Students will be able to support claims with text evidence.

I can support claims with text evidence.

Today, we will experience supporting claims with text evidence.

Today, I will support your experience of supporting claims with text evidence by…

From “SWBAT” to “I Can” to “We will experience,” and now to “I will support your experience…by…,” I have tried to target learning, but really with this latest iteration, I have begun targeting teaching.

In yesterday’s post Source of Commitment, I shared my developing idea for using “Teaching Targets” next year. And though it is, I suppose, somewhat rooted in the notion of learning targets, it is mostly focused on the teaching. Wait. Shouldn’t the focus be on the learning, on the learner? Yes, of course. And my hope is that by the time I am done constructing this concept (which is beyond the capacity of this post), you will see that it is, indeed, focused on the learning, and the learner.

To begin, let’s go back to where I began, to where I always begin “better.”

“How can I create better learning experiences for my kids?”

Create. This is not a whimsical word. It is a carefully chosen word. I believe we must be creators, innovators. We stand at an important place in the learning experience. We are a conduit through which the experience begins and continues. We are a filter that makes fit all that we bring into our rooms. It has to fit us. It has to fit our kids. I call it the “fit filter.” If things don’t fit, they don’t work. So we make them fit. We create and innovate. We must. Create is a careful word.

Better. This too is a chosen word. In the context of Project 180, it is the chosen word. And though I have described and discussed “better” many times over the course of the Project, I think I discovered an important iteration of the idea in a tweet yesterday morning.

And there, I think, it is. A purer place. That is what I seek. I could simply capitulate by writing “I-can” statements on my board (that’s what admin looks for), but that’s not enough. There’s more to it, I believe. I believe, sincerely, there is a purer place to be found. So, am l seeking Shangri-la? Yes, maybe I am.

Learning Experience. For me, the key word here is experience. That’s not blasphemous. Learning already holds a sacred place. That should go without saying, so I won’t say it. As evidenced in the “targets” above, my journey has led me to believe that I simply present and support experiences along my kids’ learning journeys. Our paths met, and we decided to venture forth together over the next 180 days. That is the essence of our time together. It’s a shared experience. We learn in our experience. So, I daily call it, literally, in my Google Classroom post, “Learning Experience.” Learning is experience.

Kids. The humans in the room. They come to me in myriad ways. No learner the same. No learning the same. And that defines my teaching. Teaching is supporting. So I focus on my supporting. What else would I focus on?

And that’s the frame–for everything. And it is certainly the frame for this latest creation, “Teaching Targets.”

Today, I will support your experience with (insert standard) by…”

Tomorrow I will continue by sharing how I imagine using it. Thank you for your patience as I walk myself through this.

Happy Thursday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.