The Most Powerful Rooms in Any Community

Young students in our schools are studying communities and how neighborhoods, home, and cities are alike and different.  On my morning run through my little city of Grand Rapids today, I thought about how  our Godfrey-Lee district is experiencing much of the same success that our West Michigan region is. 

The similarities?  I think it comes down to a clear vision, a willingness to take risks, and a commitment to support each other through the inevitable challenges.  Teachers in my buildings are doing just that: aligning their work with a 21st-century vision, opening pathways for students to take the lead, and helping each other learn from results. 

Just as Grand Rapids has transformed itself through vision, new ideas, and grass-roots leadership, so too have classrooms in my school community.  Teachers are partnering with each other and with students to become culture-creators, and our classrooms--the most powerful rooms in any community--are transforming what it means to teach and learn.

Hope-fully

I began 2011-12 with a charge to my staff: Find joy in your work this year.  It seemed like the appropriate focus for a year that promised many challenges--and the staff came through with regular expressions of gratitude to each other for the many ways that each brought joy to our school community.  At our final PLT, a teacher presented each of us with a small bag of remembrances to help us keep the joyful spirit alive.  

This year, I plan to start the year helping my team remember joy and look forward to hope. Hope is misunderstood I think, largely because Americans have taken the word "hopefully" and turned it into an expression that is tentative and unsure:  "Will you learn to play the guitar this year?"  "Hopefully"--as in "I haven't really looked into it, don't really want to practice, and doubt that I'd like it that much anyway." 

Hope is different than expectation. My dog regularly displays expectation: when the treat drawer is opened or the leash gets attached to her collar she perks up and pays attention.  But she can't "hope." Hope is the ability to envision a "different" than what currently is and to have the capacity, commitment, and drive to do what it takes to accomplish that "different."  Like Pavlov's, my dog can only anticipate what is known. 

Some of us are better at hope than others.  I had a friend who was very content with life, so content, in fact, that I asked him once if he ever hoped for anything.  He said he had, but he didn't really expect much.  I told him that a perfect epitaph for him would be "He was a content man, for he lived with hope but without expectation"--a recipe for contentment, perhaps, but an oxymoron when it comes to accomplishing things that have yet to be revealed. 

So this is a year of hope, of taking what we know, what we do, and what we will learn about students and learning, and transform our schools to meet all needs and help all students find success.  Do we expect this will happen?  Yes.  Hope-fully.

Figure 8’s and the Future: What do they have to do with each other? Remarks from this principal to her 2011-12 fifth graders

"Welcome! I am happy to have a few minutes to talk with the whole class, their teachers, and their parents about important things, at this last all-fifth-grade event of the year.

I’d like you to think about a figure 8.  Picture one in your mind.  Where does it start?  Does it have an end point?  Today, I’d like to show you how a figure 8 is like the journey that you are on, and we’ll leave today with a visual reminder of future journeys you will take throughout life.

So, a figure 8 really doesn’t have a start or finish.  It is just two loops that travel around and around.  If you think of a figure 8 as your life, then this Wednesday really isn’t an end, and next September in 6th grade really isn’t a beginning.  Instead, all of life’s big events are part of one journey, one that depends every day on the choices that we make. 

In a few minutes, we are each going to draw a figure 8 to remind us that life is a continual cycle of making choices.  Then, we’ll each turn our figure 8s into a boat, to remind us that we are on a journey.  Each person here will write his or her name on the boat as well as a few words that capture a choice that you made this year that made the journey a positive one--for you or for someone else.

Before I show you how to do that, I want to remind you of some choices you have and can make, as you move through your next steps in your own figure 8 of life.  In the paraphrased words of someone I respect very much:

Go into new adventures without worry and with courage.
Hold on to everything that is good.
Don’t hurt others even though others may hurt you.
Strengthen those who aren’t as strong as you.
Help those who are sad.
And most of all... Honor and respect everyone because their journey is important too.

So, let’s get going on the drawing.  I’ll show you what we are going to do first, and then I’ll walk you through each step and you can draw along with me.  When your boat is done, please write your name on the boat itself, and write a few words on the background of the card about a positive contribution you have made this year.  As you finish, head out of the gym by either door, and we will staple all the boats to our bulletin boards.  After our whole school has a chance to see them, students may take them off the board on Wednesday to keep as a reminder of his or her journey here.

Thank you again, teachers and staff, for providing so many things that have made our journey together a safe, happy, productive one. Thank you, parents for coming and for working alongside us. Thank you, students, for sharing your lives with us, some for three full years.  We wish you the very best as you continue on your life’s journey."

What PBL Isn't

Sometimes, it is easiest to understand something new by understanding what it isn't, so here are some very general rules of thumb to consider as you work with students to develop project-based units:

If the main assessment for a skill is only a test, it likely isn't project-based.

If the main audience for a project is the teacher and classmates, it might not be project-based.

If the assessment or project involves only one way of knowing (subject area), it doesn't sound project-based.

If the project is completed by individuals in isolation, it may not be project-based.

If there is no connection to the real-world that the child experiences, it usually is not project-based.

Does that mean that skills are not ever taught in isolation?  Almost.  It means that any skill building is a mini-lesson leading to something greater that has a real-world focus and audience. An example:  A teacher mentioned to me that he was thinking about having kids map out the actual dimensions of early-American homes, to see how big (small) they were.  Great idea!  So far, it is just an activity that needs to be pushed further to become project-based.  Using that experience, the students could interview architects about modern home needs, could map out the dimensions of the colonial home in their own home to see how many rooms it would take, they could take the experience of less-is-more and inventory their closets, to see what wants/needs are represented and compare that to the wants/needs of colonial times.  Last, they could do a photo-documentary of their findings and invite the home builders association in to view their own drawings of adequate modern home needs.

Every one of these ideas includes many, many other skills, which likely will need to be taught up front.  While it may seem like this would take a lot of time, it will, but the relevance and deep, meaningful learning that will result is critical.  PBL is not very linear, it is an organic approach that requires good planning, flexibility, and responsiveness to children's' interests and experiences. 

TEDx Grand Rapids: Intelligent Optimism

TEDx Grand Rapids, May 2011, was not only an opportunity to become more informed, it was also an unprecedented opportunity to become more inspired. 

My career life has had moments when inspiration was the norm.  When I was a teacher, inspiration was a wonderfully common part of my experience.  Colleagues and students alike inspired me to connect the world outside with the world.  Everything read, every experience, every conversation found its way into the classroom.  I loved the threads that connected ideas over time and place.

Since then, I have taught, developed curriculum, and become a school administrator.  Many, many days, I miss the connectedness of life in a classroom. My students. Our classroom. Shared successes. New connections. Challenges.  Satisfaction. Life as a school administrator isn't as connected.  Ideas can be disjointed.  Threads of inspiration can give way to the frayed fabric of educational challenges.  Best intentions can unravel.

Then, there was TEDx GR.  Once again, I had that connectedness that I knew before. Each presentation led to the same conclusion.  Every conversation cemented the fundamentals that I experienced and learned early in my career: Intelligent optimism is what changes the dark corners of the world. Change agents live, move, and have their being knowing that one person can catalyze solutions. Skeptical?  Draw your own conclusions.  My tweets from the day are posted below.  What do you hear in them? 

Takeaway from TEDx GR: Intelligent optimism will change the world one problem at a time.

Just when you think TEDx GR couldn't get better.... twitpic.com/4wsn62

Final TEDx takes stage: Garrett Borns plays ukulele and sings while images of worldwide wonder roll on screen. Great way to end great day.

Every moment we have that is angry, frustrated, upset robs self of joy, happiness, satisfaction according to Michael Strong, TEDx GR.

What is flow state in which engagement is total? Michael Strong at TEDx GR says it is solving problems in meaningful ways for positive end.

Life shaped by wonder different: empathy, curiosity, openness to experience, reverence for life. Shape others through positive emotions.

Wonder is part of innovation says Robert Fuller TEDx GR. Religions everywhere hold us in a state of wonder as we peek into infinity.

Mobile on TEDx GR Civic Theater stage inspires too. What do educators need to put in place to balance the whole in pleasing way?

TEDx speaker Amy Davidsen speaks about a clean revolution by starting with story. Good technique to capture interest and connect audience.

Last break of the day at Activesite at TEDx Grand Rapids. Inspiring day! twitpic.com/4wqtm3

S. Boukadoum at TEDx on innovated capitalism with delayed profit loop. Reminds that much of success we enjoy is through no fault of our own.

TEDx GR's Carol Coletta says that no matter where we live cities matter to our success. GR a model city in many ways.

Cyborg musicality: innovative sounds from Patrick Flanagan at TEDx Grand Rapids.

Jeff Kimpton of Interlochen next up on TEDx stage at Civic Theater in Grand Rapids. Jazz IS innovation.

True innovation has happened when society changes expectations and norms. Angela Nahikian at TEDx Grand Rapids.

TEDx GR lunch break crowd at GRCC. twitpic.com/4wp8jm

Miller-Moro innovates justice. Men and women are like 2 bird wings. Both must be strong, connected, of one purpose, and unique. TEDx GR.

Innovation happens at the intersection of easy and impossible--Fred Keller of Cascade Engineering via TEDx Grand Rapids.

Curation. Steven Rosenbaum at TEDx says that avalanche of information needs new approach. Thoughtful filters, listening, new clarity tools.

Imitate, emulate, innovate. Three young Interlochen musicians explain at TEDx GR how brain lets go of fear to move to new understanding.

More patents held by Americans than any other country. Creativity is alive and well. Arts in schools essential for growing innovators.

Innovation isn't taught but conditions to innovate created. What have leaders you know done, shown, created to make innovative atmosphere?

Break time at TEDx is time to meet and collaborate with local innovators. Interesting, vibrant conversations happening. twitpic.com/4wnsk2

SEL as important as STEM says Mickey McManus TEDx GR: Social Emotional Learning. Design literacy as systematic approach to solving problems.

Innovating education says Mickey McManus needs new literacy of bridging gap between advanced technology and people.MAYA organization mantra.

Imagination kit challenge: www.imaginationkit.com. Enter to be part of global community of innovators.

Innovating innovation guru Gabor Burt at TEDx GR:meaningful innovation is part defying conventional thinking. Need for car not faster horse.

Ultra rapid renewables being developed to replace plastics says Sam Harrington at TEDx GR. Our grandparents thrived without any.

Sheryl Connelly Ford Motor Futurist says at TEDx GR that uncertainty can compel not control. History never repeats self precisely.

TEDx stage in Grand Rapids ready for innovators. twitpic.com/4wm19d

TEDx getting underway at Civic Theater in Grand Rapids. twitpic.com/4wlyu5

Rewards

My interest in motivation and the role rewards and emotion play continues.  Effortful control, literacy, and fear all have roots in these processes.  Genetics seems to influence some of them, but education has incredible potential to enhance and develop motivation, through the use of emotional connection, relationship building, creativity, and goal setting. I'd like to know more to help my faculty learn ways to capitalize on ways that the brain works best, to work with teams to create programs and interventions that help students overcome learning obstacles, and to support my district's efforts to create exemplary schools where students' learning differences are affirmed and supported through experiences and collaboration with others.

Flex the Physical Environment

An ideal physical learning environment is, most importantly, flexible in function and form.  So, furnishings should be able to be moved around and reconfigured easily, work surfaces would be variable for different needs (stand-up desks, walkstations, exercise balls for seating, etc.), and wireless computer access would make cords less of a hindrance. Even teachers who desire to flex learning spaces are hampered by the heaviness and bulk of desk/chair combinations and the fixed nature of some technology.