think:lab

"Circle, Circle, Dot, Dot..."

Sunday post:  "Fatherhood P.O.V."

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Watching Him Closely

Its in his eyes.

Even @ 23 mos, everything the world can offer is found in my kid's eyes.

Absorbed, refracted, re-built, questioned, adored, challenged.

Everything.  Captured in Beckett's eyes.

And I spend every second in his presence trying to figure out what he's just figured out.  Put two and two together. Fallen in love with.  Influenced by. 

And what will stick as he shifts from pre-memory toddler to full-memory kid.

Kid Memory is the Darnedest Thing

A 7th grade science teacher said something to my classmates/me years and years ago that continues to hold fiercely to my gray matter:

The earliest event you can actually recall happening took place somewhere between the ages of 18 mos and 3 years of age. 

[paraphrased just a bit, since I'm digging 25+ years deep on this]

Image: Into the Unknown, by Thomas Hawk

Not sure what causes this, nor do I recall any 'facts' he gave us to support his claim (although every time I ask a new class of students of my own to recall their first memory -- that does not require a parent telling the story over and over to them again -- I find that he was pretty much right). 

My non-scientific guess:

Perhaps it occurs when a toddler/child is finally old enough to 'frame' experiences by real language of their own that allows the mind to finally hold tight to the event's existence in its future memory banks.

You See: The Radio Loves a Good Story

Thought about this again yesterday as I was listening to This American Life's "Fear of Sleep" episode on the radio.  It was the story of the man's memory of his 6yo self watching a particularly classic 70's film that grabbed me. 

Makes me wonder when my own 13 mos old Beckett will begin to collect events in his mind -- fuzzy and accurate alike -- that will end up in his conscious memory filing cabinet long into his adult life.

Probably something that involves oddly constructed boogeyman fear and/or the smell of homemade apple pie.

Nearly Spit My Milk Out

After listening to my 23 mos old kiddo repeat "Wuch moh Chalee, wuch moh Chalee, wuch moh Chalee"

[rough translation:  "Watch more Charlie (Bit My Finger)"]

over and over this morning, I was charmed to have a fellow teacher type point out this lovely kid-centric vid recently, a video that oh-so-cleverly combines brilliant high-level satire with summer camp nostalgia: 

Can't help but love the "All I did was trade Lunchables" kid.  He gives a delightful close at the end of the vid, in particular. 

Also had a hard time not spitting my milk out my nose when the "circle, circle, dot, dot..." moment happened at the 0:53 mark.

Ultimate Assignment Today?

Seems to me that the "PSA" [aka:  public service announcement] -- both in earnest and playful terms -- may be the ultimate school assignment today in terms of combining the following formula:

digital video hunger/possibilities +

content research +

storyboarding +

thoughful editing strategies +

a love your audience mindset =

legitimate demonstration of learning

Keep it to 30 seconds.

Be brutally honest to your students re: storyboard, edit, and audience components.

And tell 'em that for every 30 sec of final content the save, they might need an hour or more of raw footage -- and a lot of time spent rigorously editing -- until the final product really sings.

Come up with a dynamite rubric they understand and you can put your name on.

And then set 'em free.

Limits Academically

Limits in terms of subject/curriculum? 

Nah. 

None really exist, save for engendering academic purpose/results and maintaining a code of respect & common sense at all times. 

Beyond that it doesn't really matter if one choose a political topic, satire, political satire, current events, history, literary characters creatively brought back to life, foreign language study, or life at school.  It only matters that:

a) its relevant to the class

b) the students understand what they created content-wise

c) the superficial cleverness of doing video in class doesn't replace the power of a well-crafted piece put in the hands of a truly engaged audience.

For What It's Worth:

Because this falls into the "no specific blog post category" category -- and I simply ache to make sure everybody falls in love with it as I have -- I'm going to use the thinest of connective tissue to rationalize my placement of it here. 

Answer:  go back and listen to the entire This American Life radio episode and see if you can find the connection. 

Hint:  Colorado snow, 6yo hero, classic fright, 'nuff said.

Maybe you'll find an academic purpose for the vid.  Or maybe you'll just grin nostalgically if you were watching film in the 70's.

In the meantime, see how many seconds it takes you to guess the literary/cinematic reference the vid comes to an end. Enjoy:

Training Ground For the Next Generation

Saturday Post: "Inspired School Design"

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Visuals with a New Intent

I was delighted to have recently discovered photographer Monica Nouwens who is giving the visual study of 'school design' in Los Angeles a shot in the arm via her "monicanovolumethree" blog these days.

From California architect Stephen Phillips, AIA, the following comment of his is worth passing along:

Nouwen’s photographic research in Los Angeles, challenges the effects that recent school revitalization projects have had on the everyday lives of its city residents. Nouwen’s images reveal schools that create a training ground for the next generation through big, vast, powerful and contemporary building structures.

Pssst:  Did you catch that line of his about the "training ground for the next generation" business?  Mmm. (wink)

Another Side of Campus

For the purposes of my new commitment to re-frame my Mon-Sun posting habits through specific category themes from this point out -- i.e.  Saturdays are now "Inspired School Design"  days -- these photos came into my life at a really advantageous time, too:

Beautiful | Decay Indeed

Funny where inspiration lies. 

Sometimes the best school design lies down the urban 'art' rabbit hole.  Such was the case tonight as I followed a trust us wink and a no kiddin' nudge from the good folks keeping things visually real over at the Wooster Collective. 

That's how I found Beautiful | Decay and their highlight of school design that led me to Monica's work.  Go figure!

One Last Thing

Check out Monica's work on a couple of other fronts if you're digging her work:

• "Volume 1" blog
• "Volume 2" blog

Innovative Trails of Facts and Possibilities

Friday Post:  "Big Picture" Inspiration"

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Follow the Old Skool Cheetohs Trail

Much like the police who recently followed the Cheetohs trail of empty snack packs to find the trio of teens who broke into a vending machine at a local community center (and later were caught at one of their family homes where the evidence trail came to an end), much of learning are fact trails laid out by teachers taking advantage of time-tested protocols for helping students move from point A to point Z in a given knowledge-based curriculum.

Image

As tempted as I am to wave the future shift flag high above my head on occasion, I really do enjoy a student who has a solid base of knowledge under their feet before they begin to debate with me the semantics of a better way to learn in my classroom. 

And I find that very same student even more compelling when their knowledge base can show me something new, too, especially if it can have a legit impact on our shared classroom and my own professional development in the process.

Big City Police Dept. Showing a Better Way

But we all know that traditional education only gets you so far up today's learning curve.

Let's say you're a big city police officer who has a hard-to-solve set of surveillance footage of a series of recent crimes.  Let's say that even with the footage, you and your team are having a difficult time finding legit suspects. 

What do you do, besides pulling out the "Cold Case" filing cabinet drawer?

Well, perhaps -- like the Dallas (TX) Police Department has been doing recently -- you begin to post surveillance footage of various crimes on YouTube in an effort to engage the community to share tips/leads.

Crazy, you say? 

That's precisely what many of the department's own officers said at first.  Until they began to get some crazy view counts on what would otherwise be random/useless footage. 

And now suddenly those same officers who faced internal criticism suddenly look like new media Lone Rangers in the process.  Especially when one such video post has already led to an arrest.

Have You Made Your List, Yet?

Heck, if big city police departments are turning to YouTube to help their cause, how am I supposed to shake dy/dan's new media curriculum list prompt from not so long ago? 

Seriously. How? 

Maybe it was this subtle bit of challenge that stirred the idea-pot for me:

So love what you teach and sharpen your eyes to find what you love embroidered within the fabric of popular culture. Don't present these videos to your students as gimmicks or, worse, as winking concessions to their allegedly lowbrow tastes. These videos are important to them, which makes them important to you.

As he said, it's about what's important to our key audience (students).  And thus what's important to us (teacher types).  This is what the police dept figure out.   To their benefit. Seems that maybe a single teacher like me shouldn't stand in the way of new media networking inevitability. 

Right?

That's precisely why I'm already in talks with Dina about co-developing an English-centric reservoir of unexpected video gems that support a host of classroom specific ideas along the lines of what Todd has been doing with "literary terms" (personification, simile, irony, you name it). 

Throwing the Kids into the Game, Too

Dina's suggestion to me grew out of a comment I left over at the dy/dan joint:

In the meantime, I’m going to get back on my comfy “let the children lead the way” pied piper bandwagon chair and challenge my students to populate an English-centric list (say, literary terms, which Todd already began to develop quite well) with a delicious snack-fest of multi-media goodies of their own.

And in a blink of an eye -- thanks to Todd's list -- this very project concept has taken a front-n-center seat in my planning book for this fall's classroom program.

For me/my kids, it'll be a gathering of film and TV episode clips that highlight the various stages of Joseph Campbell's hero journey which will be central to everything we analyze/write this year.   I'm already burning the midnight oil over in YouTube land finding more 2 minute film trailer gems than I can possibly cash in.

You See: YouTube Loves Joseph Campbell

Such as?

• Think Fozzie Bear and Kermit the Frog singing "Moving Right Along" ("in search of good times and good friends...") as they hit the road early on in "The Muppet Movie" helping to illuminate the "Crossing the First Threshold" concept. 
• Think Neo being offered the blue pill by Morpheus to shed light on the "Supernatural Aid" (i.e. meeting the mentor) chapter. 
• Or think "The Princess Bride" as a whole giving every archetypal term a run for its money.

Even better, think, "Hey, students, how about you begin brainstorming a master list that we fill with YouTube clips during this first week of the school year?  Maybe we can put together something that students/teachers from around the world studying Joseph Campbell and literary heroes can use to grasp what you guys will be experts on?"

Following a Tangentially Similar Spirit

Hardly the first to link here, but I'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan of MadVs "The Message" hand vid (along with the rest of what he's putting on the screen).  Something tells me that it'll be an interesting conversation prompt -- void of any real set-up by me -- early this school year:

Maybe I'll ask, "What do we do with this bad-boy here in our very own classroom?", after the vid comes to an end. 

Or maybe I'll just let it hang in the air, zero words added to the mix.

Wanted:  Eng. Teacher Types, Good Radar

Any English teacher types with decent radar for locating new media clips that cleverly illuminate various concepts for MS/HS English students interested in teaming up on the creation of a master site of resources that follow through on dy/dan's/todd's challenge?

If so, fire me off an email or comment.  Dina and I would love the company.

In the meantime, I'm gonna add to my English teacher grab bag this lovely little clip from "Pineapple Express" which I just saw at the theater today:

A surprisingly good film (once you get past the obvious stoner white noise that almost seems straight-to-cult-video for the first 20 minutes) that follows in the clever footsteps of "Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead".

File it under "epiphany" | "transformation" on the lit term shelf for your young story writers.  Something tells me they'll nail the vocab quiz that follows.

Unexpected Trip Down Memory Lane

Wednesday post: "The Student|Teacher Dynamic"

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Circling Back

Every teacher who has been at it for a few years has at least one story of a student that circles back over time to say hello.  Perhaps that now-adult student shares a few stories about how a particular class project or blackboard talk made an impact on their life.  And on occasion, such a student even shifts from calling you "Mr..." or "Mrs..." to that of "friend".

Such is the case with Blake who has shifted from 9th grade English student and soccer player the first year I was given a full-time classroom of my own while teaching/coaching in Dayton, OH in the mid-90's...

...to becoming a regular member of my life friend list now that he's holding down a professional career of his own, has mentored more recent students of mine, and continues to send word from various travel adventures he takes when his client list can wait.

Be Careful What You Ask For

I just received the following email from Blake, along with the following shot of him sitting next to the Bronco mascot of my central Maine high school that I graduated from 20 years ago:

To quote your email from January 30, 2008:
 
'If you really want to impress me and go way, way, way out of your way, drive to Bangor, Maine, but stop in the town just shy of it.  Called Hampden.  Stop at Hampden Academy, the joint that I called home from 9th to 12th grade. Take a shot of you in front of the old building and/or sign.  I'll give you extra credit on your next 9th grade paper you turn in.'
 
Well....

P.S.

Well, indeed.

And I'm willing to offer him that extra credit just as soon as he turns in that Lord of the Flies essay he owes me.

(wink)

Re-Framing the Conversation

That Pesky Cheshire Cat

Seems that the Cat's enigmatic response to Alice's "How do I get there?" question has a way of being correct however it catches your ear. After all...

...if you don't know where you're going, any path will get you there.

Taking Stock

After writing (gulp) 2,100+ posts covering a wild-n-free range of topics (occasionally even a few that suggest value) here over the last 4+ years, I've been aching to re-organize my approach to this entire edu-blogging venture.

More than blog spring cleaning, a return to life as a classroom teacher (over the last year) has re-framed my intentions here.  While I can't ignore that my radar remains intrigued by a wide range of ideas, I am moving forward with a much more intentional focus that taps into both my right and left brain.

To ensure success in this transition, this is the road map I'm intending to follow:

A Calendar of Topics

Monday:             Hero's Journey, Classroom Literature, The Book Shelf
Tuesday:            The Writing Process
Wednesday:        The Student|Teacher Dynamic
Thursday:           Future Think|Trends|Tech
Friday:               "Big Picture" Inspiration
Saturday:            School Design
Sunday:              Fatherhood POV

Clarity & Practicalities

While in the past I've followed a "whatever catches my mind" posting approach, I'm actually going to be pretty rigorous re: only posting on topic days. 

And pre-thinking posts, too.

Likewise, I'll organize my research, links, & brainstorming for future posts via a wiki that will allow me to keep track and develop ideas well ahead of posting.

Funny how 4+ short years of blogging can finally refine one's thinking. (wink)

***

Image: Cheshire Cat, by pixiepics2008

Taylor Mali's "1000 New Teachers" Push

Once Upon A School

Most TED fans -- who also dig the world of classrooms and teachers, especially those with edu-blogs -- have already taken note of 2008 TED Prize winner Dave Eggers' "Once Upon a School" challenge wish.  Put simply:

He called upon every adult to bring their time, skill, and energy to bear on the lives of students. In collaboration with teachers and schools around the world, people are making his wish a reality.

The 1,000 Teachers Project

While you're at it, it might be worth re-visiting poet Taylor Mali -- of the oft passed-around "What a Teacher Makes" viral video -- who has a teaching challenge of his own:

253 Teachers & Counting

Check out "the teachers" link to hear the voices of the individuals who have thus far been inspired to enter the classroom as teachers in part because of Taylor's work, words, & wisdom.

Here's #253, FYI:

Re-Wiring Our Storytelling Instincts

In a day and age when its ever-so-tempting to re-play the "half of all teachers quit in 5 years" stat over and over, perhaps we'd be better served by shifting gears to focus on those that are entering (and choosing to stay in or return to) the classroom in spite of the challenges and stat-counters.

Do Non-U.S. Celebs Give Me More Cred? (wink)

3D Stars-n-Stripes Glasses

Anyone who spends even a little bit of time in the edu-blogosphere eventually begins to realize that we Yanks tend to assume that the world of education must revolve around the planet of American. 

Ain't This Good Enough?

Sure, we love our "global" projects and love to spout off about how we have colleagues in our digital Rolodex from all parts of the globe.

But we tend to be -- well -- just a bit US-centric in our thinking. 

Perhaps we oughta stretch our lens a bit further into the known universe and agree to let the rest of the world shine a bit, too. (wink)

Just a Teaser

Backstory

Essentially, UK celebs are invited into a classroom setting to talk about their memories of being students.  Accents aside, the stories are truly universal. 

While there is no one way of pulling this off, I'm gonna toss into the mix a quick episode -- regarding exams -- from Channel 4's The Law of the Playground, now one of my favorite edu-candy discoveries of the summer. 

Disclaimer

Some course language in a few of the episodes, but I'm sure all of us are big boys/gals and can filter out such things in the spirit of broadening our minds.

Certainly Worse Things Than Guerilla Gardening

A Shoe Company, Right?

A current Adidas campaign (highlighting their new eco collection) caught my eye in a recent Trend Central mailing:

"While this is an extreme form of environmental activism, expect it to become an increasingly aspirational activity as young people are looking to have a cool experience while doing good."

Just Pick Their Brains for a Bit

Think I'd quite enjoy putting this in front of my advisees this coming fall.  Just kick the heart of the unexpected 'activism' idea around.  Not so much to inspire a deliberate mirrored set of actions, spade/shovel and all.  No.  Not necessary, nor my place. But to talk about what it means to leave a mark on the world around us that inspires, grows, evolves on behalf of everyone's benefit. 

The Unexpected

Kinda hover over that last bit of the following short film as the 'imagined' urban forest takes shape and the guerilla gardeners imagine commuters on the way to work having their spirits lifted by the sudden arrival of an apple tree on what was once barren/forgotten land.

A Suggestion for Reader Types

A lovely read for all aspiring guerilla gardeners, me thinks.

Finally Tying Those Loose Parts Together

The Big Top is Open

For better or worse, I now have a functional circus tent that covers just about everything I'm doing in this wacky digital world. 

Thanks to my ed-tech-design gal, Kate Olson, for walking me through some of the scary parts the last few days.  Hope I made her proud:

***

Luddite is as Luddite Does

The tricky part of being a tech luddite in this web 2.0 day-n-age is that some things still take 'under the hood' know how.

'Cause You Know He's  Got a Point!

Through the celebratory chiming of summer wedding bells out on Catalina Island, I swear I can hear that dy/dan fella smacking his that's what I've been tellin' you, buddy! buzzer right about now. 

Sort of a related thesis to one of the many expert v. engaged amateur threads he's been rightfully developing since many of you/us were in web 2.0 diapers.

Please Hold My Hand (aka "Steal My Wallet")

This is of particular interest to me every time I daydream the crazy idea of aggregating all of my blogs, digital projects, consulting/speaking elements, and various this-n-that elements under one central digital big top. 

Sure, a fell can easily drop a decent chunk of change on as many domains as he wants.

But he still has to figure out how to code/design those web domain addresses so that become actual web sites. 

Sheesh. 

That could drive a brother to re-invest in paper and slide rules.

Wait...

...what was that?

You're telling me that all I had to do was finally take that WordPress contraption seriously? 

You mean I didn't need to be paying my TypePad homeboys a cool 3-figures of my allowance every year like clockwork?

There Ain't No Door Prize for That

Sheesh. 

Who do I talk to about a refund? 

Or at least a bit of edu-tech school 2.0 sympathy?

Getting Our Head Back in the Box

Prowling for My Benefit

Man, do I love having a cool design cat like Ethan prowling around the planet's hidden gem alleyways for visual-wonders...that I can cherry-pick on occasion.

The Fella Has Mad Game

Sure, I'd like to be as savvy as he is re: noticing design everywhere he turns, but in the meantime I'll just continue to pimp his Flickr stream (not to mention his web site, his Grab Bag (art) book to be published next year, and whatever else he's got in the works now that his 1st year of college is about ready to launch).

Head in the Box

See, if a fella can't find the future of education metaphor in this shot he took up at Mass MoCA not so long ago, he ain't ready for playing hard ball in the Bigs. 

Or he's just really too literal (for my taste) in his vision.

A Guy Can Dream, Right?

As a father of a kiddo who's on the verge of shifting from toddlerville to boytown, I want 2 crazy vital things to be guaranteed:

First:  A cool ol' nature in a box contraption like this in his room.

Gotta be easy to DIY if a guy (ironically) uses 'fake' plants.

Maybe the Maker Faire (Made magazine) folks can show a papa how to pull it off?

Second (and most importantly): The metaphor being embraced by EVERY teacher he ever has. 

Period.  For reals.

P.S.

From the Mass MoCA web site re: the cool ol' nature in a box contraption:

Vaughn Bell’s Personal Biospheres which give gallery visitors their own miniature landscapes to experience by popping their head into Plexiglas domes filled with small working ecosystems.

Bell’s new custom biospheres for Badlands will be based on the landscape of North Adams (Mass).