Learn, Think, Write

An early morning brain dump: Why not….

• eliminate grouping by grade levels. Let students move through outcomes and benchmarks at their own pace.
• hire teachers year round for a substantial increase in salary. Most effective work needs to happen when students aren’t in class. Teachers must stop thinking of their day as time spent only with students. Teachers must have time to read, work together, be inspired and creative, reflect, and plan. Every year. Always learning.
• re-think the school day. Why not spend less time together and more time asynchronously?
• allow students to learn math, English, science,and art around a passion: say sailing? woodworking? astronomy?
• eliminate grades for conversations and portfolios. Sorting and ranking creates a society of winners and losers (and power struggles)
• develop ways to help students understand that effort, real effort, pays off
• ask the questions instead of giving the answers
• think of inquiry as central to learning

inspired by looking through a different lens