- How many books have you read since school started six weeks ago?
- Easily a book a week since all of the students in all of my classes read independently and silently for at least ten minutes per day.
- Do you mean the books I read to model reading behaviours for my students or the books I read at home? Or maybe the professional books I read?
- Does it count if I don’t remember them?
- [quiet weeping] I keep starting the second chapter but someone keeps farting loudly… in every class.
- When you model writing in front of your students, they…
- watch with interest, asking questions and noticing how I am shaping my work.
- glance up from their own writing occasionally if they are stuck and need some inspiration.
- keep talking
- Wait – I’m supposed to write in front of them? I’m not sure I should turn my back to the class.
- How many phones have you confiscated so far?
- We have incorporated phones seamlessly into our daily routine so that students recognize them as useful learning tools.
- My students and I co-created classroom rules; as a result, they respect the rules and only use phones at pre-determined times.
- 14. Yesterday. During first period.
- [quiet weeping] I’ve started loaning my phone to students when theirs run out of battery.
- How many assignments have you graded?
- We have a routine where students choose their best work every Friday. They polish it and hand it in so that I can provide feedback over the weekend. We don’t need grades because each student has individual goals that they set for themselves and they are monitoring their progress. So far, everyone has an A.
- Six weeks of school; six assignments. I strive for a 24-hour turnaround.
- One. The next one is due at the end of the week.
- One. Mostly. [quiet weeping] Ok, I’m lying. Some students have turned in *something* and I swear I’ve looked at it.
- What is the current state of the magnetic poetry on your chalkboard?
- We have a multi-class collaborative poem that is currently up to four stanzas of rhyming iambic tetrameter.
- Students are using each other’s creations as springboards for their own writing.
- Someone separated the words “pretty flowers” from the rest of the bunch.
- Even though I removed all of the potentially vulgar words from the set, one student – who has yet to turn in any actual work – has managed to write “I want to tongue your mother” and other vague obscenities every day.
- Which unit are you studying?
- We have eschewed “units” as a colonial construct; instead, each student has determined their own course of study, including stretch goals.
- We are right on schedule: we’ve completely wrapped up the second of four units, leaving time in the semester for a final project.
- So… that first unit is taking longer than I thought.
- I think this semester might be one long unit.
- How effective are your anchor charts?
- My students have worked together to create attractive, informative anchor charts that cover the bulletin boards and indicate that this is *their* classroom.
- The anchor charts around the classroom both support and reflect student learning.
- I have some.
- I’m waiting for the chart paper we ordered in late August to finally come in.
- How often do you eat lunch?
- Daily. With my students. I supervise a club every day. Interactions with students are paramount.
- Every day. With my colleagues.
- I mean, I eat…
- I keep forgetting to pack a lunch. Yesterday I gave a student some money when he took a “bathroom break” and he brought me a McDonald’s hamburger and some fries.
- Your sleep patterns can best be described as…
- An effective routine that allows me to function at my peak
- 8 hours per night.
- Erratic
- I just want to get through a night without school nightmares.
- According to your therapist, how many weeks before you go on stress leave?
- This is simply unthinkable. My students need me.
- Stress leave? Teaching is my dream job.
- We think I’ll probably be fine.
- I’m just trying to survive to November.
Persistence and Pedagogy 