I am gearing up for a presentation to share with my colleagues for an in-service day this week. As I continue to morph this presentation I finally came to the realization of the issue at hand. I kept toying with all of these ideas floating in my head, but just did not feel like they were connected or were needed at this time of the school year.
And then it finally hit me.
Educators have the WHAT figured out. I think we often spin our wheels on this stage of journey.
WHAT standards do I have to cover?
WHAT curriculum do I have to teach?
WHAT graphic organizer, template, writing format, formula, do I need to make sure the kids know?
I think it is easy to stay here and develop stress, frustration, anxiety, and the sense that we just are not as good as we need to be.
I BELIEVE that we all know the WHAT. We have that figured out whether we feel this way or not.
I BELIEVE that we need help with the HOW. HOW do we cover the WHAT?
We must reframe our questions, thoughts, and ideas to address the central issue at hand. It is easy for the nation, state, and administration levels of education to always share out the WHAT because that is concrete, easy, and very clear to see. HOW is another story and often neglected because there is not a straight answer.
I am working on providing two answers to help with HOW for the in-service. I think that these two changes in perspective and thinking will help move more of us to HOW and really develop confidence in ourselves to reach bigger.
Idea #1: Think with end location in mind when it comes to PBL
Idea #2: Use the Common Core exemplars, break them down, and you have a unit ready to go.
Now it is time to work through the minor details and deliver. I will share everything once created, but in the meantime what do you think about this topic?