The Importance of Intentionality

In my teacher preparation, by far the best (and most important) experience I had was my student teaching.  Of course, any teacher reading this would not be surprised.  Student teaching is that moment when a teacher-in-training comes the closest to having his or her own classroom with the daily lesson plans, grading, seating chart management, and almost everything in between.  Most importantly, the teacher-in-training still has a (hopefully) master teacher to guide him or her through this new litany of responsibilities and offer new insights in the process.

Of all those nuggets of wisdom my master teacher taught me, one stands out among all the rest.  I was preparing for the next day's lesson and my master teacher had offered to work through the lesson with me to ensure it was as great as possible.  As we discussed the lesson, my teacher peppered me with the same question over and over again:

Why?

Why are you using that resource?  Why do you think this historical voice is most important to emphasize?  Why have you selected this activity?  Why is this your warm-up?  Why did you use this assessment technique over another?  Why? 

At first, I thought my teacher was criticizing me.  I thought he believed my lesson plan was terrible and wanted to expose it as such.  However, as I drove home that day, I began to understand "why" he asked me that question.  He wanted me to be intentional in my teaching.  He wanted me to understand that every decision I made from the moment the students entered the classroom to the moment they left was formulated by design.

Intention.  Design.  Outcome.  These words are irrevocably related in education.  Yet, I have found that teachers so often forget their importance and relationship.  Intention influences design and design influences outcome.  If my intention is to "get through the day", that thinking will show up in my design (unit plans, lesson plans, etc.) and the outcome will most likely be poor learning.  

Most importantly, students are aware of a teacher's intention.  It is like an aroma that permeates the classroom.  Students can sense the difference between lessons prepared in haste and lessons prepared in intention.  This gap can explain many problems in the classroom from management issues to poor understanding of the material.

Intention, of course, takes time.  It requires repeatedly asking that question my master teacher asked me years ago.  Why?  It may require one thousand no's for every yes.  Yet the results are worth the time and energy and worth this teacher's admiration of a man who taught me that lesson so long ago.