What if we promised ourselves to remember that many of our students will return to us with some wounds?
What if we reflected on the reality that those wounds will vary in kind and degree and source of origin?
What if we accepted the fact that we can’t heal the STUDENTS, but rather must heal THE student?
What if we acknowledged that the young people in our care will return to us with varying degrees of learning loss—or learning gain—and with different degrees of loss and gain in different subjects—or in different aspects of different subjects?
What if we promised ourselves that we would figure out day by day or week by week where each of our students is on the learning path we are exploring together?
Then, what if we taught in ways that attend to the needs of THE student and of STUDENTS because the class doesn’t learn—a student does?
What if we taught with the primary goals of maximizing student engagement and understanding and healing?
What if our takeaway from a year-and-a-half of anxiety and exhaustion is the conviction that teaching is first about preparing young people to be competent and confident citizens of the world they live in now, and the world they will live in after school…
…And that teaching for test prep diminishes our students—and us?
If you are interested in learning more about Eduplanet21’s curriculum design platform supported by professional learning for your school or district, contact us. To read more about Carol Tomlinson’s Differentiation in the Classroom Institute, visit the institute overview page.
