Self-Discovery in Writing

Dancers want to dance, and they dance well.  Even if they don’t, they are still happy because they like to dance and they get to.  As long as dancers can dance, they are content.  What if we replace “dancers” with “singers”?  Singers, too, are happy as long as they can sing.  What about writers?  Are they happy when they get to write?  Do they still feel hopeful when they get stuck?  What if these writers are young 3rd grade students?  Is it true that there are “reluctant writers” in the classroom?  When I opened up this conversation to myself, it really sounded pathetic.  There are no “reluctant” dancers or singers.  As teachers, I thought, we should quit saying that there are “reluctant” writers, no matter what.

You and I know that some students will say, “I don’t have anything to write.”  This type of student normally sits at their desk for the entire 45 minute period doing nothing, if not interrupting others.  How can we help them?  My answer?  I can’t make them write!  What a bad teacher I am!  Really, the truth is that we have to make the student believe they are a writer.  Once they become a writer, they will be happy when they write.  They will be hopeful when they are stuck.  The teacher’s job is to help the student’s self-discovery process.

As soon as students hear their teacher calling them writers at the start of a writing mini lesson, they feel like writers, which is great for younger aged students.  However, what’s sadly true is that some students’ fingers and brains freeze when the actual writing time begins.  Do you remember that dancers dance because they know they are dancers?  Why not writers too?  How and when do students think they are writers?

We all know children’s developmental stages vary.  Some kids respond to the prompt or learn certain skills quickly while others don’t.  One thing that I think helps is having a “discussion” period.  Instead of going straight into independent writing after the mini lesson, let the students talk!  What do you want to write about today?  Why are you choosing this topic?  What strategies do you want to use today?  What do you think about other kids’ ideas?  Who could be the main characters today? Are we ready to write?

Question, question, and question….  Let the students fuel and engage in the conversation.  Maybe, you can record what they are saying.  When they say, “I forgot everything I said,” show the voice recorder and say, “here you go.  You can rewind and listen to this as many times as you want.”  This questioning routine is established with teacher modeling. Students can do it with each other, or even independently with a sheet of paper with their questions. If students engage in talking, that’s when they believe they are writers!  What a great discovery!

Once they become writers, they want to get better, just like dancers and singers do.  Perfect!  When they want to improve, take advantage of it!  Teachers now teach elaboration skills, transitional words, how to develop characters, a rich vocabulary, etc to fancy up the students’ writing!  How exciting is that?

Whatever writing skill level each student is at, discovering themselves as a writer can happen as long as they engage in talking!  You know how much kids love talking!  Why do they talk?  Just like dancers and singers, because they LOVE talking!  So when you see a student who seems to be stuck, let them struggle, let them talk, and let them discover the writer in themselves rather than labeling them as “reluctant”.  We are teachers, just like dancers and singers.  Don’t forget to celebrate with A Banana Dance!  P.S. Please let me know if you don’t know what a banana dance is.  I will be glad to share with you!

What’s Important in Our Lives

How many times I have heard and lectured to others about the importance of relationships?  The most recent Stanford study showed the best reason for people to feel happiness is from the relationship with others.

As a student teacher many decades ago, I tried to apply this as hard as I could so I could impress my evaluator.  I memorized all students’ names.  I visited individual students while being a classroom student teacher.  I hang out with these 3rd graders during recesses.  I listened to students as often as I could.  Still, my evaluator wrote me, “You have to build a good relationship,”  in the final evaluation form.  I was stuck on what the good relationship was.  Did I build a good relationship with her?  

After I was hired in the middle school, I refused to build any relationships.  The reasons I excused at the time were; one, this school was not my choice, two, teenage students were too disrespectful to build good relationships with me.  Needless to say, it was the worse than worst school year you could imagine.  I was exhausted and feeling miserable.  

Those memories brought me back to when I was in Elementary School.  I was outgoing for the most part, but I was afraid of making connections to certain people.  Keiko was in my 2nd grade class, who had special needs.  Just because my teacher assigned me to help her, I  organized her things and put them into her backpack.  A couple of days later, Keiko’s mom appeared in school and thanked me, “Oh, Keiko is so happy because you are always helpful to her.  Thank you very much.”  My stomach churned.  I wanted to say it was my teacher’s idea, not mine, but I couldn’t.  I felt even worse.  

In 5th grade, our teacher gave a lot of “Team Tasks” on us.  When I was done, I had to help my teammates.  It turned out I became a personal tutor for one particular student in my group.  Obviously he couldn’t comprehend or perform what our teacher required.  I was reluctant, but I did because that was what the teacher told us to do.  He was always quiet, and I didn’t expect much from anyone.  30 years later, one of my former classmates mentioned about him in the reunion, “He told me he liked you because you were always helpful for his math.”  I was embarrassed to share how I felt about “helping” him.

What taught me from these experiences are; 1) you cannot build a relationship for someone else who are not involved in the relationship.  When you have closed mind, good relationship wouldn’t happen.  You must be genuine.  2) That leads to the self awareness.  Why do you want to build a good relationship?  Why do you want to keep connecting to certain people?  If you recognize yourself as happy when you feel connected to someone, it is powerful.  It is not too easy to be aware of your emotion, but it’s not too difficult, either. 3) Kindness of any kinds will open a door of a relationship.  A little act of kindness can make someone happy.  If you received the kind acts from someone, you would want to connect to that person.  

If you desire the life changing experiences, plant some seeds, by smiling, giving complement, listening, inviting a game, and having lunch together.  Soon your life will be full-filled from connections you planted.  They grow and bloom in your entire life.

Unbundle

Subtraction came back to my 2nd grade math class.  "Two digit" scares these little people successfully, even though they have been successful of "bundling" in additions.  One says, "I can't subtract."  Another says "I don't subtract."  To start with, I threw a story problem.  "Shelby picked 35 oranges.  6 of them were rotten.  How many oranges could she save?"  Surprisingly, but almost predictably, some said, "35+6=41."  My response, "Hmmm.  Is she adding 6 rotten oranges into the basket?  Really?  Would you do that?  I don't need any more rotten oranges!"  Then they all took a deep breath and laughed, "It's subtraction!"  I felt a bit better.  Their subtraction concept was coming back.

Then, I started explaining how "un-bundle" works in the place value chart, using dimes as 10s, pennies as 1s.  About half of kids looked like statues.  Not significant light bulbs.  I pretended not to freak out, and announced, "Ok, let's meet up in the circle.  I will explain about the shopping game."  Did I had a plan for the shopping game?  Heck, no.  As I walked to the circle, my brain was sparking everywhere trying to find the best way for kids to understand "unbundle" in the engaging activity.  Click!  I sat on my spot and start explaining.  Here is the banker.  The Banker will exchange one dime to 10 pennies.  The shopkeeper takes money from the customers but only the exact amount.  Each pair gets five dimes, choose items labeled in the classroom, and shop together.  I grabbed the sticky notes and started labeling items in the classroom while talking, e.g., the mini white board 7 cents, marker 3 cents, etc.  I chose a student who had most difficult time understanding this unbundle concept and paired up with another student.  The shopkeepers were students who can count money correctly.  To make kids more engaged, I told them that the Fairy Godmother would give them $1 when they run out of their money.  They had to prove they were nice to each other to the Fairy Godmother to get her approval.  Now they had to go to the bank to break one dollar to 10 dimes.  That was an extended activity for the advanced students.  It turned out to be a great activity.  Students were engaging, collaborating, and understanding how unbundling works at the bank when they exchange their dime to pennies!

After that activity, we came back to the place value chart.  90% of students demonstrated their understanding of dime coming to the 1s place, but it needed to be 10 pennies.  Unfortunately, some still had no idea.

Next day, we went back to the worksheet that we started two days ago.  Some pairs started working independently.  I facilitated a particular pair to take turn to be a banker and a shopper, just like yesterday.  They completed all tasks by themselves after I left.  Other groups in the table, I encouraged them to play a banker and a shopper.  I added a little circle in the 10s place and draw an arrow line from it to 1's place.  Then, I made a big circle that they can put 10 pennies.  After they put 10 pennies, they discard a dime from the small circle.  As students repeated this manipulation, one student exclaimed, "I am getting it!  The place value chart really works!"  Another said, "Now I know why I was exchanging a dime to 10 pennies."  

Unexpectedly, the first plan didn't work well, however, unexpectedly, the spontaneous made-up game triggered their concept building.

Happiness in 2017

Robert Waldinger is the fourth leader in 75 years of the "Happiness" Study at Harvard.  The team has been following people from their youth and throughout their lives to find out what makes people happy.  The answer that they found? Good relationships.  Compared to being isolated, being surrounded by people and involved in social activities make people happy regardless of how much money they have. It is also intriguing that if you feel happy at age 50, statistically, you have a higher chance of living longer than those who don't.  

Shawn Achor and Daniel Shiegel also mention that good relationships make people happy. Daniel Shiegel's Interpersonal Neurology explains how the brain, mind, and relationships connect.  According to his study, when you spend $20 dollars for someone else rather than for yourself, your brain activates more.  The positive and physiological energy flows from one person to another and back during a positive relationship.  Shawn Achor gives an example of the Happiness Advantage. While most people complain about their physical pain, happy people experience less pain because of their self-regulation.  Of course, happy people are not happy about their pain, but they don't focus on the negatives.  They train their brain to be positive and happy.  As a result, they recognize only the present moment of the pain, and do not focus on anxiousness, nervousness, or agony from the pain.  Emotional pain is, yes, painful.

Shawn Achor suggests 5 things you can do to train your brain to be more positive: 1. List 3 gratitude a day 2. Exercise 3. Journal 4. Mindfulness Practice (Meditation) 5. Random Acts of Kindness.  I have done these five things for the past year.  Did anyone notice if I was more positive than I was in previous years?  I don't know.  But did I recognize it myself?  Let me tell you this.  I feel and am physically healthier than last year.  I had less episodes of chronic stomach and back pain last year.  I was able to stop doing things when I noticed I was too upset.  I was able to create space between extreme emotions and my actions so that I could later make better decisions.  Those may not be too significant, but I celebrated because they were very positive in my life.  So starting off in 2017, I continue exercising these 5 things to grow compassion in myself, deepen relationships, and extend appreciation in my daily life.

Happy New Year and Every Day to you, too!