Thoughts on School, Learning, and What's Important

Forgive the random nature of this post, as well as some of the ramblings that will come along with it, but within the current reality we're all living in, I've had a bit more time than usual to reflect on school, learning, teaching, and what seems to be important.

It's quite amazing what kind of mental re-framing has been brought about through this pandemic. Along with that, it's been very inspiring to see what teachers, admin, students and parents have done to make this situation go as well as possible so far.

Thinking about what I've observed in society with skills needed to brainstorm, problem solve, develop, construct, and distribute necessary items...not to mention the need for people to cook, clean, workout at home as well as the overall appreciation and consumption of the arts, this is what my 'optimal school' going forward might look like:

-First off, a different look at grades and grading. Seriously, enough with the abstract and arbitrary measurements. Know your standards, understand how to articulate to students what their understanding of those standards looks like, develop work and assessments that inform teaching and respond to student needs, and create tests/projects/assignments that allow students to demonstrate their proficiency in regards to that standard.

-It sees as though "school life" will continue to go on, even with the cancelling of state standardized tests. Let's continue to place more emphasis on district-level measurements of growth, along with student portfolios, etc.

-For years, I've seen students every other day within a block schedule. I'd love to have the chance to see my students every day, even if that means a shorter amount of time.

-Along those lines, EVERY CLASS/SUBJECT IS IMPORTANT. Seriously. Classes like Family & Consumer Science/Home Economics have shown to be crucial --> cooking at home, maintaining a clean residence, SEWING!!, laundry, maintaining a budget, etc. Along those lines:

• computer science/coding and/or engineering classes...make that available as a choice for all
• Music choices and visual arts! Kids should be able to choose at least one of these to pursue
• Phys Ed and Health!! Fitness, mindfulness, awareness and practice of healthy living, daily exercise...these are all vital, and proving to be more and more crucial with each passing day. 
• small teams of teachers (3-4 max) to house 75-100 students who can then feel part of a smaller community even within a large school
• a daily start with a homeroom or advisory to build sustaining relationships and work toward ways to build relationships and volunteerism out to the larger community

I'm sure it seems crazy that a Reading/Language Arts teacher would talk about 'giving up' some minutes I've become used to, but I also believe a high quality school fosters reading and writing fluency within all disciplines. With a unified stress on things like Academic Vocabulary development, Non-fiction reading fluency, and daily writing practice, students can get constant reps on these key skills. With subjects like math, science, and languages also being every day, numeracy and world language proficiency can also be consistently developed.

Yes, I'm sure this is all crazy and expensive and whatever. Maybe there are ways to get creative around something like this, maybe there would be too many limitations. But when thinking about developing the whole kid, the thought of a school day like that is very attractive, both as teacher and parent. Like I said at the start, this was a bunch of rambling, so thanks for reading!