Since last spring, I’ve had the opportunity to ask well over 1000 educators what their vision is for the graduate they hope to produce. I’ve asked them what their vision is of the professional they hope to become as well.
The answers I’ve received have been varied of course, but these are some of the things I’ve heard over and over and over again:
We want our students to be inquisitive about the world and about themselves.
We want them to persevere.
We want them to know what matters to them, what brings them happiness, and what they are good at. We want them to use this knowledge to serve others in school and in their careers.
We want them to be kind.
We want them to know how to connect with others and learn from them. We want them to be comfortable learning and working and serving others globally.
We want them to be courageous.
Transforming vision into reality requires an action plan. We have to be clear about what the indicators for these standards look like too. We may not call them standards or indicators, but that’s what really what they are. We have to be clear about where we hope to go and what it will look like when we arrive. This enables powerful planning. It helps us carve a path with greater intention.
So if a student is inquisitive about the world, what does that look like? What will they know and be able to do as people who are inquisitive about the world and themselves? What learning opportunities would we need to provide to students? Which ones would they need to create for themselves? What would that look like?
How do teachers design curricula, instruction, and assessments that enable learners to accomplish these things while progressing toward the CCLS, and how do we know when that’s happening?
These understandings have provided me a great deal of perspective as I’ve begun the required work of unit/module/lesson design inside of schools this fall. More on that tomorrow…..
