CHANGEd: What if we taught history backwards or offered “war and peace” course? 60-60-60 #42

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For many years at my current school, I held membership in the History Department. In a newsletter one year, I proposed the idea (don’t think I am the originator!) of teaching history backwards – start today and work backwards in time tracing connections and interesting linkages. Dr. Lamplugh even did it one year (said he loved it)! One could weave this approach together with thematic teaching in a course like “News.” Or even better, one could employ Steve Goldberg’s deep-digging approach detailed in his recent post: “Why not teach about war? We’re fighting two right now….”

I think it’s about making connections, don’t you? Connections with “what’s going on today” and “how did we get here on this issue?” Connections with the PEOPLE living this news and emerging from these histories. Connections among the things that we overly silo…called departments or disciplines.

The spider cannot weave a web except by leaping from where she currently resides and connecting to another anchor. From these anchors emerge the threads that last when the wind blows most viciously. From these anchors empathy blooms.

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained

CHANGEd: What if teachers and students swapped roles more often? 60-60-60 #41

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Empathy and EQ (emotional intelligence) may just be the most critical character traits of the present and future. As my students have recently defined it in Synergy, empathy is putting oneself in another person’s shoes. I wonder if we do that enough in schools – actually placing ourselves in other people’s shoes. On September 30, 2011, I published a post called “Freaky Friday – just an idea for a student-teacher switch.” This weekend, friend and colleague John Burk sent me a post entitled “Make Teachers Classroom Students.” What if teachers and students swapped roles more often? What if we wove these practices into the fabrics of our schools?

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained

[Author’s Note: Before finally hitting “schedule” on this post, I turned to my book shelf to reference Dan Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind. Sure enough, “empathy” represents an entire section of the book – one of the six highlighted senses. But I knew that. What struck me was this  – until I referenced the table of contents, I did not realize how much I was mentally utilizing the six senses as the themes for these 60-60-60 posts. A major “AHA!” moment for me.]

CHANGEd: What if teachers wore advertising like pro athletes? 60-60-60 #40

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I’ve joked about this idea for years. Picture teachers in NASCAR jumpsuits riddled with brand advertisements. Or think of teachers leading in classrooms like pro golfers walking the links with sponsors emblazoned on their hats and shirts. Or ponder master teachers doing endorsements like Michael Jordan or Mia Hamm.

Seems crazy, doesn’t it?! But what if…?

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained

CHANGEd: What if we scaled “playing school?” 60-60-60 #39

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In our vocabulary and parlance, we play sports and we play instruments, but we go to school. The action and agency of those verbs are very different. When young children simulate school, however, we say that they are playing school. Many times an older sibling wrangles younger siblings or neighbors to sit in rows and columns of desks to take lessons from a chalk board or white board. The organizer almost always plays the role of teacher – the one in charge, the creator of the lessons. What if we scaled playing school and empowered more students to stay in those roles of being in charge and creating lessons? What if instead of saying, “I go to school,”which can sound so passive, we talked of playing school? And what if folks began to speak of playing school with the fervor and excitement with which we talk of playing sports and playing instruments? In the long term, such a shift in the way we talk could lead us to value teachers more like we value professional athletes and musicians…don’t you think?

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained

CHANGEd: What if school could look more like Caine’s Arcade? 60-60-60 #38

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What if school could be more play-based, more project-based, more passion-based? What if school could look more like Caine’s Arcade? [WATCH the 10 minutes! You won’t regret it.]

A boy, a dad, and a stranger share the roles of “teacher” and “student.” There’s math, engineering, communications, design, sociology, social media, economics, marketing, ethics,…

[Many thanks to @occam98 for making me aware of Caine’s Arcade! My boys are saving boxes now!]

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained