Tag Archives: resilience

A Lesson in Resilience

Learning is what school is all about…and I’m lucky to learn with my students every day. Today’s lesson was all about resilience.

We have 1:1 iPads in our classroom–for the second year in a row. It’s one of those mixed blessings: a flexible tool that kids love to learn with, and a tool with a mind of its own that creates havoc with lessons from time to time. Last week, before the students arrived, Margit and I spent time sorting out our returning students’ iPads and assigning the newly “cleaned” iPads to our new students. We made sure to sync the entire batch to our “cart account” to ensure that all our apps were on all the iPads and we also charged the iPads so they would be ready to use.

We introduced (or reintroduced) the iPads on Tuesday (the first day of school) with our focus on care, basic operations, and getting the IPads out and putting them away. Students constructed rules for iPad use yesterday…and we had grand plans for a project involving the iPads today. Things began smoothly…we split the students this morning with returning students in one room “cleaning up” their iPads and new students in the other room personalizing theirs. Students were successful and engaged–helping one another and taking care of business. That wonderful “buzz” permeated the classroom as we all were reintroduced to our tools after a summer away from them.

We moved on to our project…working with personal “artifacts” to tell a story about ourselves. Each student photographed their artifact. They worked to ensure they captured the item in the photo, careful to keep fingers out of the way and not let the iPad cover block the lens.

After recess we moved on to the next step: using the Notability app to import the photo and then record their voice telling the story of the artifact. We walked through the basics of the directions confident that students would help each other through the steps. And then the rumbles began…

It quickly became clear that our new students did not have the Notability app on their iPads–in spite of our syncing last week–and it wasn’t a quick fix. Times like these doubly reinforce the benefits of co-teaching. Margit worked with the IT support as I encouraged students to rehearse for their eventual recording, even without the iPad.

As you might expect, there was some anxiety from those without iPads–wondering if they would get to work on their projects and the sense of frustration that comes with plans gone awry. But overall, resilience won out. Our projects did not get done today and students have been reassured that they will get to return to the work tomorrow…with Notability installed on all the iPads. As teachers, we once again learned the importance of resilience and flexibility and a sense of calm in the face of a potential storm.

I know that in spite of the frustration, our students will benefit from learning how to respond when technology complicates our best laid plans. We hear plenty about this generation’s need for immediate gratification and inability to wait…often attributed to new technologies. And sometimes I don’t think I am any more patient than they are! But what I know from experience is that the use of these digital tools in the classroom is the perfect venue for teaching delayed gratification, problem solving, cooperation, and resilience…important life lessons for all of us.

Building Stamina

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Today marks my 45th blog post. It also marks my shift from a focus on summer work back to my classroom. Tomorrow is my official first day back–a day that will be filled with seeing familiar faces, catching up on summer activities, meetings and more meetings, and working to prepare the classroom and plan for an engaging start to the new school year.

The beginning of the school year always feels hard. Even with 2/3 of our students returning (or maybe in spite of it), we want to set a tone and begin to build community that will set the stage for a year filled with learning. Co-teaching makes it easier…and harder. We have each other to work through our ideas with, and our ideas get examined and turned inside and out as we each consider how that idea might work…or where it might fall flat. We have lofty goals for our first, second, and third graders–and we have to remember that they are still very young, so sometimes we have to temper our own enthusiasm and consider how to help our students build the stamina and resilience to reach (and exceed) the goals we set.

And because our students loop up with us we can’t depend on our favorite activity from last year, or read that book that worked so well with last year’s class. Each year we need a fresh approach to getting started–new books to read, new ideas to get writing started, new ideas for getting to know each other. It’s what I love about teaching a multiage class–and what makes it hard!

So I’m reminding myself to breathe. And to appreciate the little things. When I got home today after a long day in the classroom (I know, my official first day back is tomorrow–but we worked all day today!), I realized I hadn’t taken the time to look for any patterns to photograph. But the plants above the kitchen sink caught my eye…so I took out my macro lens and started noticing. I ended up capturing the centers of a number of plants. Do you see any patterns?

I also spent a little time in the back yard watching Geoff work with the sprinklers. They have been dysfunctional for most of the summer. He dug them up and replaced the parts yesterday and today was adjusting the spray to both cover the yard and not hit the house. There’s something relaxing about spending a bit of time in the yard, feeling the cool evening breeze, and watching the water spray. (We now have fancy rotating sprinkler heads!)

I’m sure that sprinkler pictures are not what readers look for in a blog post–but the act of appreciating the spray of the sprinklers helped me to clear my mind and reframe my thinking. I know we’ll figure out how to get this school year started and I know I will love my new students and I know that my returning students will rise to each new challenge as the school year progresses. As teachers, we also have to remember that we have to build our own stamina and resilience as we reach for our own lofty goals! It has taken stamina and resilience to get to this 45th blog post too. Some days it’s hard to write and I feel like I have nothing of worth to say…and then I breathe, try to focus on and appreciate the little things and dive into the writing. Some days are filled with false starts…but by sticking with it, I always learn something about myself and I hope something that will help my students.

What do you do to refocus when things feel hard and you feel anxious? How do you build your stamina and resilience?

Neverwhere and more: a book(s) review

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In the last few weeks I read two books written by Neil Gaiman. I finished Neverwhere last night and read The Ocean at the End of the Lane a few weeks before that. I read Coraline a few years ago…and remembering some picture books I bought last year, I reread The Wolves in the Walls and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish today. In some ways I’m surprised that I like these books, they are a little bit fantasy with some parable-type qualities woven in.

So what do I read, you might ask? That question seems to become more and more complicated. If you follow me on Goodreads you may notice that I have binged on several YA series. I’ve read the Hunger Games series followed by a number of dystopian novels including Blood Red Road, Divergent and Insurgent, The Water Wars, and the Maze Runner series (that was not my favorite series). I’ve also read some series more in the fantasy category including The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, The Mortal Instruments (City of Bones…), The Infernal Devices, and Graceling Realm. Interspersed were murder mysteries by Gillian Flynn and Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen…and then there were the 4000+ pages of The Game of Thrones (haven’t gotten to A Dance with Dragons yet). I’ve also read other odds and ends, novels and plenty of books for kids, especially graphic novels for the younger crowd.

But back to Neverwhere. I read a lot. Fiction and non-fiction, fantasy, mystery, realistic fiction, historical fiction and everything in between. And some books stay with me longer than others. I liked Neverwhere. Some reviewer described it as an urban fairytale. In some ways I think that most of Gaiman’s books are fairytales of sort…maybe in the Grimm tradition. When I think of Richard (of Neverwhere) and the unnamed narrator in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, they are both those anti-heroes who learn powerful life lessons as they interact with supernatural beings from somewhere other than the world of humans that you and I live most of our lives in. They are flawed, often seen as weak pushover types as the story begins. They find their strength in unusual ways.

These are stories about overcoming difficulties…in many cases difficulties that the adults around them just don’t get. When I think about Gaiman’s books I find myself thinking about the qualities of grit and resilience that we look to cultivate in our students…and that teachers need too in our current educational climate. Neverwhere is a story about trusting your gut, learning from close observation, and hanging in there even when the going gets tough and things are scary. It’s about feeling invisible and doing what is right anyway and finally about realizing that what you thought you needed and wanted for your life might not really be what you were looking for.

Gaiman’s books are richly layered, both readable and complex. There are books for kids (The Wolves in the Walls and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish), for older kids (Coraline) and stories for adults. And I haven’t read them all yet. I think The Graveyard Book is up next for me. What’s your favorite Gaiman book? What else do you recommend?

A Macro Kind of Day

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Today was a macro kind of day. There’s this funky little shop in Leucadia that I’ve been wanting to visit for a while. I love the way it looks…the green building, the orange fence, and the wonderful old truck used a planted filled with succulents. It’s called Glorious Gardens Landscape and they specialize in succulents and xeriscape (drought tolerant landscaping).

I wandered through the cacti and succulents in this tiny outdoor storefront. Succulents are like plants from another world. They have unusual colors, sharp angles and often geometrical design elements, and many sprout crazy flowers like flagpoles waving a celebratory banner. I am drawn to them. They remind me of some of my favorite people: resilient and quirky! These people listen to their own drum beat and persist and follow through with what others often see as crazy dreams or unrealistic projects. Lucky for our students–many of these people are educators working to make a difference in the world!

While waiting for my plants to be potted (yeah, I couldn’t resist!) I spent some time with my macro lens looking closely at these fascinating plants. Here’s an assortment (using the app fuzel) of some of the images I captured.

I fell in love with this particular plant today…in shades of gray. It’s both delicate and sturdy. Intricate and simple…and simply beautiful. And in it’s macro close up, I feel like I am looking at it eye to eye. It’s looking closely at me while I look closely at it.