When's the last time we just sat down and thought about it?

I don't claim to be an intellect and I rarely describe myself as smart. However, I often tell others that I'm successful and knowledgeable because I am self-reflective both in my personal and professional life. I definitely get this skill from my parents. Visiting their house is like entering a think tank for morality. If someone in the family is making a decision or working through a moral dilemma we will discuss the topic until we have the right answer for sometimes three whole days. I always head home when I need to re-adjust my moral compass or make an important life decision.

My worry is that our obsession with meeting standards in the classroom takes critical thinking out of the learning environment. If teachers are attempting to meet deadlines for benchmark assessments they don't have time to allow students to simply think!

In my classroom, each day for math I often start with a problem on the board. For example, 8 + 4. This is not a third grade standard, in fact it's a fairly obvious and easy problem for 99% of my students. However, we take five minutes of "think time". Students give me a thumbs up when they know the answer and then another finger raises if they can figure out a different way to answer the same problem. Here are some of their answers:

Student A: "Well I just know it".
Me: "Good for you, I bet that made it quick and easy for you to solve".
Student B: "Well, I know that 8 + 2 = 10 and so with 2 more that makes 12".
Me: "Wow, you used your 10 fact as a base. Great let's call that the Jacob method". (I like to name methods after the student that describes it).
Student C: "I play the solitaire game pyramid that you taught us and so I know that 8 + 5 = 13 so 1 less must be 12"!
Me: "Did anyone else do it this way? Great!"
Student D: "Well I thought of a dozen eggs. There's six on one side of the box, so now you have 2 + 4 more eggs and thats a full carton".
Me: "Very creative, great ideas here!"

In these 5-10 minutes all students are engaged and eager to hear new ways to solve the problems that originally seem so simple. My favorite part is that they were thinking critically!! I see them do this with the math problems in their grade level text books. I see them discuss how they solve problems with their peers. They are often eager to share new methods they've discovered on their own.

We need to slow down as educators and make our content more meaningful and allow students the time to simply... think!