Question: Tell me what I think about me*

Today was a powerful day for me and other educators in my school district.  We got to be part of a great experience with Dave Burgess, author of Teach Like a PIRATE.  Then we got to work with our school-based teams to talk about all the great things we had learned in the past few days of professional development.  The ideas of the last few days were so plentiful and energizing, it's hard to sort through it all, but I noticed the word "question" popped up a lot.  So I figured I would try to explain to myself (and whoever else) what is rolling through my head about it.

We in education are realizing that the way we asked questions previously (and and ask them currently) is not acceptable.  Our questions for students are not appropriate for the outcomes we are seeking.  We realized this when our curriculum standards changed.  Our kids stopped meeting academic goals when the goals became more complex.  Our old questions were not challenging enough, not good enough.  So we are now working on improving this facet of our practice by changing our questioning during instruction.  We are trying to show kids how to problem-solve a bit more with the content, and we are giving them questions to frame processes and provide end goals.  We are also trying to teach students how to question effectively, because, if we are honest, it's not an easily acquired skill for everyone, but it is one that is absolutely imperative for life.  So we press on, seemingly urgently, to make things more rigorous and get those questions flowing.

And then I think about the types of self-questioning and self-monitoring we expect our students to be responsible for.  We require a lot of forethought of students when they turn in assignments.  Some teachers still take off points for what are deemed careless errors or for late assignments.  We assume students are capable of long range planning for assignments just because we tell them far enough in advance about them.  We often expect students to independently go through editing and reviewing processes that sometimes aren't even taught consistently through the years.  Children in our classes have heaps of requirements on them, and if they don't come through we look to question what's wrong with them.

And this is where I've run into trouble.  Because over the last few years I have realized that we are not really being very fair to our students or ourselves.  We expect them to do things that if we are honest we aren't sure we still do correctly.  And they suffer consequences from these requirements that we as their teachers don't even face.  I mean, even when I was in graduate school my professors didn't take points off for late assignments and I was usually given guides with due dates to help me budget my time.

So yes, unreasonable requirements without guidance isn't cool.  But the other thing that isn't cool in my opinion goes back to the question thing.  I know I have mentioned this in a previous post to an extent, so I apologize if there is any redundancy.  But with all the questions we want our students to ask themselves while they learn, there's an incredibly surprising lack of questions we ask ourselves to model that behavior for them.  Before or after we deliver instruction, how often are we asking ourselves about our methods?  Our goals?  Whether our methods met our goals?  Have we even established goals for ourselves?  Or are we still suffering from that "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality?  It can be so frustrating to witness what seems like complacency with effort towards instruction.

But then I try to ask myself, "why do they feel that way?"  I mean I really don't know any teachers that got into this profession because they thought it would be a cushy gig.  (If they did, boy the joke's on them.) Most often it is because they like kids and want to work with kids to make them better, stronger learners, etc.  So why not serve as an example to that?  It seems like there are a lot of reasons why this could be.  Not enough time, personal life stuff, ideological differences, fear.  And though I feel like I've heard the first three as reasons often enough, I haven't heard the last one much, even though to me it has to be the number one reason.

There's a reason why some people don't step out of their comfort zone.  It's uncomfortable.  Who wants to feel that way, especially when it's at your job, your livelihood?  No one wants the risk associated with putting yourself out there.  You could fail.  You could embarrass yourself.  You could make others upset.  You could find out what your flaws are.  And one more time...anyone out there enjoy signing up for any of those feelings?  Didn't think so.  If you avoid reflection and questions, you avoid those possibilities.

But... you also avoid all the growth you could be doing and the joy you could be having with your job.  Because if you aren't stretching yourself outside of that comfort zone, there's no way you're growing.  And there's no way you can tell me that you aren't bored silly at your job.


Today Dave kind of talked about this some, about teachers acting like all the things he does is too hard for them to try.  To which I say "false."  Your job is to try things and do things when you teach, so that can't be it.  The hard part is summoning the courage or will.  And the best way to do that I think is to... ask questions!  Even if they are questions like "why am I doing things in my class this way" or "what is making me nervous about trying new things?"  Any question will require a response, and that response will prompt some kind of thought or action.  Anything is better than nothing.  If we want our students to do it, we have to be willing to do it too.  There's no other way for them to learn.

A very important (even wildly so) goal for me this year is to help people step outside of their comfort zone and get acquainted with the area.  It's so nice out there, and they are missing out on the fun.  Today I saw Dave get people excited in a way that I never though they would be.  And that more than anything thrilled me.  Every time a teacher goes out on a limb to reflect on their craft, only good things can happen.


*Hopefully you totally see my Destiny's Child reference #independentwomen #90sor00s