“New sometimes, isn’t!”

Visiting a classroom – a kindergarten classroom this week I was simply in awe of a master educator as she patiently, gracefully, and with much purpose facilitated a powerful lesson in mathematics.

If you could have seen the students – engaged, motivated, excited, and curious – The students on cue gave thumbs up when in agreement with a response and thumbs down when a response was incorrect.  The gifted, veteran teacher navigated each student through new learning, discovery, as well as validation and reinforcement of previous learning.  The ultimate “tell” of this master teacher was when she, without even hesitating, turned her back to the students.  These were kindergartners.  The outcome?  Without skipping a beat the students remained focused and engaged in the learning activity.  Pretty impressive!

Later that morning, the principal and eventually the teacher and me spontaneously engaged in a conversation about the lesson.  What I was struck by was the “comprehensiveness” of the lesson.  The lesson contained differentiation, remediation, enrichment, higher order, critical thinking, association, deduction, induction and imagination to name just a few of the skill and knowledge sets students utilized.

The teacher commented “this used to take all year to accomplish what these students experienced in 15 minutes”. 

Talk about expectations, high expectations. 

I commented to the principal that my concerns about whether or not our staff can or will adjust to new standards lessons every day.  What I observed was a very conscientious educator doing what we know conscientious educators do, adjust, adapt, and apply. 

In part what has been lost with all the hype of new standards is that what is new sometimes isn’t. 

The veteran teacher I observed is doing what she learned so many years ago – adjust, adapt, and apply. 

Yes, the new standards are fewer and are designed to be more integrated, deeper, and dependent upon prior learning embedding the application of technology as well as other identified 21^st century skills.  The ability to adjust, adapt, and apply reveal the skills, knowledge and experience of making sense, making connections, making learning relevant and making learning fun. 

This is what I witnessed. 

This is what we need. 

Moreover, this is what our learners – each learner needs to be successful.

Adjust, adapt and apply requires courage, confidence and competence.  It also requires collaboration, feedback and a sense of humility. 

Conscientious educators know that the “best laid plans of mice and men” don’t always work the way they were designed. 

Every day our educators test hypotheses regarding teaching and learning.  They employ “best” or “effective” practice with the best hopes, intentions and design for each learner acquiring and demonstrating their learning to the highest standard.  When the results fall short of expected and desired outcomes, conscientious educators adjust, adapt, and apply changes, modifications to instruction.

And so it is with the new standards – fidelity of implementation if contingent upon our ability to adjust, adapt and apply.

As stated, the new standards are different.  Yet, different should not, must not be construed as something new.  In fact, many of our educators were trained in a different era of teacher preparation – an era that prepared them to adjust, adapt and apply with grace, ease, and effect. 

Our effort to build capacity through our human capital development initiative is in part focused on building in staff the ability to adjust, adapt, and apply not only instruction but the alignment of standards, curriculum, and instructional resources with formative and summative assessment data to achieve the results we desire and expect.

We must embrace the new standards.  We need not be intimidated or led to believe that we cannot successfully teach each learner to these standards. 

We can and we will if we adjust, adapt, and apply what we already know or can easily learn about effective instruction – even if the effective instructional practice isn’t new.