Fast Plant Lab Reports are due tomorrow in AP Biology. This is the first "whole meghilla" formal lab report that this year's students have had to do. It's the culmination of a 8 week plant breeding experiment, and an additional 4 week writing process for the report itself. It will count as much as a summative exam.

In short, it's a huge deal for my students.

Which is why I'm so tickled by the comment strings that have developed on the reports as students collaborate to author them. See one example below (names have been redacted and replaced by color-coded X's to help track the conversation):

This is, in many ways, what I think the best kind of teaching I do looks like in terms of what my students do. Having set a bar, and put the supports that are needed in place for students to do their best work, the kinds of collaborations like the one above are exactly what I want to see once I get out of the way. If there's something that I'm striving for in terms of "teaching children", this is it for me. I couldn't be happier or more proud of the work that these students are doing (and the people they are).

What does good teaching look like to you? What sorts of concrete things would you be able to point to for evidence of it? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, or drop me a line.