ED+719+Learning+Tasks

Book Review

A few words about Roz Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander's book //The Art of Possibility:// Get it. Read it. Do it.

In a perfect world, everyone would listen to and do exactly what I say, so those six words would suffice. Meanwhile, here are a few reasons why this book is so valuable. The book provides 12 "Practices" designed to open up one's life to possibility. The Practices are ways of thinking, yes, but the book also offers numerous practical examples of how each practice has been, well, practiced. Both Zanders give examples of how the Practices look in their professional lives (teacher / conductor / public speaker for Ben and therapist / counselor / mediator for Roz) and in their personal lives, and their years of working with these ideas has also garnered numerous examples of how others have lived out the Practices.

For example, the Practice of "Giving an A" works from the premise that, if we give people A's at the beginning of the "semester," or our time with them, the way that we interact with and think of them and the way that they think of themselves and therefore act is incredibly different from a situation where we make people "earn" an A. Roz describes her relationship with her father and the ways in which it was deeply dissatisfying. When she decided to "give him an A," though, her perspective on him, their relationship and herself changed dramatically. By giving people an A, we relate to them from a place of compassion, grace, and high and already-fulfilled expectation, thus allowing them to step into the fullness of their potential.

For a teacher, all of these Practices can be used in the classroom. The book encourages us to redesign our worlds so that we can live in a larger realm of possibility. Any single Practice can be used in the classroom or on the playground, and many of them can even be introduced to our students. The book is also full of feel-good, practical, inspirational stories that are conveniently indexed in the back of the book, ready to be read to kids or photocopied and shared.

//The Art of Possibility// recognizes the world we live in and provides ideas for how we can re-create the world we live in.

Learning Task 2: Dream School When I graduated from college, my 'dream job' was to work where I am now, to return to my alma mater and teach English. Eleven years later, I still love my job, and I would still classify it as a 'dream job.' BUT. (Or rather, as the Zanders teach--//AND.//) And, it's not perfect, and there are many things that could be changed. For today, I'll focus on two aspects: Lifestyle versus Culture and Professional Development. Here are some things I would love to see:

1. "Lifestyle" rather than "Culture." I want to teach in a school where students believe in the value of Hawaiian values and lifestyles, rather than in activities that are "cultural." My students talk a lot about "perpetuating the culture" so that "it doesn't die." When they do this, they are talking about participating in activities. But no one talks about Thanksgiving or Christmas as "cultural" activities or describes watching television, cooking rice or visiting the mall as a "cultural" activity. These are things that we do because they are an accepted part of our lifestyle. When it comes to visiting a taro patch, making a lei, or preparing poi, though, for many students these are "cultural" activities. I want to be a part of a school culture that expands the idea of culture so that the things that kids do that are "cultural" today are actually a part of their "lifestyle." This might look like:

-Developing morning protocol that students have an active role in. -Studying Hawaiian literature and helping to develop Hawaiian perspectives on everyday conflicts and activities -Expanding students' definitions of what Hawaiian "culture" is in order to incorporate more of the lifestyle practices that they are already doing -Providing more hands-on cultural "experiences" while tying them to concrete ways students might use this knowledge at home and in their everyday lives -Growing taro that students will use in class and take home for their families

2. Professional Development: I want to teach in a school where PD is useful. We have had many staff development days that are not useful or inspiring. If they were one or the other, I could be happy. But when they are neither, I find myself frustrated. We jokingly call PD days "Teacher Detention." There are many instances, though, when these days not only do not add to our work in the classroom but often detract from it because we have less time to plan and work than we normally do. I would love to work in a school where the PD activities we have can be quickly implemented into our everyday practices as teachers.

The obstacles to these two things are very large but also very small. Were I to try to address them on a macro level, by going to administration and asking for changes, I think very little would be done. On a micro level, though, in my classroom and in the classrooms of colleagues who think like me, there are tremendous steps that we can take to making these things more of a reality.

This summer a group of us planted taro in a school garden, and we plan on making that a part of our program this year. We plan to put more taro in the ground in the months to follow and have our students care for them. Each English class studies Hawaiian Literature to some extent, and as a department, we could begin having conversations about how these texts demonstrate what Hawaiian lifestyle was and how it is still seen today. One goal I have for this year is to develop a program that will be B-credit eligible and gather like-minded teachers to develop meaningful curriculum centered around taro or other Hawaiian plants, investigating ways we can bring them into our classrooms and into our personal lives, with the purpose of resurrecting their value in our community.

My dream school is a place where the learning is real, useful, authentic--all those words that mean that what I do in school is important and functional out of school. I believe there are small but significant ways that I and those who feel as I do can move toward this school in the year to come.

Learning Task 3: Educational Trend Research

I'd initially thought that doing research on "Creativity, Innovation and Play" would be...well, creative, innovative and playful. Which is why I switched to this topic after looking briefly at MCL. Let me just say: it was not. While I could claim responsibility and say that my experienced lack of C-I-P while doing research was my fault, I'm not going to. Instead, I'll blame it on a system that, as Ken Robinson says, actually kills creativity: [|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&feature=player_embedded#at=37]  In the course of my research, here is what I found:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. Edward deBono on creative thinking: the most BORING video ever. The irony just might kill you. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This is interesting, though, because it sheds light on a few very important factors: A) The definitions for what is creative change as technology changes. Recording a talk and posting it on youtube might have once been considered innovative and creative. Today, though, it's not really. Everyone is doing it. If you want to be creative in your use of media technology today, you've got to go beyond just filming yourself and posting it online. Things like RSAnimate come to mind; but in a year, will "everyone" be doing that? And will it still be considered creative? B) Teachers and people who present at workshops are really good at doing this. We talk about innovative ways to do things, but our presentations are largely lecture-in-front-of-a-crowd-with-a-powerpoint. I don’t know how many Tech PD days I’ve gone to where our keynote speaker talks about how technology is changing the way education is delivered…and we are all sitting there in an auditorium together with our laptops in our bag. How do we as teachers and presenters begin to implement what we know or believe into what we do?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Literature reviews on the importance of play in education:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> []

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Sadly, all the research I found online focused on the importance of play during childhood, but there was very little on play in secondary schools. An internet search of the topic turns up pages on the role parents, peers, technology, etc. play in education, or ways to create interesting plays using Shakespeare…well, you get the point.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Play in high school and even middle school is crowded out by academics and the need to teach to a test or meet standards. For younger students, research finds that even in elementary schools students’ play and break times are being cut down while school days are getting longer.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Research in the UK found that kids who do play are moving farther and farther from unstructured, unsupervised play outdoors, which research also shows is crucial to childhood development. The two links above discuss the importance of play in learning and child—oh, wait—human development.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">3. What do we do? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[] An interesting resource on ways of thinking “creatively.” Some useful tools for generating new ideas or jump-starting thinking.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[] A brief summary about ways to become a creative teacher

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Of course, for teachers it all comes down to “Thanks a lot, but what am I going to do on Monday?” I chose two websites that I came across. One is from Iowa State U, where they actually teach courses on creativity. That’s where I found the boring deBono video. What I also found, though, were some tools that they identified on ways to think “creatively.” Ironically, many of these tools provide very clean frameworks in which to think and operate. Which, I thought, was the antithesis of creativity. Nevertheless, the site does provide some tools that can be useful in organizing thoughts.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The ASCD link goes to a page that summarizes a new book out on how to be a creative teacher. I like that the page discusses the techniques might employ on a philosophical level but also talks about how one can take small, practical, easily do-able-tomorrow steps towards teaching more creatively.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">There is no doubt that play and creativity are important to society. We all have areas within our locus of control that enable us to think creatively and value creativity, and even though there is little research (comparatively) on play in secondary schools, I believe it is still important. The question is, how will we create opportunities for these things to come to life in the areas we live and work?