Tilling some soil and playing with links – some rough draft blogging to think out loud

Posted on December 22, 2011 by boadams1

Third graders at The Kincaid School in Texas are cultivating their learning in a community garden of global connectedness:

At my school the 3rd grade teachers have established a terrific blogging program for our 3rd graders. Not only do our students blog openly but they also visit and comment on other blogs. This year, a comment that a 3rd grader made on the blog of an author of a book his class was reading started a process that ended up with the author having a Skype call with the student’s 3rd grade class. [empasis added]

– Larry Kahn, http://plpnetwork.com/2011/12/21/meet-our-team-larry-kahn/

Bravo to these third grade teachers and their students for growing positive digital footprints among an authentic audience of beyond-school readers and thinkers. Such connectedness and the powerful learning that can come from such harvest are under-surface themes of @jgough’s latest post, “Integrated Studies: Gardening, Obesity, Open Source Learning.” Moreover, @whatedsaid placed the exclamation mark on the themes with her post, “What does it mean to be educated?”

Most students want to grow something meaningful by planting seeds, watering and fertilizing the sprouts, and sharing the harvest of their labors. As the students in Edna’s video proclaim – to be educated means to seize opportunities to make a positive difference in this world. We teachers should make sure that we are facilitating that “playing in the soil” at least as much as we are asking students to read from a recipe book. In my opinion, students should be doing the gardening and recipe creating much more than just following others’ recipes. Students deserve to be creators, not just consumers. In so doing, they just might learn better to feed themselves as lifelong gardeners and inventors…I mean learners – lifelong learners.

Pracademics

Posted on December 20, 2011 by boadams1

In a nutshell, the quote below sheds great light on why I believe in “pracademics” – those people who DO project-based learning and share their joys and frustrations, those people who speak about online presence only while developing a significant digital footprint themselves, those people who experience PLCs before commenting positively or negatively on their function and value, those who use the tools of a faculty growth plan to organize their professional learning if they expect others to do so, those who model faculty meetings in the form which they expect from classrooms, etc., etc.

Learning is useless if it isn’t applied. Reading a recipe book is not the same as picking up a utensil and cooking. Albert Einstein once said, “Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” Simply studying the wisdom of others isn’t enough, you must put it into practice.

From “The Ultimate Gift,” sblankenship, Connected Principals, Dec. 19, 2011

Learn by doing. Encourage others to learn by doing. Promote learning by doing. Build wisdom by employing your growing knowledge in order to make a positive difference in this world. If you haven’t already, start today. Start now. Go. Do.

When learning is open and connected…thanks Homaro Cantu

Posted on December 18, 2011 by boadams1

I imagine I am a middle schooler – maybe around age 13. I just watched a TED talk because my teacher has guided me to an interest in the plethora of “teachers” on TED. I write a blog post on the TED talk because I write for an authentic audience now, not only for my teacher’s eyes. My blog posts automatically tweet. The author of the TED talk sees the tweet and responds. He sends me this link in his @reply:

http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/29/chefs-miracle-berries-turn-sour-foods-sweet/

I become more interested in molecular gastronomy because my learning has been open and connected. I become more interested in sustainability because of my online teacher’s example of edible menus. I learn to help feed the world with an increased interest in health and an added flair for design. I am forging myself into a pattern of lifelong learning. I am thankful my school allows such open and connected learning. It seems scary to do this without such guidance and leadership…my parents don’t really understand this way of learning.

[Many thanks to Homaro Cantu for replying to this 41-year-old, lifelong learner’s pre-post thinking and automatically tweeted blog post on Dec. 16! What a thrill and path of learning! May I help make it so for others.]

Process and Transparency – Penn Charter Has Taught Me A Lot

Posted on December 18, 2011 by boadams1

I have never stepped foot on the campus of William Penn Charter School. However, I recently learned a lot from this educational community. An administrative colleague recently sent me a video about Penn Charter’s strategic planning process. The video is available on Penn Charter’s web page, after clicking on “Quicklinks” and “News & Media Gallery.” The video is also embedded below.

When process is the single most significant factor in positive product/outcome, I appreciate having transparent access to such an inclusive and community-building process. I know that having a glance through this window will enable me to grow and learn in the way that I use process and transparency. Thanks Penn Charter for teaching me today…from afar.