From the study guide:
What in your life and work affirms the need for simplicity - the need to focus on only one thing or very few things at a time? What in your experience affirms the need to focuss on certain fundamental priorities before pursuing other interesting, but less worthy, pursuits?
Hi everyone! FYI: You need to sign in to Google (up at the top of page) in order to join. Your D-11 email creates the account. Wow! This can be fun!
ReplyDeleteHey! It actually worked!
ReplyDeleteSuccess! I am new to blogging, so thanks, Anne!
ReplyDeleteTest (because I typed a long post last night and it didn't work.) Hopefully it will this time.
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ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the need to simplify. Personally, I work hard to keep things simple. As many of you know, my health is compromised already because of a few chronic illnesses I deal with. When I let "life get the best of me" my health suffers. I have to try to get adequate sleep, exercise, eat right and manage stress or I feel really rotten.
The same can be said for everyone, I think. When we try to do too much, thing suffer. Something is always compromised when there is too much going on. Less is truly more. My frustration with reading this book so far, however, is that I think that as educators, we already know this. The problem it seems is that we are constantly bombarded with more to do. In addition, there are many things that compromise our ability to keep it simple. For example, the emphasis on less would be so great, but it doesn't take in to account the children who come to us with brokenness in their lives. There are many distractions that have to be addressed besides the need to have less initiatives, etc.
As I have moved back into the role of a School Counselor, I am constantly reminded of all the hardships that are placed on our students, their families, and thus the school ... I wish I could figure out how to simplify this.
I whole heartedly believe what I've read thus far and I found it quite interesting (page 44) that "the highest-achieving countries teach fewer than half of the standards we teach."
So, I look forward to reading and learning how in fact we can simplify despite all the demands and constraints that are daily placed upon us.
just testing
ReplyDeleteHow nice it would be to keep things simple in this day and age; especially in this profession when there are so many hoops we are asked to jump through. I like the idea that we must master one concept before moving on as it makes complete sense. I cannot wait until I reach the point in the book where Schmoker gets to how we can achieve this simplicity in our teaching.
ReplyDeleteIn retrospect, I have found myself at home and at work breaking things down into simpler parts: explaining fractions beginning at the most basic level and going through closets and purging what we have not used in months. More means clutter and clutter means stress in my life - something none of us wants. I am willing to try new/old things if it means I'm less stressed!
I always try to keep my life simple and am happier when I am successful at doing so. I get really frustrated with myself when I start multi-tasking and then it either takes longer than if I had just completed each task individually or I have to re-do something because I made a mistake.
ReplyDeleteI am also really interested in reading about his suggestions for making education simpler. This is especially true considering the amount of "innovations, ideas, and best practices" that seem to be coming at us.
I'm looking forward to some discussions on simplification in education. As I look at the piles of things I haven't gotten to yet today, I am struck by the need I have in my own life to simplify. I also need to model that for my students, because I think I'm putting so much of my expectations on them instead of making things simpler yet more focused.
ReplyDeleteI'm struggling a little bit with understanding the difference between simplicity and multitasking. I have always thought that if you can't multitask, you shouldn't be a teacher. We are constantly thinking about and doing multiple things at once and trying to juggle everything. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, so I hate when I let something fall through the cracks. In teaching there are a lot of demands and deadlines, and I would love to know how to meet them while maintaining simplicity. Is it possible to multitask while keeping things simple?
ReplyDeleteI really liked the quote on page 17 that says "...if you do nothing else as a leader, be clear." That is such a powerful statement. As the leader of my classroom, it is something that I need to work on. I tend to work quickly and busily, and I need to slow down and be clear when it comes to learning targets, objectives, and anything else that I fully want my students to understand.
I am also curious to see how we can simplify teaching with all of the standards we are expected to meet. There is so much to do and so little time to accomplish it all. As a new teacher at times I feel overwhelmed by all that we need to teach in one year.
ReplyDeleteIn my spare time I enjoy rock climbing and I think I enjoy it because of the simplicity. You can only take one move at a time and you cannot move forward (or upward) too fast. In my life I tend to, at times, take too many steps at once when slowing down and taking one step at a time would be much more efficient.
Emily, I agree with you that a good teacher should be a good mult-tasker. Although we can certainly dedicate some of our lessons to skills instruction, there's also a place for making things interdisciplinary. When I've put together a unit of instruction that is both differentiated and interdisciplinary, I feel like things are being done in a real-world way -- and I find that professionally satisfying.
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