Tag: 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.)

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.

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!