Lost in the Woods
I am lost in the woods. Or wandering, maybe? I haven't decided.
I think I WANT to be wandering, but I'm really lost.
I let life get the best of me. With holidays, and "breaks", and kids' recitals, I forgot to pay attention to trying to grow. All of the cool things I've started because of this journey, sort of began to float off into space. It's time to refocus, prioritize, simplify, and then implement.
Gah! Where to start?! It's like leaving the dishes so you can play Uno with your kids, but every time you turn around there are TWICE as many dishes as the last time you looked.
Focus.
Prioritize.
Anatomy - What do I want them to know? I'm planning to give them the last 3-6 weeks to do an individual project. I need to develop a reference page for them, a way to set short-term goals and reflect.
Biology - This new curriculum is still awesome - but still emotional. I truly feel like I'm on a journey through the woods where I think I've taken the right path only to run into a venomous snake I'm forced to slay or run from. After surviving the encounter I feel a surge of energy and ride the high, only to find the path ends and I now have to slog through fallen trees, in the dark and pouring rain.
I've started allowing the students to move at their own pace. I have an area for students who are on target, understand, and continue to progress through material. I have another area for students who understand, but procrastinate. Together, they don't distract the kids ready to move ahead, they can ask questions when needed, and I can redirect off task behavior. Then I have the group that I sit with and walk through the work with them, reexplain, push to try. It feels like a mess, it feels like it's working. Students move from area to area as needed. It works for now.
Impress Me Project - I want this to be magical. I think some of them will be. So far my favorite part is sitting with individual groups and asking the tough questions. "Why did you choose this topic?" "Why is this meaningful?" "Why is this impressive?"
I sat with a group before winter break who said they wanted to do their project on "The History of Enumclaw"...okay...Why? Couldn't I look this up myself? Why do you want to do this?
The response: I don't know (read: because it seemed easy)
So I pushed. Why is Enumclaw so great? Eventually, I learned that two of the girls came from long-established dairy farmer families. It was personal for them. THAT is what Impresses Me. I want them to move past the facts and show me something that matters. Not something that matters to me, but to them.
Also in this group was an exchange student. I asked him what he was going to contribute to a project about the history of dairy farming in Enumclaw...he didn't know.
I asked him what he would do with this project if he could do it by himself. Turns out, he has a great idea. I told him to go out on his own. It will either be the BEST project, or the WORST.
But I already won, because he decided to take the risk.
Random. Lost. Attempting to wander and wonder...
But I have promises to keep.
And miles to go before I sleep.'
Oh, sister, I completely understand! Christmas, kids coming home from college (yeah!), 95 essays (yikes!), 30 visual presentations (some yeah!, some yikes!), and just wanting to rest - it all began to be too much.
ReplyDeleteI am inspired by your constant questioning of students to get to the heart of their decisions. I feel like sometimes, in my concern about being too invasive, I don't encourage students to dig deeper, to find the truth.
Thanks for sharing this!
So I do the dishes at my house. My recommendation start with the one on top. :)
ReplyDeleteVicki Davis (a.k.a. Cool Cat Teacher) uses the phrase "Innovate like a turtle". When things seem out of control innovate like a turtle. Your one conversation could be that innovation for the day. One spark, then the next day one more. The pile gets overwhelming when you look at the whole pile.
Do what you can do, in the time you have to do it. We all have the same minutes in the day, it's how you choose to use them that matters.
The important part is (a) that you are willing to grow and (b) that you are seeing your students take risks and go out on a limb. Even though it's daunting at times, being able to hold onto the little wins is so important.
ReplyDeleteIn times where I'm feeling overwhelmed, I try to focus just on one class/unit. I almost ran myself into the ground a few years ago because I was trying something new in every class all the time (well, at least that's what it felt like). I felt like I was behind the curve and needed to move my class up light years in next to no time. What I learned is that I was much more effective focusing on doing one thing well than I was doing a bunch of things decently.
Hang in there! It's worth it because students are worth it.
Life is an adventure. Or a disaster, depending on how you look at it. Celebrate the successes along the way, don't put to much of the world on your shoulders, and realize that you are doing amazing things. They're just hiding in between all of the life.
ReplyDelete