What a Journey !

I wrote a thank you note in the dark this morning at 4 a.m. and left it on the bedside table of my friend who had happily let me crash in her hotel room last night before heading home from ISTE. I managed to sneak out without waking her and headed downstairs to catch the shuttle I had ordered for the airport. I didn't fret too much when it didn't show up and instead got in a taxi, confident that few people would be at the airport at 5 a.m. Boy, was I wrong!

The check in line took me thirty minutes to negotiate and the security lines were the length of the terminal. I joined the shortest one and tried to calm the disconcerting idea that I might miss my plane. After forty more minutes I could finally see the screening equipment but was mortified when the guy I had been chatting to noted his disgust at how slowly our line was moving for first class. I apologized for getting in the wrong line and started to head to the back of the terminal when the guy stopped me and assured me it was okay. It would have been very easy for him to be irate with me but he chose not to and truly I was thankful for that.

I was the last person to get on the plane and when I got to my aisle seat it was taken by a mother with a baby and toddler. She explained that her son’s seat was the middle seat two rows away and asked if I minded swapping. Being a firm believer in Karma, I took the middle seat and in thanks the stewardess offered me a much needed coffee. I was feeling pretty good about myself until the lady next to me explained that she too had given up her first class seat for a serviceman. I was still processing how awesome that was when the pilot announced that we had a computer issue that they were working on, estimating a twenty minute delay. 

An hour later we were still sitting there when my generous neighbor asked the stewardess for a glass of wine, explaining that she was becoming increasingly nervous about the flight. When it came, she split it with me and the guy to my left who was also a teacher returning from ISTE. I wouldn't normally drink wine at 8 a.m. but the three of us raised a toast and clashed our plastic glasses in celebration. We were far from celebrating take off, that was still two hours ahead of us, we were celebrating the fact that we were in good spirits, in spite of adversity, and enjoying each other’s company.

What should have been a three hour journey became a six hour journey and I can honestly say it was a pleasure. I don’t recall hearing one person complain angrily, moan bitterly or pout childishly; even the children on board were fantastic. Everybody just played the cards they had been dealt and made the most of the situation. I myself thoroughly enjoyed the company of my travelling companions and engaged in some great conversations. It reminded me that the choices we make on our journey, be it from one place to another, or indeed through life, can have a significant impact on those around us.

We are frequently travelling at such speed that we collide into the people around us and the collisions can have positive or negative consequences depending on the choices that we make. If I had been met with an angry response from the guy in the first class line I doubt I would have given up my seat so willingly. I would not have met my two new friends and I wouldn't have been inspired by their generosity and thoughtfulness. If we spent more time looking up, instead of down at our phones , looking out for, and embracing collisions with others there would be a lot less dents in the world and a whole lot more opportunities for connecting in meaningful ways.

Being on the Expo floor at ISTE for the last few days I collided with a lot of people and I’ll be spending the next few days wondering if I made dents or opportunities. I am fortunate to be surrounded by many amazing people and I have the potential to increase the number exponentially if I just take more heed during my journey. Right now, opportunity knocks, and I’m going to collide with my family to make up for time lost.

Sailing Into Summer

Wow! I'm amazed at how long it's been since I've written a post. That is truly a sign of how hectic the last few weeks have been. The pace at school becomes frenetic as I try to wrap up curriculum, conduct field trips, organize end of year celebrations, not to mention end of year testing .My own two children have had several concerts, recitals, sporting commitments and all in all I feel like I've been tossed and tumbled around on a ship in a storm, clinging on for dear life, praying for calmer waters.

Now that summer is finally here I feel like the storm has subsided and I can begin to process and think thoughts that are my own again and blogging has always helped me with that. Picking up where I left off though has been more difficult than I expected. I feel rusty, struggling to find my voice, my words and stringing them together into something that makes sense is taking longer than it should. It's a good reminder for me that over the next few months our children are going to become academically rusty if we don't keep practicing the skills they have worked so hard to acquire during the last school year.

I can see squalls on the horizon when I tell my kids what I have in store for them. My son considers himself somewhat of a math ninja so keeping math skills sharp will be easy. I am going to have to get creative with reading and writing however and somehow figure out how to incorporate Lego and Skylanders. My daughter will write song lyrics all summer and she will pout about math but we will go head to head about reading, which breaks my heart since I am an avid reader. I'm hoping that I have piqued her interest enough by withholding the Hunger Games trilogy and that she will happily sit and devour them on her tablet. We can live in hope right?

I'm looking forward to launching into my own learning journey this summer too. I want to consciously go beyond my comfort zone for my own personal growth, but I'm not sure how yet. I’ll let the notion percolate and see what opportunities arise. I love that about summer, having the flexibility to change tack and go where the wind takes us. I attended and presented at The Learning Conference 2013 this week and it’s always fun to meet and engage in conversations with new people. I am very excited about attending ISTE for the first time next week and sharing some super aspects of Windows 8. I’m hoping that I will be able to absorb much too and get inspiration for next year. An added bonus will be catching up with some of my Partners in Learning network friends. These people serve as my compass and always steer me in the right direction.

Congratulations all my educator friends for completing another school year and making a difference in the lives of your students. Relax, recuperate and regenerate this summer and may the wind fill your sails!

ART EDUCATION’S VITAL MISSION IN THE 21st CENTURY

Professional development days often provide opportunities to talk with colleagues we never normally get the time to sit and talk to at length. Last Friday I was fortunate to be able to spend the morning with Gerald Melton, the school art teacher with nearly fifty years of experience under his belt. The conversation began with a celebration of the resurgence of the importance of the arts , highlighted by the STEM to STEAM movement but moved on to Gerry’s observation of a declining skill among a certain population of students that may have a significant impact on the workforce of the future. I am thrilled to introduce Gerry as my first guest blogger and invite you to join our conversation:

With the current proliferation of personal digital devices, boys are becoming increasingly lacking in development of their fine motor skills outside the school art class. During the last half of my 46 years of teaching art to children of all ages, mainly elementary and middle school, I have noticed a marked decline in boys’ choosing activities outside of school which require the practice of fine motor development, or, manual dexterity. Boys, of course, will continue running, biking, and playing on their own and participating in organized sports. However, quiet time activities are tending to be spent more with home computers and hand held electronic devices for entertainment than with tactile, constructive activities.

A major change in boys’ dwindling choices of tactile project pastimes is the disappearing hobby of model building. In the past, building plastic and wooden model planes, cars, ships, etc. was practiced at some time in the life of the majority of boys, along with assembling and painting other kinds of kits like soldiers, or board game pieces. Scratch- building with scraps of wood and junk with a few hand tools have also long been a part of growing up.

Hobby shops have almost disappeared along with their plastic models - a ubiquitous product once regularly found in drugstores, hardware stores, and even grocery stores. In my art room I have a list of free choice activities for students to do at lunchtime or between assignments.   Along with free painting, scrap work, and other crafts, the direction to “Bring and construct a plastic model…” results in the question, “What’s that?”  Only one boy has assembled a plastic model kit in my art room during the last twelve years.

The closest things to the traditional hobby shop are large stores like Lobby Hobby, Michael’s and Jo-ann’s. The clientele is mostly female because areas of male interests cover a relatively small niche in these stores which sell fabric, scrapbooking, flower arranging supplies, and such.

Girls, thankfully, continue to be interested in and practice fine motor skills with personal activities like hair braiding, nail painting, and makeup application, as well as with hobbies like drawing, painting, beading, and decorating almost any surface.

With so much emphasis on attaining academic excellence on standardized tests and the growing use of electronic media in most subjects, opportunities for students to develop fine motor, eye-hand coordination by manipulating craft materials outside the art room are  becoming fewer as teachers of other subjects are pressed for time.    Additionally, lack of art supply money and/ or the avoidance of messes made are other factors.

Will it become just a girl thing to practice small motor skills tasks in their formative years so that the majority of American students who exit high school with capable manual dexterity in the future will be predominately females? If so, then surgery, electrical work, and baiting a hook will be mostly “girlie” activities.   Will Nano engineers and Nano technicians become job categories for females only?   How about female dentists only?

something to think about.

gerald melton,

art teacher.

Auras in the Classroom

My students have been creating a game to address some areas of school culture that give them cause for concern. Code Cobra challenges students to become top agents by completing missions that are designed to help students develop a greater understanding and appreciation for each other, the environment and education.

I am really impressed with the level of commitment shown by my core team of designers and I’m really excited about their product. Always their own greatest critics they wanted a bit more pizazz for their game, something that would get other students really excited. That’s when we discovered Aurasma, which overlays video onto any image. My students have plans to take photos all over the building then hide missions in them using the Aurasma application. This will add a whole new level of mystery to the game and hopefully ensure a higher level of engagement from the wider school population. 

But I am discovering that this app has so many more possibilities. In science class my students made their own body system books with third and fourth graders as their target audience. In the event that some students may struggle with the reading or the language, we used Aurasma to overlay them with movies explaining how each of the body systems work.

The display boards in my classroom can now spring to life as students can add commentaries to their own work, I can add directions or explanations to enhance informational displays and we can engage a wider audience by adding auras to hallway pin boards and exhibits. I am planning to utilize this app at different centers in my classroom for group work. I can overlay any page or worksheet with specific instructions, making the students more independent and enabling me to work more closely with individuals or teams.

To get a better idea of how Aurasma works I invite you to open an account and follow me at pr05bps. Hover over the image below and you should be able to enjoy a movie of my students sharing their favorite inspirational Dr. Seuss quotes.

How would you add auras to your classroom?

A Basketball Full of Character

Teaching in a school of third thru eight graders, we rarely have presenters who can catch the attention of every age group. Yesterday we were lucky enough to have a guest speaker who held all 660 students and every member of staff in the palm of one hand while spinning a basketball in the other!

I have never seen Jim Basketball Jones present before so I was a little unsure of what to expect but what a treat. As nearly 700 people streamed into the gym from every possible direction, far from being intimidated Jim immediately took command, organizing the seating the way he wanted and teaching us about his audience expectations .He asked for us to be patient listeners, responding carefully and thoughtfully to his words and to bring forth our best efforts to participate with purpose. The ground rules established, he began to juggle and spin several basketballs and I can honestly say my jaw dropped! His skills were mesmerizing and our students were enthralled as he pulled up volunteers to spin basketballs on their fingers, their faces, on top of pens they were holding…it was a joy to behold. But this was not just an amazing spectacle, it was an hour loaded with character education.

In between tricks and stunts Jim told stories, evocative stories about children and adults he had encountered in the past who had taught him much about life and how to live it. His first tale was about a teacher at a previous presentation who had volunteered to take a shot at the hoop in the hopes of winning a basketball. She wanted to win so that she could be remembered at the school, but the consequence for missing was to do ten push-ups. When she did in fact miss, and it was obvious she was unable to complete the consequence, he asked for the other teachers to volunteer in her place. When nobody offered, the hand of a kindergartener popped up and a little boy gladly offered to take her place because he wanted to be there for his teacher, just as she was always there for him. The little boy had cerebral palsy and to everybody’s amazement the child completed the task. From that point on he was always known as “Champ” by his peers and teachers.

One tale after another conveyed moving messages about kindness, perseverance, honesty and integrity. It was thrilling to see the entire audience turn to their neighbor and declare that they were each important, that they mattered, that nothing would stand in the way of their goals. Even a game of Simple Simon provided an opportunity to demonstrate key concepts such as leadership, striving for excellence and supporting and helping each other. Jim’s concluding tale about his personal struggle with learning disabilities and eventual success left much for us to ponder and there were several misty eyes in the room.

This was a fantastic assembly for our whole school to enjoy upon our return from mid-winter break. For me, it was a compelling reminder of the power of a story well told. As a child, teachers asked Jim why he spent so much time and effort learning how to spin basketballs as it served no real purpose. His response: because it makes me happy. Maybe the most effective way to teach character education is to simply support and encourage our students to pursue their passions with courage, determination, and dedication.

Epic Fail

My daughter and I are learning to cook together. My mother’s most essential cooking utensil was a can opener so it’s an area in which I am lacking key skills, but my daughter has a creative streak with food so we are trying to figure it out together.

We trawl through online recipes, choose one that seems most appealing and challenging, shop for it and do our best to follow the instructions.  Many of our cooking adventures result in epic fails but we enjoy the process of experimenting, tweaking, adjusting and ultimately learning. Failure holds no fear for us, indeed it spurs us on to do better, and it occurs to me that I need to fail epically more often in the classroom .

My students brainstorming skills are improving. They are at the point in the year where they have established trusting relationships, and they more familiar with the routine of trying to generate 100 ideas in ten minutes with no holds barred. It is moving from ideas to action that seems to pose the greatest problem. As soon as they begin to consider their ideas they can generate just as many, if not more reasons why their ideas won’t work. They reach an impasse quickly and will tend to descend into a dulled state of defeat and inaction. Rather than attempting a challenging solution and learning from their mistakes they prefer to choose not to try at all.

The question is, how do I help my students attempt to solve a problem with the same fearless enthusiasm that my daughter attempts a new recipe? I need to make my classroom more like my kitchen; a fun place for messy experimentation, a safe place to make mistakes and a place to celebrate success. I can make a start by modeling failure more often.

Instead of being just a coach and guide I am going to try and become more of an active participant. When I ask students to solve challenging math problems I am going to attempt solve some myself. When I ask them to build something, I will build too. When I ask them to play a game, I will play too. Being an active participant will enable me to demonstrate what it looks like to take risks, to dive in, evaluate, consider alternatives, rethink and try again. It will also provide opportunities for open and purposeful conversation about failure, about redefining success and about character traits like grit, determination and perseverance.

As educators we constantly hear that it’s not about the tool, (the iPad, the interactive whiteboard…the can opener) it’s what you do with it. Well my new learning tool is going to be failure, maybe my plan will fail fantastically, but the process will be epic.

 

A Tale of Two Classrooms

I have been feeling quite unbalanced for the last few weeks because my math and science classes have been so diametrically opposite.

The mid-year assessment window in my district is coming to a close and my math students have faced a battery of assessments. During the last two weeks they have taken end of unit tests, NWEA online tests,  mid-year tests, basic fact tests and the Orleans-Hanna algebra prognosis test. The classroom has been filled with silence broken only by coughing, sneezing, sighing, pencil pushing and head scratching. The usual fun banter has been banished, collaboration has been banned, engaging debate driven out, and I have been…bored! My role has been that of a spectator, watching from the sidelines. I’ve been watching the introverts happily and quietly calculating away to their hearts content, watching the extroverts struggling to contain themselves, watching kids become agitated, frustrated, anxious, weary, sick. It’s such an alien environment and I’m eager to get back into the mathematical fray.

In stark contrast my science classes have been fun filled and high energy. We have been participating in the Gravity Cruiser Challenge from the award winning A World in Motion Program. Working in collaborative teams of three, the students have been designing and constructing a vehicle that is powered by gravity. The basic model is comprised of a weighted lever, connected to an axle by string, which rotates on its fulcrum; as the weight descends it causes the axle attached to the string to rotate, propelling the cruiser forward. Once the students have the basic model they play around with variables to make the cruiser travel as far as possible. Concepts explored include potential and kinetic energy, friction, inertia, momentum, diameter, circumference, measurement, and graphing.

It’s been exciting to watch the kids struggle with this challenge, posing theories, testing hypotheses, thinking outside the box. Science, technology, engineering and math have burst into life as my kids are crawling on the floor, under tables, over tables, up the hallway, down the hallway trying to outdo their personal best distance. We’ve also been fortunate to have visiting experts join us to share their wisdom. Relatives with engineering experience have spent their afternoons with us, getting down on their knees and offering help with the process. It’s been wonderful to team teach with dads, uncles, and cousins and watch them struggle to maintain a supporting role and not just tell the kids how to solve the problem. One parent went home and built his very own cruiser which he eagerly shared with the class, demonstrating beautifully how engineers love the challenge of solving a problem. The conversation and learning that is taking place is exhilarating.

Tomorrow all 220 fifth and sixth grade students will celebrate Valentine’s Day with a cruise off! All the gravity cruisers will be put to the test to find the winning design and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate not only the holiday, but also the end of the testing window and the wonderful learning that takes place when the whole community comes together to work and explore together.