It's been more than a minute - okay, almost two years - since I've blogged. Forgive me, I've been busy.
"Busy with what?"
Yeah, about that. I guess my answer is "Life."
Things in my teaching sphere are changing pretty dramatically this year. As most teachers know, the beginning of the school year has most teachers asking the questions listed in this blog's title in varied order - "NOW WHAT?" before the "big new policy" for the building, "WHAT?" for the inevitable shocking announcement or protocol that is inconceivably inconceivable for a multitude of reasons dealing from complexity of enforcement or execution to downright gobsmacked reality, and "SO WHAT?" to help soften the blow of the changes in external forcefields and their impacts on the internal classroom that we are individually charged with controlling.
Our district has added Newline boards to the classrooms - basically the world's largest cellphone, minus (I think?) the ability to make an actual phone call. (Stay tuned, I haven't actually done the training yet, so you might still get a butt dial if I lean against the board!) Most recently, we were told to expect the removal of all telephones from our classrooms, instead expect TEAMS phones with picture dialing.
Two basic forms of communication in the classroom are brand new. And we're still more than 2 weeks from the start of school.
Yet, the three questions will help us all to deal with new realities and procedures, and give us all something to bond with the newbie teachers, sharing the age-old understanding that nothing in education is ever stagnant.
I actually have WHAT, SO WHAT, NOW WHAT posters in my classrooms. Being able to ask, and answer, those questions helps to give purpose, motivation, and meaning to lessons. It's my way of justifying why I'm asking students to do a particular assignment or activity -- it's honesty and transparency for the gifted and talented kids who are skeptical about being asked to do something perceived as beneath them, too stupid to do, or a waste of time.
Is it true that sometimes we do things we don't like?
You betcha. That's training for life. (Don't push me so far that I give my mammogram or colonoscopy as prime examples of such required fortitude to be developed.)
My lesson plans have changed - and are visible to the kids. Certainly, I have more detailed steps in my actual teaching plans, but every student has access to this sort of overview every week available to them on Schoology. It helps them - if they bother to open the folder - to know my expectations, requirements, assignments, and what they will be missing if they are absent. It also, I hope, explains some of the crazy stuff we do that seemingly has no rhyme or reason, until one considers the constant presence of all of my underlying lessons of metacognition. (This year, we're once again checking out James Anderson's Habits of Mind.)
Our district has added Newline boards to the classrooms - basically the world's largest cellphone, minus (I think?) the ability to make an actual phone call. (Stay tuned, I haven't actually done the training yet, so you might still get a butt dial if I lean against the board!) Most recently, we were told to expect the removal of all telephones from our classrooms, instead expect TEAMS phones with picture dialing.
Two basic forms of communication in the classroom are brand new. And we're still more than 2 weeks from the start of school.
Yet, the three questions will help us all to deal with new realities and procedures, and give us all something to bond with the newbie teachers, sharing the age-old understanding that nothing in education is ever stagnant.
I actually have WHAT, SO WHAT, NOW WHAT posters in my classrooms. Being able to ask, and answer, those questions helps to give purpose, motivation, and meaning to lessons. It's my way of justifying why I'm asking students to do a particular assignment or activity -- it's honesty and transparency for the gifted and talented kids who are skeptical about being asked to do something perceived as beneath them, too stupid to do, or a waste of time.
Is it true that sometimes we do things we don't like?
You betcha. That's training for life. (Don't push me so far that I give my mammogram or colonoscopy as prime examples of such required fortitude to be developed.)
My lesson plans have changed - and are visible to the kids. Certainly, I have more detailed steps in my actual teaching plans, but every student has access to this sort of overview every week available to them on Schoology. It helps them - if they bother to open the folder - to know my expectations, requirements, assignments, and what they will be missing if they are absent. It also, I hope, explains some of the crazy stuff we do that seemingly has no rhyme or reason, until one considers the constant presence of all of my underlying lessons of metacognition. (This year, we're once again checking out James Anderson's Habits of Mind.)
If' you'd like to see an example of an introductory lesson plan for students, click to view the first entry of last semester here. Our Themes in Literature topic last semester was "This I Believe", loosely inspired by the now-retired NPR program by the same name.
We have a new teacher in the gifted department, and my elementary counterpart teacher and I spent yesterday trying to help the newbie-to-gifted understand the scope of what we do, while not simultaneously causing her to go screaming into the closest cornfield. (Remember, this is Lancaster County, after all!) As we attempted to give information, and answer questions with as little specificity as possible to avoid the overwhelming sense of drinking from a firehose, even we, the veteran Teachers of the Gifted, were feeling more than a little overwhelmed.
Until we realized:
WHAT - We are attempting to advocate and design appropriate experiences the gifted kids in our charge based on their unique learning needs.
WHAT - We are attempting to advocate and design appropriate experiences the gifted kids in our charge based on their unique learning needs.
SO WHAT - Because they deserve our best to reach their full potential. (To Learn and Grow!)
NOW WHAT - This is always the question. Ultimately, because these kids in our classrooms will be making decisions in our world in the blink of a few short years, and we want to make sure they have appropriate skills and resources.
