Exploring the Questions for Understanding

Questions Questions Questions... and even the answers create more Questions... In an age where students have answers in the palm of their hand via a Google search it's easy to think the Questions will end, BUT they don't... they multiply. The experiment with the egg through direct observation, while cool it really is just a platform to launch more questions than answers, questions that guide learners into discovery. This phenomena seemingly exists all around us all the time, What is it? What does it do? How does it do it? Start  a prior experience brain search and then move to Google search.... but what question do you type in the box? Which results lead to the best possible answers? Because even when you access to answers you need questions.

How can I do my job if I have No supplies to do it? I'm mean how can I teach without my teacher's edition??? (Sarcasm... heavy Sarcasm!!!) I'm probably not the best person to answer this type of question because of my approach to the possibilities of teaching because I come with nearly 35 years of working in many other different fields. As a US Navy "Seabee" our mottoes were (are)  "Can Do" and "We've done so much with so little, we Can Do the impossible forever with Nothing," which is to say that, in many cases as a teacher you need to improvise and be flexible. The idea that you can be taught how to manage a classroom seems quite ridiculous when you actually say it aloud... Ask yourself this question as you reflect on pre-service student teaching... Who would have taught the classroom management class?   What would have been the assessment tools used by the professor to assess your progress? Classroom management comes from managing, the very different dynamics that will exist in every classroom, and experience, not a class. Teaching is the same approach and rarely does good teaching only come from the teacher's edition.

The connected trappings of a spider web always leads me to an idea that I heard in an undergrad class... "remind your students that everything they learn and experience is something they may or will need in another class... so put that learning in your backpack and take it to every class with you." The common thread between the egg experiment and spider is the learning that is gained through direct observation... in one case a lesson plan... the other a teachable moment... but both rely heavily on the observation experienced by the learner... and that is influenced by many different variables. When learning sparks curiosity and excitement it is infectious for all and learning goes well beyond a CSO.

I sure do Not want to seem like an overachiever, but I need to add an additional graphic representation of this assignment... because all of these readings remind educators that the real goal is to create lifelong learners capable of  doing amazing things and test scores or scripted lessons are not what a make student successful...