The Power of Not Knowing

I've always had trouble putting my feelings about education and the goals of education into words. I have all these strong feelings and beliefs but yet I find that I struggle to convey these thoughts effectively. I find that when I do put them into words, the words do not do them justice.

For an on-line class I am taking, Advanced Teaching Strategies, we were asked to read a chapter from Instruction: A Model Approach written by Gunter, Estes, and Schwab. As I read the introduction to Chapter 7, Inquiry Models, I found myself agreeing with every word, every sentence. These authors were able to put exactly how I feel into words and not just any words, but powerful words. Below is an excerpt that was truly powerful:

“ Remember when the world was full of questions to ask rather than answer to learn? Somewhere on the way to adulthood, children inevitably get the idea that becoming a grown-up means leaving the world of questioning for the world of knowing. Schools institutionalize the departure from questions to answers as success becomes measured by putting the right answer into the blank or circling the correct response, knowing positively what is true and what is false. Almost all questions in school one right answer and questions for which there are no answers do not often arise. True wisdom, however might better be defined as the realizations of how little one knows in contrast to how much one knows." 

 Inquiry Models chapter of Gunter, M. A., Estes, T. H., & Schwab, J. (2003). Instruction: A models approach (4th ed.). New York: Allyn & Bacon.
powerful: As a teacher, I believe in the power and the practice of inquiry learning. As human we were born curious beings. I can remember asking a million questions as a child, and I can't help but wonder why don't I do that still today? My education was a system of here is the answer, learn this fact, your textbook knows all. I do not want my students to think that way. I do not want them to rely on their textbook. Instead, I want them to know how to use resources available to them, but more important I want them to learn how to ask questions, how to take ownership of their knowledge and their learning. Too often as teachers we are afraid of "not knowing" the answers and in return do not seek out questions from our students. I pledge to  never be fearful of not knowing, but rather to embrace it. The beauty of not knowing comes in the journey of knowing ... in the process of asking the question, seeking out the information, and constructing our understanding ... and I cannot wait to join my students on this journey.

Upper Elementary

Day in Fourth Reflection

Going into today, I was a little nervous. The highest grade level experience I had prior to today was third grade. I was anxious to see how the day is different for fourth graders as opposed to pre-school. I was excited to get to know the students, their interests & their feelings towards school!

·         The students come in and get to work on their morning work (unpack, pencils, planner, rainbow spelling)

o   While I agree that all are housekeeping items that need done, I’d like to look into a more meaningful morning routine, such as a time period for student driven inquiry or writer’s workshop

·         Students are sitting at tables instead of desks

o   As a supporter of collaborative environments, I love this: They had crates to store their items that were kept in the front of the room and then moved beside during the day

·         During math note taking, T was giving definitions and S asked if they could do it in their own words, T told them to write it in her words but then they could talk about it in their own

o   Maybe as an assessment piece, T could have S generate their own definition in their own words to post on way out the door and then if correct could be given back to them to use in notebook instead of T definition

·         Had a review on line, line segment, and ray by having students one a time come to board to draw

o   Could have done this in a gallery walk by groups and each group having a different color marker

o   Or, could have made a human ray/line by being given the card and finding their counterparts

·         Learned new division technique, by taking what you know, looks that the dividend as a whole number instead of the parts

·         Snack time

o   I wonder if this is school wide or county wide, have they seen a difference, what do you do for those students who do not have any – can you keep them from feeling left out

·         Science Lesson Reflection

o   I found the natural resource went very well, with some support through questioning and prompting the class was able to define natural resource, renewable, and non-renewable. We even engaged in an “spur of the moment” deep conversation on the difference between renewable and non-renewable. Groups were able to provide examples saying, if you kill an animal you cannot use it again, but another one will be born but if you mine coal, that coal will not be replaced.

o   The lesson in its entirety took the entire afternoon, I feel if time had not been an issue, it would have been beneficial to split the lesson up across two days at least. I feel groups could have used extra time to design their presentation and maybe with extra time they would have been more apt to be more creative – all groups chose posters

o   I do wonder what impact students using the text as only a reference and defining words as a class had on their understanding and retention; would have been interesting to compare the two strategies and/or stick with the class over the week to see understanding develop and unfold more

Strategies used:

1.       3, 2, 1 quiet strategies

2.       Movement during morning announcement – school wide

3.       “Read definition, tell me in your own words”

4.       Math notebooks – used to take notes & then as student reference book

Overall, I really enjoyed the day in fourth. While the students are much more independent than younger students, I find that they are still dependent on the teacher. They rely on our feedback, support, and direction. They responded so well to my role as the facilitator during their science lesson and I loved making it a student-centered learning environment. Today has changed my feelings of upper elementary, for the better.