If You’re Reading This The First Paragraph Is For You (Six advisory / culture ideas:)
(This is from January 4 but I forgot to post it.)
Christine asked me on Tuesday, “Do you think everyone reads your emails / posts?”
No, I don’t think so. I mean, I hope people read them but I don’t necessarily think that many people do. And that’s okay. I don’t write them for everyone. I write them because A. I like to write, B. I like to think about things, and C. I truly believe that there are people out there reading these who want suggestions about great content to discuss with kids / adults / themselves / anyone. It’s like Nick Kokonas says on Chef’s Table * about Grant Achatz (the first episode of the second season; @ 26:55): “It [Trio; Grant’s first restaurant in Chicago before he opened Alinea] was just the best restaurant in the world at the time, and nobody knew it.” Somebody out there right now has the best classroom in KIPP: New Jersey (maybe in all of New Jersey; maybe in all). Another somebody has the best relationships with kids and families (I include colleagues as family) in our entire network (maybe beyond our entire network; maybe beyond that). Another somebody has amazing ideas about how to make our students better and our schools better and our systems better. And so on. I’m not even sure who these people are. They might be multiple people and they might not even know yet that they are legends. They might very well be you, or you’re planning on making it you. I try to think about these people when I write, the people who inspire me, the people with the proverbial best restaurant in the world at this moment. Because those people are out there — just like the stars that are actually out there during the daytime. We might not be able to see them but that doesn’t mean they’re not above us. And trust me — whether they’re at Rise or NCA or Lanning Square Primary or Miami or galaxies away — they’re shining.
This is for them.
1.) The first (dope af) attachment (pictured below) is from Jill R. She presented on 6th grade writing during our grade level meeting yesterday because she realized that we could magnify our impact with kids and their work if we, as a team, talked about and modeled writing in a similar way across history, science, math, and ELA.
Speaking personally (and mostly as a math teacher), I’m pumped — especially about using the language of claim, evidence, and analysis.
Feel free to steal / share / save / bring to your own team whether you run the team or not.
2.) From Qasim S. (2024) — Under Armour | Erase All Doubt
(Just trust Qasim on this one. You’ll know why @ 0:54.)
2a.) Speaking of Under Armour commercials: BACK TO WORK | STEPHEN CURRY | UNDER ARMOUR
(There’s some great new year messaging in here. It would be better for the start of a new school year but it still works for the calendar year too.)
2b.) Still the goat of Under Armour commercials: Under Armour | Rule Yourself
(Steph Curry & [!] Misty Copeland. Say no more.)
3.) TEAM Schools (KIPP) — Mia’s Story (Six Essential Questions)
Time to dust this off. Six years later and still absolute fire.
4.) I really love this idea (below) from Kevin B. –
IMAGINE HOW MUCH BETTER WE’LL BE IN 1 YEAR, 2 YEARS, 5 YEARS, 10 YEARS, ETCETERA.
If Antwann B. can get that good (!) in 1 year, if Abdoul O. can get that good (!!) in 4 years, if Stacie A. can get that good (!!!) in 5 years, if Meghan St. Cyr can get that good (!!!!) in 9 years, if Kara G. can get that good (!!!!!) in 11 years, just think of the possibilities.
5.) Should you personally watch the Human Planet on Netflix / probably other places too?
Yes. It’s tremendously beautiful.
But you should also show the kids portions too.
(As you go, keep track of the different segments that you think will resonate with them [something I wish that I did].)
Because the scuba diving with faulty / flimsy hoses (part of Oceans), the five day walk to water in the desert (part of Deserts), the tightrope walk across a raging river (part of Rivers), and the weeklong walk to school along a frozen river (part of Arctic) — to name a few — are definitely worth being watched and discussed.
6.) We’ve been tracking trips differently this year (in 6th grade).
First, instead of taking the top 80 kids on a particular trip (that number changes depending on the trip but we take at least 80 kids), we’ve been taking the top 35 girls and top 45 boys (which is roughly proportional to the number of girls and boys in the grade).
We’re doing this because we want more boys to earn our trips / for our boys to be more invested in school.
Second, instead of just assigning negative points for consequences on our trip tracker (if you want an example, let me know), we’re also letting kids earn 1.5 positive points per class per week (an idea that Shawn V. effectively argued for last summer). They can earn points for being on-track for Words Read (ELA), Acellus (science), Mathspace (math), and Newsela (history).
We’re doing this because we want to promote academics as much as possible (instead of just avoiding misbehavior) and I’d like to think this has changed the conversations with kids around earning trips to accurately reflect what we value most: their learning.
Third, we post our trip tracker every Monday night on Google Classroom so that kids / families / everyone know exactly where they stand in terms of ranking / points.
We believe that this level of transparency has helped us be even more honest with the kids about what they’re doing well and what they need to improve.
Fourth, we’ve been trying to have a monthly (or once every two months) boys night and girls night from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. to which every boy / girl in the grade is invited. I think the lack of criteria / open invitation for earning this event has helped kids see that we love all of them and that we’re willing to spend time with all of them (not just the best behaved or the hardest working) outside of school hours.
Have a great night,
Mark
* The Chef’s Table: France on Alain Passard and his transition from meat to vegetables at the center of the plate at his once (and still) three Michelin star restaurant in also unreal.
