As we visit classrooms to observe student learning, I am always amazed at the potential that I see in those desks. This month we focused on students using various strategies to solve problems. Children are amazing problem solvers. I have had many interesting conversations with students regarding their thought process when solving a particular problem. Our classrooms are the incubators of the future. How many of our students will be instrumental in solving the problems we are now facing as a global society.
How can we best prepare them? In reading and researching, the consistent answer is that students need to be first and foremost curious about their world. Always having a question in mind is the driving force behind discovery. Classrooms are now shifting from a place where teachers ask questions and students give answers to a place where student ask questions and everyone explores the question together. Maybe the question leads to more questions. Einstein famously asked endless streams of questions. "I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."