"I aim to be proud." "I just have to try." Going into Day 1 of Year 13 tomorrow, I'm holding these two sentences from student writing last year—two amidst MANY incredible sentences, from MANY incredible students, on a now-blank wall waiting to be filled. Starting tomorrow. ❤️

My favorite school-starts-tomorrow ritual: a FutureMe email to myself to read the day after students depart for summer. Now just to figure out what to say... 🤔

Always helpful to know Day 1: what shape best fits each students personality 🔵🔺🟧〽️ (And then QUITE a conversation when they see "what their shape could mean" and get a chance to talk about those descriptions 😂)

"it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless" -James Baldwin, "The Fire Next Time" Had to pause for a stretch after encountering this one (and, yes, many pauses in reading this resonant text by one of the greats).

I need to confess how much I love Cult of Pedagogy’s TQE method. My students annotated these two poems for homework. I introduced them to TQE, they developed these 12 questions, and we had the best discussions we’ve had so far! Thank you to Marcus Luther too!

Asked a class of incoming freshmen to rate their middle school experience from 1-7 in terms of learning and support, and the range of answers was pretty considerable—and, I think, really important for them to see. One classroom = lots of different experiences.

👀👀👀

After reading/analyzing Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" on Day 1, I gave students a chance to try it out themselves. And they wrote some stuff 👀 (It's going to be an awesome year!)

We begin the year by framing one lesson around each of our core beliefs—and a story/analogy to go with it. Today's? The story of the blindfolded men and the elephant🐘 📌 narrative writing = affirming their own experience 📌 collaborative analysis = relying on peer perspectives

“Our relationship differs but we see the same trees” Week 1 and I’m already imagining what is going to fill this board over the year! ✍️❤️

These 3 shifts made T Marcus Luther's feedback more resonant with Ss – and so much more actionable: thebrokencopier.substack.com/p/doing-writin…

One of the undeniable joys of the first week of school are the random pop-in's from former students to just say hi and check in. Seriously: it's restorative every single time. AND a reminder that the long view matters in this work.