How are you doing?

 

We, as people who care about other people, ask lots of questions. Questions are how we learn. They are how we show interest. They are how we connect. 

The ability to develop and deploy a great question is one of life’s truly valuable skill sets.  

In thinking about learning, we ask lots of questions. What do we value? Why do we value it? How do we best measure it? 

Finding ourselves today in a spot where teaching and learning looks very different than it did the first week of March, we are asking ourselves those questions regularly. 

In unpredictable times we are called to our core, the stuff that defines us, and we are challenged to use that core in new and, perhaps, surprising ways. 

In teaching and learning, parenting and growing up, relationships are that core. Relationships grow from conversations. In school, those conversations are at the core of assessment and feedback, and we are having them in new and surprising ways.

Surveys, small groups, debates, songs, kahoots, shared docs, and exit tickets all play a part in our new school conversations.  

They are all a way we ask, and try to figure out, How are you doing?

It is more important than ever, in school and out, that we give the time and attention to listening for an answer.

It’s also more important than ever that we ask that question throughout our connections with other people -  as often, and in as many different ways as we can. 

David Brooks wrote recently that now is the time we need to “practice aggressive friendship with each other . “ To reach out and connect with those people in your life who need a lift.

Where are those people for each of us? Are they within arm’s reach or a zoom call away? 

In any case, now is a great time to build a habit of checking in on the people you care about, asking questions, and giving time and attention to their response. It will feel good, and it will help others in ways you would not imagine.