Pivoting Mid Year

There is a stigma that you must stick through with the strategy or method you teach with or structure of your classroom.

But I have pivoted. A lot. A lot.

I feared that changing things drastically would ruin the flow of class and that kids would not be happy or would lead to behavior problems.

What has made major changes work is communication. Honesty. And in a not super intense form of the word: vulnerability.

I own up to my class when a structure or system isn't working. We have a conversation about it. And more importantly, the dialogue is not always one sided.

It may surprise some, but students are not always looking for an upper hand. Take my recent experience:

My students do not like the online math resource they are required to complete every week. Many don't do it, most only complete a portion, some just don't understand the concepts. All do it out of force and not much fondness.

So, I am regularly trying to figure out a way that would benefit them in completing it without too much hair pulling.

I have tried many strategies, but for so many kids, it hasn't worked. So I brought them into the conversation.

I owned up to knowing they aren't completing it and asked them what it would take to raise their completion. I gave them a few options I had and also opened up the floor for any ideas they had. Our solution: We are going to attempt it as a bellringer each day and see if that helps. In another class, they want to have a bigger chunk of time but only a few days a week instead of everyday.

Pivot. Adapt. Adjust per group.

We will see how it goes.

Too much change leads to disarray. Too little makes learning stale, in-genuine, and unrealistic. Students will have to make adjustments in their current and future situations and we are building the blocks of how and why we can make changes productively. How we can experiment enough to find what works, and what doesn't.