Sunday, December 8, 2013

Common Core, Collaboration, and Cartoneras...Oh My!

It all started with a piece of cardboard.  

A while back, a co-worker of mine mentioned the cartonera movement as a way of engaging learners in my Spanish Language Arts classroom.  Always thinking it sounded like something I wanted to do as part of my instruction, I tucked it away until the right opportunity presented itself.  This past summer, while participating in a district-level realignment of our Spanish and English language arts curriculum to the Common Core State Standards, I discovered that the cartonera would be the perfect vehicle for integrating Spanish and English language arts with social studies and art to build bilingual language proficiency and family engagement for students in our school

The title of this unit, Cartoneras:  cuentos sobre la comida y la cultura (Cartoneras: Stories About Food and Culture), indicates what we studied for the first quarter.  Sixth grade students began the year learning about diversity and creating their own classroom community.  They were also studying narrative writing.  The cartonera project is exactly that on a larger scale.  Cartoneras are beautiful books made from recycled cardboard and distributed by publishing co-ops that began in Latin America and have spread to many places in the world.  The purpose of cartoneras is to build community, create art, and continue to publish literature at an affordable price for the public. Throughout the quarter, students would read and write various stories about culture, celebrations, and food.  Their finished product was to make their own cartonera to be displayed in our school.

To design this unit, the 6th grade English Language Arts teacher and I, the 6th grade Spanish Language Arts teacher, collaborated to discuss the goal of the unit.  Because SLA and ELA have the same language arts standards (Spanish Language Arts is a fifth core academic period for students in our bilingual program), we wanted to make sure that we co-planned our instruction so that students would not be subjected to the same lessons between our two classes.  We outlined the theme (culture and food), and chose two mentor texts (novels) that would support that theme.  The two texts we chose had copies in English and Spanish. They were also comprised of vignettes, short stories that could be taught in the time frame we were given. We agreed on which chapters of our mentor texts would be taught in Spanish and which would be taught in English.  We then decided that the purpose of working with these texts was twofold:  1.  to make connections to the cultural celebrations and food discussed in the vignettes, and 2.  to teach students how to analyze the parts of a story and then use that understanding to write their own narratives about a celebration or family cultural event that also involved food.  Everyone had to write a narrative in English, and the students in my class had to also write a different narrative in Spanish.  

In my Spanish Language Arts classroom, students spent the first three weeks working with oral storytelling in Spanish, while the English Language Arts teacher used children's books in English to identify the components of a narrative.  During the second three weeks, we expanded to use the chapters from the novels we had chosen as mentor texts.  In Spanish Language Arts, students read three different chapters in Spanish, analyzed them, and drafted three short stories about their own cultural events that were thematically-connected to the ones they read about.  In English Language Arts, students read different chapters in English, and did the same kind of writing.  For the final three weeks, students in each class chose two different drafts to finalize and publish--one story in English and one story in Spanish.  The students then created cartoneras in which to place their published stories.

The cartonera was an authentic purpose for students to present their writing in a creative way.  By blending art with this writing assignment, students were able to express themselves visually and linguistically. Their stories are also complete with a recipe for the food described in the event from their personal narrative, and we are planning to host a family potluck as the culminating event.  Families will be able to share their culture, build community, and take pride in their children's work, all at a collaborative event held at our school.  

Who could have guessed that a little piece of cardboard would become a unique way of showcasing students' talents and inviting families to our building?  

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Changing the Perception of English Language Learners Through an ESL/Bilingual Skills Class

"Why am I in this class?  I know how to speak English!"
"ESL is for kids who don't know English!  I don't want to be in here!"
"How can I get out of this class?"

I was shocked to hear these comments from my students the first year I took a new position as an ESL "unified arts"/"exploratory" teacher in my middle school.  Our school is committed to full-inclusion, and for three years prior, I had been a social studies/language arts teacher whose main job was to teach these two content areas and adapt my instruction to build language proficiency for the ELL's that were on my team. Having built a positive rapport with students in the building, I took for-granted that students would totally accept a stand-alone class taught by me.

Students in my school all receive ESL and special education services through their core instruction.  Because we teach them that we all have different learning needs, students are often unaware of differentiation and curriculum supports their peers are receiving in class.  Generally, they are very supportive of each other's learning, and respect their needs.  Creating an ESL/bilingual skills class, to give them an extra hour of language instruction a day, rocked this full-inclusion boat as students, who were used to being educated together, began to be physically separated for certain instructional hours in the day.

To change the student perception in my school about the ESL/bilingual skills class, I had to create an environment where the students felt safe and respected so that they were able to learn.  This meant: addressing stereotypes associated with ELL's, explicitly teaching students about language proficiency and academic language at the middle school level, and empowering students to embrace their bilingual/multilingualism and to see themselves as fully-capable, high-achieving learners.

The most common stereotype associated with ELL's is that their English language proficiency is an indicator of their intellect.  In the worst case scenario, people believe that they cannot learn until they have mastered English (something that research shows takes seven to ten years!).  One of the first things students learn in my class is that there are many ways to show what they know and that language is just one of these ways.  I also teach them that, because of their unique positions as English Language Learners, some of whom have also lived in other countries or gone to school in different places, they are highly intelligent and have many interesting things to teach us. We talk about what school is like in other places around the world, and celebrate students who attend Saturday culture schools.  I look for opportunities to highlight students' knowledge about subjects that are unique, and constantly tell them how much I appreciate them for teaching me new things everyday.

In addition to teaching my ELL's that they are intelligent, I explain to them that my class is about giving them the academic language they need to express their intelligence in interesting ways.  We do a lot of work differentiating between academic and social language. Many of my students are well-versed in their social language, and this causes teachers to assume they understand everything that is happening in class.  Without structured academic language support, however, our ELL's miss deep concepts in core instruction and do not make progress in their language comprehension.  I am very clear with students that our class is a place for them to practice using and understanding academic language (or the "language of school").  I challenge them to use this language in their core instruction so that they are prepared for high school, where the language gets even more complicated.

One of the ways we build academic language comprehension is to help students see how their other languages actually help them develop academic English.  For speakers of romance languages, I encourage students to find cognates (words that sound similar and are spelled similarly, with the same meanings between languages).  When students are taught to see their bilingualism as an asset, they feel a sense of pride in themselves as learners and they are more willing to take on academic challenges.  We routinely talk about the long-term benefits of bilingualism:  the range of job opportunities, travel, friendship, and education that can be had because of being bilingual/multilingual.  This change in tone--from bilingualism as a deficit to an asset--recently resulted in a significant number of students self-selecting English 9 Honors, Hmong for Hmong Speakers, and Spanish for Spanish Speakers as they chose courses for high school.  In previous years, our Spanish speakers, presumably ashamed of their Spanish, chose to take French, if they took any language at all.  I am overjoyed to see that they are reclaiming the honor in their home language as well as challenging themselves with the English Honors course.

In conclusion, over the past three years, I have successfully built a program that has changed the way ELL students see themselves as learners.  They are empowered, know they are intelligent, see bilingualism as an asset, and are building the language comprehension they need to access higher level instruction.  The most recent comment I heard from a student about my class is that it's his favorite class of the day.  What an amazing positive change from the negativity I experienced three years ago!



Sunday, October 27, 2013

Taking Time for Students: Doing What is Right for Students Given New Constraints in Education

Am I teaching content to students, or am I teaching students how to access and learn content?  

This is the fundamental question that guides my teaching practice on a daily basis.  

If I decide that I am teaching content to students, it means that the material I am teaching is more important than the students I am teaching.  I might find myself rushing through lessons so that I can prove to my administrator that I "finished" them and am ready to move on to the next, regardless of how well my students were able to acquire the skills and knowledge taught through that lesson.  I might overlook the fact that several of my students failed a test, and chalk it up to the fact that they just "didn't try hard enough."  Or I might send students off with homework that they are unable to complete independently, leaving them to fend for themselves, hopefully finding an outside resource to help them learn what I should have taught them during their school day.

Recent trends in education reform are pushing teachers to teach more with less, at breakneck speed, and without depth or responsiveness to individual students' abilities. This is encouraging many teachers to teach content to students instead of teaching students how to access and learn content.  Tragically, this is also resulting in lower student performance, higher teacher turnover, and overall public dissatisfaction with their local school systems.

If we are going to reverse the current trends in education, we have to re-focus on why we chose to teach in the first place: to teach students.  

Creating a student-centered classroom in the fast-paced, dehumanized world of standardized tests and Common Core scope and sequence is a challenge, but I know that we professionals are capable of rising to the challenge.  

We might not be able to control the curriculum that comes our way, but we can find ways to inspire our students to make connections and investigate topics outside of the classroom.  We cannot control the standardized tests, with their "trick" questions and cultural bias, but we can humanize our students by working with them to set reasonable goals for themselves, being transparent about what their scores mean and what skills they can work on to improve their performance, and celebrating their individual accomplishments.  Ultimately, we cannot control the time demands set upon us, but we can choose to take the time we have to be student-centered educators and to share resources, strategies, and ideas to support each other in this work.

As a student-centered bilingual educator in the new world of Common Core, I have created opportunities for my students to access and learn content in several ways.  I am taking the time today to share with you some of these strategies so that you might find yourself empowered to continue doing so as well.
  
First, I take the time to provide a safe environment for students to try new things and express new ideas, where they feel comfortable making mistakes and trying again.  This is done through community-building activities and creating classroom working agreements that facilitate a collaborative culture in our room.  I continuously ask students for input into topics of study or activities we could do as a class, and I have a suggestion box for students who want to communicate with me anonymously about anything that is happening in class.  I also celebrate student work and frequently use their writing as exemplar texts to analyze as a class, teaching students how to provide and receive constructive feedback.

I also take the time give students plenty of reasons to trust me to guide them in their learning, allowing them to see me as an advocate for them as learners.  This means that I am open and honest with students about what it means to be an English Language Learner, using examples of my own status as a Spanish Language Learner to show challenges that even I encounter as a bilingual person who is fluent in two languages. I empower students in their education by teaching them about the history of laws surrounding bilingual and ESL education, highlighting stories from people who were English Language Learners in classrooms before ESL became a right.  We confront stereotypes about English language proficiency and intelligence, and I have taught my students that, as their ESL teacher, I am teaching them language and study skills that they need to access their core education when they leave my classroom.  I am not a "remedial" teacher and they are not "remedial" students.  In fact, they are highly intelligent because they are "doing school" in a language that is new to them!  I also encourage them to maintain their other languages knowing it will provide them with greater opportunities in life because the world needs more multilingual/multicultural people.

Finally, I take the time to get to know students as people so that I can spark their fire for lifelong learning.  This process is much less concrete, and can be affected by so many other life circumstances, but my purpose as an educator is to make connections to the students' lives.  This means finding a real-world application for everything we ask students to do in school, so that when they ask why they have to learn something I always have a real-world answer.  Does the student want to own his own auto shop?  Then he'll have to know how to use language and problem-solving skills to write a business plan, read invoices, communicate effectively with clients and workers, and understand and apply knowledge from auto manuals.  Does the student enjoy writing, but not see it as a viable career?  Then show her real world examples of authors who did other jobs while building their craft and getting published.  Does the student feel lost, not knowing what he wants to do in life?  Help him explore all kinds of topics, independently and collaboratively, connected to what he enjoys doing in his spare time.

In closing, if we are going to teach students to access and learn content, we must first get to know each of them as people. We have to know what their interests and skill sets are, what their future goals may be, and how they see themselves as learners.  We then must build a climate of trust so that they will see our instruction and methods as valuable learning opportunities that utilize their input and will help keep all options for them as they become more independent.  We must also empower them to challenge existing stereotypes and know their own history so that they can advocate for their own learning.  

If we want students to achieve, we need to provide the right environment for them to do so.  This means trusting that by taking the precious time to do so, we will cultivate high achievers and lifelong learners.  I believe we can.  And I know that we will.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

*Umoja*Unidad*Unity*We Are One*

Dear Friends,

As our school district goes through the latest round of administrative restructuring, it is becoming more and more clear that we are being guided by the principles of the corporate education reform movement.  My school, with all my wonderful, bright, caring and diverse students, has recently been officially labeled an "intensive intervention" school.  This is because our students are supposedly not making enough progress on their standardized tests.  When we look at the data about who is testing poorly, we see that they are generally all English Language Learners and students of color who all happen to be living in poverty.  Coincidence?  I think not.

I can send you copies of examples of this standardized test to prove my assertion that the tests are written with a Eurocentric, monolingual focus, that presumes access to a wealth of literature and information outside of the classroom, but suffice to say that there are reading comprehension questions on it that require extensive background knowledge about things like blacksmiths, classic literature, advanced mythology, and "bake pasta," whatever that is.

As a result of our scores, teachers are now required to teach an extra class at the end of the day that is either an intervention for struggling learners, an extension for advanced learners (i.e. the white kids), or something in-between that they need to create on their own for the kids in "the middle."  They are being told that the materials for the interventions are "on order," so the teachers are frantically spending their planning time (or being put in a position to ask their student teachers to waste their apprenticeship time) making copies of curriculum books and teacher guides so that they are ready to teach these classes starting next week.  They have been given no standards or goals for the students to reach to exit out of such classes, and the children's parents have not been notified, nor has permission been sought or given.  I could tell you all about how absurd this curriculum is, but will spare you the pathetic details.  The teachers are also not trained in how to use this curriculum, and had to take "crash courses" in it yesterday afternoon.

The "extension" course for the "advanced" kids is already packaged up, sparkling new, and ready to go! Each teacher has his/her own kit full of brand new books and teaching materials.  They don't really have to prepare much because, by nature, the "advanced" kids love school, feel positive about being there, and are excited about learning.  Wouldn't you if you were always getting positive reinforcement?  There is absolutely no equity in this situation.

I'm watching school closings from around the country, and can't help but make the connection that I, too, will be shut down, and my students will have their civil rights taken away from them.  I don't know what to do, except continue to teach and write about what is happening.  Maybe someone, somewhere will care, and I will be inspired by a new generation of civil rights leaders.

Here's the latest on what happened in Philadelphia.  Give us a couple years, when our "interventions" don't lead to student progress on standardized tests, and I will be sending you the same kind of video with my face on it.

http://www.mediamobilizing.org/ourschools

Sincerely,
Scholastic Chaos
*umoja*unidad*unity*we are one*


Sunday, September 22, 2013

Building Relationships, Respect, and Literacy Through a "Faces of Learning"-Inspired Project

If we think of our schools as volumes of books filled with the vignettes of every person whose presence has graced their hallways and classrooms, we are left to wonder what stories are being told? What are the major themes and how have they been developed? What is the plot structure and how do problems find resolutions? Who are the characters and how do they change over time? How are stories told through multiple points of view and what effect does perspective have on the interpretation of events and their outcomes? Most importantly, what lessons are learned from reading these stories?

Unlike books that can be simply picked up and read, people, particularly young people, are not easily so.  To get to know a person (to "read" the story of a person) takes time and often a lot of nurturing through building relationships founded on mutual respect and appreciation.  Knowing that stories are often shared in good company, among those with whom we feel most comfortable, we teachers become the hosts of the events that will bring our students together to tell their stories.  What might these events be?  How will we set the tone to make sure that all stories are heard and appreciated?

It is with this in mind that I have designed a first quarter standards-based unit that revolves around storytelling and community-building. Inspired by the "Faces of Learning" website, this multi-layered performance-based project follows the Language Arts scope and sequence outlined in Curriculum Companion, the tool some Wisconsin districts have chosen to guide our implementation of the Common Core State Standards, and is embedded with English Language Development standards for my ESL-focused class.  

First and foremost, I want to build respectful relationships with each of my students and teach them to respect themselves and each other as we get to know about who we are as a community of learners.  My goal is to show them that I see each one as a unique person, worthy of respect and value, who has her/his own strengths and weaknesses.  I also want them to see me as a lifelong learner with my own strengths and weaknesses who is also worthy of respect.  We are doing this through an investigation of our own multiple intelligence, learning styles, and language proficiency (added intentionally for ELL's).  This information will be compiled into a learner profile and used to help students set individual goals for their intellectual and social growth.  

I also want to empower students to respectfully advocate for their own learning.  To do this, I am modeling for them ways that I, as a teacher, advocate for their collective learning, and I am transparent about how I adapt my instruction to fit their individual needs.  As students discover more about themselves as learners, we practice ways for them to advocate for their own learning in my classroom and beyond.  Through discussions of formal versus informal register in communication and learning about cultural expectations for showing respect, the students will be equipped with the skills necessary to communicate respectfully with a diverse group of peers and adults in our community to advocate for their needs and be responsive to the needs of others.  

The most important element of this project is the humanization of students.  Not only do I want to create a safe space for students to investigate themselves as learners and respect and appreciate themselves, each other, and me as their teacher, I also want them to share this "data" in a human way with others in our school community.  This is why they will be using this experience to write their own learning story to share with families and staff via a classroom website.  

As this project grows, I believe that it will continue to foster a climate of strong relationships, as people find similarities with each other and learn to appreciate differences.  It also cultivates respect for individuality, as each person's learning story reflects her/his own unique perspective.  I look forward to seeing the growth our students will make this year as a result of this strong foundation of self-awareness, respect, and relationships we are building through this project.  I also look forward to seeing the growth our staff will make this year as they hear directly from students about their learning experiences, their challenges and successes, in our schools.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The Simplicity of Appreciation

"The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness."
-14th Dalai Lama

"Thanks!  Have a nice night!"

I heard those words from the assistant manager every time I clocked out from my shift at the job I had in college.  I always replied with the customary "You're welcome!" but would walk away secretly puzzled that I was being thanked simply for doing the job that was expected of me (I mean, it felt nice to be thanked, but didn't he realize I got paid to be there?).  Now that I am a classroom manager, however, I see what he was really doing every time he thanked me. He was modeling respectful behavior and expressing appreciation for my contribution to our workplace so that I would take pride in my work and act the same toward him, our co-workers, and our clients.  And it worked.

I've taken the same principle and applied to the way I interact with my students.  Just like that manager, I believe that respect is both earned and taught, and that it is my responsibility to model respectful behavior toward my students so that they will learn how to be respectful toward me and others.  I, therefore, thank them at the end of every class so that they are left with words of appreciation from their teacher.  I use the word "please" when asking them to complete challenging assignments, and consistently point out their strengths and good character as they go about their routines in our classroom.  I explicitly teach them how to use respectful language and we practice using formal register in our language-focused classroom.  We work together to establish norms for respectful interactions, agree to positive behavior expectations to hold each other accountable, and we do community-building activities to learn to appreciate one another. When disrespectful behavior happens, we address it and practice strategies for fixing it.

Once expectations for respect are established, taught, and practiced, I spend the rest of the year reinforcing these interactions.  I try to greet each student individually as s/he enters the classroom, and take a genuine interest in each of their lives often asking them questions to see how they are that day, what the latest news is, and how their family members are.  I work to learn about their culture, in terms of both their youth culture and their home culture, and am honest with them about the fact that I value what they teach me.  In turn, I teach them about my own culture, sharing stories about my own family or my adventures as a lifelong learner. 

My goal as an educator is to consistently be a role model for these young people as they are learning to become positive members of our larger community.  I want them to know what it feels like to be appreciated and treated respectfully so that they develop a high sense of self-worth.  I also want them to know how to show appreciation and respect for others so that they can be models for them.  When we show young people our appreciation for their goodness and teach them how to be respectful, we are making wonderful progress toward creating a more appreciative and respectful community for generations to come.


Sunday, July 28, 2013

Three Reasons to Be a Teacher

3 Reasons to be a Teacher:
1)  June
2)  July
3)  August

Ah, the dog days of summer.  Time to sleep in, enjoy coffee on the porch, take the kids to the beach and the park, travel, barbeque, camp, catch up on the latest gossip on daytime television, read novels from this summer's best seller list, and generally be responsibility-free for the whole season.  For many, this is what they think of when they think of teaching:  working a job that has the incredible benefit of three months of absolute laziness a year.  While this may sound enticing, anybody who has spent any time either with a teacher or as a teacher knows that this rosy picture of luxury is far from the reality of what summer is like for many people in this profession.

Summer vacation for me meant 80 hours of curriculum development work, confined to a windowless library at one of our district's high schools.  Thankfully, they were kind enough to assign us to one of the few air-conditioned places in our buildings.  We spent the first week being re-trained on the newly-adopted Common Core State Standards and were discouraged from working at our own pace.  What was touted as time for us to write curriculum turned into lecture upon lecture about how to create performance-based assessments, write standards-based units and lessons, and identify mentor texts and resources that we might use to support our instruction.  We then broke for the summer, planning to return to the table in August for the second half of this work, where we would reconvene in the confines of yet another windowless conference room at our district office, rested, relaxed, and ready to crank out all of the units we would need for the upcoming school year.

I then traveled to Minneapolis for five days to attend a conference on dual language immersion.  In the comfort of a conference room with light refreshments, we learned about the fundamentals of dual language immersion, the research that supports this type of instruction, and the effective strategies for pedagogy in this program.  Our focus was on using standards to design units, creating and sustaining the space for students to use language in our classrooms, and lesson planning in the DLI classroom.  My co-worker and I had brought our curriculum-writing resources with us to this conference, fully intending to continue our work back in our shared hotel room; however, after a long day of learning we were too mentally exhausted to get much of anything accomplished aside from dinner and a quick phone call home to our respective families.  "Don't worry," we assured each other, "the curriculum will get written soon.  We will just have to do it when we get home."

Well, now we're home, and now it's almost August.  In three short weeks, I need to have unit outlines, lesson plans, performance-based assessments and rubrics written, as well as identified mentor texts, graphic organizers, and protocols created for goal-setting and progress-monitoring for five different classes:  6th grade ESL, 7th grade ESL, 8th grade ESL, 6th grade Spanish Language Arts, and 7th grade Spanish Language Arts.  All of these courses need to be complementary to mainstream, core academic classes, and they need to be creative enough to engage the reluctant learners that I often find in my classroom.  Furthermore, the Spanish Language Arts classes need to follow the same scope and sequence as their English Language Arts counterparts without doubling-up on instruction or translating the ELA content.  As I'm sure you educators can imagine, this is truly an art form that requires constant collaboration with the ELA teachers--collaboration that may or may not happen this summer based on scheduling conflicts.

What could cause such scheduling conflicts, you ask?  Aren't the other teachers just lying around waiting for September?

Not exactly.  

Most of the teachers with whom I need to collaborate are teaching summer school.  Others are attending graduate school or taking classes--paid for with their own money and not reimbursed by the district or tax-deductible--to maintain their certification or to earn a small raise of less than $100 a month.  You might find teachers traveling to gain experiences they will take back to their classrooms, attending annual data retreats to discuss disproportionality in our schools and develop strategies for addressing specific needs in the upcoming school year, participating in school improvement focus groups, or tutoring children who need extra summer support.  Maybe they have other summer jobs that help pay the bills, or they are taking the time to catch up on professional reading that gets ignored during the hectic academic year.  As I created this list, I just realized myself that I need to update my Professional Development Plan (PDP), something I am sure many others are also writing this summer.  And, speaking of professional development, there are hundreds of hours being volunteered right now by educators in my district who are attending PD's on becoming Middle School Math Specialists, receiving training in Developmental Designs, and learning about how to use hip hop to design culturally-responsive units and engage students in their learning.  One of my friends actually organized an Edcamp here in the area for professional collaboration, and routinely learns in online forums as well.  Whatever they are doing, you can rest-assured that there is plenty of work being accomplished during the months of summer.

So why did I become a teacher?  Was it really for June, July, and August?  

In some ways, perhaps.

In June, I reflected on the beauty of a full-inclusion education, which is what my school offers.  I asked my students for feedback about what I, as their teacher, did that worked and how they thought I could improve.  I was reminded of the fact that I became a teacher to provide young people with a high-quality education that met their needs, respected their diversity, and challenged them to think critically about the world around them.

In July, I reflected on the power of a bilingual education, which is the direction in which my school is heading.  I asked questions and challenged existing systems in our school to help create the framework for high-leverage Dual Language Instruction in our building.  I was reminded of the fact that I became a teacher to advocate for student learning, to facilitate cultural and linguistic fluidity, and to prepare young people for our global society by giving them the opportunity to learn academic content while simultaneously developing fluency in two languages.

In August, I plan to reflect on effective pedagogy as I spend the last few weeks of summer writing the fall curriculum that will be taught in my school.  I will ask myself what students need to know and be able to do to be successful in the upcoming year.  I will remind myself of the fact that I became a teacher to design units of instruction that engage students to the highest level of their ability and beyond, reflect their interests, and teach them to respect themselves, each other, and their environment, while preparing them for higher learning or careers beyond high school.

In short, yes, I did become a teacher for June, July, and August, as these months provide me with the time I need for personal and professional reflection so that when the chaos of the academic school year begins I am well-prepared for everything that comes our way.  Cheers to all you other educators who also take this time to become better practitioners.  Our students and their families are grateful for your dedication and fortunate to have you as their educators.  Enjoy the rest of your summer and best of luck getting ready for the fall.