Don't Quote Me

I have gotten myself back in the groove of reading for pleasure. Well, pleasure tends to be education books so I suppose I am reading for professional development as well. Alas... I am still in the midst of To Understand. I found myself nodding my head along today and writing a few great passages down...

• "When we assume that kids aren't doing high-level thinking we may need to consider whether the conditions we create are conducive to high-level thinking." -p 77
• "I want to change our emphasis from the number of kids participating to the quality..."- p 78
• "What we have in many schools is a whole lot of disengaged kids slogging through the essential skills in the right order, but who are starving intellectually."-p 79

Granted those are just some from a small section, but they are indicative of the remainder of the book. I find myself reflecting on my own practice, and the types of questions I have asked and who I asked. Was I being equitable? Was I trying to go for a myriad of ideas instead of simply going deep with one? Vice versa? What type of classroom environment did I create or establish, and how did it impact the learning my kids were doing?

In many ways I wish it were fall and I had a position already so that I could get moving. The creative juices, and the intellectual energy is starting to spin. Onward to applying and working through the process. One word descriptor? Arduous.