I am not teaching summer school this year, which has been delightful for me and frustrating for my housemates. I love school a lot, and I was also ready for a break. That said, I can't sit still. Sure, we have traveled a bit, gone to the pool, binge watched some TV (mostly at my youngest's behest), but when we are not doing those things, I do projects. Thus far, I have made unsuccessful attempts at bunny proofing the garden, restaked the pole beans, sorted the clothes in my dresser, revamped the laundry room and installed a hummingbird feeder - alas, no hummingbirds yet.
This morning, I decided it was time to tackle the fridge. As a math teacher, I like to count things. We had 4 jars of mustard, 17 cans of beer, 5 different types of jelly, capers from 2016 and 7 different types of pickles. I dutifully dumped the unwanted down the sink and recycled the containers. I saved all the beer and the cherry jam (my favorite).
It was the Spicy Szechuan Sauce that made the least sense to me. Sure, I love pickles and mustard, but when and why had we purchased this? It smelled pretty gross going down then drain. Especially at 7:30 in the morning.
As I poured out jar after jar of pickle juice, I thought about the practices we have as teachers that seemed like a great idea once, but no longer serve a purpose. Giving spelling tests or zeros came to mind as the most useless, but there are personal practices that I held dearly once which over time required change. I thought some of the trash projects I assigned in my early days at SLA-MS, about how I used to take off points for lateness, and about how wordy my rubrics used to be. These are the spicy szechuan of my practice - things I don't remember why or when I started, but I know I have to give up.
As I finished the fridge project, I started to think more about the practices I still do. Are the effective? Fair? Do they promote thinking and learning? Are they the next spicy szechuan?
As we go about doing summer, let's reflect on the things we hold dear and the things we just do. Let's think about why we do them and what impact they have on the learning and the kids who learn. If we can make the coming school year one that is challenging, yet fun, one that helps kids try and think and one that assesses their learning equitably, we will have less spicy szechuan to get rid of next summer.
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