Day 165: Promservation

Tonight is the senior prom.  I am not attending, but since I teach juniors and seniors, many of my students are.  They were required to come to school for periods 1-4 or they would not be allowed to go.  Near the end of 4th period, students attending the prom were dismissed from school to get ready.

This means that I had more students in periods 1-4 than I have had in months.

It also means that I had 2 kids in 6th period.

There were, however, two things of note in classes with students.

We finished watching Interstellar and had some pretty great conversation about space stations, centripetal force, gravity generation and free fall.  It was an excellent reason to show the following two videos.



The kids were highly engaged, asking tons of questions about these videos were shot and what it would be like to be inside one those space stations, or on the zero-gravity airplane.

In one class, this sent us down the rabbit hole of OK Go videos (all of which are amazing!)



During all of this, I was observed by one of our administrators.

I know that many teachers dread, fear or openly deride observations.  It's easy to feel concerned when you don't trust those who are doing the observing.

I, however, welcome observations.  I love having people visit my room and have had many teachers do so over the years.

I know that I have a ton to learn and I know that I can't do it without people watching my practice.  Often, the observer and the observed have different goals in mind.  In order to ensure that my questions are answered, I constructed a brief survey for classroom observers, whether they be administrator, other teachers, parents or guests.

Observer Survey

Thank you for being a part of my growth journey as an educator.  I very much appreciate you taking the time to observe my educational practice and provide me with actionable feedback that will help me to become a better educator for my students, my school and my community. 

This year, I have been focusing on building a safe and welcoming community in my classroom where all students are able to have a voice and feel accepted.  In order to further these goals, it would be very helpful to me if you would briefly answer the following questions. 

Thank you again for your time. 

-Justin Aion 

1) What was the general mood of the students as they entered the room? 

2) Did I appear to encourage questions from, and dialogue with, my students? 

3) What was one teacher/student interaction that you found particularly positive? 

4) What was one teacher/student interaction that you thought could use improvement? 

5) What could have been done differently in that interaction to better foster a sense of community of learning? 

6) What was the general mood of the students as they exited the room?

The administrator who came in had many other classrooms to cover today, so I think it's unreasonable to expect an immediate response, but I'm looking forward to the feedback.  Even with only 15 days left, there is always time to grow.

There is always next year and the year after that.  The actionable feedback that I receive today could help my students for years to come.



If you have not done so, please take a few minutes to fill out this survey. I would greatly appreciate it

Day 164: A Crazy Person

State Testing: Day 12 of 14

Christopher Emdin has taken over my brain.

I'm taking notes the way I SHOULD have done in college!

After proctoring tests today, I somehow found myself on my soapbox, talking to my co-proctor about the importance of building community in the school.  I was telling him about this is especially important when you have a neoindigenous population, as we do.

"We need to be having more assemblies, building a sense of family, celebrating the differences of our students while developing a safe space where those differences are accepted!"
"We don't have assemblies because they can't behave in assemblies."
"They can't behave in assemblies because we don't TEACH them how to behave in assemblies!"

I sounded like a crazy person.  I saw the skepticism and resistance in the eyes of my coworker.

The students of color who were in the room, however, were nodding in agreement.


The highest level of engagement that I've seen with my Astronomy students so far this year has been while I was talking about time travel.

I had the crazy eyes, my tone was all over the place, as was my physical body.  At one point, a voice cut through the silence to say "he sounds like a crazy person."

I love discussions of theoretical physics, time travel and science fiction.  I love exploring "what if" questions.  The kids, at least today, seem to enjoy it as well.  They love hearing about things that seem crazy, but in a safe way.

I need to design my classes, especially my Astronomy classes, much more solidly around discussion and interaction.  I need to build a community of learners, of dreamers, of explorers.


I sound like a crazy person.

If you have not done so, please take a few minutes to fill out this survey. I would greatly appreciate it.

Day 163: 5-D Comics

State Testing: Day 11 of 14

If you have not seen Interstellar, you may want to skip this post.  If you HAVE seen Interstellar and have no idea what the black hole, time-cube scene was all about, you are in good company.


This is how I explained it to my students:  (I can draw better than this, but I was in a rush.)


Meet Ted.  Ted is a drawing and, therefore, a 2 dimensional being.  Here is the story of Ted's life

One day, when Ted was young, he got hit with a rock.

As a result of being struck, Ted stumbled into a girl and introduced himself.

 Ted and the young woman became friends.

They eventually fell in love, and made a family together.

As time passed, they grew older, lived their lives and were happy.

At the end of a long and fruitful life, Ted owes his happiness to the day that he met the love of his life.

This is why I step in.  As a being who exists in 3 dimensions, I reach it at the end of Ted's life and pull him out of it.

From my vantage point, and now Ted's, I can show him the entirety of his life, clearly causing an existential crisis.

Each moment is now viewed as a single frame of the comic.  Ted, wanting to make sure that he meets the love of his life when he is younger, tries to get the attention of Young Ted.  To do so, he tosses a rock, but rather than getting the attention of his younger self, Young Ted ends up stumbling.  His stumble takes him into the arms of the young version of the love of his life.

This is basically what happens in Interstellar, except that instead of a 3D being (me) pulling a 2D being out of the world, there are 5D beings pulling a 3D being (Cooper) out of the world.

If this didn't make sense, you could always go read Flatland!

Congratulations! You now have a degree in temporal physics!

If you have not done so, please take a few minutes to fill out this survey. I would greatly appreciate it.

Day 162: What's Best For Kids

State Testing: Day 10 of 14

In education, we talk so frequently about "what's best for kids" but almost never have the discussion about what that means.  Every person has a different idea of what that is and how it can be accomplished, but the lack of communication often leads to well-intentioned people butting heads.  It's so easy to fall into the trap of "this person is doing something that doesn't work for me.  They must be an idiot."

Most often, I see this happening in terms of discipline.

A scenario: A "trouble" student is found wandering the hallway without a pass.

The dean of students or principal could rain down holy fire on this child, giving the "tough love" approach.  The student would end up in In-School suspension.  "We have given you so many chances and you can't follow the basic rule of going to class on time."

What is more likely to happen is that student will get an escort back to class and a "talking to" about expectations along the way.

Providing disciplinary leniency for "trouble students" often feels to teachers as though they are being undermined.  It can feel as though it is an inconsistent approach to discipline and only helps those students take advantage of the situation.

"If we are going to have rules in place about being prompt to class, then they need to be enforced.  When you allow a student to wander in 10-15 minutes late, it makes it that much harder for me to enforce those rules with the rest of the class."

Fence-sitting students may fall off that fence.  "She is a terrible kid and they let her get away with all sorts of stuff! Why wouldn't they let me?"  And when we don't, suddenly we are being unfair.

I think teachers struggle with different expectations for different students. (Perhaps mainly because the logistics of different expectations for 150 students is an unmitigated nightmare.)

We recognize that different students have different needs, but it often gets to a point where some students are taking advantage of the system, are seen in the hallway during every period and are never given consequences.

"Why would she go to class when she is simply allowed to roam the building all day?"  It seems to only reinforce bad behavior.

I used to be solidly in this mindset.  School is here to teach kids structure and how to survive in the workforce.  No boss would allow you to wander in whenever you felt like it, call her/him "weird as hell" and then storm out.  You would be unemployed fairly quickly.  It's important that, if expectations are set, that they be upheld.  Otherwise, don't set those rules.

The more I speak with other teachers, some in my district and some not, and the more I read (mostly Christopher Emdin's book) the more I have been questioning this approach.


"All he does is pal around with the kids who need to be in class, or need to be gone."

It's so easy for us to find fault in the actions (or inactions) of another person.  If that's not the way I want it done, it must be wrong.  If I don't understand the motivations and purposes behind those actions, that person must be an idiot.

A good teacher, a good disciplinarian, a good principal, will build relationships with their students.  The issues and disagreements come in when examining what each person thinks that looks like.  What looks to one person as unbearable amounts of leniency could very easily be seen as building trust and community.


Yesterday, I stood with some coworkers (who are excellent teachers) while they expressed concerns about the leniency that another staff member exhibits with the "problem kids."  I didn't speak up about the possibility that said staff member might be playing the long-game with those students, providing them with a safe place where they can vent energy and frustration, rather than becoming overwhelmed by the structures of a system that doesn't work for them.

It occurred to me that those choices and interactions are a microcosm of multiple political debates that we have in this country.

Side 1: Welfare exists so that the poor and down-trodden can get a hand up, assistance in improving their situation.

Side 2: Giving food and shelter to people does not encourage them to find (or work for) those things on their own.

The reality, as most people know is both of these are true.

There will always be people who take advantage of the kindness and leniency of other people.  There will always be people who can pull themselves up by their boot straps.  Does that mean we shouldn't help people?

There will always be people who will be able to make a better life for themselves if they get assistance in doing so.  Does that mean we should give them everything?

It may come down to the fact that we love being generous, but only when it's our own idea.



In the realm of education, there will always be kids who take advantage of the kindness and leniency of the faculty and staff.  But there will also always be kids who need it.  The more I read and the more I interact with my students, the more I realize that this is a MUCH more complicated issue than "He just lets her get away with everything."

I also recognize that I've only just left that position myself.  Had this thought been presented to me before I was receptive to it, my pushback would have been twice as fierce.  While I push my coworkers to join me, I need to sympathetic of where they are and honor their journey.

Just as students are all in different places, so are teachers.




Unrelated, if you could take a few minutes to fill out this survey, I would greatly appreciate it.

Day 161: Tears of Engagement

State Testing: Day 9 of 14

The two astronomy classes that I saw today managed to get to the confusing time-cube, gravity-well scene in Interstellar.

Kids who had been talking through much of the movie stopped their conversations to watch in confusion.  I prepped them ahead of time by telling them that the ending of the movie was probably going to scramble their brains, but if they would watch as closely as possible and save their questions, we would have an in depth conversation about it afterwards.

You could hear a pin drop.  Then you could hear muttered comments from around the room that sounded like "What the duck is going on??"

But I may have heard that wrong.

Either way, they kids were so engaged in what was happening on the screen that they weren't looking at me.

On a totally unrelated note, I was once again reminded that I need to pick movies that don't make me sob in parental guilt in front of my students.

Day 160: Building Blocks

I was approached by a security guard today who asked me about High Five Friday.

"Does it make a difference?  It seems to. We never get calls to come to your room."

High Five Friday is just the precursor to MRSA Monday!  (I wash my hands so many times...)

I told him that I don't think any lives are going to be saved by getting a high five, but what it does do is help to build a community and make positive culture change.  When I started doing High Five Friday right after Thanksgiving, I was having a bad day and was trying to cheer myself up.  As I stated in early posts about it, it's very hard to be grumpy when getting/giving a high five.

I was chasing students down the hallway and demanding high fives.  Fairly soon, students began seeking me out for them.  If I wasn't standing in the hallway between classes, they would come into my room to get them.

For me, the beauty of High Five Friday isn't just the high five, but the knowledge that anyone and everyone gets it.  If you cut my class that week, if you screamed in my face that I am a racist, if you haven't turned in any assignments since January, or if I've never seen you before, it doesn't matter.

Everyone gets a high five!

I like being the Oprah Winfrey of high fives.


School can be such a negative place for so many students.  If we want to have a different culture, it needs to start with us.  Small gestures can have huge consequences.

Two of my morning students came back to my class in the afternoon to hang out while their classmates were testing.  I asked them about High Five Friday.  When they started talking, I quickly realized that there was something important going on.  I stopped them and asked them to write.

The following is the response of two students to High Five Friday:
Only small editorial changes were made because there's no need to start every word with a capital letter.

High Five is the best day EVER!!! When I'm down on Fridays, I know that I can walk down the science hallway and see him high fiving everyone.  The palm of his hand, red now because of all the high fives the awesome man has given thus far.  I walk down the hallway in a daze preparing myself to give my high five.  This high five will make a difference.  This will change my life and maybe other around me.  I stop for a minute and watch other people give him their high fives.  I wait... I watch... I'm READY!
I take my hand out of my pocket and I warm both my hands and I go in for the kill.  BOOM!  Our hands meet and a spark is given off.  FIRE! As I put my hand back in my pocket, I could only help but smile and know that today is ... Friday.

I never expected a student response like this, but it reminds me that no matter how crappy you feel, there is always room for a High Five.

Day 159: Easter Bunny

There is an amazing amount of of candy that gets sold, stolen, given away and eaten during the Easter season.  Regardless of the plethora of size, shapes, consistencies and flavors, all of this candy can be boiled down to 2 categories: chocolate and marshmallow.

There are two main subcategories of chocolate candy, those being bunnies and eggs.

The bunnies are what cause the most problems.

I would be willing to say that in the history of Easter candy, there has never been someone utter the phrase "Damn! I wish this bunny were hollow!"

No one wants hollow bunnies, and yet the vast majority of chocolate Easter bunnies are just that.  They are beautiful, intricate shells of promise and hope that, rather than be filled with joy and sugar, are instead filled with stale factory air and broken dreams.

If, in the course of ordering a steak dinner, a patron bit into the meat only to watch it deflate like a Patriots football, people would lose their minds!  And yet, we annually suffer the injustice of hollow bunnies without a peep!

James Van Der Peep is ashamed of that pun.

By far, the worst part of these abominations is the false hope.  They sit on the counter, on the shelf, on the table and pretend to be REAL chocolate bunnies.  They tempt us with  promises of tooth decay and diabetic comas followed by stomach aches and days of ruined dinners.

Instead, it's the classic bait and switch.  They give us the appearance of joy and hope, but deliver unmitigated disappointment.

"Gaze into my depths and despair!"

I am currently feeling like a hollow chocolate bunny.  I am doing my best to trick those around me into thinking that I am part of a joyous holiday, but I'm not.

I'm exhausted, frustrated, sad and worn down.  I feel as though I have failed so many of my students.  There are so many of them that I don't see as better off now than before they entered my class.  There are 21 days left in the school year and I know that I can make it, but it's going to be close.

It's going to be so close.


I also recognize that I'm being WAY too hard on myself.  I am not a miracle worker.  I have students who smile at me in the hallway.  Several told me that they missed me when I was out yesterday.  I have tons of former students who voluntarily come to my classroom when they have free time just to hang out.

A hollow chocolate bunny may be hollow, but it's still chocolate.  It's not as though you bite into the bunnies and get a mouthful of bees.

This has been a trying year.  I have many things that I want to work on this summer and, hopefully, will be more prepared for the fall.

At the top of my list is picking movies to watch that don't make me sob in parental despair at the inevitability of my children growing up.