Need Energy? Take a Risk. Even a Tiny One.

The last weeks and days of school feel like anything but the time to take a risk. Hunker down, keep on keeping on, do what I know works—or at least doesn’t explode in my face. The siren song of familiarity and safety is oh so strong. I just want to survive the last few days or weeks, to make it to summer. 

Wrong choice—because 2 big energy surges have come from risks I’ve taken this week. They’re not huge risks—I know that. But they felt like it at the moment of committing myself. And on a Friday afternoon this close to the end of the year, thinking about them makes me smile:

• Students selecting 1 word per day from the class reading (The Great Gatsby) to learn and teach to classmates.
• Teachers writing appreciation notes to each other.

Here's why those activities gave me a surge of energy and made me smile:

(1) Students selecting 1 word per day from the class reading to learn and teach to classmates: It’s 11th grade AP students. The AP test is done. We’re reading the novel for a piece of literary fun. The usual drill is we have a 20-word list selected from the reading every several weeks—selected either by me or collaboratively from words students bring in and I compile. I post on Quizlet 1 list with definitions and 1 list with source sentences. We talk a little about the words we come to each day, and in the end, I give them a matching quiz with 5 definitions straight from the list, 5 origin sentences straight from the other list, and 10 transfer sentences. 

But last week I told them that while on the reflection on their last processed essay, many of them had set themselves goals of using more sophisticated vocabulary in their writing next year, they were soon coming to a point in their lives where no one was going to be giving them lists to learn. They’d need to develop their own methods for paying attention to powerful words and incorporating them into their own vocabulary. So for this novel, I was going to ask them to pick 1 word per day to learn (in whatever way works best for them) well enough to teach to their table group the next day. 

I pass around a paper each day for each student to list his or her word for the day next to their name. I’ll decide how to do the final assessment when we get there. Maybe copy the list, slice in into strips by student, and tell them to write original sentences? Anyway, we start class with reciprocal group teaching of their words to their table groups of 3 or 4. Today I heard such interesting conversations that without forewarning, I called on random students to come to the front and teach the entire class. (Everyone will have a turn before the end of the year.) 

We had one student teach us “knickerbockers.” She had even brought a photo she had printed from online. And she ended with the sports trivia tidbit that that’s the origin of the team name of the New York Knicks. Next we had “incredulous,” with an etymology lesson tying it to “credible” and “credit.” Finally, we learned “supercilious,” and we decided that it has nothing to do with “super silly,” but more to do with Tom Buchanan, the Great Gatsby character who is its embodiment. 

(2) Teachers writing appreciation notes to each other: I was leading my final after-school divisional meeting of the year (minus middle school teachers who were debriefing testing data), and trying to think of a good community-building opener. Merging and adapting several ideas I’ve seen recently, I put a quarter piece of paper on each desk, asked each teacher to put his or her name on the top, and then, leaving their paper behind, rotate to the next desk and write on the paper you find there one thing you appreciate about the person whose name is at the top. We used a timer and took 20 seconds per person. People threw themselves into the exercise with good will, and were refreshed, at 3:30 on a Monday afternoon, by the time-tested practice of giving and receiving appreciation. 

I wonder what tiny risk or two I can take next week to generate that extra little charge of energy to get me though the last full week of regular classes?