Have arrived in Shanghai and found all social media that I use blocked other than my blog. This will be where I post notes and reflections from the conference. Looking forward to a great few days of learning.
Pick your tune…
“It’s been a while…” – Staind
“It’s been a long time, since I rock and rolled!” – Led Zepplin
“Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio…” – Simon and Garfunkel
And I’m sure there are many others. Regardless, they all capture that at a current posting rate of once every 6 months, I can hardly expect anybody to still be at the other end of this. I have good excuses like “it was my first year as an administrator” and “I have a young family” and “I’m so busy learning that I don’t have time to share”. They’re all legit, but in a time when we abandon an RSS feed that hasn’t gone bold in months, it would be unreasonable to think anybody’d still be here.
And yet I write.
I write to get my thoughts out.
I write to get my thoughts together.
I write because I need to frame those thoughts – to reflect on where I am, what I’m doing, whether I’m heading in the right direction and maybe to figure out if I’m making a difference. Maybe not accurate, but somehow it feels like sharing it (even if it’s with no one) seeks validation or at least like-mindedness.
In the end, it doesn’t matter, because the real difference we’re trying to make is with the students in our care. This is where I look for a difference to be made. This is where we must find out if learning is better (if kids are better!) because of what we do.
(And apparently I write to go off on tangents.)
“Back to life. Back to reality.” – En Vogue (that’s right, I quoted En Vogue) (update: apparently I didn’t…I quoted Soul II Soul!)
So I’m getting back into writing the blog.
And I’m getting back into, with the school year underway, trying to Build Understanding at my school. Supporting and learning from my Principal as we lead faculty and students to better learning, challenge, reflection, and global awareness.
And that’s the key to our school’s Mission – to build understanding. Understanding of content. Understanding of self. Understanding of others (including the global community).
I’m in my second year now as an administrator, so I don’t get the excuse of learning the job anymore. I’m back. I want back into the community of learners/educators out here and I know I’m going to have to earn my way back in with contribution.
I’m getting back into it.
image by Mike Rohde, Flickr Creative Commons
I had the fun privilege of addressing the student body with the “message” to start the semester this week. When you plan, write, and ultimately deliver these things, you worry and wonder how students (and teachers) will respond to what you have to say. I have received some positive feedback and in an effort to document my forays into school administration and the learning I make every day, I am posting what I had to say (minus the slight improvisations and the minor word choice changes in delivery).
I hope that it set a tone for positivity and looking out for each other in our student body. I admit I had a particular issue in mind as I considered what to say. We have great kids here – welcoming, warm, and globally minded. But they are also incredibly privileged teens. Here’s hoping the students responded well to the message and it continues to build understanding for a positive school community and culture.
What I said:
Welcome back everyone.
As we head off into the second semester, I wanted to remind you that your friends, your school, your community need you. At the start of the year, Mr. Bradley, his geese and I reminded you that your success DEPENDS on the people around you. Your friends, your teachers, your counselors, your parents, even your administrators.
We are all in this together, I said. Well okay, Zach Efron said it in HS Musical, but I wasn’t quoting him at the time.
But as we head into this semester, stay together. Help each other out. Stand up for what’s right. I’ll say that one again. Stand up for what’s right.
We all know how we want to be treated. How people should be treated. And we know when we are being hurtful or teasing or just being mean. There isn’t a person in this room who doesn’t know what that looks like, sounds like, reads like on Facebook, or most importantly feels like (from either side).
So don’t let it happen. To you or anyone else. Don’t be that guy or that girl. It is possible to approach each other with optimism, friendliness, and respect. Idealistic, sure…but all it takes is choice to act positively rather than negatively. To act instead of turning a blind eye. You will never regret helping someone who needed help even if they didn’t know it. But you will always wish you had if you don’t help and something really bad happens.
It is your choice to treat others well. Your choice not to tolerate it when others don’t. It’s your choice to help keep your friends safe and ensure EVERYONE gets the respect we all deserve.
Yesterday, I asked the seniors to make sure that they got to know each other in the next 5 months. To enjoy their last semester together before everyone heads off after graduation.
Maybe the rest of you are luckier…you have even more time to get to know the amazing people that are sitting all around you… think about it…in this room are amazing people… people who sculpt or sing, or write, or run really fast, or make music or poetry or find math as easy as breathing. People who dominate on a court or field or video game … and people who somehow know exactly the right thing to say when you feel sad. You all shine somewhere, somehow. Honestly, this theater is filled with awesomeness.
Some of you are shy and some of you are bold. Some of you talk and some of you listen. But all of you have feelings. All of you can feel proud and all of you can feel hurt.
I can stand up here and ask you to follow rules, but instead on this first day of the semester, I remind you what looking after each other means. It means making sure EVERYONE has a chance to shine, to feel good and be true to themselves. It means not tolerating gossip or hateful comments and catching yourself when you might be making them. It means being honest and fair rather than hurtful and mean. It means understanding that obstacles can be overcome if we help each other. All it takes is for each one of you to decide, “I can do that.” “I can treat people well.”
I’m excited about the semester. Before you know it, it’ll be June. Balance your learning, your school life, your social lives, and your family. Look after yourself. Look after each other. Ask for help when you need it. Stand up for what you know is right and fair.
We ARE all in this together, and you are an awesome group to be in it together with. Learn, have fun and it’ll be a great semester for everyone.
See you tomorrow!
A wonderful reminder by (ironically) DTAC Thailand to appreciate our human connections. Love it.
I am still reeling on this one.
Just watched an amazing TED Talk by Stephen Wolfram, creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha (the game changer in mathematics teaching and learning). Truly amazing stuff.
Instead of trying to figure out our universe, he is using computational power to generate candidate universes that could be ours. And, he explains, already some decent candidates that have come up haven’t required particularly complex rules.
Wow.
Interestingly, as he talked about how his programming in Wolfram Alpha will hopefully be able to compute its way to creativity and innovation, I noticed he does not consider at all the ethical implications of a possibly conscious artificial intelligence. Perhaps he just saved it for another talk.
Any interest in math, science, a theory of everything, or just enjoy being amazed by what the human brain is capable of?
You have to watch this.
Thank you TED.
I was taking notes in a meeting yesterday and a key point came up on best practice pedagogy.
I began to write it, changed my mind on the first word and realized that leaving the word and striking it out sent a more powerful message than replacing it so that it’s never seen.
Can you share this with faculty as is?
Let Require students tap into their creativity and originality.
To force reflection and to encourage change…I say, yes.
image by Jeremy Burgin, found via Flickr Creative Commons
Welcome.
I have been writing (on and off) online for just a couple years now at the site Thinking Allowed, but have finally made the leap into owning a domain and controlling my own stuff. I feel like a renter who’s bought his first home. Exciting, but more pressure.
But it’s finally time.
I’ve changed the blog name as part of the move as a by-product of some thoughts I am sorting through myself. In education, we are shifting our thinking to accomodate include learning in a globally connected and rapidly changing world. But we know good learners do more than communicate, collaborate, and think. We know learners need to understand. They need to construct meaning and understand scientific principles, literature, art, etc. But that’s not all. They also need to Be Understanding.
At a conference I recently attended, Project Zero’s Ron Ritchhart asked this question:
What do we want the children we teach to be like when they are adults?
Overwhelmingly, responses to this speak to dispositions like ethics, independent learning, caring, creativity, and such. Yet in schools we often focus on creating technical experts in history, math, science and more with little connection to how these students will live their lives. Are we actively striving to produce these types of adults or does it happen by chance?
Do schools build learners we value by happenstance or intent?
Are we building understanding in our learners? In our teachers? It has become a focus for me to ensure that we are, both in their content learning and more altruistically in the way they interact with their community and their world. Additionally, I still have so much to learn and come to understand as I try to improve school education for learners in a Flat World from my current role as a Technology and Learning Coordinator or in my future (hopefully) role as a school leader.
So “Building Understanding” it is. For our students. For teachers and administrators. For content. For the whole child.
I’m also building understanding for me. So much to learn and so many people to learn from. I hope you join me in this effort and the conversation to come.
images found searching Flickr Creative Commons: Worn Old Welcome Mat by Jason-Morrison, I Understand Everything (mostly) by gak
A story in the news lately has a 13-yr old Italian boy diagnosed with addiction to PlayStation. Is this a case of lost in translation from Italian to English or does it mark the beginning of a new medical diagnosis? The American Medical Association thought otherwise last year when it essentially stated that “while overuse of video games and online games can be a problem for children and adults, calling it a formal addiction would be premature.” (Wash Post article)
Here’s the story in a nutshell:
I watched this story and had some thoughts…
I believe that people become obsessed with games because they represent an outlet from a “regular” life that doesn’t live up to expectations or desires. Gaming provides feedback, praise, challenge, success, and potential that many are not finding in their non-virtual experiences.
If teens in our schools are becoming addicted (for lack of a better word) to escaping reality, then we need to find ways to include positive experiences in their real lives.
I get that we are about embracing who they are and how they interact with the world. I get that games are here to stay – in fact, I quite like most of them.
But we have to care about the whole child. If we are really producing 21st Century success stories, then let’s make sure that includes being a part of a world. I think we will increasingly value this as it becomes less and less a part of our lives.
What are we talking/sharing/doing about ensuring that kids are out helping people, feeling like they count for something, and are important?
Are we challenging kids?
Are we praising kids for accomplishments they care about?
Are we engaging kids to be better than they were?
If we can do that, we will find that kids are having fun with games, and are addicted to life.
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