Planning for Learning

            Isn't that a true statement?  We as teachers, want our students to be able to think through problems, think for themselves, and think about what is yet to come!  We want them to become creators, the next Steve Jobs.  And we want them to love what they are doing, their neighbor and life itself!  
             I recently read chapter 9 called "Planning for Learning"  from the book Understanding by Design.   It was a chapter about what the learning activities need to be to help our students to understand the concepts that we are teaching.  The activities need to be both engaging and effective, interesting and relevant.  When considering what I am doing to help make my activities become both engaging and effective, I realized that I do a lot of what the book suggested: by stating clear goals, hooking my students by making the topic interesting, equipping them with necessary experiences and tools.   I love the ideas that the book gave on ways to hook our learners: by immersing them in puzzles, challenging them to solve a real-world problem and engaging them in a role play to explore relevant issues from different perspectives.  Another idea is starting with a mystery that they need to solve! 
      I need to concentrate on improving the reflection piece.  By giving them time to reflect on what they are learning and rethink through their work.  So much of my time is spent getting to that end product that I don't allow time for them to reflect on the process or even the work that was done.  Also having them reflect on their work, self assess.  This made me think of how I assess my work each day.  How a lesson went.  How I made a connection with a student.  How I help a student get to the "Ahhh moment!"  (I love those moments.)  So why don't I have my students do that? (My Ahhh moment!) 
       Also the chapter states that I should become the facilitator or coach instead of the teacher.  If any fellow learners are reading this, I would love to hear how you are the facilitator instead of the teacher in your classroom?  This idea is something that I just can't wrap my finger around!  
        I want to leave my reflection of this chapter with these two questions that stood out for me to help me remember what I need to consider when making my activities: 
         1.  What do learners need, given the desired results?
         2.  What is the best use of time spent in and out of the                            classroom, given the performance goals?   
*Always keeping in mind what the desired results and performance goals are!