Out Learning-Taking Learning Out of the Closet

So how did you come up with that idea?
What idea?
The one that made you do the thing you just did?
I don't know.
What do you mean you don't know..

The intent of Out Learning is to know. To doggedly pursue the thought pathways that led to the doings that get done--particularly the good doings. Doings especially that lead to new ideas for classroom use, insights into student engagement, etc..

'Coming out' is both a dangerous and liberating proposition. So here, I apply the metaphor to teaching and learning. I remember when in the 90's, standard-based education was gaining traction. A Principal at the time said: "The Standards should be clearly visible in your classroom because students should know what they should know. What followed in Education, of course, was the repeating of "Students should know and be able to...." ad nauseum in curricula products.

Great that we began sharing our objectives. But did we teachers share what goes on with us--how we acquire new information? How we synthesize it? How we transfer information from genre to another? How we come up with a lesson plan?

When I asked the question, "Is school real to students?" this is what I was getting at. With the explosion of social media, the twitterverse and the blogosphere, there are far more opportunities to share. Why not share our process as educators? That is my intent for better or worse because I believe that all teachers need to be learning all the time. Otherwise, what's the point.