This is one snippet of the twenty seven definitions that you can find.   Let's focus on work as repeated, machine-like, and producing something part of a larger picture.  Yes, we go to work, we assign work, we work towards our goals.  If we connect our definition to the work we do in the classroom, we could see due dates, essays and projects that are crammed in before the finish line...or the quarters end.

If teachers start to reflect on why work is valuable, we notice that the process by which we achieve our goals is paramount.  This process is actually our learning.  What learning are we engaged in?  How does it look for each unique person?  What will this learning lead to?  Therefore, we cannot say that it is a repeated process, or laborious, or a piece of a larger puzzle.  Instead, learning leads to creating new vision that changes and alters our path, or mission.  

If we invigorate teachers and students to actually learn, they will not be completing repeated fact pages, or recreate an artifact that already exists.  We will be focused to create new opportunities and thoughts to deepen our understanding about the traditional 'work' that has been regurgitated for years.

What are you learning about?  What are you focusing on today?  
How can we strengthen these characteristics? 

Let's not work a day in our lives.  Let's learn.

This research is part of the umbrella of Project Zero.  PZ and my philosophy as a teacher are extremely interconnected.  Please click the links to the resources from the professionals themselves.  I am merely putting my interpretation to practice as I seek for more learning opportunities to continue my passion for 'thinking to learn and learning to think'.

Learning about PZ, specifically MTV has been parallel to my conflict with the word, 'work'.   Every day students engage in Thinking Routines in my classroom, but then at the end of a unit there is a multiple choice test.  WHAT?!  No wonder why I am flustered with their results.. 

Shift the mindset.  

If you can Google a test question, then do it.  Our assessments need to reflect what we are teaching.  Each thinking routine focuses on various types of thinking processes.  If I am teaching about The Boston Tea Party through analyzing a primary source, then I should include analyzing into the assessment component.  Each day of 'thinking to learn' is used as anecdotes of the process of learning.  

What about the test?  The standards?  The pacing guide?!

If students learn to think, content will be easier to access no matter the situation.  They need to use their resources to figure it out. Our main goal is how will we assess individual growth? 

Some brief ideas;

This way, teachers can assess what kinds of thinking students are gravitating towards (analyzing, organizing, creating, etc).  Therefore strengthening the ability to apply this same type of thinking anywhere in life.  The next 'unit' could focus on providing opportunities for other types of learning. 

I am realizing I can go on for days about examples of Visible Thinking because of how it structures my entire lesson plan throughout my day.  It is easy to be insecure at first about the restrictions of public school assessment.  But, if you have intentionally taught your students to think in order to learn about content and then learn about what they are thinking about, we are doing them a much greater service for their future connections in life.  

As long as we teach our students how to read (and understand what they read), the content can be found. 

Which leads me to my next soap box.... literacy.