Adventures in Learning

"As we learn to live and work in this process world, we are rewarded with other changes in our..."

Sun, 27 May 2012 01:28:49 -0700

“As we learn to live and work in this process world, we are rewarded with other changes in our behavior. I see that we become gentler people. We become more curious about differences, more respectful of one another, more open to life’s surprises. It’s not that we’re either more hopeful or pessimistic, but we are more patient and accepting. I like to believe we become this way because we’re willing to work with life on its terms. Although life’s dance looked frantic from the outside, difficult to learn and impossible to master, our newfound gentleness speaks to a different learning. Life is a good partner. Its demands are not unreasonable. A great capacity for change lives in everyone of us.”

- Margaret J. Wheatley: Bringing Schools Back to Life

9 Ways to Assess without using standardized tests

Sun, 27 May 2012 01:24:06 -0700

9 Ways to Assess without using standardized tests:

goodmorningteachera:

Students don’t like taking them, teachers don’t like giving them.
I prefer qualitative assessment myself.

Here are more ways.

Cartoon Brew reader J. M. Walter imagined Pixar characters in...

Sun, 27 May 2012 01:10:14 -0700

Cartoon Brew reader J. M. Walter imagined Pixar characters in the role of The Avengers and shared this image on their Facebook page.

for (http://illhave-thatdrinknow.tumblr.com/)

A Conversation with Vivian Gussin Paley | National Association for the Education of Young Children | NAEYC

Sun, 27 May 2012 00:30:16 -0700

A Conversation with Vivian Gussin Paley | National Association for the Education of Young Children | NAEYC:

NAEYC: How do you explain the importance of play to parents or adults who are skeptical that play is what children need?

Paley: I have found that most parents do value play, and they do understand its importance in their children’s lives. Nothing presents a greater worry to parents than when their children come home and say, “No one likes me, they won’t play with me.” I’ve rarely heard a parent of a young child worry about phonics or writing. But families grow very sad when their children are visibly excluded from play and the teachers do not seem to know how to counteract the event.

In my experience, parents are the first to recognize that their children become more articulate and interesting when they make believe. They love to repeat their children’s words: “Did you hear what Johnny said?” They call up the relatives. They bore everyone with all these wonderful things that the children did. “He’s only 3 and look at what he said about the man in the moon.

”It is the teacher’s role to keep telling anecdotes about how clever, inventive, innovative, nice, and sweet children are in play. I would never go into a parent-teacher conference without a page of at least five brief stories highlighting the creative play and conversation of the child. I’d share these before discussing anything else. Now that parent knew I liked his or her child. If you take down their stories, you like them. If they know you’re taking down their stories, they like you. And we start with liking each other, and we see how happy children are when they play. I would invite them in to watch storytelling and story acting; it so resembles the play experience and gives it more meaning.

artdreamsdloitz: Weathered 2009 David Loitz Map of Portland

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:12:15 -0700

artdreamsdloitz:

Weathered 2009

David Loitz

Map of Portland

artdreamsdloitz: Aquaville (Under Funky Town) 2011 City...

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:03:01 -0700

artdreamsdloitz:

Aquaville (Under Funky Town)

2011 City series

David Loitz

Pen, Ink and Computer paint

artdreamsdloitz: Pissippi City Series 2010 David Loitz Marker...

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:01:43 -0700

artdreamsdloitz:

Pissippi

City Series 2010

David Loitz

Marker and Ink

Awesome to see this reblogged by one of my favorite blogs! Thank you!

adventuresinlistening: via (Strictly Vinyl)

Sat, 26 May 2012 22:59:37 -0700

adventuresinlistening:

via (Strictly Vinyl)

"What determines the quality of a project is its capacity to transmit and support a certain image of..."

Sat, 26 May 2012 22:34:29 -0700

“What determines the quality of a project is its capacity to transmit and support a certain image of the child, a child who has a hundred languages and the right to an environment that is rich, multifaceted, complex, well tended, beautiful.””

- Vea Vecchi

Bellelli Educación: Frases inspiradoras y para reflexionar

(via ‘Monster Closet’ Used To Punish 4-Year-Old...

Sat, 26 May 2012 18:11:00 -0700

(via ‘Monster Closet’ Used To Punish 4-Year-Old Pre-K Students, Parents Outraged)

“A Houston, Texas teacher and teacher’s aide have been removed from their classroom for allegedly disciplining their pre-K students by placing them in custodial closets they nicknamed “monster closets.”

Kelon Chaney, a 4-year-old student at Varnett Charter School, received the disciplinary action when he laughed at another student who had been placed in the closet for acting up. The “monster closet” dubbing was inspired by a book they were reading in class titled “After School Monsters,” MyFOX Houston reports.

“There was a monster and the monster was going to eat me,” Chaney told the station.

The educators are accused of holding the closet door closed with their feet while the disciplined children cried inside in the dark for about five minutes at a time, according to KHOU. Chaney reportedly cried so hard in the closet that he threw up and was sent home.

“You are taking a 4-year-old and putting them in a dark closet, and that’s like torture,” mother Kelicia Johnson-Chaney told KHOU. “That’s torture even to an adult that is afraid of the dark. Who locks anybody in a closet?”

KHOU reports that the educators have been suspended without pay, pending an investigation.”

This is still happening in classrooms around the country. We need to stand up to any teacher doing stuff like this. As teacher we need to set our own standards or others will do it for us. That means helping fellow teachers and also making sure if we see others doing stuff like that that we pull them aside or report them to administrators. No one is served by practices like this. It also just fuels the Anti-teacher rhetoric.

Pioneers in Women’s Education

Sat, 26 May 2012 17:13:00 -0700

Pioneers in Women’s Education:

Many of those pioneers in education are recognized and honored in the 2012 Gazette publication by the National Women’s History Project. Representing hundreds of women whose countless hours of work remain uncounted for, these honorees lead the way in improving education for all young women in America over the centuries. The efforts made by these individuals changed the course of history–or more appropriate herstory.

These Honorees include:

Emma Hart Willard (1787–1870) – Women Higher Education Pioneer

Charlotte Forten Grimke (1837 – 1914) – Freedman Bureau Educator

Annie Sullivan (1866 – 1936) – Disability Education Architect

Gracia Molina de Pick (b.1929) – Feminist Educational Reformer

Okolo Rashid (b.1949) – Community Development Activist and  Historical Preservation Advocate

Brenda Flyswithhawks (b. 1950) – American Indian Advocate and Educator

“ This controversial book says that the way we educate...

Sat, 26 May 2012 17:05:15 -0700

“

This controversial book says that the way we educate millions of American children alienates students from a fundamental pleasure in learning, and that pleasure in learning is essential to real engagement, creativity, intellectual entrepreneurship, and a well-lived life.

Based on almost a decade of intensive autobiographical interviews with over 100 “ordinary” students, teachers, and parents, Wounded By School describes some of the dilemmas of those in school now. Students talk about intensive boredom and daily disengagement, while knowing that school “matters” more than ever. Students and teachers describe a grinding lack of meaning in their work, combined with intensive labeling, tracking and shrink-wrapping of learners based on cursory tests and poor understanding of many kinds of minds.”

TEDxDirigo - Zoe Weil - The World Becomes What You Teach (by...

Sat, 26 May 2012 17:03:55 -0700

TEDxDirigo - Zoe Weil - The World Becomes What You Teach (by TEDxTalks)

THE WORLD BECOMES WHAT YOU TEACH

Zoe Weil is the co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education (www.HumaneEducation.org) and is considered a pioneer in the comprehensive humane education movement, which provides people with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to be conscientious choicemakers and engaged changemakers for a better world. Zoe created the first Master of Education and Certificate Program in Humane Education in the U.S. covering the interconnected issues of human rights, environmental preservation, and animal protection. She has also created acclaimed online programs and leads workshops and speaks at universities, conferences, and events across the U.S. and Canada. She has taught tens of thousands students through her innovative school presentations, and has trained several thousand teachers through her workshops and programs.

Women Educators and Philosophers: A Crowdsourced Celebration

Sat, 26 May 2012 17:01:29 -0700

Women Educators and Philosophers: A Crowdsourced Celebration:

The majority of teachers in this country are women, their impact on the history of education is vast, but only a few are covered in textbooks on education or talked about among the major thinkers in the history of education. Their wisdom, experience and action research in and out of the classroom has helped shape the history of education.

Until the 1970′s most books about education were written by men. When Vivian Gussin Paley, an early educator at the Lab School, wrote her first book, White Teacher, her work as an author/scholar was dismissed and chastised. Her fellow teachers and academics didn’t believe that it was the teacher’s place to study the lives of children she taught.

Action research is now taught in teachers colleges, but we still often forget to celebrate the work of women educators, for example, quotes by John Dewey show up daily on social media, but Helen Parkhurst, his contemporary and a pioneer in Progressive Education who created “the Dalton Plan”, is often forgotten.

We have some of the best voices in education at the Cooperative Catalyst and I thought it would be great to celebrate some of the women educators that inspire us, and celebrate some of the texts we look to and shape our own teaching, thinking and writing. I would like your help in creating a primer of women education philosophers and educators and/or wiki for students and new teachers.

I think we should be able to crowd source at least 50 Women educators and/or philosophers. Also I would love to put together a paragraph or two or blog post on each of them, along with annotations of some of their best work. Please help me by submitting or blogging your contribution or/and email me at coopcatalyst@gmail.com

Here is my list so far

Maria Montessori
Helen Parkhurst.
Deborah Meier
Vivian Gussin Paley
Jill Ostrow
Maxine Greene
Eleanor Ruth Duckworth
Adora Svitak
Lisa Delpit
Linda Darling-Hammond
Ellen Key
Sue Palmer
Caroline Pratt (founder of City and Country School)
Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings
bell hooks
Diane Levin
Kirsten Olson
Zoe Weil

If you want to write about any of them feel free to and I will collect all the writing in one place.

Please ignore "How To Drop Out Of High School: You Should Unschool If..."

Sat, 26 May 2012 15:56:32 -0700

Please ignore "How To Drop Out Of High School: You Should Unschool If...":

williamrodick:

Haha, I know my post is long, but is your response really focused on only one word of the entire thing…and addressing that one word’s context incorrectly? There’s a lot more to what I had to say! Check it out! I think it’s really good.
There’s really no argument here! Unschooling sounds pretty cool, so tell us more about it, and let’s get some good information that can be more helpful than telling a kid to leave the current system. I look forward to the promoted unschooler’s fully developed site.

adventuresinlearning:

williamrodick:

Maybe I’m just bitter. I think I post some pretty good stuff on rare occasion, but I’ve never been featured in #education. I tell myself, “It’s cool - the editors just haven’t been exposed to me yet, or maybe they just don’t get me.” Sometimes I see other things featured, and I compare myself, but I’m reassured by thinking, “Maybe my posts are too long, or just don’t fit with the larger audience.” That’s not how I see it anymore, now that I noticed that the education tag has a featured a post that outlines red flags that should lead a student to make the decision to drop out of high school. How is that ever the answer, and why is that the message we want to send to our kids? Shouldn’t we be sending the message that as teachers we will do everything we can to reach student interest, engage them, and put value in our classes? Should we really send the message that the solution to a problem is to quit and go for an even more uncertain option, like learning everything in months online, as the post’s author suggests? (Some) schools should be revolutionized. If that’s the message that we’re sending, then yes, I’m on board, but how can we model the virtues that we know this generation will need - self-reflection for improvement, the ability to seek solutions to our (and the world’s) problems, communication and collaboration as methods for initiating change - if we promote defeatism? Telling kids that they should drop out of school is setting them up for failure, and denying our responsibilities as educators. Instead, we must tell them to still pursue their interests, and to flourish in those classes that they find fit with their desires and needs.

Here’s my list in response:

Your Grades do not mirror your ability. Do not focus on grades. You are better than grades. Whatever the grade, you cannot be defined by it. What will define you is the value you find in yourself. Challenge yourself. Set goals that aren’t related to grades. Do you think you’ve got what it takes to be an actor, but have difficulty writing essays? Ask your teacher if you can interpret the next short story you read as a one-act play. If he or she is hesitant, say that you’ll write the essay too, and you’d like for your grade to reflect your learning, not the method. Don’t stop there. Pursue that interest - acting, web design, marketing, whatever - in clubs or organizations outside of school too, and continue to look for ways that you can use school to advance your own interests.

You Hate Busy Work. You aren’t alone. Everyone hates busy work, including your teacher. Make suggestions about things you would like to do instead that are also demonstrative of your learning. If your teacher is giving you busy work, ask her or him to help you see the value of it, and if it truly is busy work without value, then you should ask her or his boss.

You Love to Read. Wait. Your teacher doesn’t like that you enjoy reading? This one is just too unbelievable. There is interesting, beautiful literature for every subject thinkable. Read. Read. Read. And let your teacher know you’re doing it.

You’re a web wizard. There is a great deal of learning that you can do online. Do it! Show your teacher what you’re teaching yourself! Show off!

You Don’t Get Highscool. I copied the title. Yes, “howtodropoutofschool” actually spelled the place of learning as “scool.” If you don’t get high school, then I beg you to find value in yourself, not the institution. Unfortunately, you will be incredibly limited if you drop out of high school, no matter your talents. It isn’t about the place, it’s about what you can take from it. Yes, a large part of what you take depends on what the place can provide, but it also depends on you. If you are an incredibly driven person, talk to your counselor, and check into resources like online high schools. Maybe a service like K12 can offer you greater flexibility in finding the things you like, while still giving you the degree you must have in order to survive in the world.

You feel trapped. You need to talk to a counselor. You may feel trapped in school, but that does not mean school is the source of your feeling, and it is important for you to find out what that source is, and for that, you should not be on your own. Do not be scared by generalized, unfounded claims like, “suicides are rampant.” You should realize though that depression is serious, and if you are feeling depressed, there are many people who will help you, including those you will find in school.

In an age when the job market is flooded with students who have bachelor’s degrees, you will not survive competing against these people without a high school diploma. This does not mean you must go the route of higher education. Inform yourself. Set your own goals, and figure out how you can reach them. Go after what you want! I want you to swim upstream, but be prepared, and make the most out of the people and things who want to help you get there.

howtodropoutofschool:

Your Grades do not mirror your ability. It’s widely acknowledged that grades DO NOT measure brain power. However, some people hold their worth to those shiny letters. If you’re not one of those people- it’s time to call it quits.

You Hate Busy Work. Your the kid who refuses to do that word…

Not everyone that drops out of school or who decides to unschool is defeated. Unschooling has a long history. The post you referred to is written by an unschooling student. Unschooling has a long history. Also I think you might look to the alternative schools in your distract not the progressive school but the one of the drop outs and “bad students” many of these school actually save students from the rejection that traditional school offer them.

I am not disagreeing with that you wrote a lot and much of it is good advice, but I would argue you are missing her point. You still are pointing to the teacher and the system as the authority on learning tell her to go to the teacher etc. The author of the post wrote a post to other students based on her experience, and she is pointing out that student can take control of their own schooling, if the current schooling is not giving you want you want. I am not sure it will be the best choice for a lot of students, but I not sure spending all your time forcing the current system to be more student driven is the best choice either. Either her site is in the beginning and her journey as an unschooler is also. Choosing to drop out of school is a hard choice, but if it is the best choice for you, there is no reason students need to be alone. Students like her can be allies and possibly help struggling students get control of their education instead of being control by it.

Meet the tireless entrepreneur who squatted at AOL | Bootstrap - CNET News

Sat, 26 May 2012 15:38:47 -0700

Meet the tireless entrepreneur who squatted at AOL | Bootstrap - CNET News:

He wanted to get straight into the thick of it, so after high school, and a short period crashing on couches with friends at the University of Illinois, Simons accepted a slot in the inaugural class of Imagine K12, a new Silicon Valley incubator focused entirely on education. His plan? Start a company that builds tools allowing teachers to create and discover lesson plans, and share them with students and teachers.

“Teachers around the U.S. and the world are asked to teach from a checklist,” Simons said. “They’re asked to teach the exact same thing…and they’re all going and creating their own lessons. What we’ve built is almost a GitHub for teacher lessons. They can fork someone else’s lesson plan and use that as a springboard.”

Is it ironic that a bad student ended up launching a company that aims to revolutionize education? Simons doesn’t think so. “It wasn’t that I didn’t like school,” he said. “I didn’t like [the way it was done]. I said, I’m going to take a crack at this. I’m young enough that I can take a crack at some crazy stuff. Ten years from now, maybe I can’t be sleeping on people’s couches.”

Meet the tireless entrepreneur who squatted at AOL | Bootstrap - CNET News

Sat, 26 May 2012 15:37:23 -0700

Meet the tireless entrepreneur who squatted at AOL | Bootstrap - CNET News:

You hear it all the time, but Simons, now 20, was a mediocre student with little interest in school. That changed one day when his high school chemistry teacher confronted him and demanded to know what she could do to get him interested.

“I was stumped,” Simons writes on the About Us page of his startup, ClassConnect. “She didn’t ask me to try harder, she didn’t ask me to stay after for help or study more — she asked me to figure out how she could grab my interest. No one had ever bothered to ask me that before. A few moments later I replied, ‘let’s get everyone working together on computers — I’ll even build the software for us to use.’” His life as an entrepreneur had begun.

"Think dramatically. Get in the habit of thinking of yourself and the children as partners in an..."

Sat, 26 May 2012 12:46:11 -0700

“Think dramatically. Get in the habit of thinking of yourself and the children as partners in an acting company. Once we learn to imagine ourselves as characters in a story, a particular set of events expands in all directions. We find ourselves being kinder and more respectful to one another because our options have grown in intimacy, humor, and literary flavor.”

- A Conversation with Vivian Gussin Paley | National Association for the Education of Young Children | NAEYC

“If you don’t like Gay Marriage blame Straight...

Sat, 26 May 2012 11:56:09 -0700

“If you don’t like Gay Marriage blame Straight People they’re the ones who keep having Gay Babies!”

(via Facebook)

Who are your favorite Women education philosophers or Authors?

Sat, 26 May 2012 11:39:00 -0700

I really think we should be able to get 50 Female Educators. If you don’t know any of the top of your head, help me crowd source more. Also I would love to put together a paragraph or two on each of them, along with Annotations of some of their best work. Please help me. Submit or reblog with your contribution or email me at coopcatalyst@gmail.com

Here is my list so far

Montessori
Deb Meier
Vivian Gussin Paley
Francis Parker
Jill Ostrow
Maxine Greene
Eleanor Ruth Duckworth
Adora Svitak
Lisa Delpit
Linda Darling-Hammond
Ellen Key

Names offered by some of my followers

Sue Palmer
Caroline Pratt (founder of City and Country School)
Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings
bell hooks
Diane Levin
Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum
Diane Ravitch
Sarah Lawrence Lightfoot
Virginia Lynn Fry
Grace Llewellyn
Jane Vella
Ruby Payne
Nancy F. Sizer