My Pseudo-Hiatus for Summer

Haven't written much on the ol' blog this summer.

It's a combination of being busy with other things (teaching a couple of courses, recording and editing episodes of Hallway Conversations, working on two ongoing research projects) and--I think--exhaustion from the last year and a quarter of incredibly demanding teaching.

It's not that the blogging has become unimportant or anything like that. I still value this kind of reflective writing about my practice, for sure. But other things have crowded in, and this writing has sort have felt less important given everything else in my life.

I struggle sometimes with setting unrealistic expectations for myself, so this has been an exercise in noticing my thoughts (as in, "I really ought to write something on the blog!") and then letting them pass by so I can focus on other things. 

But...here I am, writing a short post, because..."Otherwise I will have a month go by with out a single post on the blog!" (As if that is so important? But in my mind it somehow is.)

I started this blog a little over nine years ago. It was when I started as a professor full-time, and I somehow thought people would care what I had to say about all kinds of things. That lasted about a year and a half, I think. :-) The first half-year, I had 60 posts. The second year, I had 127 posts. Somewhere in year 3 I realized that writing for myself (in general) here on the blog would be more valuable for me instead of trying to write for other audiences. And, since then, it's been a slow decline year by year, until last year when I posted a whole series of distance teaching tips, since that's in my wheelhouse, as they say. But this year...well, this is only post #12 for the whole year so far. That's not to say that I won't pick it back up in the fall and start writing more, because I just might.

But suffice to say I realize how I needed the break. And I am feeling okay about this pseudo-hiatus from blogging this summer, for the most part.

So here's to the end of July, and the beginning of August (tomorrow!) and the sudden rush to get everything ready for the new academic year to begin! 

Yeah...not my feet...and not my photo, unfortunately.
Thanks to Tabeajaichhalt on Pixabay for this one.

So Many Thoughts: Planning for Fall

There is an old saying that "crisis doesn't create character, it reveals it."

I am not sure if this is completely true, but I've been thinking a lot about this in light of how our emergency distance teaching adventure has unfolded over the past weeks and months.

This has been an educational crisis, for sure. And it hasn't all gone well, at least in my own teaching practice. There are plenty of things that I would have loved to do over, from the kinds of assignments I gave in some situations, to the way I communicated my expectations to students, to being a little more proactive in reaching out to a few students. It all ended up well enough in each of these situations, and we made it through. I feel like I'm still kind of catching my breath after the hectic pace and uncertainty of the end of the spring semester. I suspect many educators are feeling that way.

But the fall semester is out there on the horizon, and soon enough it will be here. And as much as I wish I could take more time to rest, to regroup...I think planning for fall has to begin now.

I know many schools already have those kinds of planning sessions underway, but I'm thinking here about teachers in particular. What can we do to be best prepared for teaching this fall? Here are six things that I think educators should think about. I don't mean this list to be a prescriptive "here's what you gotta do if you're going to be teaching this fall," but more of a "here's what I'm thinking about and I hope this might help spur your thinking too." I'd love to hear your thoughts in response.

Gender Bias: Girls Who Code

It's summer camp week, and we have 300+ middle schoolers who have joined us for Dordt Discovery Days. It's an "academic camp"--designed to give kids a taste of college life, living in the dorms, eating in the dining hall, taking a couple of exploratory courses, playing all-campus games and activities, and meeting kids from across North America who have come to spend some time with us on campus. I'm co-directing, again, which I love, because it means I get to visit all the classes kids are taking, and talk with them about what they are doing and learning.

It's amazing, honestly. Every time I step into a classroom, I have kids shouting at me...

"Dave! Come see this cartoon character I created!"

"Dave! We're dissecting sharks! Come see what we found in the intestines!"

"Dave! Can you stay for a minute? Our a'cappella group is working on an arrangement of 'Africa,' and we want you to hear it!"

"Dave! Check out the pillow I made! I sewed it myself!"

"Dave! My group has been creating this awesome marble roller coaster--come try it!"

"Dave! We're playing improv games--come join in!"

"Dave! ..."

Doing Hard Things

This past weekend I had a new experience: I participated in a triathlon.

I say "participated," because I wasn't really in it to "compete." That would have been a whole different experience, I suspect. I was part of a trio; we had a swimmer, a runner, and I was the biker for our team. We said from the outset that we were in it for the experience; we were sure we weren't going to win, but as I said to my friends, "I feel like I'm winning because I'm doing this!" (Cheesy? Yes. Trite? Definitely. True? Well...yeah, I think so.)

Team 3 Amigos! Go! Fight! Participate!

Team 3 Amigos: that was us. We were not out to compete, really. We were participating. We were trying something out, and learning by participating. And I definitely participated--I put myself out there to try something new that challenged me, and I learned a couple of important things through my participation, by getting in there and doing a hard thing.

A Technology Sabbath

I.

I was camping with my family this weekend. Actually, with quite a few of my wife's relatives. Which is great, really. (My in-laws are pretty fantastic.)

By design, I left my iPad and laptop at home.

This was, I confess, a challenge for me.

Summer Vacation?

Okay, fellow educators...here's a question for you: What is summer for? I mean, how do you use the summer break from school?

Image by The Consumerist
CC-BY-2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

I know teachers who spend the summer completely away from school. They walk out the door a week after the students leave and they don't come back until a week before the students arrive in the fall. They head to the pool, they head to the lake, they head out of state. They use the summer to unwind from the hectic school year and rest up for the coming year.

I know teachers who work all summer to supplement their (perhaps meager) income from their chosen profession. I know teachers who paint houses, work in construction, clean carpets, work in restaurants, and write webpages during the summer months to earn a few extra bucks. They use the summer to ensure that they can make ends meet each year, because they feel so strongly called to teach that they are willing to do what it takes to support themselves so they can carry out their professional calling despite the low pay it might afford.

I know teachers who try to enrich themselves intellectually, to become better teachers. They spend the summer reading, reflecting, taking courses, participating in workshops, and generally trying to develop into more professional teachers. They use the summer to encounter new ideas and methodologies, to develop their understanding of pedagogy or content, and to seek to improve their teaching practice.

I know teachers who do a variety of these things each summer. They try to get away for awhile, they try to work a little, they try to do a little professional development, all at the same time. And suddenly, the ten weeks of summer vacation are gone in a blink!

What do you think? How should teachers use their summer vacation?

Kids' Summer Reading

Summer vacation! Time for all that great free-reading that kids might not have time for during the school year between homework and piano lessons and soccer practice and everything else!

Image from david.orban via Flickr CC BY 2.0

My own kids are out of school, and we've already been to the library once. I think my son has already read four of the eight books he picked out! (No trouble getting that one to read...)

For more reluctant readers, perhaps some suggestions might get the ball rolling? Earlier this year, I wrote a series of posts providing some reading suggestions. I called the series "Books for Boys." (No gender-bias intended, really...read my rationale for this.) Truth be told, most all of the books listed below will be great reads for both boys and girls, though I'm focusing on the 5th-8th grade crowd here for the most part, though some of these might be great read-alouds for younger kids too.