Why so slow?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/befuddledsenses/

The end of the year is quickly approaching, and this is a time I find when teachers are definitely trying to speed things up.  We want to get all of the content in before the students go to their next great, before they try to get things presentable to parents, and before we rush off to our summer vacations.

At our school at least half of the grade levels I work with are finishing the year with sharing the planet, so I'm pushing for a go slow movement for the next six or seven weeks.  We need time to fully experience what it's like outside in order to actually make those connections (something I feel I talk about all the time).   I now have four classes I take outside every week.  It's a start (one class is trying to move to everyday next year), but we are moving forward which is great!

We are taking the time to wonder and think, something that is difficult for some teachers.  We have to talk about connections and thinking deeply about how things work together (which is the central idea for most of our units, but never really adressed this way).

All in all, in just one week I've seen more excitement about the unit. Students are actively engaged and posing good questions.  This week we are trying to "look closely" to see how things work and what things look like.

Going slow is great for us right now, hopefully I can convince some teachers to keep it up after these seven weeks.