"Why Ask Why? Questions to Improve Your Teaching While Maintaining Your Sanity"

Who is sick of being asked to remember their Why? It feels like a broken record every
time we get overwhelmed as teachers. But what if this common piece of advice is actually missing the mark? What if we could turn 'Why' into a superpower that transforms our teaching?

Why is a powerful question. It is an important question. It is a question you should be asking yourself all the time. This post will explore how we can use 'Why' to lighten the load, sharpen our aim, and improve our teaching.

What do I mean? Every day, as teachers, we perform hundreds of tasks, big and small. From the moment we wake up until we go to bed, we are making choices. Some of these choices are conscious, others are reflexive, and others are habits that we have formed over time.

My question to you is this: Why are you making those choices? Are the ways and places you are choosing to spend your time serving you and your students, or are they just things you are doing out of habit, a feeling that they are expected, or a reflex that you have developed over time?

There is always more we can do as teachers, but not everything that we do has the same impact, value, and not everything we do actually needs to be done. Yes, I said it—not everything that we do actually needs to be done.

Here is an example from my own teaching. When I started teaching Kindergarten, everyone around me was doing these lovely crafts. Teachers would cut out all these pieces for their students, and students would put them together to make their 'art.' I hate cutting, and honestly, I am not very good at it. Doing this task made me frustrated. One day, someone asked me WHY I was doing that. It had never occurred to me to ask that question. I was doing it because that's what everyone was doing.

I no longer cut things out for my students. When I sat down and really thought about it, I realized that this didn't make sense for me. My personal philosophy of education is centered around empowering children. What was empowering about me cutting 30 circles at home on a Saturday night?

My students now cut their own circles. My projects may not turn out as perfectly as my neighbors', but my students are very proud of their work. It is their work, not mine. For me, asking WHY changed the way I approached teaching art.

Now for you, you might love cutting shapes. It might make you happy. In that situation, it makes you happy—that is your Why. Maybe there are other things that you are doing that aren't benefiting your students, that you are just doing because that's how it's done.

I challenge you to ask yourself 'Why' every day:

- Why am I doing this?

- Why is this important?

- Why do my students need me to do this?

You can also ask yourself these questions:

-What will happen if I don't do this?

- What am I trying to teach my students by doing this?

- What are my students learning about themselves when I do this?

- Who am I doing this for?

- How will this impact student learning?

- How will this impact me, my life, and my health?

When we ask these questions, we can make choices that improve our practice, impact our students, and hopefully leave a little fuel in the tank for ourselves. Maybe remembering our why doesn't have to mean giving until we have nothing left. Maybe it can mean giving smarter, doing less, but doing things that have a greater impact.