Category Archives: Random Reflections

The Best — of 2012 Lists. Is anyone writing My Best Learnings of 2012?

Posted on by
Reply

The “Best of 2012” lists are everywhere. As I read my blog feeds each morning, as I scan the news headlines, and as I listen to live radio and recorded podcasts, I feel a bit inundated with these Best of… in 2012 collections.

In all of my scanning and searching, though, I have not come across a “Best of What I Learned in 2012” list from any students/learners sharing on a digital portfolio. I wonder why.

Are teachers assigning such reflection prompts but the resulting writing or podcasting is kept private? Or does such an assignment not happen, really? Are any learners choosing – unprompted – to create a collection of Best Learnings in 2012? Why haven’t I thought to do so myself?

It seems to me that such a learning reflection might be something of an ideal endeavor for learners young and old not so young. Do you know of such a list or school-based assignment? If so, will you share a link in the comments? Again, I am curious if any teachers have assigned a student reflection akin to “What are your top (10) learnings from the past year?” Or “What things have you learned in 2012 that seem indispensable to you – the things that have been most meaningful or that seem like they will be the most useful and enduring?”

I’m thinking about my list of Best Learnings in 2012. I’d love it if you would share yours. Or if you’d put me onto such lists that already exist.

Two tidbits from my morning learning routine – growing roots and mindsets to bridge gaps.

Posted on by
1

Tidbit #1. Meghalayas Living Bridge. At Unboundary, we share what we’re learning on a WordPress system we call Foundary. This morning, in my feed from Foundary, I found this beautiful, less-than-five-minute piece (HT to Witt Langstaff) about the living bridges of Meghalaya. The story itself is mesmerizing, but the teaching and learning process is what struck me most profoundly. Field study. Project work. Actions that matter to a bigger cause. Apprenticeship and communal focus.

.

Tidbit #2. The Right Mindset for Success. This morning, walking in the rain with Lucy, I listened to a new podcast for me – I’ve recently added HBR’s Idea Cast to my morning podcast set. In this episode Sarah Green interviews legendary Carol Dweck about the Growth Mindset.

Among other morning learning, these tidbits have me thinking about what roots we’re cultivating in schools in order to bridge the gaps we face, and how we take on a growth mindset as an entire school or education system facing a world of rapid change, networked information development, and significant needs for problem and solution finding.

I’m getting into stand-up comedy to help spread the word about educational innovation

Posted on by
3

I’m thinking of adding stand-up comedian to my repertoire and resume. Because people think I’m so funny. Not. But I figure I really only have one way to go…and that’s to get funnier.

Seriously, I am thinking about stand-up comedy, especially that incredible skill of great stand-up comedians to help us to see what we have come to take for granted and what we are neglecting to see or think about any longer.

This weekend, on a long walk with Lucy (my dog), I was listening to the podcast “Seeing in the Dark” on RadioLab. At the end of the podcast, in some NPR fund-raising, the hosts explain that they are touring with comedian Demetri Martin. They play a bit of his recent release “Stand-Up Comedian.” I don’t have the exact transcript right, so please forgive the quotes, but I have most of the essence. Demetri Martin is pointing out the amusing idiocy of how we introduce people…

“This is Frank. Sounds pretty normal but when you think about it. This. Walk up with a person. This. This stuff right here is Frank.”

“Excuse me, what is this?”

“This? Oh, this is Frank.”

“When you call someone. You have to say, ‘Hey. This is Demetri.’ But when you go up to someone in person, the rule flips. You have to say I. ‘Hey. I’m Demetri.’ You can’t say, ‘This is Demetri’ about yourself.”

So, that got me thinking about my stand-up comedy routine. How might I use stand-up comedy to help others see what we have come to take for granted and neglect relative to school and education? I think it will start with something like this…

“Hey. Yeah. I’ve just started this new job. I’m the Director of Educational Innovation. Sometimes I think what it would be like to have this job and title 150 years ago.

“So, we’ve been studying the way children naturally learn. You know, they explore, investigate, inquire, play. That sort of stuff. We want school to be a natural extension of the natural amazingness of human, child learning. I mean, the word education comes from the Latin educatio and educare which mean to draw out from what is normal. So, we’re proposing having the kids sit in desks for about 13 years and listen to adults mostly talk. And when the kids ask questions a lot, we’re telling the adults to say that they don’t have time to answer that right now…there’s too much material to cover.

“And, we want formal education to prepare people for what life’s like after school. We know that most people work in situations in which they don’t have precise answers, and they tend to work in project-mode on complex things that are ambiguous and hard to define. Big challenges and messy issues that need serious solution finding. And empathy.

So, we thought we would mimic that in school by teaching kids about all the stuff we think we already know the answers to. Projects? Oh, of course, we’ll do projects. We’ll have the kids make posters of their latest book report, and we’ll ask them to do it at home with lots of parent ego involved so that the kid’s poster will be the prettiest on Monday morning. And, we’re gonna have them take a lot of multiple choice tests because those hit you all the time in the real world – we take standardized, multiple-choice tests all the time in the real world. So should kids. We think that will really prepare young people for the world they’re gonna face when they get to work.

I think people’s sides will split. Hilarious, don’t you think?

What it smells like in the Sistine Chapel – contemplating Harris’ Trusting What You’re Told

Posted on by
1

Are children more Marie Curie or Margaret Mead when it comes to learning? Are they little scientists who learn best by experimenting and figuring things out for themselves, or little anthropologists who need to listen, observe, and rely on what others tell them?
– Lory Hough, Why Do Kids Believe in God but Not Harry Potter?

A project at Unboundary has led me to this apparent dichotomy, and to the two representative articles below. Of course, it’s not an “either/or” issue. As with most cases of deep, complex, human learning, it’s a “both/and” resolution. Learners are both scientists and anthropologists. Dr. Harris, in fact, makes this point in the HGSE Ed. article and in his book Trusting What You’re Told. Spending twenty years in schools as a professional educator, as well as eight years as a dad, has shown me first hand that children are both scientists and anthropologists. And, I imagine, I learned that by being both a scientist and an anthropologist myself.

I believe in the both/and of this. However, I could not help remembering one of my most favorite scenes from one of my most favorite movies – Good Will Hunting. Please know that there is some strong, adult language in the five-minute YouTube clip below. But the lesson is profound.

I imagine that Will learned from the dialogue and exchange, from an adult whom he grew to trust and love. And I imagine that Will learned from the experience in which the exchange occurred…and from later actually going to “see about a girl.” Not just taking his teacher’s word for it.

Why Do Kids Believe in God but Not Harry Potter?
By Lory Hough at HGSE Ed.

Little anthropologists
By Amy at Liber-Tree.com

PROCESS POST: Playing with words. Words matter. And all change is linguistic.

Posted on by
4

Words matter. And “all change is linguistic.”

It’s intriguing to me that we play guitar, we play soccer, and we play a role on stage. Yet, we take algebra, we take English, and we take history. I may be remembering my French incorrectly, but I think many of the expressions for play are composed of the verb “faire” – to do or to make. I love that. Isn’t that what we are realizing about our 2.0 world – that the masses are now empowered to be producers of content and creativity, not just consumers of such? That we are more empowered now to do and to make and to play even.

Are we, in fact, keeping up with this evolution in schools?

Perhaps we should do and make and play more – instead of take – in school.

Or consider the word we often use when one teacher decides to use an idea from another teacher. What do we regularly say? “Oh, I’m going to steal that idea.”

We talk of children getting an education. I’ve written before of children giving an education. Recently, at TEDxAtlanta “Edge of the South,” I heard Brian Preston speak about Lamon Luther and giving hope. I’ve also just read about his story on CNN, where I also watched a moving, three-minute video about the doing and making that helped people discover better lives.

If you read this blog much, you know that I believe school children can do and make this kind of work, too. They are capable. They care. They seek relevance and engagement. They appreciate guidance and support. They can do and make…good and well. They can give…even better than they can get.

To me, a thread that could hold all of the above together is the thread of SHARE. Enough taking and stealing. Let’s do, make, play, and share. Where do we first learn to share? Through play.

Perhaps we should play more. There’s certainly great evidence and thoughtfulness around this idea. The educationese is “play-based learning.”

When we play, we often find flow. We lose track of time, and an hour can seem like a minute. We perform more optimally as we become absorbed and fully engaged in what we are doing. Often, we are “giving our all” in these situations. Not taking. Something deep within us is being drawn and pulled out of us – something is being forged and revealed.

Words matter. And all change is linguistic.

As I’ve written many times before, I love the root of “education” – educare. To draw out from within. Or to guide out of the regular.

We need to share more. Play more. We should be guiding students to give an education. We should make certain that we are working to draw out from within, instead of trying to fill up from without. We should rebalance and guide out from the regular. We should do. Make. Play. Share.

What a difference could be made.