Learning & Leading With Habits of Mind

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Wo n d e r i n g t o B e D o n e

Steve Seidel

13

I remember meditating on these attached objects.... (feet and

hands, especially, but also chest, knees, stomach)... looking at them,

touching them, feeling them from the outside and from the inside,

wondering about them because there was wondering to be done,

not because there were answers to be found.

—Jane Smiley,A Thousand Acres

Several years ago, I spent three months conducting a series of workshops
with 10 teachers from Fuller Elementary School in Gloucester, Massa-
chusetts. When the final session was over, I began a long period of won-
dering about the value of the work we’d just completed.^1 Our work had
gone well in so many ways. We enjoyed ourselves and remained engaged
with our task. Final evaluations were strongly positive, pointing to many
lessons and benefits for the participating teachers.
So why did I doubt?
Our workshops were conducted in five sessions. Four lasted four
hours; the final session was a two-hour reflection. The task was to explore

Adapted by permission of the publisher from Allen, D. (Ed.), Assessing student learning: From
grading to understanding(New York: Teachers College Press, © 1998 by Teachers College,
Columbia University. All rights reserved), pp. 21–39. Adaptation first appeared in Costa &
Kallick 2000, © 2000 ASCD.