Confidence in this Crisis

It seems like it was a lifetime ago when I wrote the last blog post.  I was attempting to gear us up for the final weeks of the year and now I am not exactly sure what the upcoming weeks will even look like.  As I look through the article about finishing with confidence, though, I think there is still much that can apply to us in our current situation.  Since we are in the planning stages now for adding more NTI work, let's focus on building confidence in our planning.  

Keep your focus simple when planning--focus on student work. We are going to have to develop more work for students to complete without us--perhaps for the rest of the year.  What would keeping our focus simple look like for NTI packets 16-30?  Let's take a look at some advice that Jennifer found from a teacher in China who is now completing week 7 of cyber school with no current end date in sight.  She writes:

"Cut back on what you plan to do, then cut back some more.  Your students will burn out because of all the work.  Literally, just do the basics that are important."

Let's focus on the basics:  

Perhaps for these next NTI days we should think in terms of Standards, Work, and Assessments instead of planning an activity for each day.  

I am thinking it would be great to tell parents something like, "This week your child should focus on this standard... By the end of the week, I will have your child prove, 'I can...'  I have attached options that you may choose from to help your child be able to ..I will assess your child's mastery of this standard on March ...30 with a call between 1:00 and 2:00." 

So, a step-by-step process might look something like this:  

1. Standards:  Isolate and narrow down the most important standards from your content that haven't been taught and assessed yet. Break them down into weeks.  "These are the standards and I can statements I would teach and assess this week." 

2. I can Statements: Now, list the I can statements that go with each standard.  

3. Plan Assessments to match each I can - this could look like pulling items from your common assessments and/or you thinking about what the student could tell you over the phone, or show you by sending you a picture of their work.  "This is how I will know where they are on the road to mastery of that standard."

4. Plan the Learning Activities/Presentation of Content: Think about how you would have presented this content to them so they could be successful with the assessment.  Is this a step by step procedure on paper that can be found in a Coach book?  A video you could post?  Find both digital and paper-pencil options that could go in a packet.  "This Brainpop video, this activity from the iready tools, and this Coach Book Activity will help my students master this I can statement."  

You've got this. This is very similar to the planning you are already doing. Be confident in yourself and in the future. You might as well.  The future is going to come either way. It's a whole lot more peaceful in the present if you have hope rather than fear.  Fear won't make the future any easier to take.  

From the basketball article I shared earlier:  

    Confidence is a mindset skill that requires discipline to protect and maintain. Work on it every practice and protect yourself from mentally letting down your guard which comparison, assumption, or negative thinking. As you think, so you become.