Granting Students Permission to Learn through Blended Courses

"If you defer investing your time and energy until you see that you need to, chances are that it will already be too late."

This Clayton Christensen quote became my motto last spring. Heading into last summer, I knew that fully immersing myself in transforming instruction for my Career Development course would pay off in September. Luckily, the course was entering a revision stage in the curriculum process during which myself and another Career Development teacher were tasked with finding open educational resources and digitizing them. This deep dive into the course helped me to redesign the instructional delivery methods. 

Career Development is THE course that all adults wish they had in high school, whereas students often want nothing more than to be in another elective -- one that they have chosen. At my school, Career Development is a graduation requirement. Given this, it was a great decision to offer it to students in a new mode: blended. 

In past semesters, I spent the first weeks marketing the course's importance to the students. Its content is not about mastery of skills or memorization of facts, but rather discovery of self. There are no tests or quizzes. The class is built upon the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Career Education and Work, and in alignment with the Chapter 339 Mandate. For many students, this class is the first time that they are asked to self-assess, self-reflect, and plan.

Over the summer, I needed to spend hours upon hours preparing for this new format. My goal was to get student buy-in from the first day of school in September. I planned to address the instructional design of the course and make a few strategic moves that would transform the course content and student experience. In order to achieve my goal, I recreated course structures that focused upon:
1. revamping the course syllabus
2. granting permission to students to learn
3. maintain accountability of student and teacher.

Revamping the Course Syllabus

I knew that the roll-out of this innovative learning method at the secondary level needed to be strategic. Over the summer, I took several two week courses through Global Online Academy, which my school district has used as a professional learning partner over the past 18 months.

During the Modern Learning Lab course, I collaborated with another colleague to revamp the course syllabus for our respective classes. She does not teach Career Development. We evaluated at our courses through the elements of modern learning: time/schedule, place/space, student-centered, assessment, relevancy, and collaboration.

After working together to brainstorm how our classes would transform through these lenses, I transferred that work into a new course syllabus. Later, I revised this syllabus to meet the needs of my face-to-face learners. Guess what? I didn't need to make many changes! Why? These elements demonstrate the idea that learning is not only relegated to the brick and mortar setting. Conversely, students should not have to enroll in an online or blended course to experience these positive disruptions in education.

Learning happens wherever and whenever the student wants it to happen.

Pause. Reread that last sentence. It is a humbling one. No matter the course format in which a student enrolls, the learning occurs whenever and wherever a students wants. This ideology even applies in a brick and mortar setting...

I'll touch more on that in a future blog post.

Granting Permission

In order to be prepared for whatever I was about to embark upon in September, I designed and front-loaded most of the course materials in July and August. Then, I created a day-by-day course calendar. Front-loading the course content served as a symbolic transfer of responsibility and accountability from me to the students. With this small gesture, I was hopeful that students who wanted to work ahead and in their own time and space had the official go-ahead. I didn't expect all 75 students to take this permission and run, but those who wanted to tread in unfamiliar waters were allowed to do so.

While I always dream of students demonstrating that same initiative in a face-to-face class, I find it equally as hard to grant that same level of permission to them. Students expect to have content delivered to them in a classroom setting sometime between 7:30 am and 3:00 pm. They expect to be assessed by the teacher. They expect to be told to be quiet during class. For many, that is the only mode of education and learning that they know.

Maintaining Accountability

At my school, 74% is a a key number in the gradebook. If a student has a 74% or lower, the teacher is to "block" the student into their study hall. When attempting to brainstorm natural consequences for students in blended courses, my colleague and I immediately went to this number.

Enjoying a flex day is a privilege for students, so if their grade is 74% or lower in the official gradebook, then it would appropriate to require their physical presence in the classroom during scheduled flex days. In order to best monitor student grades, I decided that I needed to maintain a regimented schedule of updating grades. I decided to require myself to update grades once a week (typically sometime between Monday and Wednesday) and notify the students, via our learning management system. In turn, they must check to their grades. If needed, I have sent personal emails as a notification of their current grade.


How are you revamping courses, granting permission, and maintaining accountability in your classrooms, whether they are online, blended, or face-to-face?

Introduction to Launching Blended Courses at the High School Level

Over the past year, I have had at least 365 moments that have made me stop, cold, in my tracks. As an educator, I have the unique opportunity to work with young people who are in the midst of navigating the world, so I have many of these life-changing moments.

This past year has been different. Very different. These moments have been filled with questions, "How did I get here? How did WE get here?" They have been the big mind-blowing moments that have stretched my thinking (not to mention my energy and focus). In my teaching career, I have not been challenged, pedagogically, as much as I have been during this past year. Suddenly, I feel like I have been tossed back into the ranks of the new teachers. There have been days that I felt like I was just simply trying to tread the water.

The early 21st century will be remembered as responsible for true disruption in the educational space. It is this moment that we, the educators, are forging into new waters. I am not overwhelmed by this thought, but rather empowered that each of us can make a true change.

About a year ago, I was informed that I would have the opportunity to launch blended sections for one of the electives that I teach. I immediately started my own research (I'll share some of that later!).

Actually, my research started years ago. I did not know why I was researching, but I knew that I needed to learn about how and why the digital age would change the classroom. Ever since computers and the internet became accessible to students, we feared that educators would be deemed unnecessary.

The formal shifts that teachers are now being asked to make, and the transformation of the student learning experience should not be unexpected by anyone. After spending years casually reading about technology integration into the classroom, I came to the conclusion that teachers will never be useless. In fact, I would now argue that blending learning empowers the teacher (and her adaptable abilities) and makes her more relevant than ever before.

During my fact gathering stage a few years back, I relied upon the work of Christensen Institute and The Learning Accelerator to create my formal schema. The Christensen Institute is a fascinating entity, because its focus is disruptive innovation, not just within the educational sphere. The Learning Accelerator works with districts to implement blended learning strategies. Both organizations, though, define blended learning in a similar manner:

Christensen Institute:
The definition of blended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns:

• at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace;
• at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home;
• and the modalities along each student's learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrate learning experience.

The Learning Accelerator:
Blended learning is the transformative educational innovation of our time and has the potential to significantly improve K-12 education throughout the country. Blended learning is the strategic integration of in-person learning with technology to enable real-time data use, personalized instruction, and mastery-based progression.


It is through those lenses that I most clearly see that implementing blended learning is how teachers can personalize education in an engaging manner for students. We are key to integrating these learning experiences for students.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to provide insight and information about how my experience of formally launching blended sections of the mandatory elective (more on that later!) that I teach.

The topics of the blog will include the following:

1. How did I prepare to get to Day One in September?
2. How did I present this opportunity to students?
3. How does the student experience look?
4. How did students respond?
5. What observations did I make?
6. How did I change the course for the new semester?
7. How is instruction different in these different formats: blended vs. face-to-face vs. online?


If there is a specific topic, idea, or question you have, please drop me a comment below! I want this blog to be useful to you as you grow as a practitioner, or help others to grow!

One long Sunday night...

It's that time of year when bathing suits and flotation devices are being moved to the sale rack, while back to school items take their place at the front of every store. I have always been a summer girl. As a kid, I spent hours upon hours at the pool and on the beach. As an adult, I've chosen to live at the beach for most of the summer. I love the salt air and sand. Maybe I'm a summer girl because we get extended hours of sunlight. Maybe it's the warmer temperatures. Maybe it's the hours of exercise I get to do. Maybe it's the beach friends I get to see. Maybe it's the fresh seafood I eat. Maybe it's being able to stay up late and sleep in. Maybe it's the long days spent on the boat. Maybe it's the smell that my West Coast brother and Midwestern cousin claim that the East Coast beaches have. 

Just the other day, while sitting on the beach, I overheard a father say to his two sons, "Are you ready to be done with the ocean for the year?" I wanted to scream. Summer, and the freedom I get, cannot possibly be gone already. Didn't it just start? Why don't February and March go by this quickly?

When the calendar turns to August, suddenly a pit forms in my stomach. All those things I love will soon be taken away. Suddenly, people keep asking, "When does school start?" I'm going to admit something here, something that most teachers think, but will never articulate: I hate going back to school. August is one, long Sunday night. 

In the Northeast United States, we love summer because it's magical. It's the reason we suffer through things like the Snowpocalypse. Waiting for these three months of magic has also made me wonder why I don't move down South, but that's a whole other blog post. 

All of this thinking always leads me to the same two questions:

1. Why am I still a teacher?

2. How can we make school a place kids (and teachers) want to be? 

Once again, unlike most other teachers, I will freely discuss that I have thought about leaving the profession. I dream of a job that doesn't require my bladder to sync up with a bell schedule (block schedule, by the way), force me to be surrounded by cinder block walls, or allows me to take a vacation when I deem it necessary for my own mental health.

The answers I find are almost always the same:

1. I am passionate about the role that education plays in the future of our democracy.

2. I am passionate about watching students become independent learners.

3. I am passionate about using my gifts in the best possible way. 

The answers to the second question are always much more complicated. I know I can't bring sun, sand and salt water to class every day--or can I? Here's where I start dreaming about the changes we need in education. We need student-centered classrooms that promote critical thinking. I dream of an education system that promotes more student empowerment and independence. How might we tailor core classes to match student interests? How might we implement more flexible class schedules? How might we encourage students to be more involved in the community? How might we rid the system of numerical grades and focus on competencies? How might we create inviting, colorful learning spaces? How might we repaint the cinder block walls? How might we create outdoor learning spaces? How might we make school more like a day at the beach in the middle of July? 

Students need to be empowered to find their passions, so that much like me in August, they can return to the thing they must do because of the drive they have. 

Thanks to this scene, and the ocean breeze, for being the backdrop to my writing. How might I do this more often? 

Guiding Students to ask the "Right" Questions

Formal observations and walk-throughs, key components of Charlotte Danielson's Framework, can be scary, humbling experiences for any teacher. A teacher can feel like a master of her domain until the dreaded administrative visit. Having a third party in the classroom can be a distraction--for teacher and students alike. My previous school was a large, underperforming urban high school. Our classrooms were frequently visited--announced and unannounced. The walk-throughs and formal observations were so frequent that we joked that we should have coffee and donuts on hand for visitors. While we often felt like we under a microscope, we learned to take advantage of these visits. Why not take advantage of it?

How can I leverage this visit to improve the experience of my students?

It is that mentality I carry with me as I continue to grow as a teacher of English and Social Studies. If I must have this observation, how can I leverage it for my students? After the observation, I debriefed with my observer. The focus of our post-observation debrief was student questions and the formulation of them, most particularly during a discussion. The lesson was a fishbowl discussion, so questioning peers was integral to the activity. Not only were students interacting inside the fishbowl, but those in the outside circle were backchanneling on Today's Meet. Both forums showed evidence of lower level, closed questions. My immediate thought:

How can I propel my students to think critically about the content and formulate higher level questions?

Research 

Through independent research, I discovered the The Question Formulation Technique through these articles: 

Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana

The Right Questions by Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana.

While Rothstein, Santana and other colleagues created this protocol 20 years ago, it is still relevant today, if not more so than ever before. As the push for inquiry-based classrooms continues to spread, we need to teach students how to ask questions. I have long been a proponent and practitioner of turning the traditional classroom dynamic on its head. Education is not about my learning, it is about the learning of the students in the classroom. They should be asking the questions, not me. If they are asking the questions, they are engaged and learning. 

The QFT is simple to understand. There are four steps (slide 15) that are brief and can easily be applied to most anything. In order to organically implement into instruction, I decided that the students would follow this process as a means to review for the midterm exam. 

Day One

After completing the initial introduction to the QFT, students broke into groups of four to try it out. I created a Question Focus (slide 14) and let them loose! They wrote questions on post-it notes (my favorite ed tech tool!) and sorted them into "open questions" and "closed questions."

Day Two

On day two, the students moved back into the same groups and touched upon Step #3 of the QFT: Improve Questions. Then, using a Google Form (my true love in life!) students submitted all questions which filtered into a Google Sheet. I reviewed the Sheet and pushed out the link, so each student could make a copy. For the next 30 minutes, students reflected upon the questions (135 total!) and gauged their own understanding of the content via the questions. Individually, students sorted the questions into three categories: novice, intermediate and master by numbering and color coding each cell. At the conclusion of class, we discussed what the purpose of the spreadsheet was. Students understood that they should use it as a means to prioritize and plan their studying.

Day Three

Then, on day three, we revisited Step #3 by converting questions into the opposite type. For example, students turned an open question into a closed question. The objective of this activity was for students to understand the difference of the two types. We discussed that while both types have a place in the classroom, we need to formulate more open questions.

Students again dove into their individual spreadsheets to identify the questions (Step #4) with which they did not feel confident in their understanding. They extracted the key words from the questions and jotted them down on post-it notes, which were then placed on the board. We used the post-its to play a classroom version of "Hedbandz." The objective of the game is guess the term on a card, which is attached to a headband on Player A's head. In pursuit of an answer, Player A asks Player B closed questions. Here's a slight twist that I threw in: Player B had to choose post-its of topics they felt they had mastered.

After 15-20 minutes, the game came to an end and we moved into a full group discussion for further clarification of the content. It is this part of the lesson that I would change next time. Next time, I will divide the classroom space into two sections: group discussion and quiet review. In order to accommodate all learners, I want to create safe spaces for studying, whether a student wants to speak to others or independently review.

Reflection and Vision

Pushing students to ask the right questions and reflect upon their learning are my two goals for this last quarter of the year. I will continue to spiral the QFT into instruction. For example, students were given 5 minutes today to work with this Question Focus (based on our essential question for this portion of the unit): Judaism, Christianity and Islam are connected. In the coming weeks, I am going to "bump" up the expectations of the questions. Now, I am pleased that they are asking more open questions, but the goal is for them to differentiate between low-level and high-level questions.

I am also starting to notice more attempts by students to ask thoughtful questions on our weekly discussion boards. I joke that discussion boards are not named "response boards" for a reason. The boards are a place for intellectual dialogue. Students may not understand how to have intellectual dialogue, which goes above and beyond simply listening and agreeing. Through the explicit infusion of these skills into instructional practice, it is my hope that students will be able to engage more deeply with the content.

Below are the slides that I created to walk the students through the QFT. We will continue to refer back to them throughout the year.

Using Passions to Reconcile Changes in the Educational Landscape

About an hour until game for the NCAA National Championship, and here I am feverishly attempting to finish another post. It might come as no surprise that the concepts of team and common goal have been on my mind recently.

I cannot remember my life without basketball. My dad taught me how to play on our backyard court. In third grade, I started playing basketball for the HGA Cougars. During elementary school, my family traveled to watch my future high school's teams play. Then, in ninth grade, I joined the CCHS Cardinals, the team I'd been studying for at least six years. My college alma mater, Saint Joseph's University, has its own storied basketball team. My first teaching job came with a junior varsity coaching job, which eventually turned into a varsity coaching job. One of my teams even made our mark on school history by qualifying for state playoffs for the first time ever!

I do not know what life is or feels like without this game. 

When March rolls around, I finally get to share my passion with so many others. For a short three week period, we, as a country, pause and give credit to college athletes. We begin to feel like we intimately know them. We love to hear stories about who played together in high school or on AAU teams. We try to pick out the tournament's Cinderella team. We hear phrases like "the best player in the country you've never heard of" (more on him later). We learn about the everlasting effects of a strong coach. The NCAA tournament is a vivid component of our national consciousness.

What is it about this game? Why did it steal my heart? Why is it one of my passions? What has it taught me? How can I use to empower others?

Team. Common goal.

I no longer spend every day after school in the gym, and while I miss those times, I use them to fuel my instruction. As the influx of technology and changing educational philosophies bombard educators, I rely upon my love of basketball to guide me.

Implementing cooperative learning experiences in the classroom is my everyday equivalent of basketball. Most often students will find the desks arranged in groups of four in my classroom. When assigning a new task, I'll direct students to work together. My students practice skills, like writing claims or drafting questions, over and over, much like the 20 foul shots we had to do every day at practice. Consider the Jigsaw method or Novel in an Hour strategy. Students break apart the whole, then must come back together to make sense of that whole piece. The team has to achieve the common goal.

The 21st century classroom looks more and more like a basketball team's practice than it does the classrooms of the past. Some students have to watch tape. Others are going through drills at one end of the court, while some others are playing 3-on-3 at the opposite end. The American education system, also part of our national identity, is under attack. Teachers are consistently being pressured to innovate, create, and whatever else any other buzzword dictates at the moment. Many experts may be able to suggest different strategies, tools and techniques to implement into the classroom. What experts are not able to tell us is exactly what the school experience is going to look like in 5, 10, 15 or 20 years.

Will school still be held from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm? Will we still have four core content areas? Will students still need to physically attend school every day? Will teachers hold office hours? Will teachers deliver lessons online or in person? Will teachers be able to work from Starbucks (yes, please!)? Will sick days be a thing of the past? Will students be assigned to study hall? Will students still need hall passes? What will assessments look like?

The world is changing, and along with it, our job responsibilities and our daily workflow. We, as the select group who gets to teach America's next generation, must change with the rest of the world. There are many what ifs floating around nowadays. We must take the reins and steer the American education system in the best direction for students. Their stories, much like DeAndre Bembry's or as the rest of America knows him "the best player you've never heard of," must be shared. In order to flourish, students deserve to have networks, like playing for AAU, outside of their school building. Seek out the Jim Boeheims, Roy Williams, Pat Summits, Shaka Smarts, Phil Martellis, Geno Auriemmas and Jay Wrights of the teaching sphere. Learn from them. Celebrate them. Emulate them. We owe that to our students.

In this historic period of transition and transformation in the American education system, we need to rediscover our own passions and allow them to guide us, so we can lead our students towards the common goal.

Student Portfolios, 20% Time and the Power of the PLN

In my current Invitation to Psychology classes, students are being pushed to make meaning of this new content area and, furthermore, apply individual understanding of the content to pursue independent curiosities and interests. It was during July 2015, when I attended the Inquiry Schools' Summer Teaching Institute at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, that this idea started brewing. I left the Institute with a clear long-term picture: Psych students were going to blog about their learning, while also questioning the content and curating artifacts on social media (and begin to build a PLN), in order to independently pursue an area of interest in Psychology. 

 

Background

As an institute attendee, I was immersed in SLA-style teaching and learning, meaning specifically "inquiry-driven, project-based, technology-enriched learning." The most beneficial activity was speaking with current SLA students. They hosted a "Project Fair," during which we rotated around the hall and they explained their projects. What was most fascinating was the manner in which these students spoke about their learning, thus showing how much they own their learning. What is even more impressive is that the students ranged anywhere from an "A" average to a "C" average, and some hailed from the city's failing middle schools. It was in hearing their voices that I was reminded of how powerful active learning is. The week's activities served as a great reminder that all learning is inquiry-based, and as teachers we must pique all students' curiosity so they, too, formulate questions and learn. 

I utilized my time at the Institute to plan a semester-long inquiry-driven, project-based, technology-enriched learning experience for my own students. After brainstorming with an old college friend, Amanda Neuber, who has taught Psych at the college level for years, and with the guidance and assistance of Josh Block and Tim Best, SLA teachers, I constructed a framework for an independent (digital) portfolio project, which will later serve as the foundation for selecting a topic or area of interest for independent research. 

At the mid-term point of the semester, the students will reflect upon their website and provide feedback to one other student. Then, each student will independently plan a project to investigate a topic in psychology more closely. The research project is being constructed in alignment with the ideology of 20% Time Projects, or passion-driven work. Students will pick the topic they want to know more about or a problem they want to solve, all within the context of Psychology. They will propose a project, plan it out, implement it and publicly present it. 

The Power of the PLN 

What role has my professional earning network played in this project? Not only did I have the opportunity to bounce ideas off the other Institute attendees during the week, I have been driven, since July 2015, by my own inquiry-based learning. 

Remember--all learning is inquiry-based.  

During EdCamp New Jersey in November 2015, I sought out sessions that mentioned digital portfolios, inquiry, projects or genius hour. I stumbled upon priceless information about integrating Google Apps into portfolios from Sean Hackbarth (@s_hckbrth). 

Then, Chris Aviles (@TechedUpTeacher), who I cannot stop thanking enough, told us about siteMaestro, a Google Sheets add-on, which makes pushing out the portfolio template and "filing" the digital portfolios a breeze. SiteMaestro has been key in keeping the focus on the content of the student portfolios, not the design of the website. 

Afterwards, I also consulted AJ Juliani's (@ajjuliani) The Complete Guide to 20% Time (and Genius Hour) in the Classroom, which is composed of four independent learning modules and oodles of helpful resources. I checked out Joy Kirr's (@JoyKirr) Genius Hour materials. I looked through Adam Schoenbart's Developing Genius Reflecting on Choice blog post, which includes materials that he used with his students. I am planning to introduce the last portion of the project during our unit of study on Motivation and include Daniel Pink's The Puzzle of Motivation, a TED talked recorded in July 2009. Schoenbart's slideshow explaining Genius Hour to his students includes some very powerful images of schools of the past, and of the present. (HINT: they look the same!). I love the power of including students into my rationale. 

To my PLN, thank you. 

So what?

Traditional grading is often a task that docks students on what they don't know, but the digital portfolios are a means of assessing what students do know. What they care about. What they wonder about. What they find interesting. No test could have ever given me this much "data" about my 99 Invite to Psychology students in this short time frame--4 weeks. Thus far, we've covered the story of Psychology, Psychology as a Science and just started into Memory. Students are engaging with the content. They are making connections with the content and their own lives. They are asking powerful questions about complex psychological concepts. I am excited to "grade" their projects. The portfolios have transformed my attitude towards grading, which is often very stressful for me. I have a good routine that includes reading and conferencing with each student one to two times every week or two. This cycle of feedback and conferencing, though still being developed, has already positively influenced student work. Moving forward, I am planning to study Starr Sackstein's (@mssackstein) Teaching Students to Self-Assess: How do I help students reflect and grow as learners?

Where do we go from here?

This is what I really want from students. I want them to be in an environment that fosters their own curiosity and motivations, so they feel empowered and supported enough to take a risk in learning. I want them, much like myself, to be led to uncharted territory, so they can learn and do more than ever thought possible. I want them to make a public declaration about what they have learned and what drove them to learn it. I want them to have a clear understanding of how to reach out and find supports to further their own learning. 

I want them to see that learning is a part of every day life, not just an activity that is constructed inside of four walls from 8 am to 3 pm Monday through Friday.  

Learning is our lifeline. Without the ability to learn, we lose the ability to breathe, and to live. 

How much impact can your safety net have?

If you have been following my blog, you know that I just celebrated my 10th anniversary of entering the classroom. What you might not know is that I am teaching Social Studies classes, by myself, for the first time. And, guess what? The content areas are not even my specialties in Social Studies! 

This 11th year all of a sudden feels like my first year, all over again. But now, the stakes are higher. I expect more of myself. Why? I know what it takes to do this job well, because I've been doing it for ten years. And therein lies the problem.

I expect too much of myself. I expect to plan lessons and activities for Sensation and Perception for my Invite to Psych class to the same level of my lessons on Thoreau's Civil Disobedience. It's just not going to happen, at least not now. Not yet. 

When we do a job for too long, we often forget what it takes to do that job. Or what it means to reevaluate and relearn. On the first day of class this semester, I was 100% honest with my students and told them that I had not taught either class (Invite to Psych & Non-Western Cultures) before. I immediately followed up with, "But I'm excited to jump back into the material and learn alongside with you. A bonus is that I can better help you learn, because the learning process will be so fresh in my head." They smiled. Those smiles felt genuine and authentic in that moment. 

Perhaps those simple honest statements I shared built trust from the start. I did not try to pretend that I have all of the material memorized or my lessons until June planned. As much as I wish they were, I am embracing the fact that they aren't. I have spent copious amounts of time sorting through resources from colleagues. It is those resources that have given me a safety net, but also a sense of freedom. I don't need to teach or plan my lessons in the same manner, but those materials are my starting point, From there, I can modify to fit my students' needs and my style. 

This safety net is what was lacking at my last school. Every decision I made was a risk, without a safety net. It was that environment though that transformed my own educational philosophy, which has evolved even more. Here I can take risks. I have a supportive network who encourages and students who motivate me. I can ask my students to connect what we are learning in Psychology with what they stumble across in their internet/social media wanderings and collect artifacts. I can ask them to maintain a digital portfolio. I can ask them to embed a Twitter feed on their webpage, even though it might be a new skill! I can ask them to make their learning real. 

Then, today, the next step was their idea. My students asked if our class time could somehow be more personalized and self-driven. At first, I wanted to ask if they had been reading my Twitter feed recently!! What a moment for me. What a moment for those holding my safety net. What a moment for my students. They asked to own their 80 minutes. Yes. I could not have asked for a better request. 

Before I spend most of the upcoming holiday weekend reorganizing some pieces of class for them, I am going to finally zone out at Bikram Yoga. I've only been waiting for two hours for class to start. That's what happens when you are playing the role of a first year teacher and forget to check the class schedule!