I’ve been thinking a lot recently about when and how to ask questions as I work with teachers. This quote was emailed to me and I thought it would be prudent to share.
“Questions define tasks, express problems, and delineate issues. They drive thinking forward. Answers, on the other hand, often signal a full stop in thought. Only when an answer generates further questions does thought continue as inquiry. A mind with no questions is a mind that is not intellectually alive. No questions (asked) equals no understanding (achieved). Superficial questions equal superficial understanding, unclear questions equal unclear understanding. If your mind is not actively generating questions, you are not engaged in substantive learning.”
–Eder, Linda and Richard Paul http://ww.criticalthinking.org/AskingQuestions.htm
The last few days of my summer break were spent scraping, sanding and prepping some Adirondack chairs that I built a number of years ago so that I could paint them before we get into the fall and winter seasons. Yesterday I started to cover up the primed wood with the bright white paint and the difference was remarkable. The faded, peeled wood became clean, bright and brought back my pride in making them myself.
Today was the first day of school in our district and as I walked through the halls of one of our elementary schools with the new paint, waxed floors and excited voices, for some reason I thought back to the chairs that I had just put a fresh coat of paint on. Everything seemed very new, clean and bright. Smartboards had been installed over the summer, new equipment ordered over the summer has been released from blister packs and the projects planned for last spring is starting to become a reality. It’s all very exciting.
While the excitement continues to build, I’ve started struggling with ways to systematically figure out how to help teachers continue to move forward with their integration and teaching strategies as well as identify leaders in technology use in each of the buildings I work with. I hope to give them what they need to help their students be successful in the various curricular areas. This is not the first time I’ve thought about this, but I can’t say that I’m all that closer to an answer or a process. I am, however, glad to get started with a new year and looking forward to the possibilities that it will provide. Meanwhile, my chairs need one more coat before I take them out to brave the elements once again.
I’m not new to the world on online networks and I know that many people have their own agenda when they are posting things. However, when I’ve come to rely on my PLN and, for the most part, trust them. Today I feel as though I have been deceived. I don’t think those involved were being malicious, but at the same time, they certainly weren’t forthcoming. I’m going to be as general as possible because I don’t know the intentions, but I certainly was disappointed and will remember this in the future.
I’ve been on Twitter for a few months now and have been fairly active in terms of my posts and trying to follow and actually keep up with everyone. I must say that I’m an addict now and have gotten so much out of it that, after struggling with the purpose that Tweets have in my life, I don’t see leaving. I came across a little advice that I thought would be worthwhile in my practice, however, upon further scrutiny, I found that the person from whom I’d gotten the advice had a great deal to gain from it. The advice was completely self-serving, which is fine, but I would have liked to know that up front. PLN’s are a great way to find resources and, to a certain extent, market yourself. I guess I was just disappointed. Does this fall under the realm of cyberethics? I’m not sure, but it did leave an impression on me, one I won’t soon forget.
