- “Buy-in”
- “Building consensus”
- “Let the data drive instruction”
- “Collaborative conversation”
- “Capacity building”
- “Differentiate”
- “Increasing the rigor”
Now tell me…did you understand it when they used those terms? Did you say, “Oh yes, you’ve used that big term and NOW I finally understand what you mean?”
If you’re anything like me, probably not! I end up more confused on what I’m supposed to do and what people expect of me! In fact, I end up not only not understanding, but feeling kind of like I should know something that I don’t!
So, I am starting a little list for myself and I’d like to share it with you. It is entitled “Jill’s Cheat Sheet for Understanding Unnecessarily Complicated Education Terms” (How’s THAT for a simple list? Ha!)
- “Buy-in”: The term we use to cover for the fact that we don’t know what we’re doing. We get people to get used to new ideas while we figure out what we’re trying to do.
- “Building consensus”: Trying to get everyone to agree to something that they have to do anyway.
- “Let the data drive instruction”: This is code for “we don’t know what to do with our lowest kids so we keep going back to the data and admiring how awful it looks”
- “Collaborative conversation”: We are trying to make people feel better by making them think that they have a choice, but really they don’t. So we’re going to trick them into talking about what they think we should do, but in the end they will do what we’ve already decided.
- “Capacity building”: We don’t know what we’re doing.
- “Differentiate”: If I use a big term long enough and forcefully enough then maybe you’ll think that I know what I’m doing with our most struggling and most advanced kids.
- “Increasing the rigor”: Pretend to be working on instruction while I figure out what on earth we’re trying to do. Also known as “TEACH MORE!” while I figure out what we’re doing.
Am I wrong? 😉
Here’s your reminder: Go click this link https://jackson-consulting.com/video and watch the video, “Instructional Pacing…It’s Not Just About Teaching ‘Fast’!” and ask your staff this question, “Would this solve any of our students performance issues if we implemented this info?”