2018: It's About Time

2018. It’s about time.

    “New Year’s resolutions are passe’. Think New Day resolutions instead…”

       – Bonnie Neubauer, Author of The Write Brain Workbook: 366 Exercises to liberate your writing

Ben Franklin's daily agenda: note the morning question.

         2018. A new year with a new number.  A chance to reset.  Refresh.  We have 365 chances in 2018 to make a new day resolution. Just to let 2018 know who’s in charge, a 2018 numerical rabbit hole expedition will commence shortly. We do not know what lies before us but a numerical serendipity exercise might help us find the edu-groove we seek in 2018.


12
We have twelve months again this year. Like a very big litter of puppies. They look happy, sleepy, sassy, shy and inquisitive. Good news, we don’t have to just pick one.  We get to play with and take care of all of them. 2018 divided by 12 (months) is 168.16. We have roughly 168.16 students that we teach and learn with daily.  Except we don’t have the .16…unless that efers to that kid you still don’t really now and easily forget he is even there.  Go find Mr. .16 and make him #1 on day 1 of the 2018 academic year.

24     
You are going to feel like you are working 24/7 a few times this year.  There is a reason you work like that.  They call it “passion,” but it might look like “stress.” Find your support team. Go for a run. 2018 divided by 24 (hours-a-day) is 84.  There are 84 days in 2018 before Spring Break Eve.  You can teach & learn like your hair is on fire for 84 days and kids would pay to be part of that.

60

     Tick tock.  If your hair is on fire no one will be watching the clock.  But 2018 divided by 60 (seconds) is 6.08333.  In 6.08333 seconds the International Space Station can travel the 29 miles from over the summit of Mount Diablo to Fairfield High School.  In a 29-mile radius around Fairfield High School there are approximately 1.9 million people.  Those are “googleable” answers, but from there the connected math, science, language, economics, culture and geography questions are unlimited.  Challenge. Question. Shake things up and make learning an epic journey. (see Trevor Muir’s book The Epic Classroom:  http://www.trevormuir.com/epic/

365

     2018 divided by 365 is 5.5.  That is approximately the daily amount of time we prep for, plan for, mull over, get excited about- that is our “contact time” with students.  Your Personal Learning Network time on Twitter, weekend EdCamps, formal and informal collaboration, Sunday night lesson plan tweaks and mid-day Monday lesson overhaul- it’s all about the students.  5.5 hours.  Hit the stage. Crank the volume. It’s time.



        1

    Yes, 2018/1= 2018. One year. Multiple chances. Daily resolutions.  A chance to do good--lots of it.  

A Way of Life

 

(Ruth Bancroft Garden, Walnut Creek, CA) 

   It is currently 7:51 am on January 2nd.  It is a beautifully crisp and clear morning and I am looking out at the orange-pink rays making my succulent plants blush.  My wife left for work earlier in a happy mood.  My parents are visiting from the Sunshine State and are preparing for an epic NorCal outing with me. I haven’t had to answer an email, return a phone call or go to work for several days. I have (surprisingly) gone for a run or hit the gym for several days in a row. I am in a ridiculously good mindset now at 7:56 am.  How can I keep this zen state a month from now on a cold, rainy morning after a particularly rough day in the classroom, dozens of emails I need to respond to, not-really-fun phone calls to make and my wife is not completely happy with whatever new or repeat knucklehead life choice I have made. What if I don't keep up my vacation fitness efforts and lose that positive mind-body surge? Then again, What if I told you that you I (and every educator I know) will not have a job after Winter Break.  Why? Because jobs have demands, deadlines, toil and trouble-- but what if our work mindset received a nirvanic alignment and we changed the game?



   As a teacher or school leader you have the opportunity every day to make a “generational impact on families,” according to Jimmy Casas in his book, Culturize: Every Student, Every Day, Whatever It Takes.”  I just finished the book and this passage spoke to me: “refresh your mindset so you see the role of teacher or principal as a way of life, not as a job or a title.”  The italics are mine-- the sentiment is awesome.  Experiencing the amazing ups and disappointing downs of teaching from a mindset of “a way of life” could be the enlightenment that soaks up the exasperation.  Creating the environment, cultivating the relationships, casting the characters and baking up the curriculum takes a lot.  It is definitely a way of life.  When you are hoping that mix of those competencies will set minds on fire or create an “aha chorus” and the result is a classroom mix of confusion, disinterest or worse--that is difficult for the most resilient educator.  

 I recently took a 3-hour tour of a bunch of educator’s “islands” across our campus that we call “classrooms.”  I wanted to film the whiteboards and screens of the varied learning spaces to show the variety of objectives, targets, agendas, vocabulary words and other edutopian topics on display.  I also asked the students I encountered what they were doing, learning or creating that day.  It was a wonderful opportunity for me to observe the diversity of knowledge, technique and style of our teachers that Administrators see on a more routine basis. I was impressed by the creativity.  I was an observer of the collaboration and the critical thinking of the students and the staff. What I did not expect to find was what several of the teachers shared with me after we briefly discussed my “what did you learn today” film project.  

The teachers were engaged and enthused but several were also...burdened.  New teachers and veterans alike expressed how challenging their days and year were for them.  They felt as if they were struggling and also felt as if everyone else was gliding along effortlessly. These were honest, unprompted expressions. The isolation of their classroom “islands” was very apparent. After hearing that sentiment for the third time, I told a teacher that most others felt like they did.  Their peers were working hard, sometimes failing forward and trying to do their very best for students that they truly cared about.  That teacher fought back tears (a losing battle), but found some respite knowing that others might understand what they were going through.

      This school life can be a great way of life. The chance to make a “generational impact on families” is an amazing opportunity.  Most of us are exactly where we want to be, but we need to be there together. I have been inspired by the #oneword2018 thoughts of many educators.  I choose
“#connection” as my one word for 2018. Educators need #connection beyond the PLN feed on their Samsung or iPhone.
 Our students need connection before they can journey into content. I hear that floatplanes make island travel easy.  See you soon.