The Others

"Commandment Number One of any truly civilized society is this: Let people be different." - David Grayson

My husband, an artist and musician, is left-handed. When he was in school in the 1950s and '60s, some teachers tried to "make him" right-handed. It didn't work.

Throughout history, society has had varying degrees of tolerance for nonconformity. Suspected witches and heretics were executed by being burned at the stake, hung, pressed or drowned as recently as the late 18th century.

Beatniks and hippies, Goths and Punks have all suffered some form of ridicule or discrimination. Time magazine reported on "a wave of shocking attacks and threats against emo youth culture" in Mexico, having "less to do with music than with the country's violent intolerance."

Most U.S. school districts try to accommodate teen individuality in matters of hair, makeup and clothing, as long as the styles don't distract others from learning.

Individuality in terms of curriculum and assessment, however, is another matter entirely.

A previous posting here, Today, My Job Was to Listen, prompted Paul Bogush to comment, "I wonder what the ratio is of minutes of teacher talk vs. student talk in classrooms." When he asked this question on Plurk, estimates ranged from 4:1 to 10:1, teacher talking time to student talking time. This impromptu poll would seem to suggest that traditional delivery of standardized content is still the norm in many classrooms.

Not all who are differently-abled have an IEP. Do you believe that our educational culture could be/should be more inclusive?

Are we reaching the Others?

"All eyes see a different world. All minds live in a different world. Why do we feel the need to force someone to see and live our way? When we do this, we lose sight of our world." - Bobby Lambert

"Black sheep. Do u also feel different?" by pasotraspaso

Today, My Job Was to Listen

“Adolescents sometimes say...'My friends listen to me, but my parents only hear me talk.' Often they are right. Familiarity breeds inattention.” -Laurence Steinberg, U.S. professor of psychology

Dr. Steinberg's words might equally be applied to teachers. We hear our students' voices, but do we ever stop to consider what they are saying?

Today, my job was to listen.

Our Current Events class is made up of teens in grades 9-12. Since the juniors were taking a test today, I gave the remaining 7 students time to finish up assignments, discuss upcoming projects, and just socialize.

One boy started complaining that he wished he were part of our in-house GED program rather than taking regular classes. A few of his friends jumped in to tell him that the course is a lot of work, the exam is difficult, and he'd be crazy not to just stick out school for a few more years. They discussed it for a while, and I believe - I hope - they convinced him to stay put and try to make it work.

None of these young men have been particularly successful academically. They are they same group who shared their anger about a NHS speech that seemed (in their eyes) to disparage them.

Today they used their leadership qualities to help a friend who's in danger of making a bad decision. It was a teachable moment, but I was not the teacher, my students were.

It was one of the best days I've had all year.



"One who cares is one who listens." -Richard Clarke




"listen to me..." by keela84

Ants and Bees

I had intended to blog about The Ant and the Grasshopper, one of Aesop's fables. People in my area of upstate New York are busy getting ready for winter's challenges, and I could draw a number of educational parallels regarding preparation, collaboration, and gathering resources.



But a search for suitable quotes resulted in a slight change of focus.

Philosopher Francis Bacon explained different scientific approaches by comparing the ant, the spider, and the bee:

“Those who have handled sciences have either been men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant; they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance. But the bee takes the middle course; it gathers its material from the flowers of the garden and of the field, but transforms and digests it by a power of its own. Not unlike this is the true business of philosophy.”

Aesop's imprudent grasshopper idled away his summer and learned from the industrious ant that "It is best to prepare for the days of necessity."

Bacon, however, found the ants, who "collect and use" less admirable than a bee, which "gathers its material...but transforms and digests it by a power of its own."

The transformative power of the web depends on more than just the tools it provides. It requires planning, creativity, flexibility, and a willingness to continuously monitor and adjust expectations.

The 21st century requires bees, not ants.



"It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?" -Henry David Thoreau




"Ant on Birch" by E.B. White
All other photos by dmcordell

Politics in the Classroom

"Education is our only political safety. Outside of this ark all is deluge." -Horace Mann

The upcoming U.S. presidential election presents a quandary for teachers: how can we interest our students in the democratic process without abusing our position of authority? When does influence mutate into indoctrination?

As a K-12 teacher/librarian, I've been fielding questions from students of all ages who are naturally curious about the November election. During library classes, I share both non-fiction and fiction books about voting, elections, and the presidency. The younger grades enjoy stories like Doreen Cronin's Duck for President , Marc Brown's Arthur Meets the President, and Kay Winters' My Teacher for President.

With older elementary students, I've been using Grace for President, by Kelly Dipucchio, to spark discussions about the right to vote, women & minorities as candidates, and the electoral college.

When students ask for whom I'm voting, I talk about the responsibility of good citizens to study key issues before making such an important choice. If they push for an answer, I respond that I'm leaning towards Senator Obama but that the adults in their household might have reached a different decision. Informal polls show that the families in our district seem to be evenly divided between the main parties.

In my high school Current Events class, we've been examining candidates' position statements and viewing video clips of the presidential and vice-presidential debates. None of these students are old enough to vote this year, but I remind them that the policies of our next president will affect their lives for years to come. I want them to care about the democratic process, perhaps engage in conversations with their parents about the economy, the environment, social security, health care, and the war in Iraq.

It's a delicate balancing act, educating, without unduly influencing, young minds. I am personally horrified by the Palin candidacy, insulted that Senator McCain apparently thought that I would vote for a woman, any woman, without regard to her suitability for office, but I don't feel that it would be appropriate for me to make a strong statement to that effect in my professional role as a teacher.

The future is in the hands of our students. Their choices will determine whether and how our nation will survive and prosper.

"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote." -George Jean Nathan

"Fourth of July parade" by cyanocorax

The Brisbins of Saratoga County

On Saturday, my husband and I drove past a tiny, enclosed burial ground and stopped for a closer look. I took a few photos, then decided to try a quick Google search of the family name, Brisbin, later that evening.

The wealth of information that I discovered was amazing:

• New York Gravestones provided an easy-to-read "translation" of inscriptions on the worn headstones.

• The Town of Northumberland traced the family's history back to 1765, when 18-year-old James Brisbin arrived in upstate New York from his native Scotland. "He settled 1 1/2 miles westerly of Fort Miller, towards Bacon Hill a hamlet in Northumberland that became the hub of activity with the Hudson River nearby."


• By 1789, a mature (and, presumably prosperous) Brisbin was elected an elder of the Reformed (Dutch) Church of Saratoga, according to the 1878 History of Saratoga County, New York, by Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester.


• A descendant of the Brisbins noted on her genealogy site that the family name probably "stems from the Scottish name, Brisbane" and adds,

  "There is speculation, as yet unconfirmed, that the Brisbins immigrating to New York were soldiers during the French and Indian war, which ended in 1763. They liked what they saw in the territory and decided to return with their families. Since our family appears on the records of Saratoga Co., NY for the first time about 1765, this seems to add credence to this theory. There is also some speculation that the Brisbin soldiers may have been part of Abercrombie's troop in the French and Indian War, which were known to have been in Saratoga County. From this point on, there are documented records on the Brisbin family, both in America and in Canada."

• "The Campaign of Lieut. Gen. John Burgoyne and The Expedition of Lieut. Col. Barry St. Leger," by William L. Stone (Albany, NY, Joel Munsell, 1877) mentions the Brisbin property during the time of the American Revolution.

  "As a specimen, the farm of James Brisbin had sufficient wheat and cattle to have paid the purchase price, but it was all taken and consumed by Burgoyne's army without compensation, notwithstanding the fair promises made in his proclamation of July 10, before stated. We should except a single cow, which escaped from her captors, returned home and was afterwards secreted and saved. After the surrender, the farmers gradually returned to their rural homes, erected new log houses, and began again to till the soil. But little progress, however, was made, until the close of the war, as this valley lay in the track of the Indians and Tories, who had fled to Canada, and made repeated raids into this county."

• A similar genealogy page, that of the McGregors, mentions two sons of James Brisbin.

  "The first settlement of what is now the town of Wilton, but then and long before known as Palmertown, was begun by two brothers, William and Samuel Brisbin, as early as the year 1764. These two brothers were the sons by his first wife of James Brisbin, who came over from the north of Ireland, and became the first settler of what is now the town of Northumberland, in the year 1765. The two brothers, William and Samuel Brisbin, made their first attempt at settlement on the south branch of the Snoek Kill, in what afterwards became the Laing neighborhood. One and perhaps both of them had been soldiers under Abercrombie and Amherst in the last French war, and the year after peace was concluded they began the early settlement of the old wilderness they had so often traversed while on the war-path. They made clearings, built a sawmill, and cut roads on to their lands. When the war of the Revolution came on they abandoned their little settlement."

  One of the McGregor daughters later married into the Brisbin family. [There were many "James Brisbins" in the family. The father of William and Samuel might be the father or uncle of the James Brisbin who died in 1835 and is buried in the family plot.]
  


• Another local family was the Slocums. In "A Short History of the Slocums..." by Charles Elihu Slocum, we learn that Sarah Slocum married James Brisbin. These are the James, Jr. and his wife, Sally, who share a headstone and a final resting place. Other Slocums also intermarried with the Brisbins. When his father, Giles Slocum, died in 1814, James Slocum went to live with his maternal grandfather, James Brisbin, "near Schuylerville, Saratoga County, New York."

Every town and village has at least one cemetery within its boundaries. The educational possibilities are endless. Students might

• research prominent local names
  
• map an entire burying ground
• undertake a cemetery restoration project under the guidance of adult professionals
• place names copied from headstones on a timeline
• write original stories or poems about the people buried in the cemetery
• search for information about an individual, then present a scene from his/her life (in period garb)
• recreate significant events from the history of their county or state, as seen through the eyes of actual residents
  

It is people that create history, and projects that emphasize human connections can be satisfying, enlightening...and fun!

Bricolage

Bricolage: "make creative and resourceful use of whatever materials are to hand (regardless of their original purpose)." -Wikipedia


There was an article in our morning newspaper about a local man who recycles seemingly useless and unrelated bits of "junk" into eclectic dioramas that "pay homage to the craft form popularized in elementary school social studies projects and book reports." Artist Charles Steckler considers these pieces "kind of like poetry in a sense. Poetry has an open form. It has potential for many interpretations," he said. "It's the visual equivalent to poetry. People can find many meanings in them."

When I did a bit of research on the title of his exhibition, "Bricoleur/Bricolage," I found a fascinating collection of variations on the theme.

In music, bricolage refers to the use of found objects as instruments, including Irish spoons & bones, Trinidadian steel drums, comb & paper kazoos, and the incredible vegetable orchestra featured on YouTube. The emphasis is on imaginative use of unlikely items to create tunes - many of the musicians are self-taught and experimentation is the norm.

Steckler's dioramas, and the colorful taxi dashboard pictured above, are examples of bricolage in the visual arts. Improvisation personifies bricolage in the performing arts.

Science and technology frequently borrow words, like dryad, Beowulf, and Goldilocks, from art and literature.

In biology, François Jacob used the term bricolage to "contrast real biology with the false impression of nature as an engineer," emphasizing the impromptu "tinkering" that he felt really took place in evolution by trial and error as opposed to intelligent design.

Information technology stresses the need for bricolage-like freedom to develop in a non-linear, innovative manner. The Bricolage Content Management System is "an open-source enterprise-class content management system, [that] greatly simplifies the complex tasks of creating, managing, and publishing the vast libraries of content essential to any organization."

Can education benefit from the bricolage approach?

Constructivism is a philosophy of learning advocating the building of understanding as an active process initiated and directed by the learner. Some educators question the value of discovery-based instruction for "novices" who might lack the background knowledge or motivation necessary to acquire understanding.

When standardized testing and state-mandated curricula guide the educational system, is there room for exploration and innovation? Is there a place for bricolage in the classroom beyond the dioramas of our elementary days?






"Awesome taxi dashboard, Singapore" by gruntzooki

What our eyes behold

"What our eyes behold may well be the text of life but one’s meditations on the text and the disclosures of these meditations are no less a part of the structure of reality." -Wallace Stevens

Tracings on a rock wall: ammonites,
swimmers in a lost ocean.
Unexpected beauty
bursting from a stony canvas.
Art for those with eyes to see.

"I have eyes to see now what I have never seen before." -Written in the late 1870s by a correspondence student of Ellen H. Richards. The student was learning through the Society to Encourage Studies at Home, which had been founded in 1873.


See other ammonites on my Flickr set, Fossils

Float Like a Butterfly

"A million butterflies rose up from South America, All together, and flew in a gold storm toward Spain..."
-Winfield Townley Scott

One of our second grade teachers asked me to find some internet resources for an instructional unit on Monarch Butterflies.

It's the type of request that I love, a first step on the path to collaborative projects, or so I hope. At any rate, I'm happy to share some of the sites that I discovered, for anyone who is interested.

Life Cycle of a Butterfly (WebQuest)

Butterflies & Bugs (online activities)

Butterflies North (Canada) and South (Peru)

The Children's Butterfly Site (Montana State University)

Online Guide to Butterflies

Butterfly Habitats (the Field Museum, Chicago)

Discovering Butterflies (WebQuest)

Journey North: Monarch Migration (with updated maps)

Zoom Butterfly (interactive online activity)

Butterfly and Moth Printouts (Enchanted Learning)

Where Do Butterflies Come From? (craft project)

Monarch Butterfly Thematic Resource Unit

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly." -Richard Buckminster Fuller

"Just like the butterfly, I too will awaken in my own time." -Deborah Chaskin

"Monarch" by jenn_jenn

Classroom Rules Part 2

In a previous posting, I previewed a SlideShare presentation that I had assembled for my Current Events class.

Today, students watched the show and wrote down the classroom rules that they thought I was trying to convey. Their often creative interpretations reminded me that what is "obvious" to an adult might suggest a totally different meaning to a teen.

Image #1My rule: Pay attention
Their take:

Pay attention
Listen to others when they are speaking
Don't speak out of turn

Image #2
My rule: Respect your teacher
Their take:

Listen to the teacher
No yelling - pay attention
Be nice
Be respectful
This is a good class
Listen, raise your hand, pay attention
Be quiet and pay attention
Follow the rules

Image #3
My rule: Respect your school/classroom
Their take:

Don't make messes
Keep class clean
Clean up
Don't litter

Image #4
My rule: Contribute to group work - collaborate
Their take:

Participate
Work together
Help each other
Share
Teamwork
Diversity

Image #5
My rule: Bullying will not be tolerated
Their take:

Don't ridicule others
Be caring
Don't pick on people
Don't laugh at others
People you are mean to are like you

Image #6
My rule: Be on time for class
Their take:

Use time wisely
Don't be late
Buy a watch
Don't waste time
Time is in your hands

Image #7
My rule: Come with the tools you need to work
Their take:

Come prepared
Have utensils
Be prepared - bring materials
Have pens or pencil

Image #8
My rule: Complete your work
Their take:

Finish all work
Work hard
Get your work done
Don't cheat
Don't copy work
No note passing

Image #9
My rule: Respect yourself (by doing your best)
Their take:

Be nice
Peacocks are beautiful (Beauty is feather deep)
Be beautiful
Stand out in a good way
Stand up, look beautiful
Express yourself

Image #10
My rule: Have fun
Their take:

Keep clean
Enjoy yourself
Have fun and be clean
Clean up
Be sure to bathe

Which of their responses caught your eye or made you think?



All image citations found on Slide 12

Classroom Rules

Item: Like many educators/business people I'm bored and turned off by "traditional" PowerPoint.

Item: My students love making PowerPoint presentations and feel comfortable with this tool.

Item: Staff members are expected to discuss classroom rules at the beginning of the new school year.

Solution: I'll try to show students a different way of conveying information by creating a virtually text-free (except for the first and last slide) SlideShare show.

Classroom Rules

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

*I'll give you a few days to mull this over, then share my interpretation and that of my students.

Have a Fair Day!

Last week my husband and I visited the Washington County (NY) Fair. Although we don't reside within its boundaries, the district where I teach is located in this county, and many of our students participate in 4-H activities showcased at the Fair.

I went expecting rides, food, machinery, and farm animals. What I found was the perfect cross-curricular learning experience.

Every aspect of our state curriculum was covered, from social studies and science to math and ELA. Children were able to view exhibits about ecology, native and exotic animal species, recycling, fire safety, and healthful eating. There were things to touch, explore, test, and examine.

My biggest and best discovery was made in, of all places, the Swine exhibition area! I walked past a few stalls, then did a double-take and doubled back. One corner of the barn contained pigs named after book characters: Amanda, Babe, Olivia, Otis, Pancake. Book covers and related objects decorated the back walls. I got closer and saw the names of the children who had orchestrated this "literature into life" display: they are my students.



The topmost sign said: "Reading can take you anywhere."



It was, indeed, a Fair day.






The entire Washington County Fair set can be found here.

So Are the Ants

"It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?" -Henry David Thoreau


Seeking to revise his district's guidelines for student research papers, Patrick Higgins asked a series of questions today on Twitter. His search for curricular relevance led to some reflective thinking on my part.

Patrick began by wondering, "Should we be teaching our students the Dewey Decimal System?"

As a School Library Media Specialist, I deal with this system daily in my professional life. Dewey numbers are standard in most K-12 and public libraries. There are, however, other ways to categorize and arrange material, including the Library of Congress classifications that students will encounter in research and academic libraries.

I don't feel that it's necessary for anyone to memorize Dewey numbers. Traditional and online catalogs provide the "address" of a book; all students need to understand is how to interpret the information to find what they are seeking.

The key concept is organization: how are things ordered for ease of access?

When asked to design their own grouping method, students in my classes have come up with some interesting suggestions:

• by color
• by size
• by number of words
• by weight
• by gender of the author
• by smell or taste (!)

Some of the children described a system that resembled the tagging now being used to sort and locate all sorts of resources. Others fantasized about having a device that could track and locate a book electronically, making shelf arrangement irrelevant. Our hand-held inventory wand could easily be adapted for this purpose.

Knowing the reason for the Dewey Decimal System is the key concept; the numbers themselves are only symbols.


Patrick next asked, "Should we be teaching them how to manually prepare a works cited page?"

This question was debated by some of the classroom teachers and librarians from our regional BOCES. The majority of us felt that using a tool like Citation Machine is perfectly appropriate. Few adults remember the finer points of citation formatting; why agonize over something that can be done better online?


I posed a question of my own, "Will it still be a research PAPER or will there be a choice of outcomes: e.g. Senior Projects like these?" to which Patrick responded, "This is for English classes: very traditional situation. Paper, undoubtedly."

Senior Projects are usually built over the entire four years of high school. They might begin with a research paper, then expand to encompass some type of culminating physical project and a presentation.

These projects embody the spirit of Inquiry-based Learning, a constructivist philosophy "driven more by a learner's questions than by a teacher's lessons." This approach allows students to become experts in their chosen topic, giving them a positive motivation for pursuing knowledge that is relevant to them.


Patrick ended by asking for more information about Zotero, "a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources." Obviously, he is still exploring, weighing his options, searching for the best possible tools and most relevant content.

I hope that he shares his final product with us. In the meantime, I've benefited immensely from using his questions to examine my own professional practice.



"When you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die." -Lillian Smith






"Ant at Work" by DavidDennis

Where in the World? Part 2

I decided to create a companion mosaic to display after the Animoto clip has played. This would allow for discussion of the visual clues to the geographic area that's being spotlighted.

There are infinite variations on the Where in the World? theme. For example, individual students or teams could brainstorm significant landmarks, products, topological features, etc. of a city, state, province, country, continent, or biome, locate appropriate pictures, then challenge their classmates to identify what's being described. A similar project might involve finding images of the 7 wonders of the ancient or modern world.

Partner projects, like Where in Time ? or Where in History? would utilize photos and illustrations of primary source artifacts, buildings, and reenacters.

Upload some vacation photos and give it a try - then use your product to model the activity for a class. And, please, share your masterpieces with the rest of us!

Where in the World?

Since I hope to incorporate "geography literacy" in my Current Events class next year, I decided to make some Animoto clips featuring different parts of the world.

My first one was inspired by NECC. Can you guess Where in the World it is from the images? If anyone else would like to spotlight a city or country via Animoto, Voicethread, or any other tool, please send a link and help me build a data bank.

Last Day

Today was the last day of classes for our students, last day to report for staff members, last day in the district for our superintendent's very capable and well-loved secretary.

Since Mrs. N., a lifelong learner of the best sort, is leaving to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse, our high school art teacher created a "Wild Thing" to which we all attached charms, symbols, and joke gifts.


One of the students in my current events class decided to recycle some old book socks and library cards. His colorful creation will grace one of our library walls next fall.



And a quiet little first grade girl celebrated a successful year by presenting each of her teachers with a rose.


Everyone is ready for a break, adults, children and teens. But we will miss each other and chatter excitedly when we meet in the mall or at the market. Because our connections are real and important.

How will you keep the learning alive over summer vacation?

WARNING!

WARNING! HELP The website you are attempting to visit MAY violate your Acceptable Use Policy. You can click CONTINUE to visit the site OR click CANCEL to not access the requested site. All Internet traffic is logged and reported. User/Machine: DEFAULT IP: 10.230.12.110 Category: PASSED Blocked URL: http://www.youthtwitter.com/ To submit this warned site for review, click here. For assistance, contact your Administrator. 8e6 R3000 Enterprise Filter provided by 8e6 Technologies. Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.

Today I continued my exploration of connective options at school. Here are the results:

• Twitbin and Twiteroo are blocked on school computers and my MacBook
• Twirl will come up on my laptop but tells me "There is an error receiving direct messages" so the screen remains blank
• I installed Snitter on the MacBook - it also comes up blank

Note: I tried to install Snitter on a school computer, but received a message reminding me that all installations require Administrative permission.

As an experiment, I tried to search for proxy sites on Google. The entire search was blocked, "Category: Web-based Proxies/Anonymizers." I suppose I could find the addresses of proxies before I left home in the morning, but there is no guarantee that would work either.

My one success was surprising: YouthTwitter is not blocked here at school! I did get a WARNING! but was able to click through to the site and read student postings on both school computers and my Mac.

Interesting that a student online community is permissable but not an adult one. It seems that our youth are deemed more capable of interacting appropriately than their teachers. Score one for authentic Voice.

Perhaps if Twitter were subtitled AdultTwitter...but no, that sounds vaguely risque. It all comes down to trust. I would like to be treated as I feel our students should be treated when it comes to cyber safety and digital citizenship: provide instruction on safe & appropriate use of the Internet, set clear and reasonable limits, spell out the consequences for inappropriate use, and enforce policies consistently.

If I'm not trusted to conduct myself professionally, perhaps I shouldn't be here instructing children.

At least, that's my opinion. If you disagree, please speak up. I'd like to know the rationale behind Internet censorship.


Update: Now Twitbin is unblocked! I'm not sure why, but I'll link to this posting and hope for the best!

ACCESS DENIED!

I have been logging in to Twitter at odd moments during this entire school year. Yesterday, though, this message appeared on the screen:

The reason given for blocking the site is "Category: Online Communities." I've contacted both my Administrator and the company to request further information.

On the surface, at least, it appears that our district, and, by extension, our BOCES, considers "online communities" to be undesirable. I consider them a key component of 21st century learning.

What's the view from your corner of the world?

Worst Job?

Christian started the ball rolling by describing his gig as "Binky the Clown" for a Pizza Hut children's birthday party. He tagged Damian, among others, and Damian passed the torch to me.

Most memes require that you link back to the person who tags you, address the theme, and tag other bloggers to keep the theme alive.

The question Christian posed was

Looking back on your life, what was the "worst job" you ever had that ironically helped prepare you to one day become an educator?

After some thought (because I've had a LOT of jobs!) I came up with three possible answers:

Babysitter In my teen years, babysitting was one of the few socially acceptable ways for a girl to earn extra spending money. For 50 cents an hour, I was expected to entertain, feed, clean and tuck in my charges. While it could be exhausting - and stressful - these weekend jobs gave me experience in entertaining small children, calming their fears, and keeping them from running wild. Good training for motherhood, good training for becoming a teacher/librarian.

Working in the NYS Misc. Fees Department During the 1960s, NYS Regents Scholarship winners were guaranteed summer jobs in Albany. My first state job was in the Misc. Fees Department. A regiment of college students spent each day opening and processing payments from LPNs and other licensed professionals. It was enormously boring work, and I privately vowed to never have to do such a dull job again - so the main lesson I learned was the value of obtaining an education. Of course, every position I've held since then has included some variety of record-keeping, organization, etc. Perhaps I acquired skills I didn't even realize were valuable. [Ironically, the summer clerical positions I filled for the state brought me one benefit of immense worth: I was able to gain Tier I status in the Teacher Retirement System. Any educator in this state can verify how significant THAT is!]

Teacher Assistant Before I received my Teaching Certification, I worked as a TA in a local public school. One of my assignments was in a classroom for students with multiple handicaps. Some were in wheelchairs, most had to be toileted, a few needed to be fed by hand. It was difficult, dirty work, and I greatly admire the dedicated people who continue to provide this service. I also admire the students, who don't choose to be different but fight their battles as best they can. I learned about tolerance and compassion in my Option IV classroom.

I tag Jeffrey Keefer, Terry Shay, Anne Mirtschin, Carolyn Foote, and Julie Lindsay.



"Here's Mud In Your Eye" by Clearly Ambiguous

Possibilities

“The wider the range of possibilities we offer children, the more intense will be their motivations and the richer their experiences. We must widen the range of topics and goals, the types of situations we offer and their degree of structure, the kinds and combinations of resources and materials, and the possible interactions with things, peers, and adults.” -Loris Malaguzzi


Children start their lives as beings of enormous potential and unlimited possibilities. By the time they begin their formal education, they have already begun to develop many of the skills that will be necessary for their continued success and well-being in life.

Curious and full of wonder, these little ones enter school and encounter...what? Kindergarten was once a time of extended play and guided exploration. Emphasis was placed on socialization, developing fine motor skills, and increasing attention span. A typical full-day program included imaginative play, group interaction, some sort of vigorous exercise, and a nap.

Today's kindergarten student has no time for naps. In New York State, grade-specific Performance Indicators spell out standards and competencies for even the youngest learners. With high stakes testing taking place at every grade level, school districts can't afford to wait until first grade to introduce literacy skills: most students leave Kindergarten with some reading and writing facility. In this highly structured continuum, there is little time for spontaneity or silliness.

Where is the space for exploring ? When is there time for possibilities?






"What this Picture is" by 顔なし

Connections

I had the best of many worlds today. One of Clay Burell's KIS students, Stephanie Cho, set up a Skype call so that the two of us could discuss her school project.

Once we were done speaking, I drove over to my community's high school to hear David Warlick speak.


Stephanie was charming and a bit nervous. Our conversation centered on food and memories but took an interesting detour when she asked my opinion on cyber safety and online mentoring.

David Warlick had spent the day conducting professional development workshops in my local district, then invited parents and community members to an additional presentation in the evening. He was relaxed and articulate, and his insights regarding the "flat classroom" were well-received.

So in the course of one day, I was able to interact with a student in South Korea and a cutting edge educator in my own home town.

Life is, indeed, full of the most amazing opportunities.