Leveraging Learning

 It started with a request for some pipe cleaners on the last day of school. Most kids were playing games or chatting, but Kaila was watching a tutorial on how to make flowers. A few other kids stopped playing Uno to check out her work and were impressed with the outcome. "How did you do that?," they wondered. "I found a video," was Kaila's simple reply. At SLA-MS, we have a class called Rover in which kids can make projects of their choosing. For some, it's a hoop-jumping moment of making a project because it is required. For others, like Kaila, its journey of pursuing things that are interesting. Last year, she wrote and illustrated a book, she grew a red pepper plant and she made her pipe cleaner flowers even after the grades were closed. While other kids were forcing themselves to make slideshows that even they were not interested in, Kaila stayed busy.  Why are some middle school students busier than others? I recently spent time with my two year old gr...

 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...

A former student showed up to visit this week and with her was a friend who had not been a student at our school. We had a lovely visit, talking about the past and the future, and wandering through the hallways of our incredibly beautiful building. The friend was blown away by the light, the space, the furniture, the colors and the newness of our school. "My middle school was not this nice," she remarked. My immediate family is fortunate in our academic and professional places. My older son works at an arboretum, which we not-jokingly refer to as "the most beautiful place on earth." It's filled with plants, space, structures and light that are all designed to bring beauty and peace. My younger son is working towards his PhD in applied mathematics in Hoboken, New Jersey. Each time I visit him there I am in a awe of the Hudson River and all the buildings and lights and walkways that support human wonder. And, of course, my school was designed to keep middle school...

 This year, kids and teachers across the country have gone back to school in extreme heat. Some schools have fared better than others due to air conditioning, but many have suffered discomfort, malaise, irritability, unsafe temperatures and disruptions to learning. I spent the summer feeling crummy as a result of most of the things on the list above. Crummy is actually putting it mildly, but that is beside the point. I saw some medical professionals, spoke with some experts, complained to my family and yet, I wasn't really able to get a handle on what was wrong or what to do about it. If you want to feel like a hardcore loser, have vague medical symptoms. Anyway, the place that I landed was to reduce my discomfort by being more anti-inflammatory. More fatty fish, more berries, more sleep, more fitness, more seeds and nuts, but fewer processed foods, less sugar and (sadly) less beer. It is a process, but I am feeling better.  My efforts to reduce inflammation were thwarted some...

 I have an unhealthy relationship with attendance. I come to school almost every day because I love school and I hate being absent. It took me a long time to understand that people cannot be preset every day. Some of this understanding came from personal experiences. You can't be present when your offspring are home sick, when you have COVID, when your 18 year old kitty has a stroke, when your partner is having surgery, or when you're at your brother's funeral. Life does get in the way of school and maybe that's a good thing. I have a mindfulness app that encourages me to "be present." The app seems to imply that if I breathe and notice, I am "present." While this may or may or be true, I interpret "present" as an active thing. Yes, I need to breathe and notice, but I also need to do stuff. Being present is more than just being in the moment. It's knowing the plan for the day and the people who are needed to make the plan work. It's...

 That's me. Now you know.  Five days in and I still don't feel great. Who are these people lucky enough to get COVID for 48 hours? Sitting on my sofa or on my patio for a bunch of days is not as blissful as I had imagined - especially since I've felt like crap for much of that time. Julie Andrews would encourage me to list my favorite things in a moment like this. I promise to do that, but only after I list some things that really chap my ass about having COVID. Jammies should have pockets. Yesterday was the first time I wore actual pants in several days. This decision was motivated by a desire to at least seem like a productive member of society as well as a desire to stop losing my Chapstick. Pockets are easy to make and all jammies should have them. Chris Pine is an unconvincing Robert the Bruce. Captain Kirk, sure. Scottish patriot, not so much. Trying to get kids at school to finish a project remotely is hard. It was one thing when we were all remote, but with just me ...

 Over these last two weeks, kids at our school and across our state took the dreaded state-wide assessment. I was asked to administer the test to a lovely group of 7th graders, about half of whom I had previously taught. Practically no one looks forward to these experiences, but I was impressed with all the kids who showed up ready. They had a sense of determination and effort combined with a desire to do their best. In a project based school like ours, kids don't have a ton of exposure to formal testing but these kids had learned some skills over the year and were ready to show them off. That is, until we started the math portion. The same kids who carefully and tirelessly wrote essays and analyzed form the week before appeared dejected and defeated by math questions that I personally thought were fun. I saw them plan and organize thoughts for their writing but stare in blank frustration at math problems that I knew they could reason their way around.  It made me sad that all...

Meg goes to Vanity Fair, Bygosh Kids  One of my favorite parts of Little Women is when Meg is packing for her trip to visit friends. Marmee and all of the March sisters help. They discuss the attributes and purpose of each item so that Meg will know exactly what to wear and when. They also share their own things - new stockings, for example - so that Meg will have what she needs for her journey. As a kid, I didn't travel without my family very often, but in my college years, I noticed that I was particularly bad at packing for myself. I remember going the Poconos without a bathing suit and to Chicago in March without gloves (although this was because my travel companion said it would be "warm").  As a young person, these feel harder. You're broke, for starters, so getting there and having to buy things feels hard. And you're more certain that people are judging you for what you wear/have or don't. Yes, these experiences make you stronger and more knowledgeable...

To say that things are hectic now is a bit of an understatement. This is a true fact for everyone I know - especially those who work in or go to school. Yesterday, I covered someone else's math class - which was actually fun - and then had an unexpected lunch with two 7th graders - which was restorative in its own way. To spend the entire day in the company of children meant I came home from school a little more tired than usual - which is again saying something. In spite of my intention to use my free time to care for those who care for me, the pace of work has made it hard to me to see people who matter. Yes, I see can still see and connect regularly with my immediate family - although I am pretty sure I feel asleep during a phone call with my younger son last night. He was too polite to complain.  People who are dear to me who don't live with me, however, are getting the short shrift. Like our former custodial assistant with the broken ankle - I've been dying to see her....

 In real school, teachers have ways of getting to know kids. It's a thing we try to do intentionally, but, like everything else is subjective and sometimes problematic.  In virtual school - "fake school" as my kids have taken to calling it - all the regular methods are gone. We don't know what all of our kids look like, or how they sound, or what styles they wear or even their handwriting. I miss these things and joke all the time with kids "If I ran into you in the grocery store, we would not recognize each other!" And yet, a year into this fake school, I notice that there are different things I know about kids, which makes me question some of the old ways. It's easy to say to a kid - "gee, I love those shoes!" - and it isn't without merit. The kid feels noticed and I begin to think of my next shoe purchase. But there is a superficial quality to these exchanges, that now that we can no longer rely upon, I miss less and less. In place of th...

I like to help. It's an annoying feature of who I am - just ask those closest to me. For as many times as I hear "thanks, that would be great," I hear "I got this." Perhaps it's not a one to one ratio. I should probably count... Practical help is the help I give best. In school, that's often sitting with a kid and helping them finish an assignment while we eat snacks. In life, it's shoveling the 90 year old neighbor's driveway or getting you some milk because you're out and I happen to be at the store. Make no mistake. This does not make me special. I find that doing small jobs for others helps mitigate the glaring and heavy mistakes I make daily. I gain a lot by helping because it makes me feel useful - even when I know that a half gallon of chocolate milk isn't life changing for anyone. In the last almost year, we've all had to learn ways to help from a distance. Sure I can still shovel and drop off groceries for you. I can even cal...

My favorite part of my favorite movie is when Captain von Trapp asks Maria if there is anyone he should ask for permission to marry her. Forget about the permission part - that's icky. What I love is when both Maria and the Captain simultaneously answer "the children."  As a child I loved this because I am also one of seven children and when this is your situation, it often feels like your opinion gets lost. As a mom, I ask my children things all the time, not just to gauge how they are with a certain thing, but to honor the fact that we are a unit and their voice matters.  As teachers, we remember to ask children the silly and mundane. Because opinions can been kooky, we are rewarded with great stories to share with others. Yesterday, for example, a kid told me he needed to be in a breakout room alone so that he could change his profile picture. (It's not like changing your clothes, but ok.) During math class we were partitioning a garden to determine the fractional ...

 It's been a week of transition. New information required action from many - most of which resulted in a change of location, a change in colleagues or a change in responsibilities. Yesterday, our 8th graders received their long-awaited high school acceptances. It was a combination of relief, joy, disappointment and fear of the unknown. I was gratified that so many kids reached out and shared their excitement or sadness or confusion about the future. Two different families sent me short videos of kids receiving their news, I was in a group text with two others who sought help in deciding where to go and some simply sent emails or messages on Instagram with the news. In all, it was a gift to be a part of this moment of change for kids. Amid the joyful moments, there were some filled with disappointment or loss. Some students had one option and it wasn't the one they wanted. Some had none - and we as the adults who care for them will need to find a place for them to continue learn...

 On my walk this afternoon, I saw a toddler with a butterfly net. He was exceedingly cute - wearing a navy blue jacket and hat, skipping along with his net. The skies were a brilliant blue and the sun was shining, but as it is January in Pennsylvania, it seemed unlikely that he would catch - or even see - an insect of any kind. Even so, the boy ran along waving the net with excitement. For the rest of my walk, I thought about the boy's optimism. Surely he didn't know that catching a butterfly was impossible today and it's likely that his mom, who walked behind him with her hand outstretched ready to catch him should he fall, just wanted a reason to leave the house. But there was something about the sheer expectation in his gait that made me hopeful.  Lots of things are impossible and we wave our butterfly nets at them anyway. I wanted to write everyday this month, but I fell off that wagon on the 4th. Here I sit in my sunny living room writing anyway - even though the strea...

 Yesterday, I put yet another new soap in the powder room. It made me wonder how much soap we have used since March. If we are thinking about use, there are lots of quantifiable ways we could measure these last several months. How much water? Toothpaste? Electricity? Time?  Use implies depletion. Certainly, we are all at least a little depleted and many families are indeed ravaged by the pandemic. How ever we look at these last ten months, we can identify loss. But we can also point to some gains. Since we started by quantifying soap, we could pause a moment to quantify the gains we have made. How much have we learned? How many new relationships have we formed? How much more compassion do we show?  Hopefully, these gains make up for our significant loss of soap.

 When my younger son was born, my mom stayed with us for a week. At the time, there was a BabyGAP up the street and she went to scope out the sale rack. She came home with two matching navy blue T-shirts, put one on each boy and dubbed them Team Beall.  The name stuck and almost two decades later, I find new ways to be grateful for them all the time. They aren't the chubby, silly Team they once were, but they are helpful, kind, hilarious, joyful and hardworking. We still play a lot of games and take a lot of walks - throwbacks to an earlier time and benefits of being pandemic housemates - but our Team has evolved into a really lovely thing. I find it disingenuous to brag about them, as I maintain they are excellent humans on their own merit. However, I do find the way they support eachother, me and others. Their definition of Team is a beautiful thing - they make meals, provide fun, offer ideas, listen, clean up, laugh, help others, support creativity and love openly. No, we d...

On the first day of school this year, I bought myself a Fitbit. I always thought wearable technology was dumb, but I am quite enamored of my lavender little friend. It shows how far I walk each day and how my heart rate changes. While I walk a great deal each day (even while teaching online), I don't run or do anything all that strenuous outside of yard work. That said, I check my heart rate all the time. Over Thanksgiving, my resting heart rate was 69 bpm - an all time low and something I have tried (unsuccessfully) to replicate - even now at the end of winter break. I notice a connection between my level of stress and how high my resting rate goes - 77 bpm on the day before winter break.  Break has had a lovely impact on my heart rate. All the extra walks, extra sleep, extra fun and extra Vitamin D have done wonders for my heart (both the actual and the metaphorical). This morning I checked my email. Oof.  I had to talk myself out of being annoyed. Instead of an "are you kid...

I feel pretty stupid when someone else asks me to set one, but find that on my daily morning walk, I set a few intentions as I go. Maybe it's still flaky to do it for yourself, but to me it feels less weird. It seems fitting on the first day of the new year to set a few, so here goes: Honor your heart. I had a a TIA in August and while I no longer need to be under the care of a cardiologist, I have a new respect for my heart. I sleep more and eat less cheese. But I also thank people who touch my heart with their actions or words. In the new year, I hope to be prompt and profuse with my gratitude. I am fortunate to have students, colleagues, children and family who take consistent care with my heart. Take care with others. Whether or not you've had a TIA, everyone's heart needs care. Tell people when they are great, tell them when they make a difference and tell them what you notice about their skills. We all need to hear those things. Notice. Notice what works and what does...

  I have a kid who comes to class regularly. He always turns in his work, sometimes participates in the discussion through the chat and once has let me hear his voice. He was in my class last year, so I know what he looks like, know he likes math and know that other kids really like and respect him. In recent weeks, he had been a little less chatty in the chat (although he did comment that I was dressed as an avocado at Halloween and NOT a banana) and last week I had to ask him to refine his project before I graded it so that it would match his prior excellence. He complied within thirty minutes. I have suspicions about what was going on and I am fairly certain this dip in engagement had more to do with the content and flow of class than it did with anything the kid may have been facing. This I know for certain, the problem was more on my end than on his. Evidence of this theory came yesterday when he wrote this statement on this classwork: "also, it's fun doing this." I ...

Think with me for a minute about how you function in a learning space - in particular, one that is in person. What are you habits? Do you doodle? Ask lots of questions? Share snide remarks with your table group? Sit in the back so you can nap or do the crossword puzzle?  Now think about your habits as an instructor. What are you doing in any given class to engage learners? Moving about the room? Asking kids who aren't raising their hands what they think? Facilitating conversations among small groups of kids? Now imagine trying to do all of these things from your kitchen. Oh, wait, we've done that. While virtual teaching and learning are nothing new, they are things that not too many people are good at. I've done both and it's not been pretty. In thinking about how to do this better, I've paid attention to what is happening around me in digital spaces, researched some ideas and even signed up for some classes. What I notice is that some teachers dress up as batman (s...