Teachers Never Give Up
When your best intentions and all your carefully researched plans fail…you cry, you get cranky, you go home exhausted each night. And then, you pick yourself up again and start over. Because teachers do not give up.
You may start with a good ‘ol heart to heart talk with your students. Maybe your students are reflective and provide you with some good feedback on what might help your class go better.
Then you return to your professional literature in hopes that you have somehow forgotten something valuable that will save your class from the brink of despair. But as you pour over the pages, you find that you have indeed been implementing the tips, tricks, and researched best practices. But still, you do not give up.
After consulting your class and your professional literature with no luck, you turn to your colleagues and mentors for a shoulder to cry on, for ideas, suggestions, and encouragement. And lo and behold through your collaborative discussion, you uncover a few possibilities that just might work. Your mind begins to churn with even more ideas, and you return to lesson planning with vigor. The following week you try some new ideas and BAM- the magic is back. Your kids are engaged and learning again! Whew.
Yup. This has been the cycle I have followed for my action research writing project. I started off super excited to finally try out a small guided group exclusively for writing this year and I purposely selected students on my caseload that were not engaged in writing. I knew I had my work cut out for me, but with my carefully crafted lessons, I thought I was set up for success. Unfortunately, my students were not excited about my writing class. They came in each day already dreading it before we had begun, and I found that I was dreading it too.
I knew I had to do something. I had to change things up. I consulted my writing books, tried a few things, but still nothing, no increased engagement. I returned to the Greater Madison Writing Project group and shared my woes. We talked about my class in general and also student specific concerns. We shared things we wondered about and noticed. I left that night with my mind swimming with more ideas, feeling invigorated, not defeated.
I returned to work the next day and started implementing some of our ideas. I infused more choice, some elements of chance & surprise, incorporate more options of low risk writing options, and of course, more fun. Instantly, my struggling writers started to write again. They were engaged and and no longer dragging their feet on their way to my class. And this was December, with winter break right around the corner. I was relieved to have this breakthrough, even though it may seem small or even be only temporary — it was a step in the right direction.
In reflection, I am realizing a few things. First of all, having just read the book, Thrive, I am reminded how crucial having a circle of mentors is to my teaching. When my own ideas fail, or when the professional literature just doesn’t seem to be catching fire with my students, I can almost always count on my mentors to spark something. Of course, my circle of mentors is not usually my last resort, it is typically the first place to turn to. In this age of only using “researched based best practices,” teachers often forget the expertise that we have in each other. Those magical conversations that occur between teachers is often the spark that can ignite the classroom.
Beyond the collaboration, I have been reminded how important scaffolding is in the skills we teach. We often want to make big jumps in skills when sometimes baby steps are needed. Scaffolding doesn’t need to be boring. We often focus on the skills and forget about the element of fun that is needed. Each positive experience with writing that I can provide helps lift their engagement a little more each time. We forget that writing is personal and putting it out on paper takes a lot of bravery. This is hard for many students and they need more low risk options in order to write.
I’m excited to continue on with my action research…if only I can remember each day to keep these nuggets of information close to my heart and mind each day as I plan my lessons, as I struggle through the bad days, and renew myself for yet another day. Because teachers never give up.
