Graduation Season

School years are wrapping out and both teachers and students are getting out of school. One of my favorite times of the year as it is like sitting on the cusp, with the hopes, dreams, and promises of summer just ahead. It's whatever you want it to be.

Each school year end is like its own min-graduation. Along those lines and thinking of that, I think I'm at my own personal 32nd school year graduation. 

My personal reflection and celebratory photo is above.

But then there are the bigger milestones. Kindergarten celebrations where the littles are decidedly "not-so-little" anymore. The 5th grade promotions to middle school. The 8th grade official moves to high school. The high school graduations into the world of adulthood. The college commencements celebrating additional studying and degrees to further your career.

This year I attended 4 graduation ceremonies. For some people, that would be a level of major overkill. I personally am rather fond of these milestone events. I enjoy these official transitions with their pomp and circumstance. During these events, I heard some really powerful graduations speeches this year, filled with a lot of powerful metaphors. Believe it or not, I was tickled when one speech tied growth the the interconnectedness and communication and biodiversity within forests (aptly named the "Wood Wide Web").

One of my favorites this year was a resurgence in my world by the viral speech from several years ago by Navy Seal Admiral McRaven. His "Make Your Bed" speech was the one he delivered at the 2014 University of Texas Commencement Address. We've probably all seen it a number of times over the past 10 years. It was referenced in some digital decision making curriculum I have for my 4th graders, so I shared this video overlay version with both them. I also shared it with our 5th graders, who were knee deep in writing their own promotion speeches for their moving up ceremony. All classes were riveted and gave it a spontaneous round of applause--for of course in their 10 years, they hadn't seen this 10 year old speech. 

Good words of reminder, and a graduation season is the best time for it! May it inspire your next season ahead, whatever that is for you!

Photos created with my own pictures in the Pic Edu app. Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBAqF00gBGk.

2023 Graduation Season

I've been feeling a little contemplative and reflective lately. I think the end of the school year has you doing that, much in the same way a funeral does the same. Hence the need for graduation speeches and eulogies for both of those events. Wise words to transition to the next step along the way.

If done well, a good eulogy and a good graduation speech stick with you for a long time.

Given that, when I ran across a few articles about graduation speeches from this year, it really struck me that these are all good words to live by. Some are wise. Some reverent. Some irreverent, but equally wise! 

May they serve as inspiration!

The Guardian's Michael Cantor's article: " 'To the Class of 2023, I Say Three Words: You Poor Bastards’: The Year’s Best Graduation Speeches ~Included here are excerpts and video from the following:

• Patton Oswalt ~ actor & comedian, at William & Mary
• Isabel Wilkerson ~ journalist & author, at Occidental College
• Raphael Warnock ~ Georgia senator, at Bard College
• Tom Hanks ~ actor, at Harvard University
• Karine Jean-Pierre ~ White House press secretary, at Rice University
• Sanna Marin ~ Finnish prime minister, at New York University
• Nikole Hannah-Jones ~ journalist & author, at Spelman College
• Oprah Winfrey ~ talkshow host, actor & producer, at Tennessee State University
• Lester Holt ~ journalist, at Villanova University
• Mae Jemison ~ astronaut, at University of Delaware

GatesNotes: The Blog of Bill Gates: 5 Things I Wish I Heard at the Graduation I Never Had

Image created at www.canva.com

Our Oyster Graduates

A friend of mine posted this video on Facebook recently. It is a video montage of an early fall day ten years ago at one of my favorite places: my former school where I was the 3rd grade teacher. I've often said it was perhaps the greenest school in America!

Oyster Day became an annual tradition at Eagle Cove School. Typically our eldest, the 5th graders, won the right and privilege to put on the hip-waders and be the ones to get in the water to put the oyster spat cages and bags in the water. In this video of a decade ago, though, the 4th & 5th graders were both on their annual team building outdoor trip, based on the way the calendar dates fell. So this special year, our 3rd graders, as the oldest on campus that day, earned this surprising privilege. As their 3rd grade teacher, I can guarantee, I had a lot of ecstatic kids in my class that day who got to do the really cool, big kid, important stuff.

I think it's fitting this year (AND at this time of the year) because my 2010 third graders are heading to college this fall. They are the ones that experienced their senior year spring in the middle of a pandemic and remote learning. They are the ones who had a topsy turvy, unique, & unexpected graduation. Our seniors at my current school had a socially-distanced graduation on the school campus lawn, with paper-faced faculty posters stuck to chairs so the students could have an audience there supporting them. Our seniors received their diplomas in a special, almost militarily-scheduled, individualized Diploma Ceremony, crossing the stage... all the while being video-taped, and this footage was sewn together to create a Zoom-style graduation that no one ever expected. The school did it right, and the faculty, staff, and parents were proud. As I watched our 2020 graduation (where many of my former 3rd graders were graduating), I was touched, and often thought of those environmentally-active third graders of a decade ago.

Now, as we have hit this point at the end of summer, these once-third graders are heading to college. Some heading to campus while others are readying for a semester online at their own homes. For that reason, this video seemed more than just memories to me, but a tribute to all of those former students of mine as they head off into their next adventure. Masks in hand, ready to put on when they get to campus... maybe getting a Covid test along with all their text books... and ready to dive into this next chapter. May we wish them well as they pack the car, deck out their dorms, and find new passions and pals. They will rock it! Of this I know!

Video created by Carl Treff, from https://youtu.be/XQtRmi3VjME, Image from https://theamericanonews.com/2020/03/24/college-bound-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-heres-what-class-2020-can-do-to-succeed/ and https://www.okaloosaschools.com/programs/hs/college-bound

Books to Grow On

Disclaimer: I have a junior in high school living in my house.

Yes, she's my kid.  Given that, thoughts of college are swirling in our house.

When I went to Stanford this summer on my CA Tech Tour, we got the backlot tour from a former high school buddy of mine. She talked in admiration about knowing Julie Lythcott Haims. Little did I know at the time that she was going to be a speaker at our school this spring. I hadn't connected the dots, either, with her connection to one of our 4 summer reads: Real Americans, a biography about her experience as a biracial woman in America. Also, being another dot I was connecting: the day before going to Stanford, I had been a bookstore in San Jose and had taken a snapshot of Haim's book How To Raise An Adult. I didn't buy it at the time (hence the snapshot), but I knew it was something I should read.

Having now bought and read it, everyone with high schoolers, should read it! Even those with tweens and just plain growing kids should also read it in order to miss the inevitable parenting potholes along the way!

Julie Lythcott Haims was the Freshman Dean at Stanford for a long time...until that book-tour-thing got in the way. But she wrote about her experience...with GenX'ers like me sending our kids off to college. More and more, those kids are helicopter parented kids. In reading it, I'm proud to say that I didn't totally fall into that parenting category. Maybe it's because I'm a teacher, or from the Midwest, or maybe a bit of an anomaly. I don't know. But before I get too busy patting myself on the back, I did also see shimmering glimmers of me in there too in other ways. I do have my kids do chores, we do have expectations, and we sometimes parent with a smidge of sarcasm...but we've also been a tad over-protective, we check their online grades, we keep the family calendar, and probably have micromanaged a time or two.

Our kids need the experience of failing (often) as kids so they can grow to be resilient, capable adults. Adults who embrace a growth mindset. By trying to overprotect them from this, we set them up for longterm failure and the inability to cope. That's the opposite of what our job is as parents. We need to give them both roots and wings.

My follow-up read was far from a light read. Jean M. Twenge's iGen certainly does not fall in that category! Our Head of School started our opening faculty meetings talking about this book. He also spoke about it at the Back to School Parent Night for all 3 divisions (Lower, Middle, and Upper School). Anyone who is wondering about how the tech is going in your own house should read this book. Anyone with kids under the age of 25 should read this book. As the Technology Specialist, I certainly needed to read it. And, as a Tech Specialist, it's sometimes an occupational hazard--especially when the people in your own house love tech, video games, YouTube, online books, social media and more.

iGen was a hard one to read.

It's often hard to read something when you see your own self-reflection. Not 100%, but enough to open your eyes a tad wider. It's through that, too, where you start reanalyzing the habits in your homes. The statistics alone in the first several chapters are daunting regarding how the boom of rampant tech usage (via smart phones) mirrors the decline in mental health. A perfect quote from the book (page 78):

"If you were goin to give advice for a happy life based on this graph [based on 8th graders' tech usage], it would be straightforward: put down the phone, turn off the computer or iPad, and do something--anything--that does not involve a screen."

That's pretty powerful. There were nuggets of wisdom like almost with every page turn--ones my highlighter often found while I was reading this book.

Both books fall in the category of "must reads"... and I will say they were the perfect companion pieces for each other, soften proving each other's point. (In fact, iGen referenced How to Raise An Adult more than once.) They can be hard and haunting...and somewhat daunting... but important information is sometimes like that. Both books are definitive "signs of our times." And, just like in Thomas Friedman's Thank You For Being Late (another of our school summer reads), the one thing we can count on in this "age of acceleration" is change. It's happening, whether we're ready or not. It up to use to really see what's in front of us, and reimagine innovative solutions to help us tackle the problems! In our world, our community, and in our homes.

Maybe it's not too late to put these books on your holiday wish list!


Book images from Amazon.com

Summer is Here for You, Teachers

This week, we had the last day of school for summer.  Yes, every year the song "School's Out For Summer" reverberates in my brain for about two weeks surrounding this time period!

While I still have two days of wrap up meetings, tidying up, and end of the year luncheon's this week ahead, we are officially here. Summer. Some schools have been there for a bit while some still may have a bit to go. But in honor of this season, I want to share these videos with you, my teacher friends. Being one of you, I know how hard you work, and how this gift of sunshiny days are your reward for a year spent well--working hard, planning perfect lessons, grading mountainous stacks of papers, assessing projects, writing report cards, worrying about your students, celebrating the accomplishments and caring for your crew.

May summer be yours to cherish, refresh, reinvigorate, and ready yourself for fall!
 



Videos from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_pGiUeVFEU&spfreload=5 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypFRxw9czi4; image from http://betweenwallandmain.com/schools-out-for-summer/

A Tale of An Environmental Teacher

Once upon a time,....
there was a girl who taught at a very "green" school where they recycled, composted, built rain gardens, had green roofs, raised oysters, grew butterfly gardens, had an entire week dedicated to Earth Day, hosted Earth Hour events, and much much more.

She taught there for a very good long time. There, she was quite in her element, integrating curricular topics on the side of sustainability.  Her students were mesmerized by books like Operation Redwood. They graphed light usage and how long it took different items to biodegrade.  They did biographies on environmentalists such as Jacques Cousteau, Sylvia Earle, Jane Goodall, and John Muir. Her students weekly cleaned and counted Capri Suns to send back to Terracycle to reduce landfill waste. She was even rumored to have a majestic dress made entirely out of Capri Suns. Oh yes! They all ate and breathed the "green" scene.

Until one day....this wonderfully special school closed.

It was at this point the the friends/teachers/colleagues/families/students were quite saddened that they had to scatter like seeds in the wind.  Scatter they did.  They all landed well and started their next phase of happily ever after at brand new schools, public and independent, spread all over the community.

As would not be surprising, our one, same teacher gal also found a new school to call home. Here she got to embark on being the "iPad Lady," bringing new and innovative ideas to classroom teachers at her new school, helping her colleagues find ways to integrate technology and the curriculum.  And all was very good for her first new year at a new elementary school.  Not as "green" as where she'd been, but a good place to land all the same.

Then one summer day about 2 weeks before school started before her 2nd year there, our teacher was asked to do a favor. Would she kindly take on a homeroom classroom due to an unexpected leave of absence by a teacher on staff. This was quite a surprise, but of course she said yes. She embarked on both the hurry and scurry of setting up shop for the incoming students, as well as the "hurry and worry" on mentally getting her game on. She had to switch gears and go into classroom teaching mode versus just teaching tech with an office and classroom visits. It was supposed to be a short-term fill, but as often happens in this tale called "Life," more unexpected things happened, and she stayed in this spot for the whole school year.

There, with her students, she did what she knows how to do best.  She shared the importance of caring for our planet through student-driven tech investigations. She shared the concern of marine debris through mockumentaries and ocean cartoons. She read some of those same books as read-alouds that she had always read in the past. She embarked on a journey with a team of 3 other teachers to help the school become a Maryland "Green" School.  They triumphed and the designation was awarded!

Of course, as happens, the school year came to a close.  In addition to all of those eco-things, our girl helped her students prepare for the next step, write their end of the year speeches, and wrap up the year.  In return, her students surprised her with a very remarkable gift.  Based on her love on the environment, and their love for her, she was given a sizable donation in her name to a local environmental charity, promoted to conserving the Chesapeake Bay.  A gift was given that will keep on giving. The donations will continue forward to help further more environmental programs.

As her son once said in Kindergarten:  "Mom, it's all physics.  The world loves a circle."

A circle indeed. Those seeds that scattered to the wind with the closing of a school, had been sown. More environmental stewards had been grown. The circle of conservationism and environmental sustainability continued to grow outwards.

A circle indeed.  For the love shared and the love spread was more touching than I can describe.   I should know.  I know that girl, that teacher, very very well.

Thank You! Which, of course, is a most delightful way to "End."

GTG logo from http://www.greenteamgazette.com/; Capri Sun dress from http://www.greenteamgazette.com/2015/10/halloween-blasts-from-pasts.html; Michael Recycle costume image from http://www.greenteamgazette.com/2011/10/bein-green-this-halloween.html; CBF image attributes noted above & from https://www.cbf.org/join-us/tribute-gift-e-card?eCardViewKey=5a011206-1af7-4baf-afe6-f1174581b099

A Collection of Commencement Speeches

Today was my first official day of summer after all of the end of year events with kids--from the annual field trip to Hershey Park with my 5th graders to the final 5th grade promotion speeches as they gear up to move ahead to the middle school.  We had our days of meetings to wrap up and time set aside to pack up. Moving from one classroom to another, I did a lot of overhauling of things hidden away in closet boxes where they had lived a long time.  So files are now tidy, the closet is ready for its new recipient, and my new space is now ready for me to return in the fall.  We finished up with the end of year faculty luncheon where everyone celebrated accomplishments then bid adieu for the summer.

In this season of wrapping up, it becomes exhausting and overwhelming at times, but it brings about a good sense of closure and accomplishment. Like tying up the year, a package with a bow. 

In this season of speeches, I wrote one of my own to serve as inspiration to my students that we all had something to say, here at the end of the year.  As my students delivered their speeches on that last day of school, I found myself grinning to such a degree that by the end, my cheeks hurt from smiling! 

Given all of that, I think I've become more aware of all the viral commencement speeches that swirl about on social media.  I've found myself collecting them, much like someone would collect precious stones, commemorative stamps, or beautiful shells.  I've already shared Matt Damon's 2016 speech he delivered at MIT.  Here are my 3 other favorites this season.  May they fill you with wisdom, and may they make you think!

Historian & Documentarian Ken Burns:


Harvard's Dean James Ryan:

Mike Rowe's Practical Advice
(a different slant than the typical commencement speech!):


Pictures from my promotion & http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=97881&picture=christmas-gift-box, Videos from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEIFuEcjn_s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBvyBn6crLE, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVEuPmVAb8o

Learning Through The Launch Cycle

'Tis the season of graduations... I've lived through a few of my own this week!  Between hearing the speeches of my many 5th grade students, and feeling the pride watching my own daughter walk across her 8th grade stage, graduation reflection is all over my mind:

Students are launching into that next step in their journey. Thinking about it, you can almost envision the Life Launch Cycle, as students jump through the hoops of growth and graduation, making their way through all the important milestones:  Kindergarten graduation, 5th grade graduation, 8th grade graduation, high school graduation, college commencement, to weddings, parenthood, and then their kid's own personal achievements.  And the circle continues on.

Since life certainly seems to have a synchronicity, it seems just the right time to happen upon The Launch Cycle, a book by John Spencer and AJ Juliani about the Design Cycle in the K-12 classroom.  On their website on the Books & Resource Tab, they have other videos like the one below, which are tied to chapters of the book.

"Something happens in students when they define themselves as makers and inventors and creators. They discover powerful skills-problem-solving, critical thinking, and imagination-that will help them shape the world's future ... our future." ~From The Launch Cycle Website

      

For some great ways to "launch" into some of your own design projects (or to fill that summer slump of bored kids in your own house), check out the Global Day of Design's Website.  (As an aside, this year's Global Day of Design was April 26, 2016.  Stay tuned as next year's may very well next April!)

And "circling back" to graduation... isn't that what graduation is all about?  We go through life in a design cycle, coming to one end, which leads to a new beginning.  The proverbial "When one door closes, another one (or a window) opens." We go through personal design and redesign all the time.

Life IS the ultimate design process.


Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhQWrHQwYTk; "LAUNCH" cycle image from http://thelaunchcycle.com/; grad cap pic from http://www.datemplate.com/post_graduation-diploma-and-cap-hat_254810/

Graduation, Reflection, & Speech Writing-- The End Is Near

My 5th Grade students are writing their graduation speeches this week. Promotion. Moving on. The passing of the torch. They are readying to leave us and our campus this year... Next year they will be going forth to our Middle School campus, on to new adventures, and on to new experiences.

While they are gearing up to do that, a dozen days before the end of this school year, I am reading through 18 speeches.

It is during this time that I am reminded of the school year we all enduring, and the history of the last 9-10 months. I'm struck by a lot of memories my students are sharing, the ones we have all enjoyed. I know that there are most certainly a lot of personalities in this class of mine... and I have enjoyed watching them blossom as we have been growing together through the year.

I have also learned a little bit about me through this whole "5th Grade thing". When I started this year, I never thought I would be teaching 5th Grade. My plans were to teach Technology and be "The iPad Lady," Everyone loves the iPad Lady.  I remember the call I got from Head in the middle of August saying "I'm really hoping you'll do me a favor." I thought she wanted me to make a PowerPoint for the back to school meetings!  She didn't.  It was a tad bigger than that. Instead, she asked me to start teaching the Fifth Grade class due to a teacher going on leave.  Little did I know where this would take me.

Initially I thought it would be for 2 weeks.. 5 weeks... maybe even 12 weeks.  It was more.

And more, it certainly was.

I think this year has taught me, more than anything, that life is what happens when you're busy planning for one thing that happen, but then something completely different happens.

So... I became a Fifth Grade teacher. At first for the short term. Then for the long term.

In doing so, I opened my heart to these 18 people in my class who are so full of energy, humor, vim, vigor, and zest. Sometimes they make me crazy.  But I would guess that probably the reverse is true. No matter what, I think we have learned a lot from each other, and I think maybe... perhaps... We have had fun along the way.

Maybe the truest question is:  who has learned more? Them? Me? It's potentially a toss up!

These 18 students of mine are sitting at the crossroads of Elementary School and Middle School. The 3 months of summer is what separates them from being the "big man on campus" and the "new kid on the block." As they transition between the old and the new, my students will indeed graduate from being assured of where they are in 5th grade at the Lower School campus.... to being at the doorway of a new place, as a new face, of Middle School.  But my students bring with them every bit of who they are and where they have been.  They bring with them an understanding of "Yes! I can do this."

They are strong... they will persevere... and they will take this new adventure by storm! I know them, all 18 of them. Therefore, I know it is true!

Images from https://waterslandingpta.com/2013/04/19/5th-grade-graduation/ and http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-its-almost-time-to-graduate/ and http://1quotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Graduation-quotes-Sayings.jpg