Promises Made
Will you help me keep them?
The school year begins this week, and as such, this newsletter will transition to reflecting more on the day to day happenings in Senior Capstone. I am equal parts excited and anxious, and I can’t wait to share the specifics about what we are doing in the classroom. My sincere hope is that those involved in the course both near and far offer their support and guidance to its teacher and students in a joyful, generous spirit.
Senior Capstone is built on the premises that (1) student apathy is real, is a real problem, and is rising, and (2) curiosity is a key trait necessary for success and well being. As such, everything is geared towards igniting and sustaining student curiosity as a way to combat student apathy. Students are consistently invited to share their interests, thoughts, questions, progress, failures, successes, etc. Can I guarantee the outcome? No, I can’t. Can I guarantee that students will care, will engage? No, I can’t.
Can we be honest with one another? I could never do this with any subject or class I taught previously either. All I can do is try to provide the conditions by which students will be most likely and able to respond by engaging. Some will respond on day one, some will respond halfway through the year, some will never respond during the class itself but may “get it” long after graduation. Again, this is true with every class. Don’t believe me? Here is one of my former AP Macroeconomics students writing to me over the summer:
Dear Ms. Lamberti,
I hope you're having a great summer! I just wanted to write to you because last night I was reflecting with my mom about my summer in general and we were talking about [a conference I attended]. I was really happy and excited to attend and had a great time, but looking back I realized I had a big moment of gratitude for macro. [A government employee] was one of the speakers that came to talk to us about the happenings in Alabama and as he spoke about taxes, running budget deficits/surpluses, and inflation I realized I actually did understand what he was saying! I was really grateful that as I listened to [him] speak I had the knowledge to discern what he was saying and finally connect how it applied to real life. If I was listening to him a year ago I would have frozen up and let the information pass in one ear out the other, so it made me really grateful for not only the content we learned this year but more importantly how you taught us not to give up on something if and when we don't understand it right away. I see how macro must be a tough class not just to learn but also to teach so I really appreciate you. Enjoy the rest of your summer and I'm excited for capstone.
In education, we often pay lip service to the idea that every child learns differently and on a different timetable, but this is hard to fully honor in our every day words and actions when all involved are constrained by the school calendar, standardized assessments, college admissions, and the like. It is also hard because it requires adults and children alike to accept that some things are not in their control. Senior Capstone is a place where we can all more fully honor that every student learns differently and on different timetables.
Thus, while I can’t control everything that is about to happen in the coming year, I can make some promises.
I promise to be intentional when it comes to my instructional design from the standards and objectives to the assessments.
I promise to use what we know from neuroscience about how students learn best when designing learning experiences for my students.
I promise to be reflective and adaptive.
I promise to communicate openly about what I am doing and why, acknowledging both the failures and the successes along the way.
I promise to listen to any guidance given and to take any support given with a joyful, generous spirit.
If you are inclined to help me keep my promises, I look forward to receiving your comments and questions.