"And what did YOU learn today?"

One of the rock star teachers with whom I work shared this quote by Thomas Guskey:

"I often suggest to principals that they stand outside of school at the end of the day when students are leaving. As they walk by, that principal ought to stop students randomly and ask, 'Tell me, what did you learn today?' If the student says, 'Nothing,' the principal ought to send them right back into the building. That child just spent 6 hours in a learning environment. Is it too much to expect that each child should have at least one successful learning experience each day?' I don't think so!

I also suggest to principals that they stand at the teachers' parking lot on Friday afternoon. As teachers walk by, the principal ought to stop them randomly and ask, 'What did you learn this week as a teacher?' If the teacher says, 'Nothing,' the principal ought to send that teacher right back into the building, too. That teacher just spent a week in a learning environment as well."

Excuse me while I go look at my calendar to see what I'm doing at 4:00 next Friday afternoon....

Thank you, God.

WOW - I've been riding the learning wave for 2 months without coming ashore to share my thoughts! Today was one of those days when I left the school building on a complete high after a day of powerful conversations with teachers. I began meeting individually with teachers for their required annual ITPDP conferences, and I'm reminded once again that I am surrounded be people who truly care about kids and who, at the core of their being, are inspired to be great teachers. And I am inspired by them. I could sit for hours and "process" with them, digging deep into their soul and listen to their thoughts, beliefs, practices, hopes, dreams, fears, goals, and celebrations as adult learners. One question that I ask is, "When you compare the learning in your classroom a year ago to the learning in your classroom today...and when you compare the learning in your classroom today to your vision of the learning in your classroom a year from now...what is the same, and what is different?" My heart swells with joy as our school's vision is validated and teachers are owning the value of what we are learning as a PLC. In their own words, they share that they are witness to the value of aligning students to "just right" readings, that when they design meaningful differentiated learning activities then behavior challenges disappear, and that the implementation of the workshop model really does work. (And everyone said, "Amen!")

The most solid evidence of our movement forward as a high-functioning PLC is the dependency on data that has emerged over the last couple years. A climate that was once comfortable with crossing our fingers and banking on hope that students would be successful is now a climate hungry for data. We geek data! We geek learning! Yep, we live for assessment FOR learning and assessment OF learning so we can get our hands on more data to guide us in our work. One of my favorite quotes: "In God we trust. All others bring data."

And....funny thought....here I am focusing on the learning of us as adults. We're really here for the kids, though, right? Lucky for them, they get to benefit from our passion for learning. Put simply, when we learn, they learn. When we dry up, the kids dry up...like a dead fish on shore.

Thank you, God, for this job. I feel guilty for calling it a job. Let's try this again: Thank you, God, for choosing me to serve, to learn, to grow, to collaborate, to celebrate, to inquire, to dream, to laugh, to cry, to reflect, to push, to be pushed, to love, to be loved....to make a difference...and to be surrounded by adults who are like me in that they thank you, too.


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