brought the model to her class to engage in critique of both famous works and their own pieces. This has led to a collaboration between the art department and sixth grade using the model in an interdisciplinary unit on the American Revolution.  

Building these skills with students is a worthy investment of time and can be shared across classrooms.

How do you use Socratic Seminars in your classroom?

One of the best things about winter break is the chance to slow down and, for readers, the chance to take a break from the madcap holiday festivities and curl up in the corner with a good book.

Here’s what the TIIE staff are reading this 2018 holiday season.

Audrey

While I usually go for holiday murder mysteries — Stuart MacBride’s 12 Days of Winter, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, and the BBC Radio adaptation of The Sittaford Mystery are perennial favorites — this year I decided to go for something different.

I’m feasting on a veritable cornucopia of cookbooks and books on culinary history, and that’s the last food-related pun I’ll make in this entry as I Have Been Warned About That Sort Of Thing.

A good number of Vermont authors have brought out some great reading and eating books, including, in no particular order:

Bean by Bean: A Cookbook, by Westminster VT-based author Crescent Dragonwagon. A new find for me (shout out to the Lawrence Memorial Library in Bristol), I’ve already made a half-dozen of the dishes she features, including Orange Blossom Special Baked Beans, Ful Medames (mashed fava beans cooked with garlic and cumin, garnished with hard-boiled eggs and fresh tomato), Kerala-style Dal (coconutty!), Thai-style carrot and green bean salad (zesty!) and Chopped Liver à La Dragon (vegan & gluten-free chopped liver, which you will not knock until you’ve tried). Still working up to the bean-based desserts chapter.

Marialisa Calta’s Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the Modern American Family. This Calais, VT-based author traveled around the country interviewing families and getting them to share their strategies for getting dinner on the table. Along with Calta’s own tips for feeding a horde in 60 minutes or whatever you can eke out of an evening, this book arrived in my house via one of Hinesburg’s Tiny Free Libraries and features the best black bean soup ever.

The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food, by Ben Hewitt. Less of a cookbook and more of a look at community-based food production, Hewitt examines the revitalization of Hardwick, VT and surrounding communities. Around 10 years ago, organic farmers, CSAs, seed producers and dairies began deliberately moving their businesses to Hardwick, joining a deep agricultural tradition in the region and changing the small local economy …in surprising ways. I found this book earlier this year, digging deep in the stacks of the Russell Memorial Library in Monkton, and have been meaning to give it a re-read.

Okay, this is just an out-and-out cookbook: There’s A Pug In My Kitchen: Favorite Recipes from Friends of Green Mountain Pug Rescue. Spoiler: contains no actual pugs (although the dog biscuit recipe is worthy). This fat little cookbook never fails to surprise, with notes from the recipe’s submitters. Whether it’s Kale & Sundried Tomato Spoon bread, from Jeanne Finton, in Panton VT, Gayle Lyman’s Stuffed Mushrooms or Squash Soup with Goat Cheese & Chives, from Burlington’s Tamara Durfee-Smith, I always manage to find something new to try.

Baking Powder Wars: The Cutthroat Food Fight That Revolutionized Cooking, by Linda Civitello, has nothing to do with Vermont. 19th century industrial espionage! Robber barons! Possible poisonings!

Y’all, this is all Linda Pelaccio’s fault. I’m a huge fan of her podcast, A Taste of the Past, which is all culinary history, all the time, and Civitello’s episode is one of my favorites.

Finally, a little farther afield entirely (and possibly returning to the main holiday theme), I’m excited to curl up with the newest Ovidia Yu mystery, Meddling and Murder. Set in Singapore, this series tells the story of a meddling Peranakan auntie who runs a café and catering business, and includes lavish descriptions of the all the meals she prepares. Be warned: you will want nasi lemak after you finish reading.

Jeanie

I’ve read some wonderful books in 2018, and I’m looking forward to another year of great reading.  I just finished listening to the audiobook Becoming by Michelle Obama.  Her heartfelt memoir is a deeply reflective look at her life from a girl in the South Side of Chicago to the First Lady of the United States.  I really appreciated her vulnerability and honesty, and loved listening to her read her own words. I’m looking forward to spending time with a print copy so I can reread my favorite sections and peruse the photographs that accompany her story.  I’m also inspired to read more memoirs, and Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s Hey, Kiddo is at the top of my list.  Krosoczka is the well known author/illustrator of the Lunch Lady books for younger readers, but his graphic memoir is for young adults. In it he tells the story of being raised by his grandparents as his mother struggles with heroin addiction and his father is absent.

My favorite novel from 2018 was There There by Tommy Orange, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. It is a brilliant but heartbreaking story told in many voices, all urban and Native American.  It has me craving more stories by and about native people. Cherie Dimaline’s dystopic novel The Marrow Thieves fits the bill. In it only Indigenous North Americans can dream, making their bodies extremely valuable to poachers who want to use their marrow to find a cure for non-dreamers. Sounds creepy but compelling!

Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School is absolutely my favorite education book of 2018, and I recommend it to every educator I know.  Carla Shalaby’s case studies of four non-compliant students have much to teach us about building an education system where all students can learn.

On my list for this coming year: Schooltalk: Rethinking What We Say About -and To- Students Every Day Mica Pollock approaches equitable education from a very concrete place: the words we use.  Words have power, and I’m looking forward to examining my own so they can be tools for equity.

Happy Reading!

Katy

Winter is the best time for reading, all that darkness. I was lucky to find a sale priced copy of Daniel Pink’s by DRIVE: the surprising truth about what motivates us. This is a general population/business oriented is book packed with research about what motivates humans with many implications for our work in education. Hundreds of research papers and studies essentially point to the same thing:

“Human beings have an innate drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.”

Self-determination theory, as described by researchers Deci and Ryan, could then be considered as motivation (see what I did there?) and justification for many personalization pedagogies, especially service learning and project based learning. Another salient point from the first part of the book, based on extensive research, is that extrinsic rewards for behavior do not work for the long term in most cases. Indeed, students are often diligent about the change in the short term, but lose interest in the long term with extrinsic rewards for certain behaviors. Working to improve opportunities to develop intrinsic motivation fosters life-long learning and opportunity for students, and this is rooted in research.

I also just finished reading aloud Patina by Jason Reynolds to my daughters. We fell hard and fast for the protagonist, Patty, who faces many challenges in her family and in moving schools. She is a track athlete, so fellow runners (raising hand) will love the scenes about racing and relay passes. But really, the book is about all the different ways families can look and be, and how we can face hard things with love and support from friends and how ever we define family.  The characters are finely drawn (especially Patina’s younger sister, Maddy) and the book is laugh out loud funny at times too. This is part of a track series (YES!) of books that include Ghost, Patina, Sunny, and Lu, which are now on our to read list.

Life

I love my local Waterbury Public Library. I especially enjoy perusing the new release section and finding a gem like She Would be King, a debut novel from Wayetu Moore. Based on the first few pages, her writing is poetic and enthralling. She blends history and magical realism to retell the founding of Liberia. I plan to cuddle up with this one when I want to revel in the enchantment of the season.

I got a bit overambitious with interlibrary loan and ended up with a bunch of other books that have been on my list. Alone on the Ice details an Antarctic expedition from 100 years ago. I was inspired to read it because my wife is obsessed with the daily progress reports of Colin O’Brady, who is one of two adventurers separately attempting the first solo unassisted traverse of Antarctica at the moment. Fittingly, I will read this when I need alone time.

It took me a while to get my hands on the instant classic Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. I will read this one when my wife is done with it. She got to it first and it must be good because she shows no signs of sharing until she’s finished.

I have no idea where I heard about Anger is a Gift, a YA novel by Mark Oshiro. But whoever put this on my list, thank you. So far it has been an emotional and rewarding ride. The characters are incredibly diverse along every dimension. The school that is central to the story exhibits both oppressive systems and liberation possibilities (via amazing educators, of course). I am reading this one every free moment until I’m finished. And like in the real world, I’m hopeful that liberation wins out.

Scott

Several years ago, while camping with my family, I stumbled upon a totally random stack of books previous campers had left in a cabin. A few miles from nowhere, and without any cell phone reception, a book seems like the perfect fit. Not knowing anything about the books in the pile I closed my eyes and grabbed one at random. Little did I know this would be the beginning of a serious binge with this series. Every time I read a book in this series it takes me back to the peace and tranquility of the woods and that lakeside hammock I called home for a few days.  Two weeks ago, Past Tense, the most recent book in Lee’ Child’s series appeared on my kitchen island. It was a birthday gift to my wife from her father.

Full admission, I straight up stole it and claimed possession is nine tenths of the law.

Apologies to my wife… The series details the life of an ex-Army police officer that finds himself in these crazy mystery situations and end up solving them one way or another. 

There was a decade in my life I only lived for the nonfiction genre of adventure and exploration. I was fascinated with books like Into Thin Air, Seven Summits, The Climb, and Above the Clouds to name a few. With every book, I was swept into a foreign and challenging landscape where people pushed their bodies beyond what they and science thought was possible. It was this battle with pushing boundaries and often an exploration of one’s self that kept me hooked. I recently watched the documentary Free Solo  where Alex Honnold free climbed (no ropes or safety gear) Yosemite’s El Capitan. I was reminded of a similar challenge in Heinrich Harrer’s The White Spider. The book details the successful 1938 climb of the Eiger located in the Alps of Switzerland. It’s worth a re-read.

Susan

I’m counting the days to winter break so I can finally finish Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind, a journey into the history of psychedelic drugs and their current resurgence in the realm of treating depression, addiction, and other health issues. Part spiritual, part personal, oh-so compelling.

Two other must reads during break are Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent and Richard Powers’ The Overstory.

But I’m most excited to visit this year’s Green Mountain Book Awards, a list of recommended books for high school students. I sat on this committee back in my library media specialist days and so very much look forward to picking one or two with my daughters to read together wrapped in woodstove warmth, covered in fleece throws, and accompanied by at least two lap cats.

What are you reading this winter to revitalize you for the new year?

Get your red hot summer reads right here!

Or your chilling-in-the-AC-far-away-from-sunlight summer reads. We don’t judge. For educators, summer is a time to relax, recharge and maybe fit some professional development in, but honestly, not til like, August, easily*.

Continue reading “Summer reading 2018”