Project Zero Classroom 2017 Day 1

To encapsulate day 1 of the Project Zero classroom, I am going to utilize the See-Think-Wonder thinking routine from "Making Thinking Visible" by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison.  Below I highlight the steps of the routine and apply it to the first day...

What do you SEE?  Today I saw over 360+ educators from 30 countries. I saw an enthusiasm that would motivate any teacher.  I saw people that I have read about: David Perkins, Howard Gardener, Mark Church, and Daniel Wilson.  I saw a study group of people that I did not know at 9:00 this morning, but by 4:00 was working with them to create a visual arts representation of a poem that we were studying.  I saw a campus with incredible architecture.  I saw other educators that motivated me to want to be the best that I could be.  I saw a thoughtful place that I want to be a part of for the next four days.  I saw a place that I can't wait to tell my colleagues about.

What did you HEAR (this technically is not part of the routine, but it was too important to pass up)? 
​I heard many incredible things:

1. 'The Culture of your classroom is your best co-teacher; it can make your year long or short'
2. 'Sometimes what we are teaching just doesn't matter to the students.  We need to give our topics significance by the way we ask the questions'
3. 'The question "how many points is this" is not a natural question.  Elementary students don't ask this question - as students get older, they get the 'memo' that this question is important'
4. 'In our classrooms we need to tame the wild, but we should also not be afraid to wild the tame'
5. 'Is your classroom a lawn - well manicured, predictable, and neat, or is it a ravine - wild, messy, with organized chaos'?'

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What do you THINK is going on here? 
I think this is an institute that is a must for any educator at some point in their lives.  I think I made a great choice in taking the time out of my summer to come here.  I think this institute will help my students understand their content, think critically about it, and reflect thoughtfully about what they have learned.

What does this make you WONDER?  This makes me wonder why I didn't come to this institute sooner.  It makes me wonder how my students learned anything in my early years of teaching.  It makes me wonder why I thought I had teaching perfected when I was 25 but how at age 45 I realize I have so much more to learn.

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Daniel Wilson, Director of Project Zero, thanking us for being part of the learning this year.

Howard Gardner, Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School, enlightening us on the history of the Project Zero organization.

David Perkins, Professor of Teaching and Learning at Harvard, exploring classrooms as either 'lawns' or 'ravines'

Some other pics from the day...