Not Everything Is An Assignment

You didn't really think I had the answer to that question, did you? I mean, honestly. This is a problem I deal with often. It's a blessing and a curse really. I'm forever grateful to have been graced with adaptability, skill, quick wit, and resilience. I can make a fully articulated octopus puppet from cardboard, duct tape, and a few wire hangers.       It allows me to lean in to problems, try solutions without fear of failure, and has garnered me the most diverse and bizarre of resumes. But it comes with phases of depression caused by those mostly insignificant relentlessly disappointing moments that become a tidal wave of failure. Or at least the feeling of failure. I have many strengths as an educator. But they are difficult to see when I constantly focus on those skills I can't seem to conquer. Instead of focusing on one to work on and improve, I try to do it all at once, never able to gain traction in any one area. Add to that, those blindsiding mom...

        So, Week 1 of Corona Break is over. At least 5 more to go. Part of me wonders why this is so hard for people. I mean, so far, it's not much different than Spring Break. After two weeks, it's like Christmas Break ( with less gifts and more hand-washing ). Five or six weeks? Well, for those of us who work from home or are teachers, it's and early summer break. So why are all these parents losing their minds when having to care for their children 24/7/6+ (see what I did there)?         Then I remember I am a mother of four, ages 7-15. And I am now responsible for continuing to check in on and educate my 150 students virtually, but ALSO manage my children's education from home.  We are taking on the job we trust other education professionals to do, while trying to manage our actual jobs, our households.         I've done a couple of things this week to prepare for the coming new way of life. I love Khan Academy ...

     It's always amazing to me when events seemingly happen at the moment you need them most. My neuroscience lens is screaming, "R.A.S.! R.A.S.! It's real!" (Which of course when typing makes me think of R.O.U.S.s - I don't think they exist, but I digress...) My frontal cortex says that my Reticular Activating System (R.A.S.) is hyper focused on finding my purpose, my "self", again. Wednesday's Learning Lab experience left me more than a little depressed, I have to be honest. Watching an incredibly organized, purposeful, intentional educator teach in the morning was wonderful. The afternoon started well, but by the debrief, devolved into something I wasn't mentally prepared for. There were extenuating circumstances that contributed to my negative mental state. But upon reflection, while my spouse has a nasty habit of triggering panic attacks that linger for hours, if not days, I realize I have strayed from the path of "myself"...

So, remember when I wrote this post on Relentless Disappointment, http://abrahall.blogspot.com/2019/05/relentless-disappointment.html . ? It's rearing it's ugly head again, but it feels so early in the school year to feel it. Then again, I had an enlightening experience this summer that has cleared my vision when looking at students and people, their behavior and motivations. And above all, brings the epidemic of mental illness our children and friends are experiencing into sharp focus. This summer I attended the Neural Education Institute and became an Advanced Neural Educator. In brief, it reframes the motivation of the teacher to focus on those who struggle most rather than the average or advanced to ensure success for all. It also stresses heavily the importance of understanding behavior is biological and malleable. I sit in front of my students now and see them even more clearly. I look at each individual everyday and try to gauge where they are at emotionally. Are they re...

I had a fun opportunity to be a guest on Jeff Utecht's Podcast, "Save Our Schools". We discuss how I got into teaching, this new generation of teachers and students, fun projects we did in my classroom this year, March Mammal Madness, the Impress Me Project, "School in the Cloud", and more! Wow! I can pack a LOT of words into 40 minutes... Check it out - Episode 86

The most beautiful thing is happening in my anatomy classroom. My kids are in love. The day has finally come - a day that I, and apparently they, have been waiting for all year. You see, I promised on the very first day of school that they would each get the last 4-6 weeks of the school year to do an independent study project of their own choosing. I told them that no matter where I was in the curriculum that I would stop and they would get their chance to take ownership of their learning. My theme for this school year was, "We're goin' outside!" And it started as a way to get my Freshmen Natural Resources Biology class outdoors and actually experiencing this thing called nature they were supposed to be learning about. But then I realized I could take it another step further. "Outside" could mean so much more than spending the class period outside of the classroom walls. It could mean bringing the outside in with guest speakers - industry professionals...

Do you ever have those moments when someone says a particular word or phrase and you get stuck? It's somehow beyond simply resonating. It's paralyzing. You can't continue to listen and process because they've pinned you in a memory or feeling that you can't escape. Why is that? Am I looking for connection? Am I constantly processing a situation or problem and waiting to hear the right words to name it? To solve it? To connect it? I suppose if I am truly being reflective, I understand why it's taken me so long to do this "final" blog post to sum up what this cadre experience has been for me. I like to put pretty bows on things and wrap them up into an easy to understand package, but I'm endlessly messy. I want things to be so perfect, but I'm really a crunched box full of unrelated items I have no idea how to classify and probably have no business lumping together. I wait so long to reflect on a single experience because I seek connections...

It's 8am - Why are all these people excited to learn about classroom management in a personalized learning environment with Patrick Green ? Because this is what we all want but have NO idea how to do! Gerry Brooks is hilarious. I would like the link to his talk. Also, he is my spirit animal. Alexa, how can you make my life better in the classroom? She already does! I need to look into building skills as I haven't dived in on that yet. Apps I Now Have To Try: Emoji Builder FlipGrid Talking Points Canva (Already used it, but I forget...) Videezy Loom - Screencasting software, user friendly Career Village Lastpass Novel Effect xplorlabs - FORENSICS!!!!! Thinking App - track student activity Sero  - Mindmapping as assessment Books I Now Have To Read: The End of Average by Todd Rose Classroom Management in the Digital Age by Heather Dowd and Patrick Green Be REAL by Tara Miller SO MANY MORE!!! Mostly, more questions than answers, more to do, bu...

NCCE Day 2- Here are my biggest take-aways from Day 2 of the Conference. Love Kids Into Learning: Tara Martin, author of Be REAL , taught us how to use the "Innovator's Compass" as a quick way to create family classroom culture and quick start student relationships. The process is authentic, real, and vulnerable, but impactful and long-lasting. Lots of potential here for classroom use - particularly beginning of term and something to be revisited throughout the year to document personal growth. I would like to know more about using this technique to teach students how to ask thoughtful questions and determine first steps. IE, how to I make this assignment/content specific? She mentioned this strategy can be used to help students learn to ask good questions. Impress Me Digitally: I was hoping very much to learn about some tools to make available for our students doing the Impress Me project. I imagine VERY few of them have any experience making a video or digital pr...

     In preparation for going to the  NCCE  conference for 3 days (thanks admin!), I began to panic about what kind of lesson plans I could leave when we are just returning from a week long break. Not enough time for me to introduce something relevant for them to work on, but I'm not ready to have the watch a movie for three days either! (You can only watch GATTACA so many times in your life...)     So I was inspired by something I know Rebekah Cheney and Monica Goucher do on days they are not there - video lectures! So I went in over mid-winter break and used  Screencastify Lite  (I will likely buy a subscription if this goes well) to record 10 minute segments introducing assignments for the students to work on in groups or individually at their own pace and posted them on Classroom, set to release each day at 8 am.     Knowing my students, I also plan to make a daily goals and reflection sheet in the hopes of keeping th...

         It never ceases to amaze me the inspiration we can gain from our colleagues. This cadre is nothing if not a playground for ideas and inspiration. I'm taking what I read in a colleague's blog and intend to run with it. You can read it  here . We see life in much the same way (although not always the same) and I'm 100% sure we wouldn't order the same Subway sandwich.       A number of thoughtful questions are posed and I find myself pondering this idea of individualized education is a need to truly make each individual's education unique for them OR do we need to give each individual the skill to serve the infinitesimal needs of other individuals? Do we tailor education to make it "easier" for them, or give them the skills to cope in a classroom, work environment, home life where they have to cooperate with people of different styles. I wonder if we can do a little of both. Help them understand themselves to either learn how to learn...