There Are Moments When I'm Teaching That I Think, "Well, This Is Working."

As much as possible, I try to give my undergraduates and graduate students the opportunity to kick off a class with their own writing prompt or mini-lesson. It always cracks me up when they do this and they see that 100% of the class is on task and doing what is expected. I then whisper to them, "This is what you never see as a student. When a task is given and everyone is on target, you never see the teacher looking for what they should be doing."

I then mentor them that this is the time to take attendance or to write items on the board. This is a place to gather materials for next steps.

Of course, I took this today when I had students doing a sentence combination activity where they had to put kernel sentences together in more complicated ways.

It gets so quiet and I think to myself, "Hmmm. What should I be doing now?"

Logically, I snapped a photo to document the point I wanted to make with them about assignments to capture everyone's attention and where you can see the minds of students churning and working. It doesn't happen all the time, but the more one teaches and gets a grip on strategies, the more quiet, self-motivated, and purposeful students become during class.

I guess this is what learning looks and it always makes me happy when I see it.

Now, however, I'm off to work with 120 middle schools. We shall see if I have similar luck.