The other day I attended a training and planning session for summer school teachers in my district. As we looked over the agenda we noticed that in the morning we had some time to plan out our lessons, and in the afternoon we were scheduled to get our class lists, along with data sheets about our students’ literacy needs. The small group I was sitting with discussed this and agreed that it didn’t make sense. How were we supposed to plan differentiated instruction before we knew our students’ needs? It would be much better to do things the other way around.
The facilitator stopped by our room about a half hour later and asked if we needed anything. Everyone just sat there looking around at each other without saying a word. As the facilitator turned to leave again, I saw that if I didn’t speak up right then, we would have to go through our planning the wrong way around. I stopped the facilitator and asked if we could have our student data in the morning. Everyone in the room went, “Yeah! Great idea! We think so, too!” A few minutes later, we had our data.
Now, here’s the question: If everyone thought the same thing, why wasn’t anyone willing to say it? It took me, probably the shiest person in a room of about 20 people, to say it. I guess the moral of the story (especially for us shy folk) is not to wait for someone else to say what needs to be said. This experience was a good reminder for me that sometimes I just have to go ahead and speak up!
