Friday, December 7, 2012

Time

Time, it's one of the very important 8 Cultural Forces that shape our classrooms.  As a cultural force, it is directed toward thinking by "allocating time for thinking by providing time for exploring topics more in depth as well as time to formulate thoughtful responses".  We are often torn between spending the extra time to explore topics/ideas more deeply and moving on so that the curriculum is "covered".  That is why I was so impressed by the reflections shared around the student artifacts that were presented at our meeting this week.  More than once I heard mentioned that the routine took time but the interactions among students were rich and thoughtful.  Lauren said it best, "I felt this was more valuable than anything else I could have done that day".  Congratulations to all of you for taking on the work of CoT and understanding how powerful the routines can be!  This initiative truly matches our district mission to "Educate students to be their best in and for the world".

1 comment:

  1. I agree! I was so impressed with the conversation we had during our last CoT meeting. Time is a strong force throughout our day and I think we're experiencing a shift in our own thinking about this cultural force. We're leveraging it to *support* thinking and not as an obstacle that *prevents* thinking.

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