What if…

What if…

We had a staff development day on Friday and I was lucky enough to be given 90 minutes to share ideas with my colleagues. For nearly a year now, we have had a focus on the 4 C’s of learning: Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Creativity. A variety of resources have been used throughout the year to lead us toward a greater understanding of how these skills might look in our school and classrooms, including: Design thinking, such as: The foil challenge from Stanford Design school, Science Formative Assessments by Page Keeley and most recently Intention the Book.

I’m always excited to have an opportunity to share ideas with colleagues, but I was exceptionally enthusiastic about the time I had planned on Friday. Sometimes the right resource hits you at the right time, and the ideas are also just what colleagues need to hear at that time. I feel like there should be a word for that, serendipity doesn’t quite fit, convergence… mind meld….. Dan and Amy, the authors of Intention the Book,  actually say it best: Serendipitous moments grant a pause and defy grammar.

For me and my colleagues, this book presented a perfect avenue to blend our themes of art and science. The activities in the book also gave us a good reminder that integrating arts in our curriculum doesn’t always have to mean stopping instruction and having everyone paint or learn about an artist. Likewise, integrating science doesn’t always have to mean leading a structured, data collection investigation. Art can be legos, oreos, and graphic design and when completed with a science concept or topic in mind can be a powerful way to show understanding.

  

As you can tell from my gushing, this book really spoke to me. The ideas conveyed in the book helped confirm that I might actually be moving in a good direction with recent changes I’ve been making in curriculum and projects. I also felt not so alone in the big wide world of teaching after reading this book. Finally, what I think I liked the most was that it helped me name or label the ‘thing’ I’ve been thinking about all year, which is What if…  What if we tried teaching science like we teach art? What if we try teaching art like we do science? What if we tried teaching a topic through our outdoor spaces? What if we had kids decide what to show that they learned? What if we tried this piece of technology with this lesson?

I realized as I was finalizing slides and supplies and ideas to share that it’s the What If in my world that makes me love not only my job, but my life. Being open to possibilities and new ideas is a joyful way to live, and I hope I share that with people around me.


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