writing in the open spaces

That phrase has been around for a while. I believe it, and this research helps cement that.

I’m trying to take care of myself this year–focus on good eating, exercise, and meditation. I’ve had good luck with the first two: I am trying to eliminate sugar and processed foods; I am also starting Boot Camp next week. This isn’t just a new resolution. I do this periodically because it makes me feel better.

But I struggle with the meditation, the mindful visualizations that are so important. The Cleveland Clinic lists these benefits to mindful thinking (which is different from positive thinking):

• Decrease anxiety
• Decrease pain
• Enhance sleep
• Decrease the use of medication for post-surgical pain
• Decrease side effects of medical procedures
• Reduce recovery time and shorten hospital stays
• Strengthen the immune system and enhance the ability to heal
• Increase sense of control and well-being

That’s where the meditation comes in. I am going to take five to ten minutes each day to sit, eyes closed, music playing in the background, and breathe. We all need time to regroup, and I am starting today.

Wouldn’t it be great to help students find the time to meditate each day? What benefits could we accrue by taking a few minutes with our kids to stop and breathe?

 

photo © 2009 Michael Stout | more info (via: Wylio)I’ll have to give @pcwoessner credit for sending me to Allison Zmuda. I was not familiar with her work, but her latest book is something I wish I’d had in the classroom.

Breaking Free from Myths About Teaching and Learning takes her research from 2008, using her format of essential questions, to make us think about this:

Is fundamental change possible given the myths our culture holds related to schooling?

I like the way she thinks.

In this article (I haven’t gotten my hands on her book yet), Zmuda lists the myths and expounds upon them:

Myth #1: The rules of this classroom and subject area are determined by each teacher.

Myth #2: What the teacher wants me to say is more important than what I want to say.

Myth #3: The point of an assignment is to get it done so that it’s off the to-do list.

Myth #4: If I make a mistake, my job is only to replace it with the right answer.

Myth #5: I feel proud of myself only if I receive a good grade.

Myth #6: Speed is synonymous with intelligence.

Myth #7: If I get too far behind, I will never catch up.

Myth #8: The way I want to be seen by my classmates affects the way I conduct myself as a learner.

Myth #9: What I’m learning in school doesn’t have much to do with my life, but it isn’t supposed to —it’s school.

Please visit her article for the discussion on each point. Her conclusion echoes Carol Dweck’s research,

The discussion of the nine myths above calls attention to those ways of thinking that may be familiar, but still jeopardize the power and joy of learning for teacher and student alike. Change your thinking; change your experience.

She encourages us to look beyond the myths, to “be free to imagine a better way.”

I think it’s a rather  hopeful way to start the year. Don’t you?

 

If part of your work means helping folks understand the shift in educational reform/revolution and the necessity for change, then this may help.

I stumbled across this e-book by Rick Maurer recently, and his suggestions for helping implement change seem simple yet profound.

He says there are three reasons why people don’t change.

1. Level One: I don’t get it.
2. Level Two: I don’t like it.
3. Level Three: I don’t like you

These three levels, he says, are alive and either working for you or against you. To move things along, he says you should:

1. Level One: Make your case.
2. Level Two: Remove as much fear as you can and increase the excitement.
3. Level Three: Rebuild damaged relationships and tend to neglected ones.

“Making a compelling case for change is the most important thing you can do–and the most neglected,” he says. “Avoid the trap of moving to HOW before WHY is answered.”

His e-book is here (about halfway down the page) and contains many specific suggestions (unfortunately he starts talking as soon as you hit the page, so turn down your speakers if you are in class!) The book (a PDF) addresses each level, so you’re not left with the “yeah, but how do it?” For example, he addresses how to “build institutional muscle.”

I’ve been saying personality plays a role in whether or not people seek change. And that may be. But we can’t change personalities, so these suggestions may help.

 

Reading this article about Amir Abo-Shaeer, the recent MacArthur award winner, took me back a few years. Amir has established an experienced-based learning program for his students.  Fast Company reports he runs the engineering Academy “like a business.”

“Students help write grants; they do PR, and they develop our website.” He calls his approach project-based learning and says the students learn both soft skills and business skills so they are ready “to join the world of work.”

“We are going to be left behind if we don’t see a paradigm shift,” says Abo-Shaeer. He therefore wants to see his project-based learning applied to all subjects and taught across the United States in order to meet the demands of “students as consumers of education.”

I applaud Amir for his work and insight into how students learn best– and what we can accomplish when we create the right design for learning.

Years ago, I taught high school journalism along with the standard English courses. Whenever I stopped to think about the difference in the two courses, I was struck with how much the journalism students gained from their real-life work. They wrote, published (yes, even back in the 1980s we used a Mac and published our newspaper at the local printer), and sold advertising. Working in teams, they learned to lead, collaborate, and share. We had real deadlines, and we stuck to them.

In contrast, my English classes, for the most part, sat in rows quietly, discussing the previous night’s reading or taking a quiz.Unfortunately, I hadn’t yet learned how to transfer what I had designed in my journalism classes to the rest of my day.

The journalism students tended to become better writers than my English students. They also approached their learning eagerly, often spending far more time working on our newspaper than our class guidelines required of them. Students engaged in debate about truth and fairness, they set goals, and they learned communication skills. Each student focused on his or her strength, whether advertising, photography, or writing, and yet, they all learned the skills. Heck we were even blogging back in 2004!

I guess  I am a slow learner because I finally realized I could apply similar principles to my English classes. And, as I’ve written before, much improved  learning came from this approach.

Amir has created a powerful program for his science and engineering students. His philosophy of education resonates with all of us who have worked to create project-based, authentic learning in our classes. And now he has been rewarded fully with a grant to teach other teachers.

This works.

image credit: By digitaljournal.com

 

Recent online conversations about rules and pencils have me thinking about my own teaching career.

My assigned summer reading before college was Ivan Illich’s book, Deschooling Society. That was 1970.

Before I graduated, I had read John Holt, Jonathan Kozol, and Herbert Kohl. As I moved into the classroom, these people shaped me as a teacher. At least in my head.

Yet, the system often wore me down.

That’s not an excuse, though I know it sounds like one. Fitting a square peg in a round hole isn’t easy. So I struggled to find ways to move around the structure and give choice to my curriculum and flexibility to my teaching style.

But now as I look back, I see that I was afraid. I was fearful of breaking rules, coloring outside the lines, of teaching in ways I knew would most benefit my kids.

Mostly, I felt alone. That was before the internet. Before learning communities. Before transparency. It was difficult to find like-minded people who shared my philosophy or desire to practice differently.

And then my world changed.

In 1986 I bought my first computer. A few years later, I began to use computers with students. A Mac to layout our school newspaper, a PC with PowerPoint to enable kids to create presentations, the text-based world wide web that allowed me to chat with someone in Switzerland one day. My teaching didn’t change overnight, and moving to an independent school did give me more flexibility. But having access to technology and the internet is what truly affected my teaching practice.

Jump forward to 2004, and suddenly I was blogging. And finding community. And support.

You know the rest of the story…because it is also your story. The connections have allowed us to find each other. Networking has enabled us to garner support for our “radical” ideas (tell that to Ivan).

My last year in the classroom helped me change even more.

A conversation with my cousin this summer validated my feelings. Her children attended a high school that requires no set curriculum and no grades. This is my niece’s second year in college. And although she struggled somewhat to convince colleges of her merit (she had no traditional AP courses or typical transcript from a standard school), her personal interview and portfolio sold her colleges and gained her acceptance into her school of choice. Her recent Facebook status read: I LOVE my college.

Freedom to learn works. Illich said this in 1971:

educational webs which heighten the opportunity for each one to transform each moment of his living into one of learning, sharing, and caring

Pretty amazing, huh?

We are better together. That’s the mission statement for Powerful Learning Practice, the folks I’m working with now. It’s like I’ve come full circle.