Do you see them?

by | Jul 24, 2012 | Reflect

Do you see your students? Sure, you see them.  When they walk in the room, when you roam around, when you teach.  But, do you really see who they are?  Watch this video of Joshua Bell, renonwned violinist, standing in a metro station.  People passing him by. People failing to see him.  People not even noticing that what he is playing is amazing.  People rushing. Too busy to get going. Too busy to see him.

When it comes to our students, do we just pass them by?  Do our perceptions and preconceived notions about what we think we know give us a false sense of really knowing our kids?  Or, do we stop, like the lady near the end of the video.  She stops.  She sees Joshua Bell.  Not just as some guy playing the violin.  She sees his talent, embraces it, is grateful for it.   It’s a powerful thought.  It’s our job to see our students strengths and build on them.

We are all busy.  We all have tons to do.  But the most important thing we can do?  Be sure we’re seeing our kids. Everyday.

Today this video was presented as part of the Mickelson Exxon Mobil Teacher’s Academy in New Jersey.  It’s an amazing experience. If you teach grades 3-5 apply!  

No Limits, Just Learning

by | Jul 20, 2012 | Reflect

No limits. Just questions, exploring, thinking, building on each other’s thoughts, connection to self, connection to each other, connection to the world.  Just authentic projects born out of the thoughts of kids with standards weaved in wherever they naturally fall.  No hours of lecture telling kids things. Just kids rising above expectations and out-thinking the teacher.  No ‘Googling’ solutions.  Just figuring things out through creative, innovative, and collaborative problem solving.  No kids asking “Why do I have to learn this?” Just kids digging in deep. So engaged they lose track of time.  So interested they crave more.  No limits. Just learning.

Today’s the anniversary of man walking on the moon.  The process that got them there? Totally complex, fascinating, and challenging.  The goal that got them there? They believed they could.  Encourage your kids to believe anything is possible. Then set them free in the type of learning environment where it is.  

Improving STEM Education?

by | Jul 18, 2012 | Reflect

I am excited anytime I hear others taking an interest in STEM.  I believe that science, technology, engineering, and math are key in understanding how the world works.  If you’re going to solve problems, then you need a great foundation in STEM.  This morning, I started hearing about the White House plan to start a STEM Master Teacher Corp.  By this afternoon, there was a Twitter chat.  Now? I’ve been reading articles like this to try to understand the program.

What’s missing here? At first glance, I see that it’s a program to pay teachers to be mentors.  I see that it’s going to target ‘high-need’ schools.  Makes sense.  But the questions I am left with are many:

How is this program going to ensure that teaching is transformed from ‘teaching to the test’ to authentic, hands on, real world experiences?

How will the damage of ‘teaching to the test’ that’s been done in schools, training of America’s teachers, and forced practically everyone in education to ‘pass a test’ by focusing on fact based teaching ever be repaired?

Will the focus on current standardized testing be slowly transformed into focusing on more formative assessment as the school level so that authentic learning can happen more naturally?

Will the mentors be trained in inquiry based learning so that the content in classrooms is taught through authentic experiences, projects, and connections rather than textbooks, facts, and memorization?

My eyes and ears are open.  I truly hope change is on the horizon.  But, until I hear more details, I have lots of questions.

The Freedom to Think

by | Jul 18, 2012 | Reflect

A four minute video. A paper pig. A billion photographs.  Its creative.  It’s genius. It’s funny.  This is the exact type of stuff you often hear “I don’t have time to show that in my classroom because of testing.”  This is the exact type of reason why education is in trouble.  No, a video of a paper pig is not going to fix education or “raise test scores.”  But, that shouldn’t be a reason to completely ignore it.

This stuff?  It’s creative. It’s out of the box.  It shows the kind of free thinking our students need to be open to if they are really going to solve the future’s problems.  The future? It’s problems are going to be things we haven’t even considered, dreamed about, or thought of.  It’s going to take every ounce of creativity, thinking, and innovation to fix.   Kids will need the ability to look at words like “Wolf and Pig” and think beyond that classic fairytale “3 Little Pigs”, past the books, further than the facts, beyond the standards.  It’s going to take the freedom to really think.

Don’t make the mistake of limiting kids imaginations, because limiting their imaginations only limits our future.  Let’s not make that mistake.

A Dose of Pintereality: The Brain

by | Jul 16, 2012 | Reflect

I love Pinterest. But, my life? It doesn’t live up to Pinterest.  Here’s a dose of what I like to call Pintereality.

I’ve gotten a few requests asking me how I created this brain for my classroom wall.  The glowing brain you see on Pinterest is a finished product.  The real reality? My hands were covered in adhesive.  My kitchen table stained with spraypaint, and I had to improvise with duct tape and bowls on the back to hang this thing on my wall. After it fell down about 98 times, it finally stayed.  Last summer, I was like, oh, I want a light up brain on my wall.  You know how that goes.  Or, at least my family does.. a mess was on it’s way.

Materials:

  • pink fluffy yarn (for the border and the lines in the sections)
  • thin pink yarn (for all the squiggles)
  • pink or red tissue paper for background color (paint might be easier)
  • spray paint (just to add a bit of coloring over the tissue paper)
  • decoupage glue to glue tissue paper down
  • spray adhesive to glue yarn down
  • foam core for shape
  • exacto knife (so you can feel like you are doing brain surgery)
  • Christmas lights
  • patience
  • pizza for dinner (because your kitchen table will be occupied for about 24 hours while this thing dries)

Steps:

I cut the brain with an Exacto knife and coated it with decoupage glue. I smeared wadded up tissue paper all over it to give it a rough-ish brain-like texture.  I thought it didn’t quite look brainish.  So, I added squiggled yarn all over.  The decoupage glue didn’t work, so I used some spray adhesive. Holy big mess, Batman!  My hands were sticky for about three weeks after I made this.  After it dried overnight, I poked the lights through the back . The great thing about the foam core was it was easy to poke the lights through AND they held in place.  When I went to hang it, I realized it would need to be raised off the board a bit for the cords to have room.  After a brainstorm (HA!) I found Styrofoam bowls that I found shoved in my filing cabinet with a little duct tape they did the trick.  I had to run a string through the top and hang it with two giant push pins.  It stayed up all year.  Now it’s in my garage.  Because, that’s what happens at the end of the year. I move stuff and don’t know where to go with it.  The Pintereality of it all is that I have a giant, light up brain in my garage.  What do you do with that sort of thing?  When I’m on Hoarders some day, at least it will make a good story.