Everyone is a Genius #1

Albert Einstein…pretty smart guy…developed that little thing called the Theory of Relativity.  This theory caused a revolution in physics.  Unless you totally avoided the science hallway at your high school, you probably have heard of the famous equation e = mc2.  In a nutshell, this shows that matter and energy are identical as energy is equal to mass and the speed of light squared.  The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, which is just under the speed limit on the Dan Ryan.  Einstein had many things to say and our youngest daughter pointed out one of her favorites to me, “Everyone is a genius but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”  Think on that for a second.  What you may not know about the man that many consider to be the smartest man ever is that he had difficulty speaking as a child.  After years of the medical field studying this delay, they found that many brilliant people develop speech relatively (there’s a form of that word again) late in childhood. Today, that delay is called Einstein Syndrome. Further, Einstein failed his first university entrance exam…yep, he had to go to trade school and later retook the exam and beat it like narcs at a biker rally.  Physicists all over the world are sure glad that Einstein wasn’t judged by his lack of writing ability or his vague knowledge of social sciences.

What’s all of this have to do with teaching?  Over the next 180 days, you will be asked to judge your students by multiple means of assessment.  Some of them are coming to you as exceptional writers, some are not.  Some are coming to you as outstanding young mathematicians, some are not.  Some are coming to you are incredible critical thinkers, some are not.  Some of them are coming to you as tremendous athletes, some are not.  The point is that in your class, which should be the most important class in the school, what are you banking your judgment on?  What is essential learning in your classroom look like?  What are the big ideas that you are trying to teach?  If you know those answers, then the next ones to get in that loop are your students!  They need to know your expectations.  They need to know what you want them to get smarter about.  They need to know what you are trying to teach them.  They need to know how they will be assessed.  They need to know how your content is relevant to their lives.   Often, the last ones to know what we want them to learn are the ones that are supposed to be doing the learning.  That simply does not make sense, even though it happens far too often.  On your never erased to-do list – tell them these things now and keep on telling them.  Now, if you do not have answers to the questions above, then there is key return form for you to fill out.