Summer Brain - Help! I need you!

I am trying my damnedest to maintain the brain I had during the summer - the brain that automatically turned on the day after the last day of school last year. The optimistic brain, the idealist brain, the creative brain. Well, we have had kids in school for three weeks now, and I am losing it already. I need to get it back.

What is happening? What is the cause of the theft of my summer brain? The culprit is a tie between the implementation of the Common Core in the form of a brand new curriculum that is said to be aligned with that big bad bear, and the kids themselves. It is so ironic because I so love the kids. They are beautiful, funny, interesting, loving - for the most part, respectful. But school is stressful for us all. How to reconcile? 

I am trying to follow this new curriculum as laid out by the teacher's guide. It takes the class at least twice as long as the guide seems to think it should take. And though it looks straightforward, it is not exactly kid-friendly and definitely not language-friendly for English Language Learners. One or two of my students get it in the time allotted by the guide. Most get much of it, but not to mastery. Only a very few are totally out of their element. 

But the thing is, it is worksheet learning. If they don't get it, we are supposed to reteach and give them yet another worksheet. I think this is where the behavior problems come in. It is challenging and grueling. There is too much listening and not enough doing. And when it is time for the doing, it is doing worksheets. It reminds me of teaching "old school" math back in the day. And though it seemed as if they were getting it when I was teaching, when they have to do the worksheet on their own, I hear this haunting chorus throughout the room, "I need help, I need help, I need help." 

The "I do, we do, you do" model becomes "we do, we do, we do" and then time runs out, and still they have not mastered it. 

What needs to be done? The worksheet heavy environment may be what is causing the stress and the disengagement. Dare I depart from the curriculum as it is laid out? Dare I assume that this method of delivering instruction is not going to work with the majority of my students? And if so, what is the alternative? 

I think the first thing I need to do is rather than have the "you do" part independent practice, they can work in partners. The trick there is for students to learn how to share strategies rather than answers. I need to cultivate that sense of accountability. The second thing is to work on a spiral review bulletin board. Though I do review after I have seen their errors, I don't put it on a visual that they can access. The third thing is, assume that they will not get it via the worksheet process, and instead of spending time on it, give priority to active learning first. The fourth thing is, don't be bogged down by the "map" or the meeting "standards." Focus instead on getting students to own their learning. Did you learn something? Do you know how to do something that you didn't previously know? Celebrate that. 

Hello summer brain. Stick around. I'm going to need your optimism and positivity. 

(Photo taken in Seattle at the Seattle Art Museum gift store. Reminds me of my summer brain.)