So I skipped ahead… a lot… in Hamilton the Musical. In all fairness, I never said this would be in any kind of order, right?

Every time I hear the final song, I get a little choked up.  Hearing Eliza share her final 50 years and all she did to tell Hamilton’s story shows her true devotion to the man she loved (despite some, errr, indecencies on his part). Check out the song here, or watch the embedded lyrics video below.

Who Tells Your Story?

In an effort to be more memorable this year, I decided to try out a theme in the media center. I’ve never done this before, so we’ll see how it goes.

Our theme is Who Tells Your Story?

Hey Mustangs of @MMSMustangs14 – I’m ready! 2019-2020 is going to be epic! #wearemmms #HamiltonEDU #EduEyeExam #tlap #LeadLAP #BackToSchool2019 pic.twitter.com/gqpiUsBHYh

— Alicia Ray (@iluveducating) July 31, 2019

The plan is to weave this theme in through digital footprint, cyberbullying, digital citizenship, and encouraging a love of literature. In our first meeting, students will tell me their story, beginning with their past and present. During our digital footprint experiences, we will discuss how their choices online can follow them in their future story. We’ll also be analyzing text in relation to how the author tells the story of the many characters they will meet in books this year.

Let me tell you what I wish I’d known…

If you consider yourself to be a beginning teacher, consider this a little public service announcement. While I have nothing against websites like Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers, these sites can only do so much in helping you with class pedagogy and your own educational beliefs. If you want to really be great, talk to veteran teachers. Find out what they wish they’d known. Use our mistakes to prevent many of your own. If you have one little sugarplum that you aren’t quite sure how to reach, chat up the veteran educator down the hall. Chances are, they’ve had several little sugarplums just like that in their class and their bag of tricks is more expansive & real than anything you can find on a website. Veteran educators (including myself here), we’ve got to be willing to be vulnerable and share our successes and setbacks with our fellow educators. Let’s join together to make education amazing.

Who remembers your name? Who keeps your flame?

In my amazing PLN, I see several educators who have retired or have left the classroom for consulting jobs, administrative roles, coaching positions, etc. (I also see lots who are going back into classrooms for the first time in years & I can’t wait to follow those journeys!) Earlier today I saw a student that I taught when he was in fifth grade… Eight. years. ago. He glanced at me across the restaurant and when we locked eyes, he waved. It made my heart so happy that he remembered me. We exchanged hugs as we were leaving and he shared his plans for college this year. (He’s going to be a veterinarian; I’m so proud!) Seeing former students and hearing their success stories keeps my flame for education burning bright!

What legacy will you be leaving with the students you serve this year? How will they remember you? How will they tell your story?

What other lessons in education and life do you see in the lyrics of “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?” from Hamilton the Musical? Comment below or reply on Twitter! I love seeing the different perspectives on some of my favorite Hamilton songs! Stay tuned for more Education According to Hamilton! Which song should we do next?

 

Wow! The reaction after Education According to Hamilton: Part One was pretty amazing. I’m pretty geeked out about the amount of you who are obsessed with Hamilton the Musical like I am, especially those of you who (like me) have never even seen the musical!

One of the most well-known songs from the show is “My Shot” which is an interesting foreshadowing of what is to come between Burr and Hamilton. Here’s a video with lyrics if you’ve not heard the song. (If you’re offended by language, check out this clean version.)

This song is so catchy and easily gets stuck in my head! I’ll be singing this one in my dreams tonight. So besides the “I gotta holler just to be heard with every word, I drop knowledge,” which is a great insight into a well-orchestrated three-ring circus classroom, there are several other lessons for educators embedded here.

I’m a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal tryin’ to reach my goal.

It’s one of my favorite parts of being an educator – seeing others see the potential in themselves that I know is there! We’re really all just pieces of coal, diamonds in the rough.

So let me spell out my name, I am the A-L-E-X-A-N-D-E-R

School is getting ready to start for many of us! As soon as you receive your class list, learn how to spell every single name correctly! Then on day one (bonus points for doing this before day one), learn how to pronounce every single name correctly! My maiden name was Alicia Winebarger… it meant a lot to me to have others make the effort to, not only spell my name correctly, but pronounce it correctly as well. (Thankful to have married into the Ray family…  haha)

So there will be a revolution in this century. Enter me.

Hey… have you noticed? There’s an educational revolution happening around us. For some of us, we can say in parentheses – ENTER ME. If you’ve not heard about The Revolution, check out my post here! (Shoutout to Darren Ellwein and Derek McCoy)

Geniuses, lower your voices.

Give me some grace on this one. I was the “smart” kid in school. I never really loved school, but I was really good at it. I enjoyed being the first to answer questions. Before the teacher even had the question completely posed to the class, my hand was in the air. (And that was on a good day; sometimes I’d just blurt out) I love the creative ways teachers are giving every student think time in their classes. This time is valuable for ALL students and I believe the silence after a question is asked is golden. I’ve seen teachers who post a timer and deliberately give a 30-second run off before anyone is allowed to raise their hand. I’ve seen teachers who use technology tools like Flipgrid, Padlet, GoFormative, Socrative, etc for students to have think time (Check out Tech with Heart by Stacey Roshan for some great ideas). I remember the first time, as an educator, I was told about think time. Have you ever intentionally waited 30 seconds before accepting answers? It’s just on this side of F-O-R-E-V-E-R in class. But it’s valuable and should be done. Try it out if you’ve never done that! Watch how many more students engage in your class!

Make this moment last!

Help students love learning. Make every effort to make the moments in your class moments that encourage, empower, and exhilarate kids! When students have to leave your room, make them want to stay. There’s nothing better than the groan of students who can’t believe it’s time for their next class in middle school. Students who choose to come to the media center during lunch, or beg me not to move their project so they can come back to work the next morning… those are the moments that are valuable to me. I want to make those last.

What lessons, in education and in life, do you learn from Hamilton’s “My Shot”? Share them in the comments below or reply on Twitter! Keep watching for more Education According to Hamilton!

 

Last spring on Twitter a friend mentioned this musical sensation that had overtaken the nation. I knew that Hamilton the Musical had visited my home state of NC and it was next to impossible to get tickets as it sold out so quickly! Lin-Manuel Miranda created a masterpiece!!!

After a conversation with a group of students in the media center, I started listening to the soundtrack for Hamilton and fell in love. After listening to the soundtrack countless times, I started to quote the songs in normal conversation… well, as normal as my conversations usually are.

I’ve found that Hamilton is the perfect music to listen to while I’m mowing the yard (I push mow our nearly 2 acres each week); by the time I get tired a song like Non-Stop would come on and I’d be pumped up ready to mow another few rounds!

So… as I was finishing up, I got to thinking about some of the songs and how they apply to education. There are subtle, and not-so-subtle, messages in each of the Hamilton songs that are lessons on life and, for educators, great lessons to apply to our learning environments.

Here’s Part 1 of Education According to Hamilton:

Aaron Burr, Sir – lyrics video

Two main parts of the song that stand out to me are below.

Talk Less. Smile More.

As educators we should do less talking. Let the students figure it out! I’ve heard it said that if we’re the ones exhausted at the end of the day and our students are running circles around us, we aren’t doing it right. Yes, we’ll be tired every day, but it shouldn’t be our throat hurting. It should be our feet and legs from walking around monitoring all the awesome that it going on in the classroom.

We should smile more. Beginning teachers are still being told in many places not to smile until Christmas. That’s the biggest load of junk I’ve heard. I’d say smile and smile freely!!! You can’t smile too much in your learning environment. Even when you’re showing “how serious you are” you can still smile while being serious. Sounds to me that Aaron Burr was onto something in his advice to Alexander Hamilton.

If you stand for nothing Burr, what’ll you fall for?

It’s so important that we, as educators, have a philosophy about our profession. What do we believe about what students can do, what teachers should do? What do you believe about feedback and grading? What do you believe about standardized testing? What about technology in the classroom and how it should be used? What are your core beliefs in education? If you stand for nothing, you’ll believe anything and everything you hear. Know what you stand for so you don’t fall for anything.

What lessons in education and in life do you find in Hamilton’s song “Aaron Burr, Sir”?

Stay tuned… more Hamilton songs coming soon!