The other day my good friend, Joy Kirr, wrote a blog post called “We have to stop pretending…” in response to a blog post-challenge by Scott McLeod.  You can read the original post by Scott McLeod here.  She got me thinking when she posed the following questions:

At first I didn’t think that I would have anything to say, I think I am a fairly realistic person and so my initial reaction, was “I don’t pretend…I keep it real…” but then I thought some more and I started scribbling down my ideas on notepaper and before I knew it I had generated a long list…but here are the 5 that I think need the most attention right now:

1. We have to stop pretending that differentiation is easy.  We throw the term around like it is no big deal, but I think that it is hard work and we need to really put effort into ensuring our teaching is differentiated and then reflect on its effectiveness, make improvements and try again. It is an on-going cycle really.

2. We have to stop pretending that reflection is only for beginning teachers in a Teacher Education Program. I think that we all need to continue to reflect deeply on our teaching (in writing or some other method).  

3.  We have to stop pretending that learning only happens within the 4 walls of our classroom.  I have always encouraged my teacher candidates to think outside of the box (the classroom being a literal box) but I am not sure that I really do a great job at modelling this myself. I want to get better at finding meaningful ways to bring the learning outdoors.

4.  We have to stop pretending that students that misbehave are doing so on purpose. I don’t think that any child wants to misbehave.  Every student has a different story when they walk into our classroom. We need to find ways to bring them in closer and help them learn about how they learn best. 

5.  We have to stop pretending that the content is so important.  Sure we need to know stuff…but instead of using learning methods and thinking strategies to get to the content, how about using content to learn the learning methods and thinking strategies?  Good news–I feel like we are starting to move in that direction as begin to talk more about the core competencies and things like Genius Hour.

Thank you Joy for encouraging me to think about this! 

Do you have something to add to this list?  I look forward to reading the comments! Or you can post your thoughts on twitter using the hashtag: #makeschooldifferent