I have four main takeaways (and SO MANY more tweets) that I'd like to use to really bring my thoughts together from everything I learned yesterday.
And for goodness sake, we have got to PLAN OUR QUESTIONS. The right question can take our students from static noise to great insight. If our lesson plans don't have any kind of question stems or a note about what kind of springboard we're going to use to get our students where they need to be, then we're not planning for great instruction. I will type/say this until I have numb fingertips or am blue in the face: great teachers plan for questioning.
- We can’t hold kids to a uniform timeline of learning. When they do represent that they learned something, give them the A!
- Teachers were hired to document what the students have learned, not what they knew on a certain date.
- We have a tendency to overly rely on linguistic representation to show content mastery. Lack of language does NOT mean lack of intellect. The intellect can be plentiful.
- Homework for kids should be stuff like play basketball, play soccer, jump rope, etc. Get oxygen to their bodies, cross those midlines. Huff and puff and blow that homework house DOWN.
- Our classrooms are not a chase for the right answer. Our classrooms should be a chase for mastery of content. (Those are different things, thankfully.)
- Students should leave our classes holding question marks, not periods.
Sometimes all of the variables collide in this awful, super wreck. And it's so frustrating. Those are the days that I want to stop by Sonic on my way home to eat a MEDIUM sized order of mozzarella sticks (medium means it's been a bad day. The small size is what I use whenever it's just a day where Sonic is on my mind.)I need to look and see that when my classes aren't going well, it's because I--as the grown up in the room with a fancy teaching degree-haven't done enough hoisting to shift my sails. If classroom management is a sail on my boat, then the students are the collective wind (especially on bean burrito day, if you catch my "drift"...so many puns it's almost painful.)
We have great educators all around us who are trying different things, and sometimes those things are going to fall flat. Like totally flat. Like Columbus thought the world was flat, flat. FHLAAAHT. Be ready to grant grace to the teacher next door who tries something new and falls flat on their face. Because we've all been there. It's what you do next that counts. We need to be Oprah with the grace granting, especially when the teacher is trying something new and taking a risk.
And finally, my biggest share from the conference (but I didn't want to make it a 5th takeaway, because it's so powerful as a stand alone thought):
When a child presents a facade of apathy, there's something else going on that the teacher can't see or control. Apathy is the cloak with which our students cover themselves to call out for our help. It's hard to see it, but that's why we have special teacher goggles.
Go and be great. It's time.