think:lab

The Epicenter of Someone's Family

Had you been with me last night at 11pm, you'd have been watching "Cinderella" on a TV in the local children's hospital, watching me gently rub the back of my nearly one year old son who had spent the day vomiting.  A virus that far outweighed a stack of papers I needed to grade (which I did around midnight when he was finally back in bed).

Thought about this a lot tonight during my school's annual "Parent Night" where we teachers have the privilege of helping our students' families take a hyper-fast, mini-tour of the student's entire class schedule just to get a sense for how the school day actually flows, as well as to meet the teachers.

But it' s more than that.  It's a night about what counts most of all...

"She's a Reminder That Ingenuity is Ageless."

Let's say you were sitting around the dinner table arguing about your favorite recent Fast Company article.  My mother might say, "Hey, the school of the future one my son was interviewed for," with an 'only a mom can get away with it' kinda grin.

Me?  I'd call the Ashley Qualls story a no-brainer in this category, although I've found myself wondering more and more about the Mahalo/Calacanis human-powered 'search' engine "Google Killer" article discussions to be informatively curious also.

Ashley Qualls? Isn't she the one who said:

"I created this from nothing, and I want to see how far I can take it," Ashley says. "If I wanted to do an Internet show, I could do it on my own. I have the audience."

Mmm, sounding familiar...

Nothing Like a Teen Wasting Time

I can't help but adoring this story, especially the following sound byte from the kid:

"Some of my friends think I wasted my summer but I think it was worth it."

I'm sure the good folks at Apple (and the dozen other companies and colleges chompin' at the bit to get him on their 'team' wouldn't say the 500+ hours of his summer were 'wasted'). 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if school hones such an instinct, as well? (he smiles)

Wondering. Could than can slip a chapter into his book about this guy?  If he (or anyone else) wanted to get to know the kid a bit better, this might be a great way to start. 

My recommendation: this would be a great blog (and idea generator) for teachers to consider spending some time talking about in a professional development session or during a faculty meeting dying for 'learning in the future' relevance in this day and age.  In particular, consider the step-by-step 'teaching' (by a kid, no less) that is going on.  Oh, and the learning, too!

First Week Highlights

Highlights are funny things.

Sometimes they imply fireworks. Sometimes they just imply knowing where the stapler is.

In no particular order, here are a few shapshots that completely won me over in my first week back.  Can't wait to see what they'll be in a week's time (in addition to this list).  While this is hardly a complete list, each has been a particularly striking part of my return to the teacher's life once again...

Taking the Kiddo to the Back-to-School Picnic

Early on my career, I had a colleague who was both mentor and friend on levels too numerous to name. 

What Glenn taught me about teaching, students, and life will take a lifetime to master...and years later I am still hearing his voice pull me forward as an educator.  He was a pilot, an intense AP History teacher, a soccer coach, and a philosopher; he loved playing the djembe drum, arguing late into the afternoon about what schools could be if we were truly serious about learning first and foremost, having his students listen to a particular Arlo Guthrie song each year, passionately underlying passages in his course texts, and practicing the art of ninjitsu (becoming a ninja, truly). 

Even more than all of this, however, he was an amazing father...

The "Robin Hood" Debate

Along with the cavalcade of "how to survive the class" moments (syllabus, class rules, teacher biases, and other assorted hints and nudges), part of these first (2) days were spent wrestling with the "Robin Hood" debate together.

Based on a fictional re-write of the classic Robin Hood concept, I presented all of my students the "untold" story of Robin, the Sheriff, Little John, and Maid Marion, which we read aloud in class together yesterday.  In particular, this story places all (4) characters into morally ambiguous situations where the results of their actions become unexpected decision dominoes throughout the rest of the tale, and nobody ends up looking pure in action or intention...

Teddy's Words in Late Afternoon Light

The first day back is nearly complete.  My mind wanders slightly as if on a river as the evening beckons me home. 

A breeze of wonder about tomorrow's lessons and the days ahead leans lightly against me.  Questions slide through a few crooked branches of missed opportunities, trampled on in the rush to get it 'all in' before the bell rung.  Kids' lives seem nearly in focus, but they are still only unpublished pages floating around in my imagination.  Trying like mad, I am, to freeze each moment I experienced today, like snow tracks for later reflection as time passes...

Can't Wait for the Bell to Ring

The countdown is how official.

In a little more than 7 and a half hours, I'll be in the car on the way to school for the first day of classes., ready to meet my 10th grade students and 9th grade advisees for what appears to be a great start to a great teaching assignment at a great school.

The syllabus is complete.  Photocopies 3-hole punched and stapled.  Opening class-wide 'debate' assignment ready to go.  Class rules (and Pet Peeves) re-written.  Already test-driven the mobile projector hook-up to my laptop.  Have a key that gets me into the 3+ classrooms I'll be using this year. Messenger bag filled to the brim with books, pens and gear (in lieu of having a permanent classroom of my own to store my goods).  Planning on being asleep by midnight (a rare treat).

Even the tie is picked out (with my lovely wife's approval).

In other words, I can't wait for the bell to ring.

Deconstructing the Wiki Decision

In the flea market of brainstorming about the 'future of learning' potential, this was one pretty tame overall:

Start a wiki to support the on-going work/research handled by my Eng II students this year.

Get the scaffolding figured out good-n-tight.  Do good work along the way. See what is possible over time.  And don't lose track of what matters most for your kids and the school as a whole.

The no-brainers: 

• In terms of technology and speed, a no-brainer. 
• In terms of cost and value, a no-brainer. 
• In terms of putting the big ideas into manageable terms, a no-brainer. 
• In terms of Safe Project 2.0, a no-brainer.

And then the implications and potential questions began to demand real attention in real time...

Know Thyself

Shake every decent (and above average) high school English class down, literary pennies dropping to the proverbial pavement in the hijacked process, and you're most likely left with one genetic purpose over all other options.

Not vocab skills.  Not writing style.  Not memorizing epic lines of epic poets to invite the gods to lean forward from their Olympic perches.  Not passing exceptional tests of rigor to be taken seriously by exceptional houses of higher learning on the way to developing exceptional lives of merit and worth. All good and worthy pursuits, but not really the up-shot at the end of the day.

Well?, one rhetorically ponders...