...research shows...
...the argument for working all day in fits and bursts.
Well, my days typically begin at 6 a.m. and end at 11 p.m. with all I'm accountable for doing, so I'm not sure where I am peaking and where I drizzle, I just know that I'm fizzling with the ability to keep up with this pace. 7 days a week, 364 days a year, and I still fail at what I'm assigned to do. There is definitely something wrong with this picture.
The best part of each day, though, remains with graduate students, discussing their classrooms, their work, and what is possible in K-12 schools. This part of my day on Wednesdays is from 7:15 to 9:15 at night, following a day of national calls, school visits, grading, meetings, preparation, and the actual class. Teaching remains a highlight of my week and I'm thrilled to work with professionals and pre-service educators who run laps and circles around the majority of academics that are paid to prepare them. They are my heroes. I learn more from them in two hours than I typically learn from a semester of reading the research I must keep up with to maintain my job.
Last night's focus was on (Re)Vision & (Re)Working and we looked at writing rubrics, best practices for student writing assessment, and protocols for giving student feedback on their work. As usual, I contacted a local teacher and gave the prompt, "Give me authentic student writing as it is in your classroom right now," so I was able to show real-world, in-practice reality.
I got a writer's notebook prompt and several student pieces, so my in-practice and pre-service teachers might respond. I was after the conversation on feedback to student work, more than assessing student work.
As predicted, the conversation was rich, engaging, and pertinent. "Guess what, people? I'm sharing your feedback with actual students. This is for real!"
The truth is that most educators shoot from the hip on what quality work is, what kids are capable of, and what to offer to improve student writing. Yes, a decade of Kentucky Portfolio assessment set me ahead on what students are actually able to do. No, the majority of U.S. schools have no idea that kids can write like that. They don't know how to teach writing, their schools assess writing incorrectly, and most teachers don't teach as writers, themselves.
National Writing Project, 101.
Is there any other answer? Can we trust any program or "expert" that hasn't taken part in a summer institute? I don't know.
What I do know is that teachers are out there doing the work and they are doing all they can to invest in youth. Our systems, however (including higher education) do little to support them. And that is why this NWP director is simply exhausted by the amount of work that needs to occur each day, especially if you choose to invest in teacher leaders and their students.
And with that, I need to get back to work. It's December, y'all! Enjoy every second of it.