Although
the solstice hasn’t happened yet, summer is here for many of us. School doors have closed or are closing soon,
and we will (hopefully) be taking up a different pace. I love the poem, “A Lazy Thought,” by Eve
Merriam, which reminds me about the tempo I’d like to take this time of year:
There go the grownups
To the office,
To the store.
Subway rush,
Traffic crush;
Hurry, scurry,
Worry, flurry.
No wonder
Grown ups
Don’t grow up
Any more.
It takes a lot
Of slow
To grow.
It
takes a lot of slow for children to grow, and I’m of the belief the same axiom
is true for adults. As we attend, provide
or prepare for professional learning experiences that happen during the summer
months, let’s take advantage of the slower pace. No lesson plans or sub plans for tomorrow
means we can give our full attention to our professional learning. We can reflect, think deeply about new approaches,
and plan for future use. Will you brood
over the challenges that vexed you this year?
Will you contemplate a strategy that you’ve read about but haven’t yet tried?
Will you ponder a new idea long enough so that it sinks into your soul and springs
forth when the perfect scenario for its use presents itself?
If
you are planning experiences to help others grow as professionals, how will you
honor the expertise they bring to the table?
In what ways can you build in collaboration and opportunities for
co-construction of understanding? As we
think together with others, our perspective broadens and we can open ourselves to
new ideas. This week, the first since
the school year ended here, has been full-to-the-brim with professional
development. But even in the busy-ness,
there have been thoughtful pauses, deep breathes, and collaborative
considerations. I hope that the
experiences I’ve led have allowed for slow, thoughtful deliberation, giving
teachers “a lot of slow to grow.”
This week, you might want to
take a look at:
Understanding the
physics of the fidget spinner:
Adding fluidity to the writing process:
Space to draft
PD best practices for Chromebook
rollout:
Reasoning in 1st grade math:
Try “Tagzedo,” or “Word Art” (word
cloud generators), as summarizing tools (for students, or paste in comments
from teachers’ PD take-aways):
That’s it for this week. Happy Coaching!
No comments:
Post a Comment