Are You Asking Enough Questions?

Lindsey Lipsky @LindseyLipsky shared this quote on #satchatwc this morning.  It struck a chord with me as I consider why I do what I do as an educator.  I would like to add to the quote that not only do the best teachers not tell you what to see, but they also refuse to provide answers and only guide learning by asking questions.

I know that as educators we want to help and guide our students.  One of the most difficult things I had to teach myself was not to give students answers.  It is like the student who yells out an answer, once an answer is given, the thinking in the classroom stops.  This creates a cycle of passive learning in which students learn quickly that someone else will answer for them.  

My solution to students coming to me for answers is to respond by asking a question. 

I'm not talking about creating open-ended questions that are related to a specific lesson or unit of study.  I am talking about generic questions that you have on hand (on a clipboard as you train yourself) ready to use in ANY situation.  Here are some examples:

Mrs. Beck, how do you spell information?

• Say the word, what does it start with? (student will hopefully say, "in"), if not I will say, "in" how do you spell that?  Write it.
• What is next? (student will hopefully say, "for"), if not I will say, "for" how do you spell that?  Write it.
• When I get to the "tion" I will discuss and ask the student, "what do you know about how to make the tion (shun) sound?  Are there any words around the room that can help you with this sound? 

This also works extremely well for mathematics.  I used this process in my middle school math classes.

Mrs. Beck I am stuck on this problem.

• What do you know about this problem?
• What have you tried or where do you think you should start?
• What do you know about ratios?  (or whatever we are studying)
• Can you go and work on the problem 

 

I  would love to give you more specific questions, but they really need to be tailored to the particular situation and/or student.  My suggestion is, DO NOT ANSWER, ONLY QUESTION.  It will teach your students that answers are found every where except from the teacher.  Teachers will guide you in your search, but ultimately it is the students' responsibility to find the answers. 

In my new role as Curriculum Coordinator, I am asking questions while working with teachers. When we work in PLC groups or leadership groups, I ask questions to move their thinking.  I model in the hope that they will question their students more. 

You know you are asking enough questions when students come to you and say, "Mrs. Beck, I know you will not tell me anything about this problem, but will you please ask me some questions so I can get my thinking started and figure this out?" 

You will also know that you are asking enough questions when your spouse and/or child say, "Kris/Mom, I am going to ask you a question and I want an answer, not a question!" (there may be a tone in their voice as they make this request).

It is easy to provide answers, the challenging thing is to take the time to ask questions which allows others to think and grow as learners.

The Gift of Being a Loser - Perspective

I am a loser.  A week ago I set out on a journey to say goodbye to my mother.  As I sat in airports and boarded planes, I looked at and watched my fellow passengers.  Knowing what I was experiencing, I wondered what the others on the plane with me were carrying with them.  The loss I was experiencing provided me with a perspective that I would not normally have had with my fellow travelers.

As a traveler with emotional baggage, I put my head phones on and listened to music and watched movies rather than engage with my fellow passengers.  All the while, I wondered why my fellow travelers were making their trips.  As I traveled with a broken heart, I made sure to smile at everyone that looked at me not knowing their situation but wanting to make sure that I acknowledged their existence.  It is all about perspective and isn't it interesting when major life events significantly shift our perspective and/or remind us of the perspective we used to have.

As usual, my personal experience translates to my life as an educator.  I will ask my fellow educators to consider the following:

• Please don't embarrass tardy students by sending them to the office
• You do not know what his/her morning was like - did they have to get siblings ready, were they exhausted from doing homework late into the night, do his/her parents chronically run late, does he/she have negative feelings about school and walked super slowly, etc...
• By shifting your perspective and welcoming him/her into your classroom with a smile and a sincere greeting, you may change the course of his/her day by starting it off positively.  

Do you want to "teach him/her a lesson" or build a relationship and make a connection?

•  Please don't blame parents for not participating or caring about their child's education
• You need to know that the vast majority of parents love their child/children even if they do not know how to show it
• Some parents are extremely intimidated by schools because of the negative experience they had while in school
• We all struggle with parenting and question what and how we parent.  We feel isolated, ineffective at times. 

Change the lens you use to look at parents to one of empathy and understanding that they are doing the best they can with the tools they have.  Understand that your students love and admire and worry about their parents.

• Please support your students while they are at school, do not punish them for the environment the experience outside of school.
• When homework is not completed respectfully ask the student why it was not completed and show empathy - here is what I really think about homework - CLICK HERE

As I stated earlier, I am a loser.  I received a SARB (Student Attendance Review Boards) letter from the district I am a Curriculum Coordinator in because my son had over 9 tardies in one trimester.  Was it his fault?  Well that is a loaded question because I could blame our morning routine on his power struggles with me (the parenting issues that EVERYONE experiences).  However, if you look at my track record I am a loser parent that makes my son adhere to my schedule and when I do not have a required time frame, he is tardy to school. (By the way, just to let you know, he has not had a tardy since I received the SARB letter in December, I have to be careful because we are on our way to court).

Perspective is such a powerful thing.  My superintendent, assistant superintendent and I (curriculum coordinator) were in our weekly meeting.  All of our kiddos go to one of the elementary schools in our district.  As we sat in the meeting, the supt. started shedding tears while telling a story of how she had felt she failed her second grade daughter as a parent.  If we "educator parents" fail our kiddos daily, weekly, monthly, etc... think for a minute about those parents who are not highly educated and the feelings they have as parents.

In closing, we need to remember that we do not know what others are experiencing at any given time.  I ask that you stop, smile, and consider the person's situation.  

So many people have aching heart, don't you want to be the person who makes their heart smile?

What is Learning #youredustory

What is learning in 100 words or less...

Learning is taking a walk with my 8 year old son on our 7.5 acres, finding a mountain lion foot print right next to a deer print.  My son asks, "Mom, did the mountain lion catch the deer?"  Let the learning begin.  Here is the result of our search:

Mountain Lion vs. Mule Deer Thinglink

The Dreamers and the Realists

Last night while watching Modern Family with my son I heard this quote:

"Cameron Tucker: There are dreamers and there are realists in this world. You'd think the dreamers would find the dreamers and the realists would find the realists, but more often than not the opposite is true. You see, the dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists, well without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground. "
Modern Family Punkin Chukin Episode

This resonated with me in many ways.  I understand the logical realists and their perspective.  They keep the dreamers grounded and make sure that there is a foundation for the "out of this world thinking". Dreamers see the possibility in everything.  Their perspective is one of "why not".

After contemplating this quote, I understand that it is imperative to have balance - realists and dreamers working together for the good and learning of the students in our districts, schools, and classrooms.  

Are you a dreamer or a realist?

It Begins With a Smile

Week 2 of the #youredustory blogging challenge is how I will make the world a better place.

It begins with a smile.  I remember a long time ago, someone was talking about how difficult it is to not smile when someone smiles at you.  As a fairly new employee in my district I work to build relationships with the teachers, staff, students, and parents I work with.  The smile is the first step.  Whenever I pass someone, it gives me the opportunity to brighten everyone's day by smiling as I pass and say hello.

Here is a smile challenge:

• For one week smile at any/all people you pass during the day.  If it is people you see everyday and multiple times a day, do it EVERYTIME. 
• Make sure it is authentic and if you can get your eyes to light up or twinkle that is even better
• Smile at everyone in the office, school, classroom each time you cross paths
• When approaching a student or someone with a question (sometimes an annoying question) if you start with a smile, it changes how you start the conversation to a positive and provides an opportunity to build a relationship and trust rather than getting off on the wrong foot
• If you are somewhere like the grocery store, smile as you pass others in the isle and see what happens.

It will take a while for you to start smiling automatically when encountering others.  You will need to make a conscious effort at first.  Soon it will become something you just do and you get to reap the benefits.

Here is how the smile challenge has/is impacting my life:

• My interactions have become more positive especially with students and challenging staff members by starting the interaction with a smile and authentic greeting
• I love watching and counting how many people I can get to smile back at me... There are always a few of the curmudgeons, most will change their demeanor and smile back
• I am modeling for my son and my students, teachers, and others the impact a smile can have on others

Now for a short tale of the impact it has had.  During our ornament exchange in our district office, I received a chessire cat ornament.  There is always a story that goes with each ornament and I received that one because I am known to be smiling wherever I go in the office.  I did not even realize that I smile that often, that is how automatic it has become for me.  Now, the chessire cat also has mischievous eyes (also a trait of mine) which is story for another time.

Take the smile challenge and see how it impacts you and those around you!

#oneword 2015 - Embrace

Last week I joined the  #YourEduStory Challenge @youredustory on twitter.  It is a blogging challenge that asks that you blog once a week for the 2015 year.  There are weekly topics to inspire your blogging or you can just do your own thing.  The idea is that you blog weekly.  That has always been my goal since Saturday night is my designated blogging time.  Our first week's topic is our #oneword for 2015.  I was inspired to write my one word and enter the challenge after reading John Wink's #oneword FOCUS and Jennifer Kloczko's #oneword LESS.  These two posts inspired me to ponder my #oneword for 2015.

EMBRACE is my #oneword for 2015.  I am in a state of flux which actually happens to be my chosen state most of the time.  As I have stated many times on this blog, I am trying to find my way after leaving the classroom and moving to the Educational Student Support Center (ESSC or DO) as an instructional leader and coach.  I chose the word EMBRACE as my #oneword 2015 because I need to consciously remind myself to embrace every aspect of my life as an educator and as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, colleague, and many other labels I put upon myself.

Embrace the messiness of my life.
Embrace the many mistakes I make throughout the day.
Embrace the conflict I create (I am a rabble rouser)
Embrace the learning from my PLN and educators surrounding me.
Embrace where the teachers are in their implementation of CCSS and technology
Embrace the challenges and questions of my perspective on education issues
Embrace the good, bad and ugly of myself as an educator and person
Embrace the fact that I am imperfect even though I know I struggle with being a perfectionist
Embrace the messiness of leading and learning as a coach and instructional leader
Embrace the difficult - standards based grading, active student learning, CHANGE, CULTURE
Embrace the wonder when visiting classrooms and watching students
Embrace my ability to take great risks

I can go on and on there are so many things I need to do as an educator.

Even though I am a girl (funny that I used that word), I am an athlete and sports fan and I have struggled with the death of Stuart Scott on many levels.  So, the most important Embrace I learned this past week from his  2014 ESPY Awards Speech

• "Our life's journey is about the people who touch us" - building relationships is extremely important
• "Don't give up, don't ever give up" - I need to fight for what I believe is best for students and for me and my family
• "I'm not special" - What I do is not about me, it is about helping others and being there for others
• "How I live, why I live, and the manner in which I live" has an impact on those around me
• "When you get too tired to fight, lay down, rest, and let somebody else fight for you" - I know Stuart is alluding to battling cancer, but sometimes as educators we take on great battles and sometimes we need to let someone else fight for us.  We need to let others step in and help.
• "This is not a solo adventure, it requires support" - This is the most difficult for me.  As a classroom teacher, I could rationalize being solo even though I had a social network PLN.  

So, my focus for 2015 is to EMBRACE by building relationships, not quitting, letting others help, and asking my PLN and other to support and fight for me and the teachers and students I support.

2014 In Review: My Blog Word Cloud and Top Posts

I am truly blessed by my Personal Learning Network (PLN).  It has grown and expanded exponentially this past year.  I have learned so much from them and many of the interactions have been the inspiration for my blog posts.  So, as many others out there, I am sharing a word cloud summary of my posts as well as my most read posts of 2014.

My word cloud below was inspired by: Jennifer Kloczko's Word It Out post.  Like Jennifer, my chromebook is my tool of choice for blogging among other things.  So I created my word cloud using Word It Out.  

A quick reflection of the stand out words:

• I am proud of the fact that the largest word is STUDENTS - education should be all about the students.
• I am ashamed that the other largest word is I - this is not about me, which I see I need to work on.
• LEARNING is large which is a good thing - apparently I am writing about learning
• I think it is interesting that TIME is a good size - yes, time is limited. However, we can prioritize our time and focus which is something I am planning on working on in 2015
• MAKE, SHARE, ALL, TEACHERS, NEED, KNOW, GOOGLE, MATH are also used often in my blog posts - These words represent areas that I have been focused on as an educator

Goals for my blogging in 2015:

• This blog is and always has been a place where I can reflect on my life as an educator.  It is for me first and foremost, if others benefit that is an added bonus.  I appreciate all input and consideration of the posts I write.
• Continue to reflect on my journey and share all that I can
• Continue to include links to my PLN folks that inspire and drive my thinking and learning

Now for the top 5 posts of 2014 (in ascending order):

#5 - What Happens to the Thinkers and Tinkerers? - I wrote this post after watching my 8 year old son tinker with Google Glass

#4 - How I Taught my Middle School Math Students to Blog - I truly believe that it is important for students to understand the importance of "Writing to Learn" and if we expect that of students, how do we introduce the concept of blogging across the curriculum

#3 - Did the Mountain Lion Catch The Mule Deer? - This post was inspired by a walk on our property (we live on 7.5 acres) and we found cougar (mountain lion) tracks very near deer tracks and my son wondered what happened, we were surprised after our research.

#2 - Modeling Standards Based Learning by "Failing" a High Stakes Test - In this post I shared my near miss of passing my administrators test and what I learned from the feedback I received 

#1  - What Does a 58% on a Math Test Mean to a Third Grader? - I am really honored that this post received the most hits on my blog.  It is the impetus for me to start the conversation of standards based grading in my district

I am so looking forward to 2015.  It will be a year of continued growth and sharing of my journey as an educator.