Passion-Curiosity-Questioning

In my classroom, we talk a lot about picking their ‘place’ on the learning mountain we created. This is a time of the day when we make a conscious decision about the type of mindset we will be bringing to the next activity. As I was reflecting on the learning I have done this semester, I kept thinking about the learning mountain and how teachers have their own “Teaching Mountains”. Every day can feel like running up a mountain. Some days you feel like the mountain just keeps getting taller and other days it feels like you are THIS close to the top. Whatever the day might bring, we are standing upon a mountain of resources and possibilities and we need to decide what mindset we will bring to the work we do. I work very hard to make my classroom  a place that my kids and I enjoy being a part of. I use all of the resources that I show on my mountain featured above from collaborating with peers, technology, my creative side, Cultures of Thinking, to instilling a growth mindset in my students play a role in creating my classroom culture. I moved the writing included on this blog post below my image so that you, the reader, would first see what drives me to keep creating, questioning, exploring every single day- the heart of my work-  my students.

Passion and curiosity are two of the traits that will allow us as educators to innovate and create a new way of teaching that will help our students to be successful in this ever-changing world. In the article, It’s P.Q. and C.Q. as Much as I.Q., Thomas Friedman  writes about the changing world that we are living in now and how technology has evolved in a way that created a hyperconnected society that is constantly changing. “It will also be those with more P.Q. (passion quotient) and C.Q. (curiosity quotient) to leverage all the new digital tools to not just find a job, but to invent one or reinvent one, and to not just learn but to relearn for a lifetime.”(Friedman, 2013) This part of his article is what I connected with most powerfully as an educator. The field of education is constantly evolving and teachers have an incredible amount of new resources being made available to them each day. Bringing our passion for our craft and addressing our constant wonderings of how we could be doing better for our students is what teaching is all about.

Berger brings up a great point in Chapter 5 of his book, A More Beautiful Question, that innovative thinkers are okay with not having the answer to the questions. The curiosity we bring to our work and passion for uncovering new solutions is what makes us innovators in our field. Shifting our mindset from needing answers to a mindset that values questioning is also critical. It will lead us to a place that allows us to take risks and stretch our thinking about our work.

References:

Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.

Friedman, T. (2013). It’s P.Q. and C.Q. as Much as I.Q. The Opinion Pages. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/opinion/friedman-its-pq-and-cq-as-much-as-iq.html

Wicked Problem Project

Throughout the semester, my classmate and I have been exploring the wicked problem “Failure as a Learning Mode”. We began our process by asking a number of questions about the topic. We used Warren Berger’s book, A More Beautiful Question, as a guiding force for this part of the process. As we narrowed our focus, we created a survey to share with our professional learning networks to find how other educators viewed our problem. This helped lead us to the conclusion that many educators felt as though failure was very important, but their students were not prepared to fail and some of their current teaching habits did not allow room for failures. Using the information we gathered, supported by research and our own experiences, we came up with a few possible solutions to this problem. Of course, this wicked problem is very complicated and every teacher will have their own ideas regarding solutions.

We chose to focus in on two manageable starting points for teachers that are interested in embracing failure: creating a Growth Mindset culture & adjusting feedback processes in the classroom. Encouraging a growth mindset in my students has been a huge focus for me this year, and I am so glad that I have put the time into it. I have seen a change in all of my students when they come upon a challenge throughout the school day. The word “Yet” has been especially valuable because it is simple enough for the kids to understand and use with one another. It is also a quick way to change the negative “I can’t do this.” statements that would typically cause the student to shut down into a “I can’t do this yet.”  conversation about what are the child is going to do to get to a place of understanding. One simple word opens a lot of doors for the kids! We also discuss the importance of changing teacher and student feedback to reflect this mindset shift. My students now use “Not Yet” writing checklists that encourage them to go back and add the missing part. Teacher praise should be directed at the effort students put forth rather than praising the end result or ‘natural talent’. This shows the kids that their teacher values the learning process not just getting a good final grade. These possible solutions may not “solve” our wicked problem, but I strongly believe they are two worthwhile avenues to explore. Changing attitudes towards failure is the first step to effectively using failure as a learning mode.

We have created a website that organizes the information we have uncovered while investigating our Wicked Problem. Click the image below to visit our website! Or copy and paste http://www.embracingfailure.weebly.com into your browser.