Over the last few years, I’ve come to realize that my greatest duty as a teacher in any capacity is to create the conditions that enable relevant (or at the very least meaningful) and engaging learning and work. These words possess a distinct and critical meaning, too. This conclusion led me to another important discovery: I need to become very critical of my own practices and processes as well as those that are imposed upon…
What a great week it’s been, and today was the icing on the cake. This year, I’ve been facilitating the first phase of a high school business department curriculum redesign. I am blown away by how hard these teachers have worked and by how willing they are to move far outside of their comfort zone. Together, we’ve created three distinct endorsements that high school graduates may work toward as they complete a pathway through the…
The newly released draft of the Common Core Standards and The National Ed-Tech Plan. Now…synthesize?
John Harmon and Victor Jaccarino, leaders of the New York State ELA/ESL Standards Review Panel, offered an overview of the revision process and addressed questions at the annual New York State English Council conference in Albany today. Those of us who were in attendance were also able to take a peek at the drafted document, learn more about the vision behind this work, and receive an update about the timing of the official release. We…
Paula’s post connected with a bunch of different things I’ve had on my mind lately, including the way in which we approach service at home and in schools. Initially, I was most curious about how we might better inspire kids to serve by helping them define their interests and connect them to actions that allow them to give back in some way. Then Chad Ratliff shared Renjie Butalid’s work on Twitter, and it shifted my…
So…….as I was chatting with Alyssa and Sarah last weekend, they spoke to what many of us call authentic learning. Of course, they didn’t use that phraseology–they spoke in their native tongue, describing how some of what kids are asked to do in school is “boring” or “rushed” or “just for a grade”. They weren’t exactly giving their work with me great props either (just in case you thought I was getting off easy), and…
I’ve been using Wordle to begin conversations around standards this year, and I have to admit, it’s kinda neat to pull these posters out and watch teachers get excited about the New York State Core Curriculum. It’s amazing what can happen when you switch up the visual, isn’t it? The Wordle above represents the speaking standards and performance indicators for grade eleven, and today, I got to spend a bit of time talking possibilities with…
Okay okay okay! So, we’re going to play a little game with ELA standards for a minute. I don’t care whose standards they are. Could be the ones from my state or your state or whoever’s state. Now, I’m wondering what would happen if we took the real work of kids, the work that they do outside of school, on their own time (because they love doing it) and we introduced them to the standards and asked…
Jamie McKenzie touches upon what they aren’t in his text Learning to Question, Learning to Wonder (FNO Press, 2005): “Unfortunately, the term is often bandied about with little rigor, definition or clarity so that many pedestrian and insignificant questions slip in under the term simply because they are large, sweeping and grand in some respects. Essential questions are not simply BIG questions covering lots of ground.” This distinction caught my attention for several reasons, but I’m…
I have a deep appreciation for the sort of struggle that sometimes ensues when teachers are asked to construct essential questions. In fact, I still remember my first experience with this. I was fresh out of college and grappling with the uncertainty that arrived upon discovering that the really cool Hamlet “unit” I strung together for my student teaching experience wasn’t going to see me through the next thirty or forty years of practice. My…