Reflections and Moving Forward

Well, it is New Year's Eve. I have written a Festivus grievance post for many years, but this year, it slipped my mind. I think I have felt so busy that I sort of just shut down the moment the Christmas break started. I don't feel like the job of teaching has been substantially harder this year. Student apathy is undoubtedly continuing to rise, but it hasn't made the job feel harder. It has just forced me to rethink how much I can care. I can't pull anyone across the finish line, but I can keep on cheering them on, and that is what I will do.

This year, I started exploring planning in different ways. We have explored more texts than we have in the past, and our discussions (for those who participate) have been better. Students' reading lives feel generally nonexistent, which I want to address in the new year. A.I has impacted the art of writing. It doesn't help that teachers and admin at all levels have this delusional sense that "if you can't beat em join em" making students feel like they have permission until they get caught and punished, that is. It feels like we are giving kids too many messages about A.I use and just muddying the waters more and more. A student asked me last year what the difference was between a teacher using A.I to grade (strongly oppose that) and kids using it to write. It was an interesting conversation because I had no real answer and that is probably because there isn't one. Teachers will cite being overly burdened so anything to reduce that is fair game but kids are also overly burdened, so would that not be a far excuse for them too?

So the question becomes, how can I adjust the course of this ship? How can I find my way back to a world in the English classroom where we celebrate reading and hold up student writing with all its flaws and rough edges as something to hold dear? Here are some thoughts to bring us into 2025 with room 157.

The Plan

Read More

I once would have fought folks over the idea that students need a reason to read beyond joy. Covid and its impact on student reading for joy has established that is currently untrue. I used to live off the joy of reading that was found in my classroom. More and more since Covid I have seen that joy dissipate. Students are reading less, it seems like if there is not a mark attached to something it holds little value. So I am going to bring in monthly reading tasks. Simple reflections, multimodal compositions and responses. Nothing extensive and sold as an easy way to boost marks. The hope, kids will find books they love again and read without an attached assignment but we are not there and for now we need to try something else.

Write More Freely

The demands of testing and my fear that I can't get students caught up to where they need to be have really cramped my style and the joy I get from reading students free writing. We start the year off strong, but deadlines and other pressures always push me away from the freedom to write and towards the confines of exam structures. The reality is students must be prepared and writing freely does not always prepare them for the writing of standardized exams. Balance is key. I need to right the ship on that.

Find Time For Joy

This is one area I have struggled with this semester, kids are perpetually behind, often times because they have so much going on it is hard to keep up and partly because they use their time in class poorly but the thing I have cut out is the stuff I find more joyful. Poetry studies and Multimodal Composition became an after thought this semester and I need to push back on that thinking. I can build poetry in, I can make time for creativity to be displayed. Students are brilliant, and, at times, standardized testing diminishes that shine.

I need to write more

Writing is therapeutic; Grad school is finally done, I had started working on a book idea, and life got busy and joyful writing, planning, and creating lost out to what had to be done. I plan to prioritize my own writing on my own time; school work can be left at school. My homework will be diving back into reading and writing for me.

Another semester is nearly a close, and 2025 begins. I am not making goals, I am not chosing a word to live by. I am making adjustments. Somewhere along the way, I think education has gotten lost. I want to find what I believe is important again.