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- Funny to hear this.
- That's part of the great thing about education.
We do build on each other's ideas.
We absolutely stand on each other's shoulders
with respect to the things that we try,
but these action research projects are leading
to new thinking,
things that we, approaches, interventions,
ways of approaching children, ways of engaging children
in conversation that we've really never thought of before,
and that's fresh and original and so unusual in this field,
so that may be one of the most exciting things to me
about it is that we really are uncovering,
really peeling back layers and layers
to see new, fresh, and completely original ideas.
- Three plus five equals and then they put the answer after.
- They push each other.
They ask each other provocative questions.
They push back on plans and data
that they think may not be up to a particular standard.
They are thought partners in the truest sense of the word,
and they're people from whom they can take feedback.
They're comfortable with that feedback,
even when it's provocative,
even when it's pushing on them a little bit,
and I don't think educators have enough exposure
to people who'll go beyond saying hey,
how you doing in the hall,
and oh, great project you did last week,
to really saying hey, let's parse that out a little bit.
Let's really scrutinize kids' work,
and let's really see what changes we can make
in instruction that are going to have
a real impact on learning.
- I guess I would call them formative assessments.
- Ultimately our goal is not to, you know,
to have 47 cohorts of fellows,
but rather to have one cohort of fellows
that inspires thousands and thousands of teachers
through their writing on blogs,
through their presentations at conferences,
through their meetings,
so that other teachers all over the world
will say I can do that.
I can identify a problem with practice,
develop a question that will really allow me
to examine that problem in a systematic way,
and really understand and improve my instruction,
and therefore students' learning.
So our hope is that when people see,
hey, this is very doable, even with the workload
that so many teachers, you know, are struggling under,
this is really doable,
and it's intellectually stimulating, it's fascinating.
We hope that people will begin to take on
action research projects, really on their own.
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