Refreshed!

Just coming off an excellent session guided by Dr. Lynn Erickson on Concept-based Curriculum & Instruction.

It was so very confirming of all that we discuss and share at work about the importance of a constructivist approach to education.  Her ideas and research on the value of conceptual understanding and how to get there are incredibly well articulated and will go far to assisting us on how to help our parents begin to feel more comfortable with these approaches as well. 

 

My greatest takeaway from her sessions was a confirmation of the importance of us understanding that our classroom time is so limited and thus so valuable that we really need to very strategically plan how to get the most from those moments.  Her research and ideas go so far to help us know that spending valuable direct engagement time on factual learning is inefficient.  No one is suggesting we throw the baby out with the bath water – we should agree that factual knowledge is important but in today’s environment our kids can develop that with minimal direct instruction – what they really need is the ability to engage and grasp the “provocative/debatable” ideas as she identifies them.

 

20 years ago as a completely ‘green’ teacher I had an inkling that our kids needed to see the real application of their learning immediately – 20 years later I’m seeing this confirmed in her research and the path that the IB is taking.  

Now is the time for us to really push forward and break the molds of our 100 year old approach to education.

All aboard – the fast train leaves NOW!

 

 

Getting back on the horse

Got to get past all the crap and get back on the horse. Starting to re-learn some old tricks. Let’s begin by starting to roll out my educational philosophies – among several fundamental philosophies this one seems the best to start with:

I believe that if we are to accomplish success we must be able to define success and articulate what it means to each of us.
In building learning communities I have discovered the importance of a strong and clearly articulated set of statements about learning. We often see and hear nebulous mission and vision statements about ‘excellence’ and ‘reaching potential’. We must work to very clearly define and articulate terms so that we are more likely to ensure that we are all pulling in the same direction. In so doing we will avoid the unfortunate surprise of finding out that after much hard work and dedication to an objective we think we have accomplished a great deal while others in our community might feel that we have not – this can be avoided by establishing solid foundations of honesty, transparency and clear collaborative communication.

Watch this space.

A week in the ‘real’ Bali can really help you clarify your thoughts.

Just finished an excellent week in Bali spending time in Keliki village near Ubud – this is the ‘real’ Bali. Did a village walk with Pak Dewa who was a fountain of knowledge about the culture of the Balinese. He also took us through their organic garden showing an amazing variety of plant life including their nutmeg trees – interesting to hear his points of view on commercialization of Bali’s natural gifts. He was able to articulate extremely well why some feel the Balinese are ‘lazy’ for not exploiting their opportunities for commercial gain – the Balinese see little value in individual wealth but rather have a strong internal social network allowing them to cooperate to meet their needs – he kept repeating ‘we have all the food we need’ so of course why would they need to further exploit their land at the expense of damaging what the gods have provided. Got the sense a person could spend years living and learning in their village.

On Thursday we climbed Mt. Batur – this volcanoe is still mildly active but has not had a major eruption since the 80s. From the summit we could clearly see the path of the big erruption of the 1920s that nearly made it’s way to Lake Batur – a sea of hardened black lava surrounded by heavy vegetation – one can clearly see how quickly things grow again in this soil.

Closed that day out with a very relaxing day on what must be Bali’s most beautiful beach – I won’t say where it is:)
If you really want to find it you will – this is one of the last seaside places in Bali without any developing infrastructure and buildings only a few warungs surrounding a very sleepy and idyllic soft white sand beach with amazingly clear waters. Had a fantastic feast of Maui Maui, cumi, and monster shrimps drowned in local sambal whilst sitting on the beach watching the kids frolic in the waters like 6 year olds again – really nice to watch teenagers manage to forget all their hangups and just have pure fun again:)

So the whole week left me this final Balinese influenced thought for us to ponder in ToK (Theory of Knowledge) and everywhere else:

“Believe in nothing, so that you might open yourself to everything.”

Listening to the Balinese and their open-minded attitude helps us to understand how holding firmly onto the delusion of our justifications to believe in one idea can create a paradigm from which we might not see others – consequently obscuring the ‘truth’.

Enough 🙂

Back at it.

Ok – a long hiatus but time to get back to this blog and see if I can develop a habit and find a payoff.

More soon 🙂

 

Cold weather does not stop you from flying!

Image by Digidave

It may be a long slow blog but might be worth it – let’s see.

So, blog.  Easy just sit here and write what’s on your mind.   Can’t do that – way too hard to put it all down on ‘paper’.  Plus do I really want to?  Sure I get the concept of sharing a bit of oneself with others in order to better understand yourself and others but whether I like it or not I have to be careful.  I can’t just blurt out what’s on my mind – I’m bound by issues of confidentiality and in cases where I’m not what is on my mind is often an issue of some degree of delicacy to someone so simply talking about it on ‘air’ could be misinterpreted.

I’ve recently watched a conversation between two regular bloggers who thought they understood and communicated with each other well only to find out that their meanings were apparently being misinterpreted by each other.  So if seasoned bloggers end up in this state what would happen to a rookie like me.

All that said I am game to give it a try – no other way of really knowing what can come of it.  But let’s take it a step at a time.

So….any fellow Anarchists out there?

Entering the Digital World

Engage!   A map to get you there.