Daylight saving time had not yet come to pass. It was dark. It was cold. The buses began to arrive at what had become their daily time of around 7:05 am. He bounded down the steps, which fit his personality perfectly, and as he made his way toward me, I got a better look at his shoes. They were Lightning McQueen Crocs! Two red shoes smiling at me while the sun began to rise over the sixth grade campus on my morning bus duty.
Nike Air Force 1’s, Chuck Taylor’s, Adidas slide sandals, and Crocs (sometimes a different color for each foot!) are just a few brands seen daily walking across the floors of Spectrum Middle School. The various choices of footwear selected to be worn to fit in or to stand out, to demonstrate a little personality or flare, or to fade within all the other shoes bustling from classroom to classroom. In the context of our educational community, these shoes are student agency.
A SMS a student’s capacity to take initiative, make informed choices, and actively participate in their learning leads to ownership and achievement. Connecting agency to shoe selection might seem like a stretch, but I think it makes it concrete. Successful students (people) have agency. When the challenges of middle-level learning occur, if they are seen as threats, students tend to back down or give up. However, if they can instead be seen as barriers, students can view them as obstacles that they will conquer. Believing in one’s abilities to improve leads to growth which leads to confidence which leads to one taking on more barriers. The daily choice of which shoes to wear is an informed choice, and it is ownership. Sometimes it is mindless, but all the time – unless your child left the house not wearing any shoes – it is owned.
Think back to when your child was learning to tie a pair of shoes. Do you remember the extra time needed to get ready to leave the house (or time not given if you tied them because you did not have that time)? It was often my patience and flexibility, not my son’s or daughter’s. If I had not planned for this, it affected our timetable. But if I knew it was coming, I scaffolded the needed support. More time allowed for mistakes, it allowed us to start over again, it allowed the success of a tied shoe to be my child’s, not mine. This task gave my child agency so one day it would be mundane…or maybe it would be possibly exciting when he selected his own type of Lightning McQueen Crocs.
The final nine weeks of the 2024-25 school year are here. There is a lot of learning still left to do when approached positively. The agency gained over the last 27 weeks has prepared all learners for lessons that they will see probably as both boring at times and invigorating at others. Support will be scaffolded, time offered, and mistakes made because growth also will occur as these days and their opportunities will not come again. Here’s hoping I see more students with Lightning McQueen Crocs during my morning bus duty!
Noteworthy
- Tuesday, March 25 - Friday, March 28: Reading MCAs (6-8)
- Thursday, March 27: Final 6th Grade Information/Tour Night @ 5:30 pm, sixth grade campus
- Monday, March 31: Teacher Professional Development Day, no school
- Thursday, April 3: 5th Grade Information/Tour Night @ 5:30 pm, seventh/eighth grade campus