the Fun Theory or thefuntheory

So what behaviors can we change or affect with a little fun? As I read Debbie Miller's books, Reading with Meaning and Reading with Intention... tell me that she and her students are not having fun! Fun can be so easy to do in the classrooms with children. Kids seek out fun! Adults also seek out fun. Why do we sometimes make the classrooms the last place to have some fun... it should be the first. Afterall, learning is fun and that is the message we want our kids to live life knowing. (More later...)

Twenty-Ten, MidYear Again... So What? or NOW WHAT?

We're back at school and boy what a week it was. Some highs and some lows... and some interesting twists! My big high is the opportunity of teaching electricity unit to 4th graders... on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The focus is to model a unit that I have for the science teachers and that we will together, collaborate to update, re-vise and upload into SchoolNet as a FQL Unit. Day one is always so exciting... as the kids get their materials (the aluminum wires they made from tape and foil, the bulb, and the dry cell) and they are asked to light the bulb. Oh... they so think they know what to do, but yet it shows very quickly that they don't. The discovery, exploring and open structure is such a fun 30 minutes... students are talking, questioning, helping each other... and the scream of delight (often from someone that is rarely the typical successful one). when the bulb is lit. I have a month of these exciting lessons...

Another high moment was sitting with a great friend and colleague at dinner and chatting about different schools' perceptions and perspectives at the midyear point. Where are we? What's working, what's not working? So what... or NOW What? Both of us have new roles this year and we have new perspectives within these roles. We have the advantage that often a classroom teacher does not have due to their hyper-focus on their students and their curriculum planning, assessment and instruction work. And... we understand this... we want to HELP. This week brought opportunities of working on Schoolnet to create groups, to look at lag data, to drill down to some specific analyses... and the opportunity to create a relevant midyear test draft for another team. For them to preview this coming week... looking at what they taught... making the test more relevant for their students. Twenty-ten is bringing some tighter circles and some common purposes. I see movement towards NOW what?!

Another big moment this week was the attendance of a leadership meeting at a school where the topic was midyear reviews and assessments. The waters were murky and potentially unpleasant at the start of this topic ... but alas it evolved, cleared and purpose emerged. Energy soared at the end as a pot about to bubble over! But... it is apparent that assessment literacy is weak for all of us. As a system, we still get mixed messages from leaders and colleagues that confuse us. The questions that must be guide us are these: What is the purpose of the assessment? Is the assessment relevant to... A) what we taught? or B) what we were suppose to have taught? or C) not relevant at all. Once we figure out that answer... I would just stop and not assess if the answer is C... why bother? Do we want the data to predict, to pre-assess, to reflect on our instructional practices, or to compare to the school across the highway? hmmm... important questions lead to important answers. Data should be relevant... it should be owned by the teachers. Shouldn't it? It should be relevant to the students and the teachers, I'm thinking. It should give us pause for reflection. What worked? What didn't? Who needs what? Who is exceeding... NOW what? Assessment DRIVES instruction. We say it... but sometimes it's apparent that we don't believe it. When someone tells you what assessment to give, does that make it not relevant? Are assessments final and not living documents? Can assessments sometimes simply be "kid-watching" and knowing what you see as a professional? Are assessments not indicators of what we need to teach, if we haven't? And what about AUTHENTIC Assessments? They matter most of ALL, I think. Watching the students close the circuit and explain the touchpoints this week... now that's real to me. We will continue with this as we move to series and parallel circuits. The kids will have many chances to deepen their understandings in a fun hands-on way. I appreciate that information coming straight from the student as I watch and listen and learn (about them and the topic)! Not to mention the excitement of collaborating and their demonstration of knowledge or misunderstanding... or problem-solving what works and what doesn't. Isn't that really thinking? Don't we ultimately want the child to think and problem-solve and collaborate? How exciting does it feel for the students when they read about it only in a text book or see a picture of a circuit and have to answer whether the bulb will light? Oh yes... I have some of those diagrams on the SchoolNet test I created this week... the lovely and dreaded multiple choice assessment, but won't the students smile and remember their experiences when they see that question... as they confidently choose their answer? If not... I (the teacher) has more work to do. Also... don't forget I have other evidence of learning...videoclips of the students showing and talking and explaining... that's documentation, too! Assessments... wow. Why is it such an ugly word to many teachers? "Takes too much time... not relevant... the kids know more than they show on this type of test". So... I say, "prove it! Document it! Show it!" and yes... it all takes time. No argument there. All things worth doing, takes time. But, if it's relevant and you have a real purpose, then it is time well spent. Now what?

What's Changed in 2009?

I think Darah's comment to Will resonates deeply with me as I ponder the upcoming perfect (not to be taken literally) storm in ACPS. Budget, programs, systems, hierarchies, etc. Is now the time to blow things up and start over? Did we really start with the blow-up last year with the restructuring? I love the idea of new opportunities, but I also fear the riots! Talk has started... fear is setting in? Questions are arising? People's worth and systems are being challenged. This can be very good indeed... but what comes out on the other side? Has everyone sacrificed yet? It will truly involve sacrifice if you do not embrace the challenges as an opportunity! Has everyone changed at least one thing that they've always done? Where are you? Where am I? The coaching model will certainly come under fire. I am in deep thought over the pros and cons of this model... as I work to use my collaborative spirit to influence reflection. So what's all this about reflection you say? I'm now arriving at what has changed for me in 2009. REFLECTION. Analyzing reflection based on conversation and observation... and moving toward experimentation. I know... this sounds like "bullsh!##. But it really isn't? More later... as my thoughts right now are getting deeper than the snow outside. I've had to let go of familiar spaces and people and embrace new. I've attempted to be true to my beliefs and practices within new environments. It hasn't been easy, but yet I'm aware that it looks very easy. I need to think some more on this post and the changes that I've personally experienced. But... in the meantime, I challenge you to think about what's changed for you in 2009 in your professional life as an educator? Where are you growing and which of your attitudes have been challenged?

12 TED TALKS for Teachers before 2010

Well as I sit snowed in and procrastinating about my holiday life... here are some inspirational TED Talks that I am enjoying. It's amazing what you can learn while flitting from one micro-blog to another... and how time can just pass you by. Is it wasting time or is it time well wasted? I will plow through these talks before my road gets plowed and that's for sure! Enjoy... if there's anyone out there!

Students as Contributors or Provoking Thought!

Students as Contributors or Provoking Thought!

Alan once again makes great points on myths and assumptions of our world today. This video is so right on and it just depresses me to even think of how I can make a difference... but I must. I feel as if teaching has been my calling in life... I am much happier with my work than many people appear to be. Is this because I feel the value of my life's work in making life-long learning a goal for everyone in my classroom or in my workplace?? I wonder. Does having a job where you truly contribute to others such as teaching really make a difference?? As an instructional coach, Will posing the right questions, having the pointed conversations, and posting things such as this video really make a difference? Can I really teach kids and other colleagues the real value of critical thinking... or better yet, do I even understand how to keep moving forward in the ways that the world requires today. Thought provoking... this is simply thought provoking. What I learn every day can be simply stated as thought provoking. But... starting with the thought of students as contributors is easy for me to grasp. In our communities, our families, our schools, our states, our countries and our world... we must start with citizens that contribute. to be continued. must think.

HOW FASCINATING!! (learning from Benjamin Zander)

As I read Benjamin Zander's book, The Art of Possibility, it puts me in a " right place" with my job and my personal life. Rule # 6 is a great place to start. Humor and laughter are one of the best ways to get over ourselves! Humor can bring us together around all of our stressors, constant calculations, many discouragements, miscommunications that bring us down, and the many demands and expectations from ourselves and ones around us! Benjamin states that Rule #6 can help us distinguish (and hold at some remove) the part of ourselves that developed in the competitive environment of the "measurement world". You know that world... the SOL world, the budget world, the AYP world, the money world.... He refers to this as our calculating self. When we apply Rule #6, we coax ourselves and this calculating self to lighten up, which breaks a stressful hold on us! In work...my coaching team certainly is a serious bunch, and we all are so different and yet very compatible and complementary of each other. I'm so fortunate to have these brilliant colleagues in my corner. We tap into each other's strengths... but the thing that really solidifies our working and personal relationship is the fact that we attend to Rule #6 and we occasionally visit BTFI!

So who is Benjamin Zander you ask? He is the co-author of The Art of Possibility and conductor of Boston Philharmonic. He is also an educator at the Boston Conservatory. Here's the exerpt...

I've included below an exerpt from a blog post titled in my copious free time, on Zander http://inmycopiousfreetime.typepad.com/in_my_copious_free_time/2008/03/ted2008-day-3-s.html This blogger's comments and notes are from listening to him speak. It's in tweets or notes, so may be confusing... but they mirror the stories I remember Ben Zander sharing this summer, so here they are in red.

I love the story he usually tells about the 2 shoe salesmen who go to a remote area and both telegram back about the prospects:

One said "Prospects grim, they never wear shoes here."
The other said, "Prospects are incredible, they don't have shoes yet!"

"I'm a one-buttock player" - the music moves his body around. (@missrogue and I went to Twitter this at the same time and we've finally worked it out so we'll take turns instead of double tweeting the good stuff)

People aren't tone deaf. Everybody has a fantastic ear. If so many people were really tone deaf, they'd never know when to shift a manual transmission car.

He played a Chopin prelude in different ways, finally telling a story of the longing in the piece and how the notes reflect the feelings and they need to be treated as a whole, not as each individual note to be plunked out on the keyboard.

"For me to join the B to E, I have to stop thinking about every note along the way. This is about vision, the long line, like the bird who flies over the fields and doesn't care about the fences below."

"The conductor's power depends on his ability to make other people powerful. My job is to awaken possibility in other people. If the eyes are shining, you know you are doing it. If they aren't shining, I must ask, "Who am I being that my players aren't shining?"

Possibility to live into -- we might not be able to achieve perfection or a very lofty goal, but we can work into it, live into it.

Please consider reading his and his marriage partner's (Rosamund Stone Zander) book The Art of Possibility. It's a short and easy read, but very inspiring.

He told a story about some of his students not showing up to watch a performance and how disappointed and mad he was and Rosamund told him to apologize. "If people don't do what you want them to do, you can always apologize because you didn't enroll them."

He went way over, but I don't think anyone cared at all. We ended with everyone singing the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 - he put the words up on the screen in German (sort of phonetically spelled) and worked us through it and each time we'd all start singing and he'd stop us and encourage us to put more into it. He told a story about a musician who was practicing a piece for an interview to be the associate (2nd chair?) cellist? (sorry, can't remember) in a Barcelona orchestra. Zander thought the guy was holding back - he kept working with him until the guy was giving it all he had and the guy went away to Spain for the interview. He came back and said he hadn't gotten the job because he played the first way, holding back. But then he said, "oh, fuck it" and went to Madrid, auditioned for 1st chair in their orchestra and got it. So Zander says that you have to get BTFI - Beyond the "fuck it"point.

That's the long way of saying that we got BTFI and it was incredible for that many people to be singing together one of the most joyous and magnificent pieces of choral composition ever created at the end of day 3 of one of the most stimulating thinking experiences imaginable.

As I mentioned, I had the privilege to hear Ben Zander speak last summer at Alan November's Building Learning Communities conference in Boston. We also sang the "Ode to Joy" in German, as well. I also had the opportunity to see and hear the Youth of Americas Orchestra as he conducted the group that evening... and then party with them afterwards! Wow... what an incredible experience!! This man is amazing to hear and watch! Energy abounds him. He is such a positive force. I need to carry a bottle of Benjamin Zander in my pocket at all times... and sip from it!

More entries on the book later. Better yet, READ IT! So... if you hear me say, "how fascinating!" or BTFI or rule #6... you will better understand.