Can you spare 27 minutes for learning and world peace?

Posted on June 3, 2011 by boadams1

Do you have 27 minutes to devote to both educational reform and world peace? Do you? Just 27 minutes of your life. Twenty minutes is for watching the TED talk below – John Hunter on the World Peace Game. Two minutes is for reading my words here, which I try to make brief and get out of the way. Five minutes is to share the talk with another person or other people via whatever means you want. I would be willing to guarantee you that you will find value in the 27 minutes you spend doing so. Make it in the video to…

7:20 and you will see a teacher show an artifact of a simple game board that he designed so that he could avoid lecture, avoid dry textbook methods, and engage students in something we all love to do – play games.

8:00 and you will be wanting to build the enhanced prototype yourself…I do!

16:30 and you will see profound learning from a child that cannot be easily tested, but demonstrates self-evident assessment.

18:45 and you will contemplate the power of “spontaneous compassion” and a realistic hope for when these students earn the leadership positions of the world.

John Hunter shows the power of story, the power of dealing in questions rather than answers, the power of project- and problem-based learning, the power of 21st century skills leading the efforts of a classroom, and the power of a teacher who innovates and keeps learning. These are ideas worth spreading.

Many thanks to the colleague who shared this talk with me and our Junior High History PLC.

This post is cross-listed at Connected Principals

Unslumping Myself

Posted on June 1, 2011 by boadams1

For the first time in my life (hyperbole, but it seemed like a good intro), I disagree with Dr. Seuss. In Oh, the Places You’ll Go, he wrote, “unslumping yourself is not easily done.” I think it can be easily done. Just do something. This post is my “something.” And…I tweeted a few “somethings” this morning (early!).

I have felt that I am in a “blog/twitter slump” for a couple of weeks. Here are some of my excuses. Do any resonate with you about something you feel slumped about?

I am too busy. I can’t prioritize blogging and tweeting right now.
I don’t have time to write. I need to work on all the close-of-school and 2011-12 opening-of-school stuff.
I can’t think of anything good to write. I don’t want people to be disappointed in my posts or tweets. I want to say something profound.

Then, it hit me. I was slumped, at least partly, by a fixed mindset. If even a fraction of why I did not feel like writing was because I was worried what other people might think, then I had slipped into a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset [see Carol Dweck’s Mindset]. Hey, it happens to all of us. So…what to do? Just tweet. Just write. Don’t do it for any recognition, and don’t not do it for fear of failing. To quote the famous Nike adage, “Just do it.” So…this is my swing at the ball for this morning. I might miss. So what. I am writing. I am unslumping myself. Is there something you need to unslump yourself about? Pick one actionable item, and try. Ignore all the reasons not to try, and just do something.

Some folks might say, “Bo, it’s just blogging and tweeting. What’s the big deal?” (Of course, few if any of those folks probably read any of this.) The big deal is this (for me) – blogging is a great way for me to think out loud. I get to see what I am thinking by reading what I am writing. And if that’s all that happens, it’s worth it. But sometimes, someone reacts or responds to something I have written. Then, a conversation can happen. And I can do this for others on their posts and tweets. A seed can grow roots and stems. For me, blogging and tweeting (tweeting is just blogging in shorter bursts)
has connected me to a community, a network, of learners for which I am very thankful. I have felt disconnected from this network for two weeks. I want to reconnect. This will help me get started. This may just unslump me. It’s worth a try. Excuses got nothing on the screen. Taking 10 minutes and a risk produced something so that I could see what I am thinking. And, who knows…maybe a conversation can start.

Connecting JHPAC and GOOGLE Art Project

Posted on May 20, 2011 by boadams1

We moved into our current Junior High School building on August 3, 2005. I had been principal for two years, and I had a dream of helping establish a permanent art collection for student art when we moved into our new space. With the help of JHPAC (Junior High Permanent Art Collection) Director Mary Cobb, the art teachers, the students, and their parents, we now have over 340 pieces of student work in the collection. One of my favorite times is when Mary and I hammer nails and hang art each summer!

Now I have a new dream! I want to partner our students with GOOGLE and Amit Sood to supplement our JHPAC with this type of dynamic view and experience…

Can you imagine how cool that would be?! Our students could design and implement it…

Update on TEDxKids@BC Excitement!

Posted on May 18, 2011 by boadams1

On May 13, I posted about the excitement that a couple of eighth graders expressed about the possibility of engaging with TEDxKids@BC. One person commented on that post – Goran Kimovski, who is with TEDxKids@BC. THANK YOU, Mr. Kimovski. If nothing else even happens, I appreciate you taking time to comment, communicate, and excite! Such is a bedrock of learning, isn’t it?

Over the past weekend, a veritable flurry of communication exchanges occurred among the two eighth-grade learners, Ms. Gough, and me (Ms. Gough and I are part of the Synergy 8 team with these two eighth graders). After about 13 prototypes of a formal communication to Mr. Kimovski, here is what the eighth graders sent…

Dear Mr. Kimovski,

    We would first like to thank you for responding to Mr. Adams’s blog post in such a quick and inviting manner. Secondly, we would like to submit a proposal for the TEDxKids conference. Please let us know what would be the best way to do that, whether it be sending our thoughts to you via email or submitting some sort of application. We’d love to talk to you via skype; anytime from 2:40 to 3:30 EST is fine on our end, what time works for you? Below is a summary of our ideas and thoughts for this conference.

    School that cultivates a love of learning:
– increased student discussion less teacher lecture
– improvement and retention rather than learning for test and grades
– incorporating technology to reach all learners

    Over this academic year, we believe that we have grown as students and in our beliefs of what makes up good schooling and what school ideally should look like. Also, as participants of a prototype course, called Synergy, we had the opportunity to explore the concept of “ideal school” further. We would like the opportunity to let others know about what we, as students, feel about this important issue of education, and the evolution that’s necessary to better serve the needs of learners.

Thanks once again,

T. S. and S. Z.

If for no other reason (and there are many!), I am thankful for social networking media used for educational purposes. Connecting learners with passionate, critical topics for exploration and discovery and possibility…that’s what is required for innovation and improvement.

What are you excited about? With whom are you connecting? With whom are you exchanging ideas and possibilities? Who is on your team to help push the change and improvement we desire in the world? How are you spreading ideas? What ideas are you catching that others are spreading?

Get connected. It’s about learning!