Little Wonders

This school year was soul sucking. We had everything possible thrown at us. But we made it. And so did our kids. I don't care when people say, "our kids are behind in their learning". My K - 2 kiddos learned to operate and use platforms that they had never even seen before quarentine. And FAST. If that's not what's needed for future jobs, I'm not sure what is. Because that's what all this learning is supposed to be doing - right? They also learned to be resilient, flexible, persistent and loving, caring human beings.

There were four things that got me through this year: my IA, my team, our classroom parents, but most of all, my kindergarten students.

They went through it all with us and whenever I felt low (which was often), I would reflect on the little wonders, the small hours of the day. The beautiful, spontaneous moments where everything we went through this year pays off. These moments will stay with me and continue to encourage me to keep teaching. Why? Because I've never had a class that was so connected in such a kind and loving way. I have to think it's because of the roller coaster ride we were all on together.

The last day of school my littles had everything packed up. Their computers, their laptops, their little wrinkled up and loved art projects, their name tags, their take home books and their lunch boxes. The kinders looked like they would topple over any second from their oversized backpacks that held their year, both physically and no doubt emotionally.

While we were eagerly watching the clock for the bell to ring something happened. I had never seen this something happen. The children began walking around and hugging each other one at a time, making sure to get to every classmate. There were, I love you's, I will miss you's, and you are my besties. I had 14 boys and six girls. The boys started the hug chain and didn't stop till they hugged every. single. one. of their classmates, and teachers. There were sad hugs, happy hugs, silly hugs (you know - where they try to push each other over - I felt like Hitler saying - we need to stop! Let's be safe! One person at a time!) But most of all, "I'm glad we had this year together" and "we did it" hugs. They didn't say those last two, but we all certainly felt it.

It will be a year we will never forget. A year of anxiety, stress, worry and frustration. And of little wonders. Dig deep, you will find them. And you will be forever changed by them. "It's the heart that really matters in the end." After all, that's why we became teachers.

Drop The Books And The Barbecue: An Unusal List For Summer Fun

70's music. Dancing in a boot and surgical shoe. Slow breakfast. Is there anything better on a Sunday during the summer... maybe dancing with out the boot, but whatever. No more

"when can I call to make that doctor's appointment" and then the "now I have to make sub plans" eye roll (hence the surgical shoe for a broken toe and the ski boot for bone spurs and Planter's Facitis- 3 months walking around on bad feet because, aint nobody got time for the doctor). No more mask checks, hanitizer or 20 minutes of washing hands before lunch. But the number 1 benefit of summers? I have time to drink my coffee. My hot coffee does not become iced coffee or for that matter lost coffee.

This summer is particularly important for all educators. We have never needed a break like we do this year. I hope you didn't volunteer for summer school. I got suckered into a week by one of my closest co-workers, but that's it! I'm putting away my PD books (I usually read 2 or 3 in any given summer). With the exception of this blog, I'm putting away everything that reminds me that I am a teacher. I am going to spend this summer doing what most people think teachers do over the summer... nothing that has anything to do with school. This morning my workout instructor looked at me and said the words we hate the most, "so what exactly do teachers do over the summer?" I tried not to get offended and said, "what real people do during the rest of the year. " It got me thinking and as I am, if you are looking for out of the ordinary suggestions, take a peek below, you just might find something you like.

1. Taking a vacation where everyone does everything for you: I'm headed to an all-inclusive in Cancun with my sister/cousin. Take a vacay - even if it's just a stay-cation in a hotel near home. Just make it a nice one.

https://www.thekitchn.com/10-ways-to-make-a-staycation-your-best-vacation-ever-233899

2. Chase a sunset. It's free. A national park, the roof top of a parking garage, in DC I go to the Jefferson Memorial. It's peaceful and beautiful, and even as an anti-racist educator, it helps me to reminds me of the hopes and ideals this nation was founded on.

https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/where-to-catch-the-best-sunsets-in-the-us/ and if none of these work for you - just google "Best Sunsets Near Me", you'll find plenty of ideas!

3. Take yourself to dinner and a movie. Just you. But make sure you sit back and in the middle of the movie theater - it's where the picture and sound are the BEST! I just saw "In The Heights" and smiled and laughed the whole time. No mask - just popcorn, a big screen and big sound!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/movies/summer-movies-2021.html

4. Take a lesson, or have fun in an outdoor sport you love, even if it's HOT, it's still fun. I hear Pickle Ball is in this season... that sure sounds interesting...maybe. I myself want to Kayak. Me and 2000 other DC area peeps.

https://www.globalpickleball.network/pickleball/city/361-reston-virginia

5. When it's 100 degrees with 90 percent humidity turn

the AC to 68, curl up in a blanket and binge whatever - books, magazines, tv shows, movies, coloring books (they don't even have to be adult - I like a neatly colored Cinderella and her mice page), sleep, or maybe some true crime, nothing better than spending a day watching true crime! If you have kids and/or a partner - just tell them to get the hell out. They will understand.

Whatever you do, for God's sake, just enjoy yourself sans school. It's what the real world does in the summer.

SIPP In The Summer. Seriously?

Fifteen years ago, when my son entered public school as a kindergartener there was one Hispanic and one black child in his class. That felt safe to me. At that time I was only comfortable with white middle-class kids and families. I wasn't sure how much diversity in my child's school I would be comfortable with, but I sent him off on the bus the first day holding my breath, and a box of Puff's tissues.

I worried that every Hispanic boy was a part of MS-13. I worried my son would pick up the bad behavior of kids who had not been to preschool or had little adult supervision in their young lives. I am not sure how I could have verbalized why I felt that way. It was small minded, but it was what I knew. I have since then forgiven myself. I grew up in a white middle class world. I only knew what I knew. It's not that my family didn't spend time around people of a different color and culture, or that racism was spewed with hate in my household. It was NOT. From my memory, racism just wasn't talked about much. My Dad had, and still has, a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. along with a famous phrase from his "I Have A Dream" speech, and a picture of Ghandi with poignant words from the great leader. I know we talked about these people and how they changed our world with non-violent protest, we listened to important speeches by MLK and talked about how it was important to care for all people, but from what I remember, there was no real practical conversation about racism and how we could actively change things. My parents were the best example of loving all of humanity that I could have asked for.

The 770 student elementary school that my son entered in 2004 is where I now teach. It has changed from a white, middle-class neighborhood to a microcosm of the world, where many cultures and colors are represented. I would not want it any other way. I embrace it. I welcome it. My fear now is not that our school will be diverse. My fear is that due to our own lack of self-awareness as teachers and administrators, we will have difficulty seeing the forest through the trees.The forest is quiet because the trees have pulled the overt forms of racism down into its roots and have run it underground. They have quieted it by calling things “equitable“ while still using standardized tests and parent pressure as a means of determining who moves into AAP classes. So quiet that the same inherent racism that our children and their families face in the world outside of our school will be duplicated inside of our school. I have kindergarten parents asking me when their child will have access to these AAP classes and worry that their child's brilliance will be dumbed down by "those kids" because we as teachers MUST be teaching to what is considered the lowest common denominator. Then there's the PTA I'm still waiting to see something other than white middle-class parents at our PTA meetings. What have we done to create that limitation in our school and how can we fix it? Why in our 6th grade AAP class are the majority of students white, middle-class kids? And HOW will we EVER fix that? This question is where my little story begins.

At the end of the 2019 - 2020 school year, I volunteered to join our school improvement planning team ( better known as SIIP ). I needed the money and decided that if change was going to happen in our school, that I wanted to be a part of it. I clearly had forgotten how much I liked sleeping in and long lazy pool days when I volunteered my summer time. As I dragged my ass into our first SIIP meeting at 9 am I saw that our work was to be based on three goals: creating a caring and culturally responsible environment, collaborative grade level teams where equitable learning opportunities are a priority, and high quality instruction in which a variety of methods are used to assess students' knowledge of what they have learned.

Our summer groggy SIIP team dribbled in one at a time. We laughed as we drank coffee, ate chocolate and caught up with each other. This was the easy part of our day.

As the morning went along and we began talking about equitable learning experiences, the issue of student assessment came up. How could we use equity and cultural responsiveness to assess our students more accurately. How could we change the make up of our AAP classes to represent the exceptionalness of different types of learners and different expression of critical and creative thinking. AAP classes that are not only made up of white, middle-class kids. We knew the state assessments were inherently biased. We knew that white boys generally do best on these tests. So why were these types of assessments continued to be used as a baseline into AAP classes? We also knew that minority children from low socio-economic backgrounds would most likely not have parents who were able to advocate for them. The struggle for creating equitable assessment practices and access to AAP classes was (and is) very real.

We decided that the first thing that needed to happen was to find a more creative way to assess our students and pass students' exceptional work on to each of their teachers from K - 6th grade. Just like any school that is socially and economically divided due to bussing or housing, the wealthier, whiter kids have the benefit of the impassioned advocacy of their parents. Students who benefit from higher standardized test scores that will allow them easier entrance into level 2,3 and 4 classes. I get the idea of wanting your kid to be challenged in school and away from "those kids". After all, that younger less knowledgeable me had been that parent. This is no blame game.

After hours of scratching our heads, pitching out ideas, talking over each other and staring at empty, window-sized chart paper, we finally decided to come up with a way to create learning portfolios for each and every student in our school. These portfolios would contain what was created during higher level thinking activities, informal teacher narratives, some tests, and some creative and critical thinking projects. The portfolios would begin in Kindergarten and travel with the students through their seven years of elementary school. These folders would be digital and passed on to the next teacher each child has. There would be a general consensus on the types of student learning that would be included in their portfolios and these items would show different types of responses to a variety of activities and assessments the child had given throughout the year. The portfolios would include pictures of student work and teacher narratives on students strengths. After a year of trying to figure out how to implement this idea, in September of 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, our SIIP team held our noses and jumped. So brave. We met virtually, we discussed next steps to create student portfolios and our AART lead helped us put these portfolios into action. There was some pushback from our teachers, but with any systemic and hard change, there always is. It's part of the process.

Several weeks ago, we completed our teacher narratives and our work samples for our children that we were recommending for Young Scholars and Level 2 and 3 classes. The portfolios our K-team created for our students led to rich conversations with our AART about children's strengths regardless of language spoken and race or socio-economic background. I had three children that would have slipped through the cracks of the academic rigor they are worthy of had we not created these vibrant and varied portfolios for our kids, filled with work samples and teacher narratives. These 3 would have been unlikely candidates for a level 2 AAP class the year before. Not this year. Not now. Not even during the most bizarre in person school that has ever been. These three children are the lucky ones. They are the first group of kids who will be sifted in a way that is less biased, less white washed and more equitable for all. I cannot wait to watch these portfolios move grade to grade and see the positive ways they will impact our kids. I cannot wait to see my 3 Kinders who may have slipped through the cracks excel in an environment that honors equity and changes in current assessment thinking. I can't WAIT to see them fly. I'd drag my butt into any meeting in the summer that can do this work. I'd even bring Starbucks for everyone. I am so proud of this work.