Thread by @triciaebarvia

This. Looking back to my early teaching life, my biggest concerns as a T were so *small* —

I spent too much time focusing on management when I should have focused on relationships with kids. On seeing, really *seeing* them. 1/

https://twitter.com/mrsjjee/status/1025916109436928000

Too much time focusing on content when I should have focused on character.

Too much time focusing on having answers rather than seeking the right questions.

Too much time focusing on “rules” versus the rights of my students to read, to write, and to speak authentically. 2/

When we put too much focus on the small things (like I did)—like quizzing kids on discrete pieces of information, answering every study guide questions, or taking points off for a comma splice—our teaching becomes small.

Worse, Ss learning becomes small, too. 3/

Education—especially public education—is perhaps the biggest and most important endeavor we take on as a society, as collective human beings.

We can’t afford to focus on the small things. 4/

There are so many bigger, pressing, urgent issues we face today.

How are we helping Ss think through issues of racism, sexism, and bigotry?

How are we helping Ss understand and grapple with justice and freedom—and the absence of these for too many people in society today? 5/

How do we help Ss think about injustice beyond what’s happened in “the past”—whether through the textbooks or the novels we assign—but instead see injustice as a clear and present danger? #DisruptTexts 6/

My biggest shifts in my teaching occurred when I stopped spending so much time and energy on the small things that were really more about compliance than engagement.

Teaching is exhausting, but if it’s the small things that I focus on, it becomes demoralizing too. 7/

The big issues we face as a society are overwhelming, but at least putting our energies there keeps our focus on what’s really important.

I always come back to this question posed in Making Thinking Visible. 8/

How much of what we’re doing in school is just about school (the small things) versus the real world (the big things)? Are we preparing kids to be good at school or for changing the world?

I want to think bigger. And do better. 9/