For each school day of the 2020-21 school year, I will be writing two sentences to capture some of the impressions, feelings, experiences, or thoughts I had that day. This is the 33rd post in the series.
Monday (May 31)
No Classes — Memorial Day
Tuesday (June 1)
The first day of the Math Olympics, an event that we’ll use to close the year which was co-designed by me and my cogen. To add an official feel to it, we held the opening ceremonies; we played the Olympic music, lit the Olympic torch, had a parade of participants, read-aloud some math writing from the year.
Wednesday (June 2)
Day 2 of the Olympic Games kicked off with a festive game of Kahoot to review some of what we learned this year. During the medal ceremony, in which I played “We Are the Champions” by Queen and slowly dragged gold, silver, and bronze medals over top of the group members’ names on screen, one student remarked in the chat, “I’m emotional for no reason.”
Thursday (June 3)
Co-facilitated a racial and social justice professional development where our staff used restorative circles (2-4-8) to add structure to some internal reckoning we’ve been doing at our school. Strong opinions abound; fireworks lit up the sky!
Friday (June 4)
A bitter-sweet day because I met with my cogen for the last time this year; I called it a “Reunion Cogen” because I invited all 19 students who were part of it back for one final conversation to debrief the experience. We spoke and I also gave them an anonymous survey; all the students spoke highly of their time in the cogen and valued it as a means of getting to know each other, building trust, and bettering to the classroom community for everyone.
bp
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