This summer, my family vacationed in Wyoming. We spent three days in Yellowstone and then exited through the south gate so that we could pass through Jackson Hole. We stayed just outside of Jackson near Teton Village.
The road we traveled on to get there was called Moose Wilson Road. Just outside of town, there was a large flashing sign on the side of the road that said “6 Moose Killed in the next 1 mile”…We paid attention and commented on how sad that is and pondered how much damage a full-grown moose could do to a vehicle…then we got distracted wondering how much farther our hotel would be…is the pool water going to be warm…where were we going to eat supper?????
Then we saw it – do you see the moose cut-out on the side of the road? Every quarter of a mile, they strategically placed one of these so that we would focus on watching out for moose again. What a brilliant plan! They could have done all sorts of punitive things to get us to pay attention, none of which would really have had a huge impact on saving moose lives! Instead, they simply placed these moose silhouettes to remind us to slow down and look out for them.
I think we can borrow this strategy to help us focus on the most important things. If we don’t watch out for our transition time, student engagement, ratios of interactions, opportunities to respond – before we know it, the end of the year will be here and it will be too late to teach our students all of the things we needed to teach them.
I’m going on moose patrol. Someone has to construct the cut-outs and place them strategically along the side of the road. It might as well be me…I have always been fascinated by moose!