I think my principal was a bit taken back when she asked what I thought and I stated I was a bit disappointed, and I was. I am not sure what I was thinking it would be, but it did fall short. It was a discussion on the Common Core Standards by a small panel of four from CELA and CASDA.
The presentation was about an hour long yesterday after school and entailed the four talking about some things they felt were important to implement the CCS. The gentleman who was the moderator I believe, would pose the question and the one woman who seemed to be in charge, would give an overview of what the other two women were going to speak about. Then the other two would give some examples after prefacing again what they were relating their examples to. I really don't believe they needed to keep reiterating the same things over and over since I can hardly believe there were too many viewers out there without some clue about the education field and paying to watch this for sheer entertainment. I mean, maybe, but...
There was no interaction between us and them. There was no opportunity for questions. It was no different than watching a taped panel discussion, I felt. They never stated WHAT the Common Core Standards were. I would have thought that may be how the presentation would begin. I feel this is the key piece I am having trouble grasping. It seems too vague. Now from experience of what we have been discussing at our school, I understood it mainly does go by what your school wants to focus on within the realm of the parameters they are putting out there. So, that may very well be why they didn't state what the standards were to being with. But it seems to me, all this has to be based on something! And really-after watching this-I felt like the main gist was making students think deeper, not just taking things off the top surface, not just asking the basic questions. Yes, we also need to be asking the right questions and that does take some work on the part of the "teacher". Now, I may have missed something here, but I feel like this HAS been our focus (I THOUGHT) for quite some time. I feel like I have been implementing these strategies. When I stated this after my principal questioned me, I felt like her look made me feel like I was just saying this to earn brownie points. I am sure too, many of you feel like this is preaching to the choir, but ISN'T this what we have been trying to and are doing already? Like I said-did I miss something somewhere here? What a shock for all of the school districts who let their librarians go...
Not to say this was a total waste of my time. I did glean a few strategies and ideas of how to implement some of the subject material and it was neat to see how this really does and can span and interconnect all subject areas.
I will leave you with what I personally thought was the best way I have heard it stated-a line from one of the woman in the panel-
"Our goal is to teach them "how" to think, without telling them "what "to think.
No comments:
Post a Comment