"Fear-less"

There is SO much political news plastering the country these days.  If you're not aware of all this stuff, I'm envious.   I'm happy to read about all the educators telling their stories, stepping out of the classroom, if only for 750 words, and sharing the reality of teaching, instead of the politically poisoned version.  And one thing has become very clear- there is a lot of fear in education.

Fear.  

I am very familiar with the concept of fear, believe me.  I'm afraid of my own shadow at times.  I'm afraid of getting lost in unfamiliar areas.  I'm afraid of eating foods that may trigger an allergic reaction to something I didn't know I was allergic to.  I'm afraid of disappointing those I care about.  I'm afraid of letting people down.  I'm afraid of losing the important things in my world.  Sometimes, I'm even still afraid of merging on to the expressway.

This is not mine! It's from
Post Secret, November 2014

I'm afraid of the fact that I have to make my third graders sit in front of a computer for nearly 10 hours over a three week period for mandatory standardized testing.  I'm afraid that I might miss a clue that'll help me better reach a student.  I'm afraid that one of my students - past, present, or future - will feel unsuccessful in my room.  I'm afraid I'll somehow fail my students.  I'm afraid the system is going to fail my students, and all students in the public schools.  This fear can keep me up at night.  This fear can make me ill.

Fear-less.

I'm not afraid of teacher evaluations.  Not any more.  I know that I'm good at what I do.  I'm constantly learning, striving to find new ways to inspire my students.  I am not afraid to try new things in the classroom.  I love telling my class "I just learned about this, and I'm not sure how it's going to go, but we're going to give it a try anyway!"  I'm not afraid to take risks.  Sometimes the most powerful learning experiences come from the back forty.  I'm not afraid of feedback - that's often a catalyst for growth.  I'm not afraid to ask for help.  No one is an expert on everything, and while I might be fantastic in some areas, I will take all the help I can get in others.  No shame in asking for help at all.

Fear-less.

Source

I'm not afraid to let my students teach me.  Sometimes I learn more from them than I think they learn from me.  I'm not afraid to let my kids get messy.  Learning is messy.  Sometimes that means paper scraps and glue, other times that means conversations that make no sense, until they do.  I'm not afraid to hold my students accountable, even if it means spending some recess time with me reviewing whatever they need the bonus time on.  I'm not afraid to share.  If something new and engaging works, and someone else wants to give it a go?  Go for it, and let me know if you'd like some help.    I'm not afraid to go out on a limb for a student.  They need that extra opportunity to help peers?  Need a boost of confidence?  Go read with the kindergarteners.  Go help our second grade buddies.  I'm not afraid to fail.  There's a lot to learn from failures, no matter how scary they may seem.

In the classroom, I'm not afraid to be different.  Taking risks, thinking outside the box, trying new things, getting messy, being willing to fail??  All of those things bother me not one little bit in the classroom where 20 some pairs of eyes watch my every move.  I know that I'm doing right by those pairs of eyes.  I may make mistakes, and when I do, I admit it.  To my students.  I'm human.  They usually like to know that.

Fear.

It lives in all of us.  Educators don't want to be judged on standardized test scores that measure only a momentary snapshot of a skill, which, by the way, only around 40% of students are expected to pass.  We don't want to be judged by evaluation systems where the elusive "highly effective" is so far out of reach it's comical.  We don't want to be judged by critics who haven't spent more than two hours in the classroom, and if left with a (small) class of 24 kids for an hour, wouldn't know which end was up.

Fear-less.

We aren't fear-less.  I don't think anyone on the planet is truly fear-less.  You could say, in my classroom, I am quite fear-less.  But I've learned that in the classroom, I can live with less fears if I keep my heart on the goal - helping my students prepare to become citizens in the world they create - and less on those who are trying their hardest to prevent me, and all the other educators, from doing our jobs.

Not At ISTE 2014

I may not be at ISTE this year, but boy, am I loving it! I've learned so much just by following #ISTE2014 on twitter - it's almost (not quite) as fun as being there. (I might just be trying to convince myself of that, though.....)

Anyway, here are a few gems that have flowed through the rapidly moving twitter stream.  It's hard to keep up with all the juicy bits of learning!!

Kinda cool to think about....... Kids come in with dreams, let's join them in keeping them.....

And I've yet to see a 4 year old with technology wait for directions on how it works........

My new favorite analogy.

What do YOU Care About?

This image came across my Facebook feed earlier today and I had to share it.  I mean, it is SO true, at least in my mind!  I may have said this before, but my motto is "I teach kids, not subjects."  And I care about those kids, not about their test scores.

What if they fail a test? you might be wondering.  That's a definite possibility.  But I don't worry about that, either.  See, if a student in my class fails a test, I don't care about that score.  I care about what that score tells me, which is that this student did not fully understand the material taught.  What that score shows me is that because I care about my student, I want to go back and reteach, find a different way to help this child understand the necessary material.  Do I care what the end score is?  Not at all.  All that score tells me is if I was able to make the material understandable in a way that made sense to this student.  If I didn't succeed, then I need to try again.

Anyway, off my soap-box for the moment.  In reading the fine print on this quote, it led me to an amazing website by Krissy Venosdale called Venspired: Living a Life of Learning.  I got lost on the site as there is an absolute abundance of amazing (and inspiring!) learning tools!  She makes thought-provoking motivating posters and the whole site is full of wisdom-y tidbits that I can't wait to dive into!