I am not watching Game of Thrones.
I tried my best to get into the show over Winter Break over a year
ago, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around it all. For a person who can’t
remember whether he turned the oven off or what he got his mother last
Christmas, Game of Thrones is an overwhelming experience. I can’t tell a
Snow from a Stark, a Targaryen from a Lannister. There are too many kingdoms,
too many relationships, and too many long-ago conversations in heavily-accented
English for me to keep track of.
If you’re lucky like me, you have others in your life who are
thoroughly invested in the final season of the show, so you get to overhear the
post-show analysis. “Wait—so she is the one who, back in the first season,
killed the guy who—we found out in season three—was really the one who.
. . .Since the dragon let him ride it, that means that now he will be
the one who. . .and because she is third in line to the throne, after so-and-so
and whatshisname are killed. . . .” There’s a lot of discussion of the
backstory, figuring out all the moves to explain how they got to this point.
Whether or not you are keeping up with a fantasy series on HBO,
you are in real life nearing the end of another school year, a time when it’s
useful to spend a few moments considering how you got to this point. Do
your own post-show analysis. Take stock of your classes—what your students are
doing or not doing—and reflect a little.
I’m sure there are things that are going well. Perhaps your
students have become a tight-knit community of learners. Maybe they are reading
and analyzing text at a sophisticated level. Or they are using academic language
stems and switching appropriately from a casual to an academic register when
having classroom conversations. Whatever they may be, take note of these things
you want to replicate, the behaviors or skills you want next year’s students to
exhibit, too. Then consider the teacher moves you made to get your students to
this point. Examine the backstory. Jot down what you did so you’ll remember to
do it again next year. Consider what you might do differently (or earlier) to
get your students to the desired point more quickly or to move students even
further along.
I assume that there are also things in your classroom that aren’t
going as well as you hoped. Your students seem unmotivated. Earbud and cell
phone use has spiraled out of control. Fewer students are completing work in a
quality manner—if they are completing it at all. Now is the time to take note
of those things so you can start planning now about how to solve the problems
that are driving you crazy in the final weeks of school. How did you get to this
point? What did you do (or not do) that created this problem, and what might
you do differently to prevent its recurrence?
Instructional coaches on your campus or at the district level are
excellent sounding boards to help you troubleshoot in advance for next year. Or
find a willing colleague who would like to be an accountability partner.
Putting plans in place now, when you aren’t in ready-set-go mode, lessens the
chance that you’ll forget to make those plans next year.
Start preparing now so that next season is only a continuation of
what you’d like to see in the future. August is coming.
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