Productive Struggle
I went to a professional development session recently about productive struggles within a classroom. How allowing my students to falter a bit and figure out how to gain their “footing” back is more beneficial than handing off the answers. This particular session was given to all of us elective teachers. So this former math teacher is trying to tell a bunch of fine art teachers and coaches about how to use the discipline of struggling as a way to strengthen and deepen a student’s knowledge. Most of us chuckled and made comments to our comrades under our breath because we live in that model every single day. Watching our students waver, and pick themselves back up. Only stepping in when absolutely necessary. Tonight I was meal prepping for the week and it was all going wrong. I was trying to boil lasagne noodles that aren’t supposed to be boiled so the water was attacking my stove, I had a fight with the oil in the pan I was cooking my sauce in that sprayed stuff everywhere… n...