I admit that I'm a big fan of banter. I love tangental talks with others that move in and out of multiple topics with opinion, fact, experiences, and stories. I often wonder if this is rooted in my genes since a long time ago at a little pub on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, I met many who, like me, were truly open to and most happy with this kind of banter--I loved the experience.
So the positivity of banter is that you are able to entertain countless ideas and get a broad brush of what's happening in the world. The banter is a colorful tour of knowledge at it's surface level. The challenge with banter is that to do better, you have to go deeper. You have to spend time reading the details of research, individual's experiences, facts and figures to be able to establish a solid hypothesis, make plans for change, embed new learning, and communicate effectively.
So this summer, I'll need to set aside time when I force myself to put the daily banter, tweets, and perusal of multiple social media threads and blogs aside to look into the research with depth to grow my knowledge and learning specifically related to math, science, SEL, and history teaching and learning. I suspect my regular schedule will include mornings of research and study and afternoons of personal pursuits and efforts.
I'm looking forward to this deeper look at the work I do and goals I've set in the months ahead.
