Category: Three for the Week

Three for the Week

Saturdays are my time to reflect on what I read, heard, and discussed throughout the week. It is my “exit ticket” for the last seven days. So here are three ideas that made me think this week. (They are not in any particular order.)

I had this week’s Three for the Week written in my head when I woke up this morning. I knew exactly what I wanted to write and how I wanted to write it. Then I had the privilege of going out to dinner with a wonderful nineteen-year-old college student. This student grew up in rural poverty. Things haven’t been easy for her, but thanks to some breaks in life, she’s now attending a very good college with dreams of becoming a lawyer and having a greater impact on the world. Our conversation completely changed my three takeaways from this week. Here they are:

1 – There is an enormous opportunity gap in the United States, and it is happening in areas all across the country. Some of our students living in poverty are just as smart, if not smarter, than their more affluent peers. The barriers they face, and often their underfunded schools, make it harder for their brilliance to be seen.

2- Even if students are able to overcome their disadvantages, there are still so many factors they have to navigate and overcome. For a young student who grew up in poverty and has dreams of going to law school, there’s the expensive LSAT (Law School Admissions Test). You can forget the pricey prep courses to get ready for the LSAT that wealthier students can often afford to give them a leg up on law school admissions. It is a constant challenge to get ahead.

3 – The idealism and optimism of our younger generations is so refreshing and gives me so much hope for the world my daughter will inherit. Despite the disadvantages this brilliant young woman has had to overcome, she still wants to help people. She wants to use the breaks she’s been given to go to law school and change the world. The odds were against her getting out of rural poverty and studying at a world-class institution of higher education, but I’d put money on her going out and changing the world.

Three for the Week

1 – The overall health of teachers is so important. We work in a very emotionally, physically, and mentally demanding field. It is critical that we take care of our bodies and minds in order to better take care of our students. So I was doing some digging for the best exercises and workouts. I love running but know that the impact is not great for your body. I found an interesting article which outlines exercises to do at every age group. For example, they recommend boot camp in your 20’s, high-intensity interval training in your 30’s, and running in your 40’s. Guess I don’t have to stop running quite yet!

2 – An article from The University of Virginia really caught my attention. It is a Q&A with NCTM President and UVA professor Dr. Samuel Braley Gray. He outlines what effective math teaching looks like in our schools, touches on some inequities in math education, and even talks about why children should use their fingers in math. (That last point alone got me wondering why we would encourage students to use printed ten frames, but discourage them from using their fingers – which are ten frames.) What really struck me was what Dr. Gray said about the effective ways to teach math. “These ideas are a shift from focusing on memorization. Mathematics is more than getting an answer quickly. Effective mathematics teaching engages students in explaining why their answers make sense and why the strategy they used is appropriate.” Well said, Dr. Gray!

3 – Last week I chose something lighthearted as my third point for the week. I’ll keep that trend going this week. Two ridiculously cute boys show up to a Canadian airport to pick up their grandmother. The boys decide to play a trick on grandma and dress up in full T-Rex costumes. Grandma, as grandmas always seem to do, was one step ahead of the boys. She appeared wearing… a full T-Rex costume of her own. The video is well worth the 2:29 of your time and will definitely put a smile on your face.

Three for the Week

1 – This is an older post from Angela Duckworth , but I found it so wonderful. It is easy to forget that extraordinary writers have to work extremely hard at their craft. Duckworth shared a picture of edits Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Caro made to one of his manuscripts. What a powerful image for a young write to see!

2 – My graduate school advisor used a term that I will never forget – misplaced empathy. Misplaced empathy is when expectations are unnecessarily lowered for students in a group which typically does not perform at a level of their peers. (This is often done by a teacher with good intentions.) I was reminded of that conversation when I read the article “How Our Language Feeds Inequity” by ASCD. The authors discuss inevitability assumption which is the “belief that some students will succeed and others will not, simply because that is how it has always been.” This article is a fascinating read about how our perceptions and language affect our students and their performance in school.

3 – This last one just brought a smile to my face. It is a video of two boys playing in the mud. They are living their best lives and don’t seem to have a care in the world. It shows how the simplest things in life – a mud hole in this case – can bring great joy to our lives. A reminder I need every now and then.

Three for the Week

I’m going to use my post on Saturdays to reflect on what I read, heard, and discussed throughout the week. It will be sort of an “exit ticket” for the last seven days. So here are three ideas that made me think this week. (They are not in any particular order.)

1 – I love quotes. In fact, I literally have a notebook to collect quotes I find powerful, inspirational, or funny. My favorite quote is from Mark Twain. “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” So when George Couros (@gcouros) shared “20 Inspirational Quotes to Start 2020,” I couldn’t resist. One I especially liked was from UCLA basketball coaching legend John Wooden, “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

2 – Reach Higher (@ReachHigher) shared an article, “Don’t Assume That Every Student Had a Fun or Warm Holiday Break” from PBS News Hour. While the article is two years old, unfortunately, the idea is still very real. For a growing number of students school is a safe place from an otherwise tumultuous life. The articles talks about a mother who struggles to find a place for her and her child to sleep each night. Despite this uncertainty, the student is consistently in school. “For this mother and her child, school means something more than just getting an education. School is food and shelter from the cold.” It reminded me of a student I used to mentor who told me he slept on a bench in the park for a few nights. His family was renting an apartment and the second floor tub fell through the ceiling. They had to move abruptly. The temporary housing didn’t have enough space for everybody in his family, so he did what he had to do and found a bench in the park. He needed the stability that school offered.

3 – Daniel Pink (@DanielPink) tweeted a quote from a librarian at the New York Public Library, Lynn Lobash. “Reading should be a pleasure, not a pain. The rule of thumb from one of the great librarians, Nancy Pearl, is to give a book 50 pages. When you read 50 pages, ask yourself if you’re enjoying it. If you are, of course keep on reading. If you’re not, then put it down and look for one that can educate, inspire or simply entertain you.” I talk to my students frequently about choosing the right book and knowing when to abandon the book you’ve already chosen. The 50-page rule of thumb might need to be adjusted for some of our younger students who are reading shorter texts, but it’s still a pretty good gauge. I also set a personal goal to read 50 books in 2020, so this might come in handy throughout the year.

Happy Saturday!