On Thursday, November 30, 20017 Jeff Anderson and Whitney LaRocca joined #G2Great and began a much needed conversation about how to integrate powerful instruction for the conventions of language. This is a topic of great importance to teachers everywhere, as we are keenly aware that we need to find ways to make grammar instruction meaningful and relevant to students. When students understand grammar as a craft move they will unlock greater meaning and skill as readers and writers.
As POWERFUL Readers…
Jeff and Whitney inspired the #G2Great PLN to dive deep into the depths of language as they suggest that we, ”…joyfully bathe students in the language of books.” As teachers immerse students in great texts we are granting them access to sophisticated, language that is both beautiful and precise. When students learn how to read these texts with an author’s eye they are lifting their comprehension to new levels of understanding. They soon learn that reading and writing are reciprocal and that one strengthens the other:
As POWERFUL Writers…
Jeff and Whitney ask us to consider moving writing instruction away rule following to a more personal and organic endeavor. One that strives to refocus students on a discovery of their own writing process. They suggest that we can teach students to borrow author’s craft moves from favorite texts to raise the bar for their original writing. We should provide many opportunities for guided practice – “create, notice, and repeat” These ideas resonated in a big way with the #G2Great PLN:
Thank you, Jeff and Whitney your book, Patterns of Power Inviting Young Writers Into the Conventions of Language Grades 1 – 5 is the kind of book that pushes teachers to move from good to great classroom instruction. You remind us to think about how to connect students’ reading and writing lives in purposeful meaningful ways to strengthen their understanding of both.
On October 19, 2017, Patty Vitale-Reilly joined #G2Great for an in-depth discussion about learning and ways teachers can work to inspire all students to be successful. As I look back over the chat, I realize there are five Power Moves that any teacher can put in place in the classroom to help students access their learning process.
Power Move #1 Creating Culture
Creating a culture of student ownership begins when we encourage a sense of belonging. There is so much we can do to influence our students’ identities. When we take the time to really know and celebrate who our students are we are creating culture. When we create classrooms where students are allowed to make choices and be part of a community we are extending an invitation to learn:
Power Move #2 Shifting Structures
Offering a variety of predicatble structures breathes life into student centered learning. As students are able to negotiate various ways to learn they will be more empowered. When we model structures like workshop, guided writing, or initiate fishbowls we are shifting towards greater independence because they will know what to expect:
Power Move #3 Collaborative Classrooms
When we plan for collaboration we are planning for student access to learning. Collaboration is another way to activate the gradual release of responsiblity. As we plan for students to work in partnerships, using students as mentors, or center work we are leveraging collaborative work to foster greater independence:
Power Move #4 Vital Visuals
When it comes to being strategic about using anchor charts or other visual tools our goal should be to faciliate greater student agency. Our classrooms should be built on meaning making. Students who can use charts strategicly are in control of their learning process:
Power Move #5. Purposeful Practices
Having a repetior of instructional moves helps us our teaching be more intentional. When we elect to pre-teach we are giving some students a head start to augment their learning process.
Thank you for joining #G2Great Patty, your work reminds me to reflect on my practice and as always be thinking about how I can continue to grow
As I began reflecting on this post, my personal fascination with what motivates authors to write a book was at the forefront of my mind. When I read Readers Front & Center, my curiosity was instantly piqued to know what inspired Dorothy. I didn’t have to wait long since her motivational muse appeared in her dedication, “For Nora, wherever you are” and first paragraph of her acknowledgement where she explains the book ‘seed’:
“This book began many years ago with a child–Nora–and I first want to thank her and the other students on the New York City Public Schools who show up (usually) and do what they’re told (usually). We owe each of you so much more, and my deepest hope is that somewhere within the cracks of the system you’ll find a few exhilarating moments, as I have in my teaching–as I did in my conversations with Nora–and that those moments will sustain you and help you create more exhilarating moments.” (vii)
As I read on, I found myself reading and rereading pages where Nora reappeared as I imagined myself in the conferring seat beside them. I am struck by the idea that we can only put readers front & center if we intentionally seek those ‘exhilarating moments’ and bring them to life in spite of the system cracks. Motivated by my desire to capture this idea in writing, I began perusing her words in a glorious hour of conferring with Dorothy #G2Great twitter style.
Early in the chat, Dorothy instilled a sense of urgency for this work:
Dorothy’s challenge asks us to sharpen our vision for what is possible with our students – the very possible she so eloquently describes in page after page in her book. I love the dual purpose of this challenge in that we cannot possibly make this shift for our students unless we are willing make this shift for ourselves in the form of professional responsibility to students by virtue of our day-to-day instructional actions. This dual shift allows us to create professional stepping stones that will alter the very way we approach instruction – and thus change the trajectory of success for us both.
And so in honor of an enthusiastic exploration to ponder how we can make this shift, I’d like to share five ‘exhilarating moments’ that will keep all of the Nora’s of the world front & center as we work relentlessly to support our shared journey side-by-side with students as they work with complex texts.
Exhilarating Moment #1: Begin with the Reader
Dorothy reminds us to keep our students at the center of all we do as we celebrate their identity as a reader first and foremost. I have long been concerned that many districts make the questionable decision to initiate formal assessments at the beginning of the year. I can’t help but wonder why we would want numerical assessments in our hands before we know the child behind the number. In order to keep children at the center of all we do, we must begin by exploring who our students are as readers before we allow those assessments to cloud our view of their emerging identity.
Exhilarating Moment #2: Be Present in Reader Moments
In Dorothy’s book she asks us to “notice smarter,” a point highlighted in her reminder to become expert kidwatchers. These precious opportunities afford us the time to be quietly present in student learning moments so that we can notice what they do as they actively engage in literacy work. Those quiet moments allow us to name what we see and hear so that we can make our noticings public within literacy conversations with children in order to make the thinking work they do in the course of learning visible.
Exhilarating Moment #3: Engage in Research Conversations
Dorothy’s intentional use of the word ‘research conferences reminds us that within these rich literacy conversations reside the data that will drive our instructional efforts. One of the most powerful aspects of conferring is that we are able to make in-the-moment decisions as we listen intently to what our students do or struggle to do. Dorothy celebrates the potential of not knowing as she recognizes that the best instructional agenda is often the agenda that only the child engaged in literacy work can share with us. In other words, they are making us privy to our next step moves in the heat of those literacy conversations.
Exhilarating Moment #4: Celebrate the Thinking (vs. Doing)
One of the myriad of problem with lesson plans and scripts is that they focus on the text by making preconceived instructional decisions for teacher without the benefit of knowing the students in front of us. This contradicts the idea that the text is only the vehicle but it is the child and the thinking they engage in during the experience that demands our attention. This priority mismatch distinguishes instruction as a process of doing vs. instruction as a thoughtful student-centered process that begins with the reader. This means that we are less interested in what they do or struggle to do than we are with the thinking that occurs within those doing moments. A script blinds to here and now thinking moments and can even thwart our view of them.
Exhilarating Moment #5: Make Room to Meander to Meaning
As adult readers, we know that there are many pathways to understanding and that we choose those pathways as we engage in reading work. If we acknowledge that this is the central role of reading, then we need to support our students in assuming that role as they do the heavy lifting beside us. By refuting the traditional view that we are looking for the right answer, we can be open to the flexible thinking that invites unexpected responses – thinking that can enrich the experience from both sides. When we create a positive and supportive experience for this thinking and allow students to engage in the messy process of problem solving beside us, we then begin to relinquish control of the very process that we engage in during reading. And within this process grounded in trust, our students begin to grow as readers.
I preceded my five points with Dorothy’s words of wisdom, so I’d also like to close with her final words of wisdom. Together, those opening and closing words form an invisible thread that hold my exhilarating moments together:
In order to celebrate who our students are as readers we must trust the books that they are choosing to use alongside us. I can’t think of a better way to bring their reader identity to life than the books that reflect their reading lives in the context of authentic day-to-day engagement as we hold both in high esteem.
As I close this post, I find my thoughts inextricably drawn back to Nora and the potential impact that one conversation can have on our thinking and the thinking of students. As I read Dorothy’s conversations with students, I found myself leaning in as if I were part of each exchange. Then I opened to Dorothy’s closing chapter and soaked in her oh so wise words:
“But I believe if we do listen, our voices will be more authentic and insightful. This book was born out of such a pause. I pulled a chair next to first one student and then another and simply listened as they read. I didn’t talk, though the teacher was watching me, and the students themselves seemed to expect me to fill those moments with what I knew or thought I knew. I had to give myself permission to pay attention.” (p. 144)
September 14, 2017, was a very special #G2Great. We celebrated our friend, Rich Czyz’s new book The Four O’Clock Faculty A Rouge Guide to Revolutionizing Professional Development. Rich wrote this book to help us to expand our thinking about what professional learning might be. The #G2Great PLN understands that professional learning has been forever changed. They embrace and look for new opportunities to learn.
As I reflect on this chat I am struck by four takeaways that can shape what professional learning might be. These learning opportunities are always there for us when we know what to look for…
Learning Opportunity 1: Always Say YES
We can always say yes to learning. It begins when we define and envision what our professional learning ought to be. Once we know what we need, there are ways to incorporate 21st Century technology to our learning lives.There are virtually limitless resources available to us, and makes our learning lives relatable to our students. We can take what might be a negative learning experience and make it purposeful. Our learning is what we make of it:
Learning Opportunity 2: Set Meaningful GOALS
Learning is synoomous with growth. Intellectual growth does not just happen to us, it requires our care and attention. Each day we can challenge ourselves to learn more than yesterday. We can decide to engage the learning process with an open optimistic hearts. In the end there is no finish line for learning. Our teaching degrees grant us admistion but our training goes on throughout our lives:
Learning Opportunity 3: Create Community
We are smarter together than we are by ourselves. The more connections we make with each other the greater the learning reward. When we learn collectively we get the benefit of each other’s perspective. So read, talk, write, and create community:
Learning Opportunity 4: More is MORE:
Choice is an essential part to learning. We can find ways to open up pathways for teachers to get what they need. Personal responsiblity, open communication, and becoming personally vested in the learning lives of ourselves and our colleagues is how our profession will continue to evolve:
Thank you Rich, we appreciate the innovative conversation that your work inspired. I think the best way to close out this post is with your remarkable words of wisdom:
The tweet from Julie and Missy below captures the idea that it takes a belief or a single thought to lead to an action. Being aware of our own beliefs and developing an awareness of whether that belief will lead to an action or not is critical in making a change. We need to be honest and aware of our beliefs to ensure that they are going to make a positive impact and lead to change that will support students in our care.
FLEXIBILITY
The challenges that come with change require us to be flexible and willing to understand our perspectives as well as the perspectives of others. As leaders, as educators there are so many aspects of our work that are beyond our control. It is critical to remember that while some things may be beyond our control we are truly in control to the way we respond to any given situation or change. Flexibility requires practice, each time we encounter a challenge connected to changes we can use that as an ppportunity to practice flexbility. Flexibility in our responses and perspectives can help us navigate a journey to improvement in the name of our students.
POTENTIAL
We will always find what we are looking for, so we need to be certain and intentional in what we see when we look at our students and our schools. Approaching students from a strengths perspective, by looking for what they are doing rather than a deficit model provides a window into what a students can do. This provides an opportunity for learning the very next thing that is within their grasp. Viewing challenges as opportunities for growth and learning with a lens on a particular student, class, school or district opens up potential. This is Unmapped Potential!
I was personally elated on August 31, 2017 when we opened our #G2Great doors to welcome guest host Laura Robb. Laura has long been a professional inspiration to many educators, but her presence was an added blessing for me since she is also a treasured friend. On this night, we gathered enthusiastically around the Twitter screen to soak in Laura’s immense wisdom and celebrate her newest book, Read Talk Write: 35 Lessons That Teach Students to Analyze Fiction and Nonfiction (Corwin, 2017).
In his opening foreword, Harvey “Smokey” Daniels eloquently describes why we need Laura’s remarkable book:
For decades, we have understood in principle that kids need to talk about their reading. But in practice, we have been slower to develop a broad repertoire of classroom structures that stimulate, facilitate, guide, and assess that kind of abundant intelligent talk. Laura Robb to the rescue once more. (xiii)
Laura Robb to the rescue indeed. In 249 pages of brilliance, she offers a treasure chest of powerful practices that are sure to promote the abundant intelligent talk that will lift student voices into the learning air in celebratory harmony. Laura’s book beautifully organizes 35 powerhouse lessons into six thoughtful categories of student centered dialogue:
Turn-and-Talk
Whole Class Discussions
Partner Talk
Small-Group Discussions
In-the-Head Conversations
Teacher-Student Discussions
Our #G2Great conversation with Laura reflected a clear shared commitment for engaging students in meaningful reading and writing talk. But Laura lives and breathes this commitment in her own work in classrooms and through her writing. After the chat, Laura shared four key ideas with me via email that she hopes our #G2Great family will take away from this experience And so as I reflect on her email message and her #G2Great chat tweets, I’d like to depart from my traditional chat overview by merging Laura’s messages and tweets into four Conversation Inspirations. These will offer a professional guide as you generate the abundant intelligent Laura-inspired talk our children deserve:
Conversation Inspiration 1: Create a Culture that Celebrates Student Talk
I’m hoping teachers re-evaluated the importance of talk. Talk is an oral text, and students do a great deal of thinking, considering, and refining to craft a response others can understand. I see talk as a prelude to meaningful writing. (Laura Robb’s email message)
My reflection: Our first step is to take professional responsibility for this process. We cannot create an instructional setting where student-centered talk is valued by students until we are willing to hold this process in the highest esteem. Before we can create an environment where the high quality talk we desire for students becomes a habit of mind, we must acknowledge our role in this process. When talk is viewed as a professional must then it will become the WHY that drives us each step along the way to this rich collaborative dialogue. Laura reminds us that this is not an occasional event to be scheduled at key intervals in the day, but a non-negotiable daily priority that permeates the very air that we breathe across every learning day.
Conversation Inspiration 2: Celebrate the Talk Journey with the Gift of Time
It’s important to know that it takes time and practice for student-led discussions to run smoothly and achieve depth of thinking! The gift of time, practice, and debriefings are crucial. (Laura Robb’s email message)
My reflection: In order to create the powerful discourse we deem worthy of our students, we must first build a strong bridge between teacher supported and student engaged talk. We begin by creating a safe and supportive environment that will nurture the kind of engaging talk we want for students. Within this safe environment we can then offer the instructional models to demonstrate each step of the talk process. These scaffolded supports allow us to show our students what rich dialogue looks like, sounds like and feels like so that we can begin to relinquish responsibility to them for accountable talk. With productive and meaningful talk always in our sights, we heed Laura’s wise reminder that we cannot rush this supportive phase. Conversation Inspiration 3: Hand over the Reins of Student Ownership
When students lead discussions, they have multiple opportunities to observe peers reasoning process as well as valuing multiple interpretations supported by the text. (Laura Robb’s email message)
My reflection: This release of responsibility allows us to create a forum that will support the kind of real life conversations we want students to have with their peers. These authentic conversations are grounded in ‘passionate and intense’ talk that we want students to continue to have with others long after they leave our classrooms – the very kind of conversations we have in our own lives. Once we have set the talk stage with support, we then begin to step back and allow students to craft the structure of these conversations so that they can assume control of the decision-making process. We trust our students to make these important decisions based on the foundation we have put into place as our role shifts from a supportive one to that of facilitator as we use these experiences to fine-tune and extend learning. Conversation Inspiration 4: Value the Talk Process Through Your Actions
Don’t grade talk. Talk is thinking out loud and writing is thinking on paper. Talk should always precede writing. Teachers can model various journal responses that can be assessed and have students write a paragraph that explains their position or defends a point of view. I don’t grade readers’ notebooks as I view those as exploratory thinking that students can refine, adjust, and change. Out of notebook writing can come assessment projects.(Laura Robb’s email message)
My reflection: I opened this overview by emphasizing that we must begin by valuing the talk process as we make it integral to every instructional day. We maximize our framework by stretching talk across all content areas but this is only the beginning. We are cognizant that all we choose to say and do will send a message to students about how we view these experiences as we allow these conversations to grow with students. In other words, our day-to-day actions and how we treat the talk experience with the respect it deserves will impact students most. Making time and space for student-centered talk is important but we must also show in every aspect of our practices that we value an organic process for meaningful dialogue. We do this by choosing not to apply a grade to this process-based practice, by creating experiences worth talking about and by celebrating that students assume increasing control. We acknowledge that student-centered talk cannot be relegated to a list of narrow questions that revolve around trivial conversations. Above all we trust students to reach ever higher as their conversations begin to take on a life of their own and we honor this transformational student-driven process each step of the way.
Read, Talk, Write reflects Laura’s commitment to the role student talk plays in the learning process. We are grateful for her deep belief in the power of literary conversations and her support in helping us to envision this process through her very wise eyes. In the closing words of her wonderful book, Laura extends each of us an invitation to join her on this journey so that we too can breathe life into abundant intelligent talk. Laura’s vision of daily student engagement in literary conversations is sure to inspire dedicated educators everywhere to thoughtfully craft rich student-led dialogue across the learning day:
You are the key to developing highly literate students. And when you make learning meaningful for students with literary conversations and writing about reading, you keep students at the center of instruction, inspiring them to read, think, talk, and write– and continually improve their reading and writing expertise. (page 236)
We accept your invitation Laura and we will carry each of your conversation inspirations in our back pockets as we put your words into action where it matters most – in high impact talk infused classrooms across the country!
More inspired tweets from our amazing #G2Great family
On August 17, 2017 Harvey “Smokey” Daniels joined #G2Great to lead us in a discussion about fostering curiosity through student directed inquiry. We gathered around the #G2Great table and were inspired by Harvey “Smokey” Daniels as he engaged us in so many possibilities around creating a curious classroom.
Curiosity – “Wait, what?” Often we hear this question from our students and we shrug it off – almost thinking they were not listening when they utter those words. If we think about why someone says, “Wait, what?” it is the first sign that they are curious about whatever it is they heard. Something caused them to pause and say, “wait, what?” they inherently in that question want to know more. When we hear kids say this we should embrace it and push them deeper into inquiry. Kids should jot down, at that very moment exactly what it was that caused them to say, “Wait, what?” Schools should be a place where students leave more curious, wanting to go out into the world and learn more. Inquiry breeds curiosity and promotes effort, developing the habits of mind we want for all of our students.
Choice – “Choice matters!” Any of us, adult or children thinkers, writers, and readers just think better when we have a choice about what we are thinking about. We are more motivated to dig deeper and invest more time in topics that we can choose. How do we support the development of lifelong thinkers, readers, and writers? We encourage them to think about, read about and write about topics that matter to them, topics that they are curious to learn more about.
Community – Curiosity and choice go hand in hand with thinking amongst a community. When we embrace curiosity we begin to model and support an environment that functions as a safe community. Students who engage in inquiry, are best supported and encouraged in a community where collaboration and team work is valued. Students who work together learn how to mutually respect and support others and their ideas.
If you want to learn more about The Curious Classroom check out Harvey “Smokey” Daniels’ book!
If you are interested in hearing Harvey “Smokey” Daniels share more ideas you can listen to a podcast on the Heinemann website.
On July 27, 2017 #G2Great welcomes guest hosts Lindsey Moses and Meredith Ogden to talk about their book, “What are the Rest of my Kids Doing? Fostering Independence in the K-2 Reading Workshop. The title of their book is a question that is often raised when we start thinking about reading workshop and how we manage what happens after the minilesson and before the share. This is where the magic happens, because when students read independently they are growing as readers. Student independence is a critical piece of a successful reading workshop that must be supported by meaningful work that students are doing independently.
Small group instruction and conferring are essential components of reading workshop, with that in mind we have to ensure that students are engaged in independent work that is meaningful and supportive of literacy learning. In their book, Lindsey and Meredith shared the importance of not only establishing routines, structures, strategies and learning opportunities but also revisiting these in order to extend or deepen the experiences. In reading workshop, Lindsey and Meredith suggest working from a goal of “independence” from the first day and then continuing to build independence while revisiting structures and strategies to extend or deepen children’s experience with independent work.
In planning for meaningful independence during reading workshop Lindsey suggests that teachers look at and review every center, routine, worksheet if any and ask, “ What purpose does this serve in my students’ literacy development?” The answer to this question will help to shed light on how well the independent reading time is utilized. Purposeful Learning Experiences is the term that Lindsey and Meredith use to identify experiences that support literacy development and have real purpose for supporting independence. The chart below shows examples of different experiences from real classrooms and identifies what is a Purposeful Learning Experience and what is not a Purposeful Learning Experience.
During reading workshop it is critical that we ensure the experiences that students have during the independent work time is meaningful. Students must be engaged in reading, this is the time where they are practicing the skills and strategies they have learned or are still learning. If we were to fill this precious time with mindless worksheets or activities that do not have a positive impact on literacy learning we are just wasting time. These experiences fail to cognitively engage our students in the important work of reading and thinking. On the surface, it may appear that students are engaged in the classroom at the moment however when students are not engaged cognitively they will not sustain this engagement over the long run. We have to look honestly at everything we are asking students to do and ask ourselves the question that Lindsey poses, “ What purpose does this serve in my students’ literacy development?” The answers should help us to ensure that students are engaged in Purposeful Learning Experiences during independent reading time.
If you would like to learn and read more from Lindsey and Meredith check out the links below!
Links:
What Are the Rest of My Kids Doing? Fostering Independence in the K-2 Reading Workshop (Heinemann)
On July 6, 2017 #G2Great welcomed Linda Rief as a guest host to share her ideas around reading, writing and teaching. Linda’s book, Read, Write Teach explores reading and writing workshop sharing her thoughts about the choices and challenges that are inherent to a strong reading and writing workshop.
Everyone has a story to tell. Linda reminds us that while data and test results show how students may have performed during a test, it neglects to show us how a reader or writer performs in the actual experience of reading and writing in their life, built on their experiences in an authentic context. It is this lens that shows us the deeper understanding of a reader or writer’s process and allows us to see what a student is doing and enables us to identify where to go next.
Aside from choosing a multiple choice answer from the selections of a,b,c or d students have no choice in what they are reading on most standardized tests. In all truthfulness, that choice they make does not resemble any sort of real choice, in that they are choosing the best answer hopefully in line with what the test creator believed was the best answer.
Choice is critical to readers and writers because it allows the reader or writer to fully embrace the process and ensures the belief that all learners have the right to learn and the capacity to learn. Learners have the best opportunity to learn when they are motivated to learn and being provided with choice supports a reader or writer in learning who they are as a learner and what really is important to them.
We can begin the growth process when we allow our minds to be open and reflective. We must challenge earlier beliefs about mastering teaching and understand that no number of years as a teacher fulfills the title “Master Teacher” rather it is a reflection and revision process that develops the “Master Teacher” or what I prefer to call a “Reflective Teacher.” When we believe we are done learning and have mastered something, that is when growth stops, stagnation sets in and our best teaching lingers where it is, no longer pushing ourselves or our students as far as we can be as learners. A truly “Master Teacher” or rather “Reflective Teacher” knows that teaching is a practice, much like law, medicine or even yoga. Practice is what allows growth and by engaging in practice we are open to reflection and revision and therefore we can continually push ourselves and our students to be engaged in reading and writing every day, thereby growing every day.
We continually grow by experiencing new things and being open to trying things we have not tried before. During our teaching practices, we can then experience multiple iterations and improve each time. I have often heard, “I taught that already and they still don’t know it” or “That was covered last year by the teacher before” or “They should have been taught this last year.” This problem gets compounded year after year until we start reflecting on our own practices, collectively as educators. It is not enough for only some of us to engage in this reflection and growth. All educators need to embrace the practice of teaching and reflect on each time we teach and consider what the student is learning. By focusing on the learning we can look through a lens for reflection by allowing us to go back over the teaching practices and connect what teaching happened and then what learning resulted. In order to continually grow, this practice needs to go through multiple trials, reflections and revisions. Additionally, because no two people are alike and no two brains are alike; this continually happens in order to foster growth in our teaching and in our leanring. As educators engage in this practice of learning, we need to also ensure that we are transparent to our students about our own learning and growth. This can provide a model for learning for our students, ensuring that their story contains opportunities for multiple iterations during practice along with reflection to foster growth.
If you’re a teacher in New York state then you know that summer recess has only just begun. Spending the last Thursday before the end of school with Chris Lehman was an inspiring way to close out the 2016/2017 year. On June 22, 2017, we concluded another year talking more about how to question rather than dispensing answers. We celebrated this ideal by diving into a thoughtful conversation around Chris Lehman’s wonderful book, Energize Research Reading and Writing. After all, this is at its core, what #G2Great is really all about; loving the questions and welcoming the search to know more. Chris Lehman’s message extends beyond research to every aspect of teaching and learning.
What does curiosity look like in the classroom?
Curiosity is the ember that ignites the flame. It burns hot and with great intensity in the heart of every person who has a desire to learn. Chris invites us to grant freedom of choice because this is how we empower our students to engage the world: Curiosity looks like choice…
