It seems to me that the place for a teacher to ask for help on a WCYDWT that is on their own blog. Did it work for you on the orange crate?

Dan:See, you’ve been around for years, though, asking questions, pushing back, trying to figure stuff out in a way that makes sense to you. If the online moment of clarity requires years, then it isn’t much use to me when the face-to-face moment of clarity in Kannapolis took only a few hours.

My first 10 years of teaching, I was buried in head coaching responsibilities, teaching without a planning period and starting a family. (5 years ago I questioned whether or not I was going to continue teaching) Most of the questioning and pushback I did had to do with my coaching and not my classroom. The me that you know is about 3 years old. It hasn’t taken years to change my paradigm. Now maybe my experience has given me the confidence to question in ways new teachers won’t; I don’t know.

If you’re looking to help people buy into WCYDWT, there has to be a way for individual teachers to get feedback on their own creations–doubles, triples and homeruns –especially if the problem isn’t fully formed. Your blog isn’t the place for that nor is mine. Maybe today’s session will help. Wish I could’ve made it.

I am glad you were here Dan. You sessions were valuable in more ways than just the obvious. They continue to provide thoughtful discussion on how we improve our math instruction.

Jackie, I just love your blog…nice work…I want to add a short “description” of what is happening at KMS! The ONLY position added to help with our (On time, Real time, PD response) was Cara’s. The others were just changes in how we thought about and used the positions…(they are listed with NCLB as Media Coordinator and Technology Facilitator). Cara’s Literacy (Instructional Coach) position is a regular teacher position that we converted so we could do what we all talk about and really support instruction. They are all 3 supported by the admin…and they are in no way in a supervisory role.

Since becoming a principal and even before, my philosophy has always been to try to build internal capacity. To empower teachers to teach other teachers and not go to sit and gets and return with little more than what you left with. In our regularly SCHEDULED collaborative planning sessions the conversation and sharing is nothing like anything we have had before. They are valued by all stakeholders. As hard as it is to believe, this is not a one time PD and we’ll leave it at that. Dan has influenced our culture! But sustaining our culture is up to all of us at KMS and my role is to help insure buy in….by VALUING not necessarily Evaluating what is done!

Chip (Principal)

David: I think the answer is absolutely, yes! I’ve never met you but the way I look at presenting problems to my students has drastically changed. My only problem early on was that I saw WCYDWT as only being those homerun type problems that required skills (Photoshop, AfterEffects, etc) that I don’t have. You’ve cleared that up, though.

See, you’ve been around for years, though, asking questions, pushing back, trying to figure stuff out in a way that makes sense to you. If the online moment of clarity requires years, then it isn’t much use to me when the face-to-face moment of clarity in Kannapolis took only a few hours.

It’s clear to me that I need to revamp the online delivery of WCYDWT – as a teacher development prompt, certainly, if not also as a student learning prompt. Can’t quite figure out how, though.

I think the answer is absolutely, yes! I’ve never met you but the way I look at presenting problems to my students has drastically changed. My only problem early on was that I saw WCYDWT as only being those homerun type problems that required skills (Photoshop, AfterEffects, etc) that I don’t have. You’ve cleared that up, though.

You mentioned a blog or wiki and I can see the benefit of having some sort of collaborative space where WCYDWT problems can be posted and organized by course and concept/skill. Specific skills may only lend themselves to those problems you’d call a double or triple with the overarching topics lending themselves to the full blown homerun. I think seeing what others come up with for the everyday take-a-textbook-problem-and-make-it-better type problems may inspire more triples and homeruns while providing classroom-ready prompts that can be used tomorow.

I’d like to hear more about your role Cara. Is instructional coach a full-time position? Do you work mainly with new teachers? All teachers? Only those who request your assistance? In my experience, the only “instructional coaching” many teachers get is the yearly evaluation from an administrator. I know that I personally would be thrilled to have more feedback and suggestions.

Yes Cara, Debby, and I will be here to assist them with anything that they need. I look forward to your posts and I am sure that you will be there for us as well.