First Fail: Project 180, Day 2

Trail Talk

“So, you gonna actually stick to the notebook reflections this year?” My room is often a rest stop for former students who have gone on as juniors to take advantage of the Running Start program at EWU, our local university. Their classes don’t start for another three weeks, but many of them are taking one-to-two classes at the high school, so they need a place to call home a few hours a day. They are always welcome, and as one might gather from the opening quote, they are also comfortable.

Lily, called me out, neither snarkily nor unfairly. I failed miserably at the notebooks last year. She knows it. I know it. But that knowing is what has led me to chase better–way better–with this important aspect of the learning experience. And so, my “do better” has resulted in creating routines as I outlined in my recent post Roles, Routines, Rights, and Responsibilities.  I know that if I do not commit to routines, I lack the discipline when things get busy to stick to the plan. And that is why this year, I created the Journey Journal, which I am going to do along with kids. Except, I didn’t. My first fail of the year. It wasn’t until 5th period when the kids were writing their first entry that I realized I was sitting their on my butt, pleased with the diligent efforts of my kids, and I was already ruining the routine. I was forcing the kids to eat their veggies (see quote below from my letter to students) and I was indulging in the dessert of their diligence.

“I hope you discover the power of reflection. I hope my “forcing” you to reflect on your learning each day will help you develop this essential learning skill for life. I will use the broccoli effect for this, “Whether we like it or not, broccoli is good for us.” Whether we like it or not, reflection is good for us. #sorrynotsorry #eatyourveggies #reflectionrules”

So, today, I will go back and retroactively write my first entry. I will also ask the kids to hold me accountable. If they write, I write. They have my permission to call me out. So, when, I am sitting there staring at them, smiling like an idiot, fawning at their dedication, they need to tell me to get to work, to eat my veggies. Dang. Day one, and I already screwed up. Wonder what I’ll screw up today.

Today’s Trail

Today will be a wee bit of a cluster. Picture day at CHS, and we use the ELA classes for pictures, so consequently, my classes will be disrupted all day long. I have tried in vain to get this changed for years, but I have given up on that battle, and now I just take it in stride.

I will not share grading policies until tomorrow, and I won’t roll out the 4 R’s until next week. Both are important of course, but right now getting to know my kids and setting the stage for the journey, the experience is more important.

Along today’s trail we will…

begin with Smiles and Frowns

…continue considering, character, community, and conflict with Seedfolks

work on our Who Am I? Wordles

capture the day in or Journey Journals

And that’s our day. This weekend, when I have more time, I will look through and share some of the responses from the kids’ grade cards. Today, I am just going to focus on my Journey Journal. I will do better. Have a great day, all.

Do. Reflect. Do better.

Welcome to My Classroom: Project 180, Day 1

 

The journey continues. Today, I begin year two of Project 180. And while this year’s route will be a lot different, the goal is the same: find better. Thus, armed with my three favorite tools, Do. Reflect. Do Better, I will journey once again into the gradeless realm, sharing my learning as I seek to find better ways to help my kids learn.

So, join me. Once again, I will share each day in a blog post, but this year I will strive to make my classroom even more public, sharing the plan for the day, the resources I will use, and a reflection from the previous day.

The Plan

In keeping with the whole journey metaphor, I am going to present the day’s plan in the form of “Today’s Trail.” Here, I will share the day’s targets and tasks that we will encounter along our path. Below is what I will have written on the front board this morning. Explanation in blue is for you, my readers.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…define grades (Grade Cards). As I shared in the linked post, I will ask my kids to define what they believe is required for an A, B, and C grade. I will give them very little information about why we are doing it, but I will lead them through a quick what-to-consider brainstorm, offering no answers, only questions. They will write their names and definitions on a 3×5 card, and I will collect them. I will keep them until mid-term when they will have their first opportunity to select and support a grade. Importantly, I am doing this before I reveal my grading approach for the year. In fact, I am not going to share that until Friday, day three. I am doing this first, so I do not influence their definitions. On a side note, it will be interesting to see how many are disappointed in my not giving them all an A to start the year. Word travels, especially word of free A’s. That trip is over. Hitting a new trail this year. Sorry, kiddos. 

…hear my hopes for your discoveries (Letter to Students). I will distribute and read my letter to the kids, sharing what I hope they discover on our journey this year. I want this to set the stage for our experience. No syllabus on day one. Just my sincere pledge to my kiddos. 

…consider community and conflict in Seedfolks. I love this little book. I have used it for many years in many ways. It’s great for introducing community. It also fits with our theme for the semester: injustice. I love reading to my kids, so over the first seven days, I will read two to three chapters, asking the kids to consider what the author reveals about community and conflict. We will briefly share our discoveries. Today, we will meet the characters Kim and Anna. Love. This. Book.

…define and share ourselves in a Who Am I? Wordle. From a we-are-a-community (the classroom “our garden”) perspective, I will frame the need for the members of a community to be connected, and those connections begin with knowing, so we will use the Wordle activity to begin making connections. The kids will have to identify ten nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that reflect who they are. They will “find” each in a short sentence. For mine: I am a teacher. I write a blog. I am dependable. I live simply. Once their sentences are complete, they will capture the words in a Wordle, adjusting size for importance. This will happen today and tomorrow. Today, each will share a sentence or two aloud with the class. The finished product will become the cover for their Journey Journals, giving me a quick visual for helping me get to know my kids. I tried to be sneaky about throwing the parts of speech in there. Just a quick check for understanding.

…begin our Journey Journals. This is one of my biggest changes for the year. I am going to be super intentional about reflection. And that will begin today. More specifics in the linked post, but each day we will log our day’s journey. I will do this with the kids. I want them to discover the necessity of reflection in learning, so I am making it a daily priority. Slow, easy start with it today. I will ask the kids to read the handout tonight, so we can discuss in greater detail tomorrow. 

And that’s where our path will lead today. Tomorrow, I will share how it goes. So eager to get year two underway. Thank you for joining me in my classroom. Special shout out to Project 180 partners, Jenna Tamura and Maddie Alerete. Thanks for joining me ladies. Gonna be the best year ever. Glad you are out here with me.

Do. Reflect. Do better. 

A Journey Begins: Project 180 Guest Post

“I believe in kids and that they are all capable of learning; some kids take longer than others, some have different approaches than others, some have different strengths than others, and all have different discoveries within their own education. It felt wrong to me to put them all in one box and tell them that was how it was. Period.”

 

In January of 2016, yes, only just over a year and a half ago, I started my journey as a teacher. I had finished my student teaching about a month earlier and was going to be a brand new teacher, in the middle of the year, at Connell High School. To say I was nervous is an understatement. I had one weekend to get my classroom together and start teaching the upcoming week as it was their transition time between semesters. I felt rushed and really hadn’t had much time to process as I was also moving into a new apartment in Connell and leaving the familiar behind. Which in the long run, may have been a blessing.

In the weeks prior to starting, I had received a packet from Connell High School that went over their school grading policies. Having just finished my student teaching in Monte Syrie’s classroom, I was completely confused when going over Connell’s grading policies, they didn’t seem completely fair to me or fit my style. When I texted Syrie about my dilemma, he explained to me that as a first year teacher, at a place that I’m not established at yet, I’ve just got to “play the grading game,” and make small changes where I can that wouldn’t get me in trouble. So I poured over the grading policies that Connell gave me and tried to make small changes where I could that made me feel a little more comfortable when I was putting student grades into the gradebook.

Comfortable. What a weird thing to think about when grading kids. Why was slapping a grade onto a kid’s paper uncomfortable to me? Thinking back to that not very far away time, I feel that I have found why trying to find one way to grade ALL kids was uncomfortable to me. I became a teacher for a reason. I believe in kids and that they are all capable of learning; some kids take longer than others, some have different approaches than others, some have different strengths than others, and all have different discoveries within their own education. It felt wrong to me to put them all in one box and tell them that was how it was. Period.

As fate would have it, a position opened up in the LA department at Cheney High school later that semester. I immediately put my application in and got my ducks in a row and things fell into place as I later got a call for an interview and got offered the job the day of my interview. I took my first full year of teaching at Cheney High School talking to Syrie and observing his journey through P-180. I loved what I saw and as we started talking about changes he was making for the upcoming year, I knew I wanted to jump on board. I knew that I would stop feeling uncomfortable about grading student work. I knew that this was going to be an exciting adventure for kids.

As the doors open this week for students to be back at school, I’m excited to embark on this journey with my students and learn right alongside them.

Project 180 Contributor, Maddie Alderete. Maddie is an ELA teacher at Cheney High School. You can follow her @MaddieAlderete on Twitter.

 

Venturing Beyond the Familiar: Project 180 Guest Post

“I had to because it’s what was familiar to me when I was trying to keep my head above water during those first couple years.  It wasn’t until a few years later, when I moved into my own classroom, that I started to realize that the familiar was not best for my kids.”  

 

Nine years ago I walked through the doors at Cheney High School.  As I stepped into my classroom, with bags of school supplies and a bundle of nerves, I thought about the things I knew.  I knew I was excited to teach Language Arts.  I knew I was thrilled to be working with kids outside of coaching. I knew, as a brand new 23-year-old teacher, I did not know everything.  And that last thought forced me to think about the things I did not know at that time.  I did not know the value and importance of relationships.  I did not know how to grade my students.  I did not know how different year nine would look from year one.  

Yes, I went to college, have two degrees, and countless hours of information.  But there was never a time during those six-and-a-half years when someone said to me, “This is what your grading policy should look like”. So, by default, I went back to what I knew, which meant I graded my students the way I was graded when I was in school.  To be honest, I think I had to because it’s what was familiar to me when I was trying to keep my head above water during those first couple years.  It wasn’t until a few years later, when I moved into my own classroom, that I started to realize that the familiar was not best for my kids.  

Luck?  Fate?  Not sure.  Maybe both.  My new room was next to my colleague, and now my friend, Monte Syrie.  And while this brought about an endless supply of short jokes (which still continues to this day), I started to witness some grading do’s and don’ts that peaked my interest.  It didn’t take long for me to realize that I wanted to start incorporating these into my own grading policies.  I was at a place where I wanted to try something new. If there was something out there that might be better for my students than what I was currently doing, why not?  If it didn’t go as planned, reflect and do better.  If it was successful, reflect and do better.  Regardless, I was fairly confident there would be buy-in because of the open, honest, comfortable, and transparent relationship I strive to create with each of my students.

Since then I have kept those changes.  To name a few I give a 50%, rather than a zero, on any assignment or assessment not turned in. I allow retakes on an assessment as many times as a student wants.  Missing work can be turned in at any time, until the last day of the semester, with no penalty.  But, as we all know, nothing stays the same forever.  

And now, after watching and talking with Monte as he ventured through his Project 180 journey last year, and realizing I was once again at a point where I wanted to try something new, I have decided to also adopt the select-and-support approach to grading as well.  I am excited to embark on this journey with him.  I am excited to see how it goes.  I am excited to see what we learn.  

Here we go!

Project 180 Contributor, Jenna Tamura. Jenna is the ELA department chair and teacher at Cheney High School. You can follow her @JennaTamura on Twitter.

 

Our Kids’ Experiences Reflect Our Choices

Project 180 is all about the journey. As teachers, we choose the experiences our students will have. I choose the Path of Possibilities because I want to experience learning with my kids. I want to walk with them. I don’t just want to wait for them to arrive at the end to make the final transaction. Journey begins tomorrow!

Resources: Links to Documents

Hi, all. So, last week, hoping to be helpful, I shared a document during the #tg2chat with links to all the documents I have shared in my posts this summer. For some reason, some are unable to follow the links, so I have tried again. I have also just included a pic of each doc if the links don’t work. Sorry for any confusion or trouble.

Grading Policies

Parent Letter

Student Letter

 

Roles, Routines, Rights, and Responsibilities

Focus Standards

Learning Targets

Feedback Form

Learning Log

Reading and Writing Stories

Twitterview: Writing

Twitterview: Reading

 

Expert, Expert, Who’s the Expert?

For much of my teaching career, I have lived a lie. It wasn’t a mean lie, as much as it was a necessary lie, necessary because I had to hide the fact that I didn’t really know what I was doing. So I hid. I hid behind the mantle of expert, and as I look back on it now, especially the early years, I realize the absurdity of the lie (and it was surely more mean than I believed, for kids suffered at my ignorant hand), but it was an absurdity for which I can only accept part of the blame, for the system in which I was educated, the system in which I was trained, the system in which I have now taught for over twenty years, failed me. No one taught me how to grade.

Oh, I went to college. In fact I have two degrees in education, but in all that time, no one ever sat me down, and said, “Okay, here’s how this whole grading thing works.” Of course, now I realize that this never transpired because no one knows–I mean really knows. Do we? If so, I would have to believe that there would be something that we could put our hands on, something that could guide the way, a touchstone from which we could seek wisdom to prepare and provide a valid, reliable, equitable approach to that which carries so much weight in our students’ present and future: grading. If it exists, I have not found it. But I seek it. I have sought it among my colleagues for over two decades. For twenty plus years, from numerous colleagues I have directly and indirectly sought “the way.” But all that I have found are numerous, similar-but-never-the-same approaches to grading. Seems no one ever really taught them, either.

I have sought it among the literature, where I have found some promising possibilities but no definitive answers, other than there is little to no support for that which is commonly practiced in the form of traditional grading. And it was–and still is–that particular revelation, where I the finally fully felt the burden of the lie that I had been carrying for the majority of my career. So I quit. I quit pretending that I was an expert because I was a teacher, and I started shedding my traditional grading practices. Slowly at first, I got rid of zeros; I stopped penalizing kids for late work; I even stopped failing kids. And before long, the shedding became a cascade, culminating in my completely getting rid of grades last year, a move that led me to where I am today, in the realm of the gradeless, a realm of like-minded teachers who I believe somewhere along the way, shed, too, their skin of old, in search of that which would better serve as a means to support and communicate learning. But importantly, I have not found the gradeless realm to be the place of answers. No, to be sure, it is a dimension of questions, inhabited by seekers. We do not have the answers. But we seek the answers. And that is what matters. We are here to learn. We are here to share. And as we are here to learn, we live an existence of learning; we walk a path of perpetual questions, seeking answers not to become expert, but simply to become better.

By now, most of my readers and gradeless peers know that I am always chasing better. And that pursuit is paved with questions. This past week, seeking better with my new gradeless team, we encountered some questions in our discussions that will hopefully lead to better.

Select and Support

This year, we are using a select-and-support approach to grading. At the end of the term, kids will select and support a grade in a teacher-student conference providing evidence in answer to the questions:

  1. What evidence do you have that you met the focus standards?
  2. What evidence do you have that you achieved growth with the focus standards?

We are happy with this. This is what we want our approach to be this year. But there’s a problem, a problem that revealed itself from… questions. Damn questions, always leading to problems.

Do we need to provide delineated descriptions of grades for the kids?

Are we just going back to traditional grades if we provide what a grade has to be?

Will the descriptions just become a checklist?

Will we create a system of minimums again? Meaning, will we recreate the reality we sought to get away from where kids ask, “What do I have to do to get an A?”

What if a student asks, “How will I decide which grade to pick? What’s an A?”

What if a parent asks the same question at Open House?

What is an A?

What is a B?

What is a C?

Hmmm. It all seemed so easy. Kids select. Kids support. We put the grade on the transcript. And we would move to the next grading period. Nope. Full stop. We had to come up with an answer, an answer that fit us, an answer that protected our belief that kids must own their learning, an answer that supported the kids in their taking that ownership. So, I went home and slept on it. Here’s our answer.

  1. We are going to ask kids to individually indicate what they believe is required for an A, a B, and a C. Before we share our grading approach for the year, we are going to hand each kid a 3×5 card (see graphic above), and ask him or her to provide information about each grade. We will ask them to write their names on the cards, and we will collect and store them.
  2. At midterm, when we are required to put a grade on the report card, we will ask our kids to complete a mid-term progress report. We will not conference with the kids, but the process is essentially the same. The kids will select and support a grade with evidence. To help them in the process of selecting their grades, we will redistribute the “grade cards” they made at the beginning of the year. We will re-collect and store the cards. The kids will take their progress reports home to share with parents. They will return them signed. And we will enter the grade.
  3. At end of term, we will once again give kids their grade cards to assist them in their grade selection before conferences. During the conference we will ask the kids if they want to make any changes to their grade cards. We will keep the cards.
  4. Repeat process for second semester.
  5. For the final conference, we will ask kids to revisit their grade cards, and as part of their final conference we will ask them to share their reflections on grades from the year.

But, wait. Kids can’t decide what a grade is. They are not experts. Teachers have to decide. Okay, let’s walk down that path for a moment. Yesterday, I spent the day with my colleagues from Cheney High School. Seventy teachers and 4 administrators. Let’s imagine that I had given them the same grade card I am going to give my kids, asking them to describe what is required for each of the three grades. And though I cannot claim to know exactly how it would have played out, if I had to guess, I would offer that there would be a great number of variances among answers, leading one to wonder which answers were more “expert” than the others. Oh, I am sure that there would have been some general semblance of excellent (A), good (B) , and average (C) among the responses, but I have to wonder if the kids won’t arrive at the same general concept. And if so, what might that reveal? Are we trained experts on grading? Or are we just more experienced products of the system? In truth, don’t most teachers–out of necessity–end up grading how they were graded? I did. I had to. There was nothing else to turn to. So, I wonder. I wonder if kids might not learn more from the experience if I give them the opportunity to set their own standards. Of course, I don’t know. But there are a lot of things I don’t know. And as it turns out, I am not sure I know any better than they what an A is. Sure it’s a risk, and in the end, it could prove a mistake, but I will own it. I will learn from it. I will do better from it. All I can do. I’m no expert.

Do. Reflect. Do better.

 

Beyond Rules: Relying on Roles, Routines, Rights and Responsibilities to Create Culture

In my continuing efforts to create the culture of possibility that I desire for my kids and myself, I have decided to reframe my policies and procedures into roles, routines, rights, and responsibilities. The intent is not all that different from the old frame, but I believe the new frame better fits this current leg of my journey. As always, if you find some value in what you see here, please feel free to use and/or adapt. If you want access to original doc, please DM me on Twitter @MonteSyrie.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.

Roles, Routines, Rights, and Responsibilities

Welcome to your language arts learning journey. I will be your guide as we make our way along our 180-day path this year. But, before we get started, there are some things we need to discuss that will hopefully help you have a successful journey in room 211 this year.

Roles

Here are the various roles that I will need you to play over the course of the year. Sometimes, our day’s path will require you play one specific role; most times, our path will require that you play many simultaneously. Either way, I promise I will not ask you to stretch yourself beyond your limits. You got this.

  • Role #1: Yourself. This is your most important role. I need you to be who you are. I realize that the setting in which we find ourselves sometimes impacts our ability to be ourselves, but my hope is that the classroom community and culture we create during our time together will give each of us the comfort and confidence to be who we are. This is the role that matters most to me as I join you in your journey this year. I am excited to know YOU.
  • Role #2: Valued Community Member. This is your second most important role. At present, many of us are not well-acquainted, but we are in this together either way. And as we will spend a lot of time together both struggling and celebrating over the days to come, my hope is that we establish a community that is rich in relationships and in excess of empathy. We are a community.
  • Role #3: Reader. This will be one of your worker roles. Lots to read as we explore various texts along numerous paths, discovering the power in others’ words. I need you to be a reader. I need you to believe you are a reader. We are readers.
  • Role #4: Writer. This is also a worker role. My hope is that you write more this year than you have in all your other years combined. I believe this is perhaps one of the most important skills you can develop for life now and later. I need you to be a writer. I want you to believe you are a writer. We are writers.
  • Role #5: Mistake Maker. Another worker role. By now, you know there are no penalties for mistakes in room 211. In fact, mistakes are enthusiastically encouraged as they are launching points into learning. Mistakes lead to learning. We will travel down many mistake paths this year, which means we’ll find lots of learning. We are mistake makers.
  • Role #6: Reflector. Last role but no less an important one. By now you also know that I will expect you to add to your learning story each day in your Journey Journal. Each day we will end our time together, reflecting on and sharing from our day’s experiences. Reflection is such an important part of learning. I really need you to become reflectors.

Routines

Our trail stretches far into the distance, and while many unkowns lie in wait, here are some things that you can come to expect on a regular basis: our daily and weekly routines. It will take some time for these to become routine, but my hope is that these common expectations will help us move along the trail with some certainty and efficiency.

  • Every day we will begin with Smiles and Frowns. This is our community check in, where you will have the opportunity to share what is going in your life in the frame of a smile and/or frown. All will be encouraged to share, but no one will be forced to share. If you choose not to share, you may simply say, “pass” when it comes to you. (5 min.)
  • Every day we will begin our work with Mindset Mantras (see handout). I know for some of you this will be kinda corny, but I believe that if we hear it, we say it, we will believe it. Above all, I want you to believe it. Mantras will be a regular part of our journey. (30 sec.)
  • Every day we will take a Brain Break halfway through the period. This is a time for you to stretch, talk, walk, and check your phones. (3 min.)
  • Every day we will end our work with our Journey Journals (see handout). As mentioned above in the Reflector Role, we will reflect upon and share from our experience each day. (5-7 min.)
  • Monday is a We Are Writers day (WAW). As the name suggests, we will be writing every Monday, working on either the assigned writing or our Passion Paper.
  • Tuesday is also a We Are Writers day (WAW).
  • Wednesday is a We Are Grammarians day (WAG). Here we will work primarily with syntax and other “needs” that we discover from your writing.
  • Thursday is a We Are Readers day (WAR). Each week on Monday you will either receive a Life is Lit passage or an Article of the Week. It will alternate each week. Along with the text you will be given practice. The reading and practice are due on Thursday, when we will discuss both.
  • Friday is a We Are Learners day (WAL). Friday is an extended reflection day in our Journey Journals. It will also be devoted to your personal reading.
  • Every two weeks on Friday, you will complete a Learning Log (see handout). This time will be devoted to your officially recording your progress with growth and proficiency. This will also be a time for portfolio updates and upkeep.
  • On Mondays and Tuesdays during our WAW time, we will conduct scheduled writing conferences (see handouts).
  • Every day your cue to leave will be my message, not the bell. I will dismiss you each day with something along the lines of, “Thank you for letting me learn with you today. Have a great day.” After you hear this, you are free to go.

Rights

As a member of this community, you have the following rights.

  • I have the right to feel safe.
  • I have the right to learn.
  • I have the right to ask as many questions as I want.
  • I have the right to make mistakes and not fear penalty.
  • I have the right to “prove” my learning in various ways.
  • I have the right to feedback as an essential part of my learning.
  • I have the right to access Syrie for help whenever possible.
  • I have the right to eat and drink in class.
  • I have the right to express that my rights are not being granted or protected.

Responsibilities

Beyond your rights and roles and the routines of the room, you will also have responsibilities as a member of our learning community.

  • I have a responsibility to get to class on time. If I am late, I will not disrupt the class. I will quietly apologize and sit down. I understand that if my being late becomes a habit, Syrie and I will have to find a solution.
  • I have a responsibility to know and honor the routines of this class.
  • I have a responsibility of monitoring my behavior so I do not disrupt the learning of my community members.
  • I have a responsibility to self-regulate my use of electronic devices in this room. I will keep my device stored out of sight until the Brain Break or when I have been given permission to use it as a tool. I understand that if I cannot self-regulate, Syrie will ask me to keep my device on his desk during class. I may have it back during Brain Break. I will also have future opportunities to prove I can self-regulate.
  • I have a responsibility to be a great listener. This means, I will not talk while others are talking; I will visually track/connect with the speaker; and I will use gestures to demonstrate that I am listening.
  • I have a responsibility to self-regulate my leaving the room. I may go to the bathroom when I need to, but I need to work at keeping my leaving to a minimum.
  • I have a responsibility to take ownership for my learning. It is my learning.
  • I have a responsibility to be sensitive to and respectful of others’ viewpoints. In short, I have a responsibility to be kind.
  • I have a responsibility to clean my space before I leave for the day.

Interventions for when I do not meet the obligations of my responsibilities.

  1. Reminder(s)
  2. Conversation(s)
  3. Parent Contact
  4. Office Referral (It is unlikely that I will ever get to this point.)

What I Want You to Know: My Letter to Parents This Year

 

Good morning, all. Here is my parent letter for the 2017 – 2018 school year. As always, feel free to use and/or adapt to fit your needs. DM me @MonteSyrie on Twitter if you want access to the original doc. For those already in the classroom, hope your year is off to a fantastic start. For those whose starts are right around the corner, hope you are as eager as I to get going. Happy Friday.

Do. Reflect. Do better.

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Hi, my name is Monte Syrie. I will be your child’s language arts teacher for the 2017 – 2018 school year. I am honored to join him or her in his or her learning journey this year. This year will mark the twenty-second year of my own learning journey, and while I tend to say this every year, I truly believe that this year will be my best year ever. And as I look ahead to my “best year ever,” here are some things I would want you to know.

What I want you to know.

  • I want you to know that I care about your child. She or he is not a number. She or he is not a “seat-filler.” She or he is a person, and I will treat her or him as such. I will strive diligently to get to know her or him as a individual person, so I may best help her or him as an individual learner. I believe all my students come to me at different places socially, emotionally, and academically, and I will meet them wherever they are. So, I will meet your child where she or he is, and from there we will journey forth into our learning experiences for the year.
  • I want you to know that I encourage and value your role as a partner. I have long felt that by the time students reach high school, as a system, we tend to place parents at arm’s length. I think this is unfortunate. I believe that optimal learning requires a shared responsibility among teachers, parents, and students. We have to partner in this, and so with that I offer you an open invitation to be a guest in room 211 this year. Please join us. All I would ask is that you be willing to participate in the day’s activities. Ideally, you would schedule this with me, but an open invite is an open invite. You are welcome. Always.
  • I want you to know that communication between us is important. Just as I presented an open-door invite above, I also offer a direct line of communication assurance. Communication is a must. If there is ever anything that you wish to address with me, please do so. My contact information is below. My preferred form of communication is email. Please never hesitate to contact me.
  • I want you to know that I believe that your child owns her or his learning. I am not passing the buck. I simply believe that if your child is going to make the most of his or her learning opportunities, then he or she must take ownership. Here is what I wrote to him or her in my letter to students. “From the deepest recesses of my teacher being, I believe that this is the key to true learning. You have to own it, for when you own it, you take responsibility for it. I am responsible for joining and aiding you in your journey, and I enthusiastically own that. But you are responsible for your learning, young friend.”
  • I want you to know that I value learning over grading. In the past few years I have made major strides in providing an approach to that places greater emphasis on learning, not grading. As such, your child will find himself or herself in a feedback rich environment, which has been made more possible with my stepping away from traditional grading practices. Please carefully read the attached documents explaining my grading policies. And, as offered above, please do not hesitate to contact me with questions.
  • I want you to know that I understand the strain that homework can place on you and your child. It is not my goal to burden your child or your family with a heavy workload outside of school. In most instances, your child will have time to do our work in class, where I am available for feedback–the ideal situation. So, consequently, he or she will not have “homework” in the traditional sense. Instead, my “homework” for the year will be asking your child for at least 30 minutes of reading each night. That is my homework for the year. I would like you to partner with me by encouraging your child to complete this homework. 7 days a week. 30 minutes a day.
  • I want you to know my approach to life and teaching: Do. Reflect. Do Better. Twenty-two years into my journey, I do not have all the answers. I am just seeking to do better each day, each year. This year is no different. I will make mistakes, and some of my plans will fail miserably. But I expect and accept that because I know I will learn from it each and every time. This is how I approach my own learning. It is how I will ask your child to approach his or her leaning.

These are the things I would want you to know as we set out on our own journey together as the adults in the party. I am keenly aware of the trust that you place in me for your child’s care and education each day when she or he walks into my classroom. I, too, am a parent, and have the same expectations for my own children. And so, please know that I take my role in your child’s journey very seriously, and I will do my best to see him or her safely to our journey’s end. Thank you for joining me this year. I hope it is a “best year ever” for you and your child.

Sincerely,

Monte Syrie

msyrie@cheneysd.org

(509)-559-4042

 

Chasing Better: A Journey for Each

“Many teachers who are going gradeless have turned to social media to proclaim the benefits of a gradeless classroom in moving the focus off the points and back onto the learning. For students who need academic intervention, the additional potential benefit of going gradeless is keeping the focus on where they are in their own, unique learning journey, and off of comparing how they are performing relative to peers.” Lee Ann Jung, Going Gradeless and Special Education #TG2Chat

“Most importantly, the way we need to present data for reporting or even to guide our own reflection for instruction should never blindly drive the way we present data for the purpose of giving students feedback every day to fuel their passion for and engagement in learning.” Lee Ann Jung, Going Gradeless and Special Education #TG2Chat

 

Unfortunately, I did not get to participate in last night’s TG2Chat, Going Gradeless and Special Education. But this morning, fortunately, I did get to follow up on the chat from last night on Twitter. And as I was doing that, one question and response that I was tagged in caught my attention: number 5 (see both graphics below). One, it had the “J” word in it: journey. Those who follow me know that word means much to me and my approach to education in my classroom and beyond. Two, though the focus was special education, for me, it spoke of other implications in the gradeless classroom and the importance of “the additional potential benefit of going gradeless is keeping focus on where they are on their own unique learning journey…”(Jung). Coupled, then, with Brandon Brown’s comment below, “I feel like there’s a profound comment about ‘journey vs. destination’ to be made here. And all journeys are different.” I had to jump in. And while it may not be profound, I do have a comment to make. For I truly believe that ALL journeys are different, and as I think about ALL my kids, top to bottom, I think that the gradeless classroom provides a uniquely responsive environment for kids on “their own unique learning journey[s].”

Upon seeing question 5 and Brandon’s response, I revisited last night’s questions, and as I did, I was struck by the fact that with some minor tweaks, these same questions could also fit those who come to us ahead of grade-level expectations. For instance, number 3 could be recycled as, “With students who are ahead in all areas, how do we prioritize or select our focus?” Number 5, “How should feedback be different for those who are ahead in grade level expectations?” Please know that my goal in this line of thinking is not take away from what Lee Ann and Aaron prepared and presented for last night’s chat. To be sure, last night’s chat was significant in its own right, and I believe it addressed what special education teachers have always believed and advocated for, and I am thankful that it got its due consideration in the gradeless classroom. And I am sorry I missed it. Even so, it still carried weight with me, still impacted me, and that is why I am stepping in.  And then, when “journey v. destination” got tossed in the mix…well, I couldn’t help myself. So I am entering the discussion to once again offer that for no other reason (though I believe there are many) than feedback is the emphasis not a grade, the gradeless classroom creates a superior learning environment to the traditional classroom.

 

Journey

In the classroom, when I think of journey, I think of growth. Each kid is on a journey–to grow. And when I reflect back on the myriad journeys that I have been blessed to join in the last twenty-one years as a teacher, I have met each and every kid at a different place; no two kids have been alike, and no two journeys have been alike. Some have been way behind grade-level expectations; others have been way ahead; and most have been at different places in between. But sadly, though that’s true, I have not always been responsive to that reality. And it’s not because I chose not to be responsive. It’s because I did not how to be responsive; I did not know I could be responsive. And now that I have stepped beyond the traditional classroom, I know not only how but also that I can, meaning that there are better alternatives to traditional grading, alternatives that consider learning and feedback, not points and letters, alternatives that consider each kid in her actual place, not just her relative place to her peers. Her journey. Her learning. Her growth. This is the “additional potential” I have discovered in the gradeless classroom.

Lee Ann, in her comments that I shared above, spoke to the different lens that exists in the gradeless classroom. “keeping the focus… off of comparing how they are performing relative to peers.” As I considered this lens, I reflected on my experiences in both the graded and the gradeless classrooms. In my graded classroom, I would often hear, “Why did she get a higher grade than me?” This reality bothered me for a couple of reasons. One, I didn’t always have a good answer for what made her 88 better than her 84. Two, kids obsessively worrying about other kids’ learning as “an indicator” of their own learning drove me crazy. CRAZY. But now, in my gradeless classroom, where feedback, not grades, is the currency, I never hear Susie wondering, worrying, or whining about Sara’s feedback because its Sara’s feedback. It fits her. It’s for her. It’s her journey. They are all on their own journeys, and I have found that when I join them in their journeys, I join them in their learning, and it is there where I feel I can make a valuable contribution to their growth in the form of feedback. I can’t say with the same confidence, the same pride, that I was able to do that before with grades.

In my journey, kids have come and kids have gone. And as I get ready to join this year’s kids in their journeys, I feel better equipped than ever to meet each where she is. If she is ahead, that’s where I will meet her. If she’s behind, that’s where I will meet her. In the end, I don’t really care where she is when I find her, as much as care about where she is when I leave her, a place where I am confident that I have helped her move farther down the trail, where she is better prepared to chase her next better.

Thank you, Aaron Blackwelder, Lee Ann Jung, and Brandon Brown for helping me think even further about the significant role that “journey” plays in room 211, where I chase better every day.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.