Fall Conferences

Ah, conference week. I am back at a school that holds conferences during the first part of Thanksgiving week, with no school for the students for the entire week. It is great to only need to focus on conferences, with no teaching responsibilities in the run up to the holiday. It allows me to go into the holiday season caught up in my grading, making me much better able to focus on enjoying the holiday and family time. In a school on trimesters that begins near Labor Day, Thanksgiving week also falls near the end of the first term, which works out well for goal setting.

My school is 100% in person this year, but we opted for Zoom conferences "in an abundance of caution." Preschool might be in person. Kindergarten offered in person. But the rest of us are hosting all of our conferences via Zoom.

There are pros and cons to Zoom conferences. I get to work from home. This means I don't have to commute 10 miles toward the major downtown area. Tonight I also made a dinner my entire family enjoys instead of convenience food all eaten at separate times. I'm also catching up on laundry. But I also experienced audio difficulties today, both the larger kind that didn't allow me to hear much of anything for half of one conference, and the smaller kind that doesn't allow for multiple speakers to be heard at once.

But no matter how conferences are held, I really enjoy them. They can be exhausting and even emotionally draining. But they are always wonderfully affirming. Students reflect on their learning so far, and set goals for the middle third of the school year. These goals will be revisited during spring conferences at the beginning of the final term of the school year.

Every year many students impress me with their ability to reflect on their learning and articulate well thought out goals. We get to measure  and celebrate student growth while planning for the next bits of growth. Parents often ask great questions and express their gratitude. I get to see family interaction. I am always left with a profound sense of accomplishment, knowing I was built to be doing the job I am doing.

Here is my favorite interaction from today:

Student (as audio is connected): "Oooh! She has a purple wall!"

Me: "Are you surprised that I have a purple wall?

Student (with NO hesitation): "No."

Gratitude

Thankfulness

Fall is my favorite time of year.

The theme of this week has been Gratitude. It was partially on my schedule, but it also just kept coming up throughout the week. Next week my students do not have any classes, they just need to make an appearance for their student-led conference, so any Thanksgiving related classroom plans were slated for last week. 

I focused our morning prayer on thankfulness, gratitude, and spreading joy. We watched videos and wrote reflections. On the morning of the day I had planned to have my students write thank you cards to someone who has a positive impact on their life, a student brought handmade cards expressing specific thanks to me and my partner teacher. When I told them I was considering carving out time every week to have them write thank you cards, there was resounding agreement. So now I'm soliciting thank you cards and card making supplies from the parents of my students.

My class went to Mass on Friday - we go every two weeks. The visiting priest was elderly, but very engaging for young and old alike. He gave a homily that was 100% about saying thank you. The reading was about Jesus healing 10 lepers, but only one sought him out to express gratitude afterwards. He told the students and parishioners in attendance for daily Mass that young and old alike need to say thank you more often, and will get more if they express thanks more often.

I try to express my gratitude regularly. I stopped by my principal's office one morning this week to say good morning, and asked him if he brought his joy with him. (Our theme for the year is Building a World of Joy). He said he always brings his joy, but sometimes he forgets to unpack it. That moment brought me joy  and continues to bring me joy every time I think of it. So now I need to find a time to ask him if he remembered to unpack his joy. 

But more importantly, my students bring me joy every day. In the past two weeks, I have been more aware of making an effort to tell them. I had them do their first free write of the school year this week. When I explained that the purpose of a free write to get ideas from their brains on paper without worrying about conventions of any kind, they gave a literal cheer. And then you could have heard a pin drop as they got to work, writing. I was elated, and told them so.

I even practiced self-care this week. I visited my hairdresser, who probably knows more about me than anyone else except my husband. We changed the highlights from my hair from blue to purple. I always leave my salon with my curly hair flat ironed straight. It's still nowhere near my waist, but getting so much longer. Since I've been pretending to grow my hair back to my waist since I cut it up to my ear in sixth grade, that also brings me joy.

I had a student sneak a thank you card onto my desk yesterday from her mom. This student only comes to my room for math, but there was a heartfelt message and a $50 Amazon gift card. I am not sure what I did to warrant such thanks, but such signs of appreciation keep me coming back even when the going gets tough.

I also had a student lecture her classmates about the disrespectfulness of their behavior this week - and break down crying in an attempt to defend me from their pre-week-off squirreliness. I felt bad for how upset she was, but grateful she cared enough, and proud that she was willing to speak out and let others know how she was feeling.

This week I also assigned students to make an inquirer poster. They were to draw and name a person they know in real life who exemplifies the IB indicators of an inquirer. One student chose me.

My job brings me joy. I am thankful every day I get to do what I do. It can be challenging, but I make a difference. I hope and pray my students find a career, a path in life that brings them joy. If your chosen career doesn't bring you joy, you are doing it wrong - or you need to find a new one.

Wild Week

 Okay, I understand that today is only Tuesday. But trust me. It's been a wild week already. Really. Hear me out.

The crazy at the beginning of Monday came from home printer troubles after spending most of the Sunday visiting with my in-laws. My home printer has decided to print a blue background on all pages with color, and a gray one on all black and white documents. I use it anyway on Sunday nights when I have a 7:15 meeting with the admin team on Monday morning. But this week my computer stopped connecting to my home printer about halfway through my Sunday night print jobs.

So, I went into Monday morning without all of my copies ready to go. I was ready for all of my morning classes before my prep period and lunch, so that was good enough... Until during my last lesson of the day I started wondering if I had made all the copies I needed to complete the activity. I had just started ruminating on how I could fill the end of the day if I didn't actually have everything my students needed to complete the activity.

That's when the fire alarm went off. As the student body lined up outside behind the school, we heard the fire trucks arriving in front of the school. It wasn't a drill. Apparently it wasn't a fire either - it was smoke from crayons being melted during art class. And it turns out I DID have all the copies I needed. But my instructional time was eaten up by the fast walk outside, standing around in the cold, and the leisurely walk back into the building.

Today was slated to be really, really long. Tuesday is our early dismissal day for staff meetings. My fellow GRACE (guiding regionally, advancing Catholic education) teacher leader and I were running the meeting. Finally. We had initially been on the calendar to lead this meeting the first week in October. But things kept coming up, and we got pushed off again and again. Today it had finally stuck on the calendar. In the evening the preschool through fifth grades were going to have our rescheduled open house. It was originally supposed to be on Thursday, but the power went out on Thursday. When I left for work this morning, I told my husband I'd see him after open house tonight. He replied, "Unless the power goes out."

As my students were eating lunch, the principal came over the intercom and told everyone that due to high winds, no one was going to be allowed outside, and we needed to shut our windows and blinds, "just in case." Recess was going to be indoor. Even though our eating period was only half over, my students began to line up next to my desk to ask me questions about indoor recess. We made it through with the help of Chromebooks. One student commented, "That was the BEST recess ever!" as he logged off the device at the end of recess.

The school alert system announced the end of the high wind alert early into the afternoon instructional time. Did I mention that the high wind alert was actually a tornado warning? Anyway, minutes after the wind alert was over, the power went out.

My students were in the final stages of setting up the activity that was interrupted by the fire alarm yesterday. I handed out flashlights, and let them test their "roller coaster" set up. But I opted to not have them conduct the height and collision trials that will require them to record their results in the dark. So we finished the day reading by flashlight.

When the students left, my day was not over. My principal asked my co-worker and I to give our presentation to the staff anyway. Even though we had set up an interactive activity on Lumio, a Jamboard, and created a spreadsheet for "homework" where teachers need to input their standardized test results for our digital data wall, we went ahead and talked through our points. So much for all the time spent creating the interactive activities and slide presentation for our meeting.

When the staff meeting ended and the power was still out, the principal and marketing director were not ready to cancel the already postponed open house. We were told the decision would be made at 4:00pm. After the low-tech version of our meeting ended much earlier than it would have under typical circumstances, everyone stood around chatting for several minutes. Eventually I made it back to my room, set up several flashlights on my desk, and graded a couple sets of papers. 

It was 4:10 when I finished the second set, so I walked back down the hall to ask whether a decision had been made. It hadn't. Many teachers were hanging around the front office, waiting to hear if we could go home or if we should try to find a nearby restaurant with power for an early dinner before coming back to school. At 4:20 the marketing director made the tough decision to cancel the open house for the second time.

So, what are the odds on us being able to complete our science exploration of energy tomorrow? And will we ever be able to host this open house? 

Dare I ask what could be next?

Joys of the Job

 This is my favorite time of year. I don't know if this was true when I was a kid, but the part of fall when the leaves change color has become my favorite in my adult life. I'm guessing as a California native, fall wasn't my favorite time of year. I probably would have said summer, where my birthday falls, or possibly winter, where Christmas falls.

But living in the Pacific Northwest, and taking students to Outdoor Environmental Education camp 11 times in October, has made fall my favorite season. It's just so beautiful. There is joy to be found in kids stretching themselves beyond that which they thought possible and come out exited and giggly on the other side. I miss OEE week, but fall holds other joys. On dark evenings just before daylight savings makes it darker earlier in the day, a warm home while the weather rages outside comes to mind. But I digress.

Two plus months into the school year, students are more independent. Relationships and routines are established. This is when the magic really begins to happen. Final projects have been assigned and some class periods are work periods - periods where students work and I observe, offer guidance, and get a little grading done.

Final projects that include presentations are the best. Students learn from one another, a bit of class time is pre-planned, social skills are developed for audience and presenters alike, you get to learn a bit about your students as they present, and grading happens as the presentations happen. Also, sometimes you gain evidence that your students have been paying attention to the details of your life and really like you.

I am blessed to be able to teach primarily through hands on activities and reflecting on those hands-on activities. This is the nature of an IB world school. It means student engagement is very rarely low. It requires collaboration and puts kids in situations every day where they have the opportunity to help others and dive deeply into their curiosity. They are learning all the required standards, but more importantly they are becoming better versions of themselves and developing a deep curiosity about the world around them.

Every year, I ask students to write a well-structured paragraph responding to one of four Halloween prompts. Generally, most students choose to write about the "perfect costume for Mrs. Conrow." I got some interesting answers this year: a duck, Cookie Monster, Ursula, Pikachu... Although I didn't take any of their suggestions, I don't think they were disappointed.

One student chose a different prompt. She wrote about "the perfect" Halloween. It was a well-structured paragraph, but it was also a poem. 

This is where the magic happens, people. This is why I do what I do.

Mid October

 October is a hard month. I guess the holiday season (with its breaks) seems far away, and the energy of the start of the school year has dissipated. It's really a good time to hunker down and focus on the WHY of what I do.

My students are amazing. I know I have felt this way many years, and I'm very thankful for that. Kids are awesome. And the year I stop feeling that might be the year I need to run away from what I do. As a mom, would I want my kids in a classroom where the teacher doesn't see the amazing and awesome potential of my child? That would be a hard NO.

So this time of year, when the daylight is waning, the temperature is dropping, and the happiness is fleeting, I cling to the joy. 

The joy of reading.

The joy of harvesting.

The joy of discovering.

The joy of crafting out of paper.

I know I already knew this about myself - but if you put me in a new subject or new grade level, it becomes my new favorite. The fifth grade teachers at my school are prepping to head to Camp Seymour the week after next. I'm not going, and there is a part of me that is mourning the loss of a camp experience with my class. But my fourth graders are learning and growing and become better versions of themselves without an outdoor environmental education experience. I see it every day. I love what I do. I hope I'm making a positive lasting impact on the kids who come through my room.

October

 Happy weekend!  Last week was a doozy. It's October, and somehow every October I am reminded that during my first year of teaching this is the month I was ready to throw in the towel and find another career. Given that I wanted to be a teacher since I was in kindergarten leaving the profession after only one month should have been a scary thought. But in my memory, I felt relieved. As a first year teacher I still felt responsible for my students - I knew I couldn't leave them or the school in the lurch, so I decided to suck it up for eight months. But in October of that first year I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would not be back the following fall.

Obviously I didn't quit. But twenty one years later, October is still a hard hitting month. The change in weather, the fewer hours of sunlight, the end of ramping up, the start of end of unit tests and projects, the first round of standardized testing, the beginning of chasing missing work, and discovering which parents are over-involved and which don't respond to emails all adds up. 

COVID protocols add to the fatigue, but not as much as I thought they would. Our rolling drop off (from 8:00am to 8:45am) and staggered dismissal (where kids with K-2 siblings leave at 2:45 but the rest stay until 3:00) are a pain to navigate. There is so much time where so many kids have little to nothing to do. But my class is super well behaved. I have helpers who plug chrome books back on the cart at the end of the day and straighten the books on the shelf without being asked. Most sit and read or draw comics. A few are learning to use the time to complete missing work. 

Creating out of paper and drawing are huge too. So much so that last week I had to tell students to bring in their own paper to use. The plane above was accompanied by an amazing paper tank by the end of the week.  After I declared my paper off limits, I took a large piece of paper and wrote "4th Grade Is..." and put it on the low table in the front of my room. I'm limiting the number of students who can work on it at one time in order to maintain physical distancing so students are impatiently waiting their turn. Most who have had a turn have already asked for a second go.

Many of my kiddos have also used some of the time to draw pictures for me. My collection has grown since this photo was taken, and I am already trying to decide where else I can add new artwork as it comes in. Usually I leave it up all year and file it in the spring. This year I may have to take down the art gifted to me at the trimester break in early December to make room for more creations.

I do have to keep reminding myself that this group of kids have not experienced a "normal" school year since they were in first grade. They went home to an online education experience in March of second grade, and began third grade on Zoom. Some of them finished third grade at home while their peers were in the classroom. The hybrid teaching model was monumentally hard on teachers, and students in both groups were shorted the "best" any teacher had to offer. 

So really, it is not surprising that some are struggling with the academic expectations and others appear socially immature for their age. Meeting kids where they are and working to move them forward is my job. I love it, even when it gets challenging. But when it gets challenging, having a group of like-minded colleagues who are also close friends is extraordinarily helpful. 

A little teacher TikTock also helps to remind me of the humor in nearly every situation. One of my good friends posts gems on a regular basis, and teachers at my school are amazing at finding bits that keep us laughing.

Joy is a Choice

 

I am enjoying being back in the building more than I would have imagined. I am still concerned about the number of kids I have traveling out of state. One has come back after the CDC recommended quarantine for unvaccinated people, one is currently quarantining at home after out of state travel, and tomorrow is another student's last day before her family takes a Disney vacation.

It's a struggle to figure out how to keep the kids from falling too far behind after they come home, but before they are allowed back in the building. My school is not offering an online only or hybrid option this year. We have contingency plans for the circumstance of a COVID case, but not for family vacations with students too young to be vaccinated. The best I can do is have fully vaccinated parents pick up their work for them after they come home because 20 years of teaching has taught me not to send work in advance. Unforeseen circumstances have changed my plans literally every time I have sent home work ahead of teaching lessons in the classroom.

Anxiety over the Delta variant has waned with the daily routine of going into the building. It's a necessary change of heart to be effective at my job. Yes, I still see students with their noses uncovered or their fingers under their masks throughout every day. But they're kids, and they do respond to redirection.

Being back in the building has allowed for social interaction with my co-workers that I didn't know I was missing. I guess I did know I was missing it back in March of 2020 when schools in my area shuttered. But I was laid off from that position on the same day students were retrieving their belongings form the building and my emotions were a total tangle as a result. Staring online only last year at a school I thought I had left behind kept the emotional turmoil going.

But this year we began fully in person with eight new teachers in the building. And I am having frequent in person hallway interactions that bring me joy. As previously acknowledged, I have been known to "commit to a theme" with my attire. This year one of the math specialists has made it a point to do a "fit check" with me daily. It's something his daughter apparently does, naming where she purchased each clothing item. But his check in with me is really about whether or not my mask matches the rest of my outfit. Every time he does a "fit check" with me, it brings a smile to my face. So, of course, I spend time making sure my mask matches my outfit every day before I walk out the door.

I have another co-worker, who is new to the building this year. She's been on a 75 day self improvement program since before the school year began.  As far as I know she's only been drinking water. She is reading at least 10 pages every day from books that have some kind of self-improvement value, and has been adhering to a specific diet. I found out about her program during a staff happy hour at the beginning of the year and suggested we plan something for the day after her program ended. She stopped me in the hallway today and reminded me her final day is just over two weeks away. She wants my help planning something for her first day of being able to eat and drink what she wants at the end of the program.

Hallway interactions are fun. I am part of a community at work. Joy finds me on a daily basis in the hallways of my school.  I know joy is a choice, but it's an easy one to make when I know I have friends I get to see every day just by walking into my workplace.