The Literate Teacher's Manifesto

As the school year settles into full swing and I find myself more and more immersed in the planning, creating, assessing, and reevaluating of the daily flow of my lessons, I start to feel the pressure of feedback building up on me. I know that the value of learning in my gradeless classroom is much higher than it used to be. I believe that the feedback I give my students is making them into more successful ELA students. But there are so many days I look at the towering pile of work that requires feedback, and I just feel completely inadequate. There are not enough hours, not enough patience, not enough me to go around for all of them. Some days it feels like it would just be so much easier to give a ten-question multiple choice test, run it on the Scantron or through Schoolnet, and call it good. I think these things in my moments of weakness, but I know that I could never be satisfied with that type of assessment for the deep learning I want to happen in my classroom. I know that stu...

It started yesterday at the lunch table. The "progress report talk." When will we send them? How long will they get to bring them back? How many assignments are on yours? How many tests have you given? Who is failing? I got a sick feeling in my stomach, kinda like I used to feel in middle school when progress reports were about to come out. When discussions like these happen, I always feel like the odd man out. It always makes me pause, just for a second, and wonder Is the way I'm doing it really best? Shouldn't I have given a test by now? Surely there's some kid that I should be failing...if they're all doing well doesn't that mean I'm just a slacker, the "easy" teacher? Old habits sure do die hard. It's so easy to get caught up in the assignment trap, especially when the kids are stuck in the finished=grade=done mindset and you can't figure out a great way to communicate progress to parents without putting a number on anything. I...

My 2017 New Year's resolution was to learn a new skill. I take pride in calling myself a life-long learner, but it occurred to me that most of the ways I was still learning were based in reading, writing, and teaching: three things that come very easily and naturally to me, partly through aptitude, but mainly due to many years of practice. It took me a while to decide what I would do, but in February I settled on taking art classes. My son was already taking at our local arts center so it wouldn't be a major disruption in our schedule, and I love art even though I wouldn't call myself an artist. So on the first Tuesday of February 2017, I sat down in the classroom with my brand-new sketchbook and pencils, and set myself up to learn how to do something new. I expected to learn a lot about technique and skill, but I was unprepared for how much I would learn about teaching from watching my art teacher, Miss Martha, in action. From day one, I began to realize how magical the ...