Writing Is…Totally NOT School!

Posted on August 29, 2013 by conversationeducation

As the days grow shorter I find myself reflecting on my summer work at UNH and for sure, the Writer’s Academy is always a highlight. It is that one time in the year where I have a group of students for more than just an hour or two. They are with me and my co-teacher and for an entire week and in that week we get to focus on just one subject, writing. As a teacher this is a form of nirvana. No grades, no homework, no behavior problems…just a bunch of shy, crazy, outgoing, creative, interesting, motivated, goofy, enthusiastic and yes sometimes even awkward writers coming together to write. Or as defined by one 6th grader when asked to sum up their week in 3 words wrote on his poster “totally not school.”

Giggling girls writing.

Writing in nature’s classroom

Writing Rocks!

Writing is a passion for all of us, instructors included and our camaraderie is palpable as we talk about what we tried at lunch and laugh at the different events of the morning and we share these stories while the kids gather to eat and get to know each other and make friends.

The kids who show up are writers, they want to write, they want to improve their writing, they are giving up a week of summer and dedicating it to their craft and because of this a community of writers is quickly formed.

This year in thinking about these young writers, from 5^th grade through High School, I wondered how they saw writing or would define writing in their own words. So I stole an idea from an amazing artist and friend, Laura Gaffke who created a similar public art installation that focused on the idea of beauty. (You can find her on Facebook as well as on her blog, http://lauratwotina.com/) I decided I would create our own version and ask students or anyone walking by to write to the idea of “writing is…”

Our Public Art Installation. Writing Is…

My co-teacher, Karen Atherton provided the materials for my vision as she lugged in a 20 pound crock with sand in it to keep the tree up that she had her husband cut down from her back yard. She also showed up complete with lights for the tree and these were no ordinary lights, no, they were pink flamingoes and green palm tree lights. So we set it up in the hallway and asked that all of the different groups at one point add to the installation. Tags and markers were left by the tree for anyone to write to at their own convenience.

And while our installation was not quite as pretty as Laura’s, it was quite interesting in it’s own right. Reading through all of the tags after they were removed it seemed as though there were 3 distinct categories that these definitions fell within. There was the “one word” club where writing was summed up in one word including writing is…art, powerful, cathartic, individuality, fun, history, truth, freedom, understanding, translation, happy, love and supermegafoxyswesomehot! Writing is…Life!

Then there was the therapeutic genre where many students poured their hearts out about what writing was to them in terms of healing, expressing emotions, revealing secrets and discovering self- awareness. Some of these are hauntingly beautiful including,

“Writing is a therapeutic; a way to escape one’s own mind. It is creating your own little world where you get to be in control. Writing is awesome”

“Writing is a discovery of yourself.”

“Writing is putting your mind on paper.”

“Writing is how I stay alive. If my thoughts stayed in my mind they would overrun the senses and I would think too much and then I would be gone.”

“Writing is a way to…release the feeling I hold in that my friends wouldn’t understand about.”

“Writing is a way to create a deeper self.”

“Writing is the most intimate for of self-expression.”

“Writing is a way to cope with pain/problems for me. Everything leaves my mind, and stains the paper instead of me. And that’s why I’ve grown so close to writing.”

Writers gather around guest author, Lisa Luedeke

The third category was more about how it was an act of creative expression and use of imagination, imagery, poetry and voice. Here are some of these:

“Writing is indescribable. An experience. An image painted with words.”

“Writing is a struggle against silence.”

“Writing is the way the moonlight touches the silky ocean in the middle of twilight.”

“Writing is the spouse of music.”

“Writing is a way to entwine souls, so we can touch each other through distance and time and language.”

“Writing is your own adventure. Your own world. A place were you have freedom to do whatever you want and make anything happen.”

I end with this one intentionally because I believe on many levels this also defines the writer’s academy in general. We recently received a letter from a former student who wrote us to let us know what the writer’s academy was to her. Here are her words.

My name is Kimberley and I am writing to thank you for a particular summer of the Writers Academy. Nine years ago, in 2004, I met a classroom of middle schoolers like me, who would rather write stories and keep journals than play wiffle ball in the middle of July. In this class, I met fellow student Haley, and we instantly became friends. We continued attending Writers Academy every summer until we were too old, going to the Dairy Bar and people-watching in the MUB and inventing their ludicrous backstories.

Haley and I didn’t live in the same town, and attended rival high schools. The only interaction we would have ever had is from opposite sides of the football field. Without Writers Academy, we would have never crossed paths, but I’m extremely fortunate we did. We remain best friends to this day, and we just returned from a two week cross-country road trip, driving out to Los Angeles. Of course, because we didn’t meet at Writers Academy for nothing, we kept meticulous journals the entire way, and are currently working on a screenplay based on our adventures. When we make it big, we’ll credit Writers Academy for bringing us together.

Thank you again for the wonderful program!

Kimberly

At the risk of sounding boastful I agree, it is a wonderful program. One that continues to grow and thrive as more and more writers come to us, but at the same time there is a sadness that comes as well because everything I teach at the Writer’s Academy is grounded in how I teach and taught as a teacher in the public school system. THIS WAS SCHOOL!! Freedom, choice, adventure, passion, play and life were all part of our everyday curriculum and yet this is no longer the case. And while it keeps us in business I still long for classrooms to honor choice, time and genuine response where learning is “totally not school.”

Honoring Space and Time

Posted on August 19, 2013 by conversationeducation

I walked out on the back deck this morning and to my horrors of horrors there were leaves strewn about. The first leaves fallen, physical evidence that slowly but surely the seasons are and will be changing. And with that change I hear all of my teacher friends talk about going into their classrooms with excitement and anticipation at the prospect of a new year. How will they set up their classrooms this year? What kinds of “areas” can be created in this space where they will live with their students over this next year?

Photo Credit: catchingreaders.com

This time of year seems to get earlier and earlier every year though. It used to be that none of this was even contemplated until the official “end” of summer, Labor Day. But no more. College students are out shopping everywhere you go. Sons and daughters with Mothers seeking out that perfect comforter and wall hangings to create their own sense of space, the home away from home. My son, a senior, just out the door for his official soccer tryouts. And yet…it is ONLY August 19^th! Much too early!

Space matters. I find myself wanting to nest in my own home as I wake each morning with the urge to move furniture around and make things a new. I stop myself though, reminding myself that it IS still summer and that my summer arrangements must stay as long as possible for it is, after all, our shortest season of all.

Photo Credit: http://www.photoinpixel.com

And this summer I found myself not writing at all. This blog was unintentionally left to have it’s own summer vacation and that gets me thinking about what I need as a writer and one of the major things I need is space. And while that may seem incredibly obvious, with 2 kids in the house it is quite difficult to come by. And while I realize I could create the space and time and get up really early with the birds and get to my keyboard, the truth is that when I am up early I am out tending my gardens. You see there is so little weather here in New Hampshire that is conducive to early mornings outside. My routine is to water my plants and survey each garden to see what has happened over night. And things do happen.

Photo Credit: reelswellblog.com

I tried roses this year though. They are tough little buggers and as soon as we got them into the ground they up and died. Not really, but they looked as though they were dead. And so I left them. I pruned them here and there, gave them food and water and just waited. Not until yesterday did I start to see 2 tiny roses on one of the plants. Why now? I wondered? Perhaps they just needed time to adjust to the new soil. Perhaps the food finally kicked in. Perhaps they got just the right amount of sunshine and water for a few days in a row. Who knows! Maybe all they needed was a bit of space.

My roses FINALLY bloom on one bush!!

How often do we hold these spaces for our students? Our teachers? Spaces where they can be who they are, take the time that they need and figure out how to write or grow or bloom on their own? We talked a lot about this “holding of space” in my summer course (last entry!) on Passion, Purpose and Play: Creating Real Readers and Writers. EVERY day during our 2 weeks together these students, made up of teachers and interns had the time and space they needed to do their work. We devoted the last chunk of our day to “workshop”. Time where students could choose what it was they wanted to work on and how. They could choose to read or write anything they wanted. It might be reading for the next day in class, a novel or magazine they were interested in, or the writing they were working on. They could go to the library, go outside to read and write. They could confer in their triads, in partners or with me. They could write in notebooks, on their laptops or even on the floor if they so chose! They could choose to use this time to express themselves artistically with watercolors and other art supplies provided.

Christian and Lexe during Workshop Time, Summer 2013

I loved this time every day as it gave me time to sit with individuals and confer on their processes on what was working and what was not. IF the work, the homework, is so important, then why don’t we ever provide the time and space for that work to begin to happen in class? It seems so obvious and yet on my evaluations there was a resounding appreciation for that time given. Respect. That is what happened. There was a great respect for the work when there was a place for that work to happen. Many left each afternoon with clearly defined goals on where they wanted to take their reading and writing that night.

Maria reading Poetry, Summer 2013

And while the cliché of students blooming has been used ad naseum, I am going to bring this back around to those damned roses. The ones that refused to just blossom. The ones, that given the time and space eventually did bloom! Next to it though, is the other rose. You know the one. The one that no matter what you do, it just stays the same. No buds, no roses, no sign of color. The scrawny little plant next to the blooming phlox that are going to bloom and shine no matter what I do or don’t do. But it is there….and nothing I did changed that plant for the better. In fact it looks much worse than when we brought it home. When first planted it it had gorgeous pale yellow and pink roses and now it simply stands alone, no flowers, no color. Lifeless. And yet it is not. And so I will wait and be patient and hope and try some new things and hope and wait that perhaps one day…maybe even next summer that it will again yield a beautiful bloom or two, but you just never know.

Sad little rosebush..no buds!

And that is the imprecision of teaching and learning in a nutshell. We can do all we can and still there may be those roses that will never bloom, at least not while you are around. And that is ok. Maybe it is not their time. Maybe what is happening on the inside is more important than the product. It is not always what we “see” that matters in the long haul.

And so we begin a new year…and I do so love the feeling of new beginnings. It is what makes me a true New Englander. As much as I hate the seasons I need the seasons. So little leaves on the back deck, I welcome you, but not entirely as I sweep you off and honor the space of summer as long as I can!

Let’s Simplify, Not Justify: In Defense of the ART of Teaching

Posted on June 11, 2013 by conversationeducation

“I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. “

John Steinbeck

What is the art of teaching??

In the children’s book of the Three Questions, a retelling of the original story by Leo Tolstoy, a young boy is on a quest to find the answers to these three questions:

When is the best time to do things?
Photo Credit: kellykorenek.wordpress.com
Who is the most important one?
What is the right thing to do?

As Nikolai goes off to meet with the wise old tortoise to find the answers to his questions he discovers that when he is not searching for the answers, he actually finds them. He rescues a mother panda bear and her baby from a terrible storm as the tortoise looks on and observes the boys actions.

Nikolai is still disappointed at the end of this ordeal because he is frustrated that he has not been given the answers. The tortoise wisely tells him that his questions were answered through his actions. He ends the story reminding the boy.

Photo Credit: bookimagecollective.blogspot.com

“Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. For these, my dear boy, are the answers to what is most important in this world. This is why we are here.”

This is why we are here and this is why I love to teach in a workshop because this kind of teaching and learning requires us all to be present. These are the essential questions that matter in my teaching in the moment, an essential part of the “art” of teaching. Keeping true to this art of teaching requires careful listening, intuition and improvisation on the part of every person in the workshop; most importantly, the teacher. There is no guidebook to where you can check off what you are going to do because the truth is that you don’t know what you are going to teach until you are in that moment with that child. Terry Moher, in her work on conferring refers to this as “teaching not knowing.”

Photo Credit: wondergressive.com

One problem is that there is so much noise and distraction in schools right now . I would love for every person, administrator, parent, citizen and politician to go and just shadow a teacher for a day. Yes, one whole day so that they can see first hand just what is being asked of teachers. So much of what is deemed necessary is done so by others, it has become more about justifying every action, each student, their numbers, their percentages, their scores and less about “who” that student is and what is is they might need.

The distractions away from the simplicity of teaching our students are more numerous than you can even imagine. There is a hurried frenzy that seems to buzz through so many schools. Lost is the feeling of nurturing, slowness and taking each moment at a time. Disappearing from early childhood classrooms are blocks, dress-up centers, imaginative play areas, sand tables and any element of play. Teachers are more frazzled and students, if they buy in to this system, are as well. The pressure to perform is on and yet…to what end?

Photo Credit: magazine.byu.edu

When I model lessons in classrooms one of the most common responses is, “that was great, BUT, I don’t have that kind of time to allow kids to think things through.”. I would argue that we don’t have time NOT to let them think!! And in this I believe that we all must make choices and for me it is as simple as asking myself and grounding my teaching in these 3 questions, When is the most important time? Now. Who is the most important one? The one I am with. And what is the right thing to do? It is to do good for the one at my side. What if we just made it that simple? What if that was at the very CORE of what we were doing in all of our schools with all of our kids?

More time to simplify. Less time to justify.

It just simply makes sense to me.

Photo Credit: http://www.etsy.com

Reflections on Drama, Drama Worlds and the Land of Misfit Kids

Posted on June 4, 2013 by conversationeducation

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in him time plays many parts.” William Shakespeare, As You Like It.

I have always been a great fan of using drama and movement in the classroom. Here I look at the dramas that unfold regardless of what we do or don’t do.

As I enter the room I look around. Who is here? Who is not here? Who is talking to whom and who is not talking to anyone? What is the “pulse” of the group today? Is the energy high? Low? Medium? Do I read stress, playfulness, and exhaustion? What does this group hold today? What dramas are unfolding before my eyes? What will happen in this class today?

Photo Credit: hobbinol.wordpress.com

By observing drama worlds within our classrooms we then invite our students to “read” the drama actions going on in their worlds with a heightened sense of awareness, reflection and learning. Each classroom is unique just as each individual within each classroom is unique. Understanding one’s self, the group and being able to “see” from someone else’s point of view allows us to teach empathy and real life skills that will be forever invaluable for our students. We can call this “dramatic consciousness” where we ask of our students and ourselves to be aware of what is happening in and around us, within the books we read, the characters we create and the meaning that we ultimately make for ourselves.

“Dramatic consciousness means bring aware that there is dramatic action taking place in one’s life, in one’s work, in the lives of the people who make up the school community. It implies being present to that drama, engaged in its passions, struggles and adventures, rather than being psychologically distant, removed from the action.”

Robert J. Starratt, The Drama of Schooling: The Schooling of Drama

Photo Credit: http://www.adaptastraining.com

One year, my first year at a new school I had the privilege of getting a class of “misfits”. I say this with love for each of these children, but the truth of the matter was that I had gotten all of the students whose parents had not made requests for other teachers. I was new, the unknown and the keeper of all of the students whose parents did not know to make requests or were just not interested in doing so. This group of kids was one of the most challenging and consequently rewarding groups I have ever worked with. We spent much of the year working on group dynamics and accepting people for who they were. When I say misfits I am talking about all of those kids who had something incredibly special about them that had yet to be nurtured. They were a group for whom school was not a comfortable stage. They were a group, who by the end of the year became the tightest knit group of students I have ever had.

“And so faith is closing your eyes and following the breath of your own soul down to the bottom of life, where existence and non-existence have merged into relevance. All that matters is the little part you play in the vast drama.”

-Anonymous

As individuals they were as different as they were talented. The everyday work of school, sitting at one’s desk and performing a series of tasks was not going to work for not just a couple of them, but literally for none of them. If they were not coded then they were labeled with some kind of something that supposedly hindered their ability to learn. They were also the group that took to drama more than any other. It was a way for them to be and to show their learning through movement. It was what eventually made this group do things that were beyond comprehension. Every day was filled with dramatic activities and chances for kids to “become” someone other than themselves. Puppetry, theater, role-playing, Picture Book Dramas, Joke – Telling, Songs, Poet’s Theater were parts of every day often inspired by the students themselves.

One beautiful spring day I was called to the principal’s office to discuss an upcoming “fight” that was to take place the very next day. The rumor was that many of the kids in my class were involved. Involved? That was putting it mildly. They had all gotten together as a class for each recess for weeks and worked on the planning and execution of this upcoming “event”. It was to be a showdown between two boys in our class who had agreed to “fight”. There was a marketing committee who went around at each recess talking up the upcoming event. There was a sales committee that created and sold tickets to the event. There were judges, participants and even prizes to be donated by various other students in the class. There were flyers made, and all of the the other third grade classes were buying the tickets and oh yes, did I mention, they were also placing bets on who would be the winner? In their own time they had created an entire drama world where each of them were the stars. The organization, thoughtfulness and planning that went into this event was amazing. But, we were at school and what were we going to do about this? The fight was cancelled, much to the relief of the contenders and monies were returned to the rightful owners. Letters of apology were written and yet, through it all there was a part of me that was actually proud of these kids and what they had almost pulled off.

“I love acting. It is so much more real than life.”

-Oscar Wilde

Photo Credit: http://www.tumblr.com

So, I took the pulse of the group and ran with it. We broke down the drama of the event they had planned, unpacked it and gathered on the carpet and discussed all of the skills they used to plan and eventually execute such an event. After mapping them out I proposed that we use all of these skills in order to plan an event that might actually help someone or a cause. The thinking began and the ideas started to flow. What would we do? At the time we were studying the rainforest and after careful consideration it was decided that we, as a class, would buy a portion of a rainforest. The efforts to raise money began as the kids headed up different committees and the money was eventually earned and we purchased an acre of a rainforest that would never be destroyed. We received a picture and a document stating it had been saved and the best part was that out of this planning and execution nobody got hurt and even better part of the world was saved.

“Life is like an overlong drama through which we sit being nagged by the vague memories of having read the reviews.”

John Updike

It seems to me that too often in our school worlds we see things in black and white. Sure, what they planned was inappropriate for school, but as a group it was an amazing feat. Here was a group of kids who lingered on the outskirts of the popular kids, who became, as a group, the focus of the third grade recess. They had planned an event that every other third grader wanted to be a part of. As a group these students created and made a drama world where they were center stage and not behind the scenes where most of them had been most of their school careers. And even as I write this I realize that this is not completely true because many of those kids were front and center, but not in a place that was helping them. Many were in trouble with the “law” for numerous accounts and even in this we need to ask, what is the drama action that is happening and what need is it fulfilling? Attention. Working together they were able to get this attention in a positive way.

We spend a great deal of time focusing on everything that is wrong. What is right? These kids were brilliant….but school was never a place where their genius was discovered. I just think we can do better. And part of better is helping kids to see their roles in life, in school and as individuals. Lights, Camera…ACTION!

Photo Credit: shakespeareinaction.wordpress.com

The Power of Modeling, Connection, Trust and Play

Posted on May 14, 2013 by conversationeducation

When my daughter Emma was three, she was playing happily in her corner of the kitchen where I had created her own little “house” complete with a wooden hutch, oven, highchair and cradle for her own dolls. She spent hours creating her own reality of being a Mom. One day I was about to wander in when I stopped and peered around the corner (yes mothers do spy!) and as I watched her rock her baby and look into her eyes adoringly, one of those warm washes of love and perfection poured over me. It was a moment that I wanted to sink into and enjoy.

Emma took her baby, placed her into the high chair and began feeding her and gently said, “Eat, dammit. Eat your food, dammit.”

Emma

I stood there in horror, unable to move and continued to watch. After the lovely meal, Emma placed her baby into the cradle and in a very nurturing way, covered her up with the blanket and said, “Now time to go to sleep, dammit.”

Again, that word hit me, smacked me right across the face and left a sting. What had happened to my perfect mother moment?

“Emma”, I asked, “What are you doing?”

“Putting my baby to bed. She is tired.”

“I see that. I heard you use a “D” word that I was wondering about.”

“A D word?” she contemplated. “Oh, Dammit?”

“Yes that is the one.”

“Oh, that is my baby’s name Momma.”

Silenced again.

The power of modeling…

I have been known to tell this story when working with teachers to show how modeling is one of the most powerful tools we have and that we can use it to show our literate lives for our students every day. It is what we do, not just what we say. We need to talk about what we read, write and wonder; to show them first hand that literacy is not about school, it is about life and how we choose to live this life. When students see that we are interested in writing, reading books, articles, blogs, on-line periodicals, newspapers etc., they can “see” how we live each literate day. When we talk about a great book we found at a used bookstore or bring in our favorite children’s book, they can catch a glimpse of our lives beyond the four walls of school. And they begin to consider theirs as well.

Bridging the gap between “school” reading and “life” reading is critical. As an instructor in the English Department at the University of New Hampshire’s Learning Through Teaching professional development program, I have the privilege of going into classrooms and supporting teachers in their coursework. Every time I enter a classroom I have my Writer’s Notebook and other sundry of books with me. It could be a couple of children’s picture books, the current novel I am reading, or more recently my Ipad. Kids ask me about the ever-present essentials (appendages?) that I carry with me. They are curious and I can open them up and share small pieces of myself with them. It is an entry point for conversations about reading and writing.

When I am modeling a lesson for a teacher or group of teachers, I start by talking to the class about my passion for reading and writing; my excitement over a new author I have found, what I am working on myself in writing or how a word looks or sounds. And it is authentic. I love words. I love to read and write and when kids feel that from me, they too want to be a part of that energy. It is infectious and it is not hard to get them to buy in as I ask them to repeat a word with me, a nice long juicy word like onomatopoeia, that they can take home with them and share with their families. “There is a world in a word,” Lev Vygotsky wrote and it’s up to us to open up those worlds.

Toting Libba Moore Grey’s, My Momma Had a Dancin’ Heart under my arm, I entered Emily Spear’s wonderful and familiar first grade classroom where I was greeted with hugs and an offer for one of those famous birthday cupcake that are handed to you with great love and grey grubby hands. I received the confection’s love, knowing it would never get eaten and smiling at the gesture.

I settled into the comfy rocker and had a brief time to reconnect as they told me about their latest ventures in writing. Voices rang all around me as they shared their latest “sound” words. Three little girls got closer and asked about the pink necklace I was wearing twirling it in their hands and marveling when I told them it was a crystal. “ooooh…you must be rich!”. I explained it was a gift from my sister and that SHE was the rich one because she had ME for a sister. They giggled.

Taking this time to connect with these kids is a critical part of the modeling process. It only took a few minutes, but in that time my words and actions showed them I was interested in THEM. This gives me an advantage because I have re-established our working relationship and can then move into our writing time together. I am reconnecting and we are exchanging trust in these small moments.

I read aloud, knowing that I wanted to model Moore’s use of playfully hyphenated words as a craft the kids could name and experiment with. I stopped and wrote some examples on the white board:

tip-tapping

song-singing

finger-snapping

We talked about these words and wondered why the author would use the hyphen. They quickly identified that it made it into one word, made the reader say the word more quickly and created rhythm. For each dance in the book I asked for a volunteer to get up and “perform” each season’s ballet. They were eager to move and the movement brought this story to life for all.

We then brainstormed a name for these words and the list consisted of

1.describing words

2. two words in one

3. DASH-ing words.

It was democratically decided that DASH-ing words described them most accurately because of the dash (hyphen) and use of the suffix ”ing” on the end of each word. And while some may be thinking this is not correct it is playful and something the kids will remember. Let’s just call it poetic license! Next, I asked them to go and try out some of the DASH-ing words in their own writing.

And the play began. Some kids came up with what we called Double DASH-ing words such as tweet-tweet-tweeting. Morgan, who I thought was struggling was left to her own thinking for some time and arrived at my side with this incredible poem:

Swish-swash

Slush-sliding

Icicles-banging

Against the long

White world

But the world

Is not always white

Wow! I just love the image of the long white world…

We all came back to the carpet, shared our DASH-ing words and created a chart with all of the examples the kids had come up with, creating a classroom “model” that they could refer back to and add to.

Photo Credit: http://recoveringyou.com/trusting-an-addict/

I left the room, again humbled at the brilliance of these kids and just what they can do if given the time, space, place and a model of what is possible. Trusting our students. What a concept and something we can all do, Dammit!!

Alternatives and Activism: Reclaiming the Conversation on Education

Posted on May 1, 2013 by conversationeducation

This weekend I will join educational colleagues, professionals, parents, students and friends at Barnard College in New York City to “take back” the Conversation on Education. Does it strike me that this is close to the name of my blog? Why yes, and while it initially inspired me to make this trip, it was more about the idea that “we” can actually DO something about what is happening in the corporate takeover of our public school systems. This is the blurb that made me sign-up.

“If you want to move beyond the focus on test scores, performance outcomes, standardization, and data aggregation, if you are tired of seeing your students deprived of real educational opportunities, if you worry teaching is being reduced to test prep and educators are losing their autonomy and academic freedom, and if you believe all our children should have access to a curriculum and extra-curriculum that are far more engaging that stripped down cram courses or subsistence level job training, then this is the conference for you.”

And if that didn’t convince me then this panel of experts certainly did!!

“Hear speakers such as Susan Ohanian, Barbara Bowen, Carol Burris, Zakiyah Ansari, Juan Gonzalez, Barbara Madeloni, Ceresta Smith, Brian Jones, Nikhil Goyal, Ann Cook, and Shino Tanikawa and join with your colleagues to mobilize resistance.”

Photo Credit: http://www.susanohanian.org

But of course the real kicker is that last line, “join with your colleagues to mobilize resistance.” What a great line! At first I recall being in college and while taking one of my initial courses in education we were assigned the task of doing something we had never done before. The goal was to get out of our comfort zones and to reflect on that experience. I chose to go to a local anti-nuclear demonstration. I did not have to do much to dress the part as anyone who knew me in High School or college knows that I came by the “crunchy” quite naturally. What I remember the most about this rally was the collective energy and power that I felt there. It was exhilarating, amazing and empowering. It was a place where I began to develop and strengthen my voice.

Flash forward, too many years to count, and I find myself at dinner in Ohio with my daughter and 6 of her college friends at a round table where the discussion centered on the increase in tuition for students going abroad, a policy that was delivered to students at an informational meeting. They were outraged at the way it was handled and so I asked them, “What can you do about this?” Their collective reply was “nothing”.

Photo Credit: http://www.funnytimes.com

They felt they did not have a voice in the policy at Kenyon College even though they entered 2 years prior with a very real sense of what the cost would be for the 4 years. I talked to them about a Grandfather Clause and what they might be able to do. This tuition increase was a major hit to most of these kids and yet the overwhelming consensus what that they did not feel empowered, they did not believe they had any voice; they did not believe that anything they might do would matter.

And so, in my not so subtle manner I started asking questions and suggesting ways to let their voices be heard. By the end of the meal they were fired up and had grand plans to set up a table during parents weekend to bring attention to this issue, as parents were never formally informed and would not even know until the tuition bill arrived in the mail. And while they had visions of posters and signs and standing up for their rights…none of this actually ever happened. Why? Because ultimately they did not believe it would matter.

Isn’t college the perfect place to get involved in make change? Have we lost this generation to the cow towing and conformity that they have had a steady diet of? Or have they just not yet discovered the power of their voices? Or, are they right?

Looking again at that last line…I get a different feel. We will gather to “mobilize resistance” and it hits me, these are wartime words. These are the words of troops and lieutenants. And I wonder…have we really come that far? Is this an all out war?

I don’t know the answer to these questions. I do know that I have such passionate discourse about what is happening and that while blogging about it has helped me to research further and write down my thoughts I realize it is not enough.

I want to join the collective voice of others at the rally. I want to begin the process of change with like-minded people who are not going to just sit at the table and watch this happen. I want to join with the forces that believe we CAN and WILL do something. I want to show this younger generation that there is power in numbers and activism and alternatives to just accepting whatever comes down the proverbial pipeline. I want to model that they too can have their voices be heard.

Photo Credit: teacherscount.wordpress.com

So…here I go…off to the Big Apple. Perhaps I will dig out one of my old Indian skirts, find a complimentary embroidered shirt and sandals for the occasion….and had I thought of it earlier I could have even gotten a perm, “Wonder Tomasen…activate!”

For more information on this conference check out the blog http://reclaimingconversation.blogspot.com It will also be live streamed.

The Joys of Teaching: Bringing Back the Poetry, the Puppetry and the People

Posted on April 1, 2013 by conversationeducation

“Imagination is more important than knowledge”

~Einstein

Sometimes life it just too much. Things come flying at you faster than you can handle and the goal becomes to just get through each and every day and to do the best that you can. In the midst of great busyness you check things of the list and move on. But at some point you stop and realize that you are not living as much as creating a record of living. I may be “doing”all of the mechanical movements to get through a day, but the mundane checks on the list mean very little in my life.

I believe that we get what we give, you know, karma and all of that great stuff. And as I read through my blog posts I realize how much power and energy I myself have given to the Common Core State Standards. So I decided to devote one entire class with my graduate students of teachers and devote it to the joys of teaching. I asked each teacher in my group to think about and come to class with a unit, an idea, collaboration, a lesson that they loved.

And I wish you could have felt the energy, the laughter, and yes even the tears that came out of this discussion. One teacher talked about how she had her students make toothpaste. Students would bring in ingredients that they then combined with baking soda and water. One teacher chimed in talking about how her daughter was in that class and how they brought in chocolate extract and how disgusting chocolate toothpaste was. She laughed at the great messiness and engagement and sheer joy in this experiment.

Others talked about great units they had planned with colleagues and how those units moved children. Another spoke of her grand puppet making and how those puppets were then used to create and show meaning within a social studies unit. I wish I could have bottled that energy…but there is no way to measure that energy so it is deemed useless. But at the same time it was the excitement behind the thinking that went into the planning and execution of these lessons, units and projects. And if these teachers were this excited just talking about them they you know the execution of them was the same…and that energy then becomes the energy of the classroom!

I talked about one of my all time favorite units when I was a third grade teacher in Barrington, NH. Our team created the most incredible unit on the history of Barrington. It included storytelling as we brought in the Calef’s and their descendents and neighbors who told great tales of the grist mills and the endless springs walking to school in feet of mud. And what incredible storytellers these elders were! Students would hear these stories and then research and read stories of their own to tell at a celebratory tea where parents and townspeople were invited to hear their stories. They were also asked to interview someone in the community and we compiled these interviews into books to be shared with the town. Every day was filled with Barrington history as I read through the town history book and uncovered more great tales to tell. The month long unit ended with the great town tour. This was more of a scavenger hunt really where we handed out riddle books with clues and questions. This book was their guide and they had to think to figure out where they were going. Small groups would pile into parents cars and off they would go to the Isinglass Riverbanks to the old schoolhouses, where they would be invited in and given a brief history. I can’t even tell you how much the townspeople welcomed our kids into their homes; some even made snacks and drinks in preparation for their day of visitors.

I have heard that parts of that unit actually still exist in Barrington Elementary, but that the big parts, like the town tour are no longer allowed because of liability. How sad that litigation gets in the way of good learning? Once again it is the checks that matter…no more unsafe driving conditions for kids. (Ironic if you have ever ridden on a school bus with no seatbelts really!) Never mind how beneficial that town tour was and how it connected the taxpayers to the students and was a starting point in bringing the town together, creating connections and community between the young and the old. What matters are the details (the devil lives there doesn’t he?) and all of the other minutiae that clog up each and every day.

And so after each teacher had a chance to talk about their joyful teaching we gathered into small groups and I asked these teachers to go through the Common Core State Standards and begin to plug in the standards that were actually covered in those units. In no time at all they were listing standard after standard. There is very little that is new in these standards but we are coming at it from the wrong direction. Why? Because there is money to be made by large corporations (Pearson) and why consult the experts in the field when you can have people who have nothing to do with education create what you need?

And so I ask, why don’t we spend more time in these joyful spaces talking about what we DO DO instead of always what we don’t do? Why can’t we bring back poetry, and puppetry and create spaces where people want to be? Why can’t we create thematic units where students look forward to 3^rd grade and the town tour almost as a right of passage? What is missing in the efforts to implement these standards is the whole. We are so concerned with each little increment and how to “cover” that small piece that we are not doing anything that is connected to anything else…the whole is gone…and without the whole there are just a bunch of pieces floating about randomly in space never to be connected.

And so I am going to attempt to remain in a place of joy through National Poetry Month. My goal is to read and write poetry each and every day of April. I will start today and each day I am with students, children and teachers I will have a poem in my pocket to share. Not so that I can check something off the list, but just for the sheer enJOYment of it.

I will leave you with one of my all time favorites:

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean-

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

Stories as Community

Posted on March 27, 2013 by conversationeducation

I come from a long line of great storytellers. It started with my grandfather. Some of the best stories he actually wrote to me in letters while I was at camp. Stories about the snake that had invaded our play schoolhouse in his yard and how he had tricked it with magic snake dust and was laughing hysterically as he watched that snake cough it’s way down the street never to return. I still smile at this image.

A letter from Grandpa

Then there is my father. I remember it was as if everything in the room would just stop should he begin to tell a story. You see he doled these stories out like little crumbs. They were told so infrequently that when they did come you knew it was time to stop and listen. He tells stories with the greatest sense of anticipation. It is like he takes you on this wonderful ride and you go through every up and down and turn with him word by word. It’s funny, but now that he has gotten older, he falls into his storytelling mode daily. He loves telling them and although you may have just heard it the day before, you still want to listen as it is in the telling that you find great joy. And he knows this and so he prefaces each story with, “I may have already told you this but…” and he tells it again.

Dad

Then there is my sister. She can take any mundane daily activity, like feeding her chickens and turn it into a tale. Honestly, I am always amazed at how she can take anything and make it fascinating. I always think she is truly living life like nobody else I know for in the retelling of her days there are countless short stories and anecdotes. And I wonder, is she crafting these stories as she is living them or does that come after the fact? Imagine living as if each move that you make is one to be retold in a story later. Everybody loves to be with Lisa because of her great energy and ability to find the humor is EVERYthing!

There are days she and I will be out in the woods hiking or on the ski lift and her narratives unwind one after the other. Even better is after she has a couple glasses of wine and the stories flow right along with it. Together we often rebound off of each other with our stories and we entertain ourselves endlessly. My Dad always says we sound like a bunch of old hens cackling away. We tickle ourselves with our tales and then go on to the next one. We amuse each other.

Tomasen and Lisa Hiking

Then there are the family legends. You know, those stories that start out simply and then grow and grow with each telling. One of the classics is from the summer of 1978, a brutally hot summer when my parents decided we would take one of our only family vacations. Visions of amusement parks, Disney and swimming pools danced in our heads as we all went running to our rooms to get ready for the 3 am departure to none other than, Newfoundland. Yes, 3 kids under the age of 15 all crammed into the green, side paneled Pontiac station wagon for a two week, 4,000-mile road trip to Newfoundland and yes, even a lovely Atlantic crossing over to Labrador. There are so many stories from this one vacation from it being the first time I ever hearing my Dad “swear” telling us kids in the back that all we did was eat, fight and fart, to the hotel room with the one bare light bulb, bed bugs, drunkards wandering around and the beach front where we played amongst the jellyfish and broken glass for hours.

Then there is my brother who is also a master of words. He can spin a yarn and sell anyone just about anything. He is masterful with his superlatives and relentless in his enthusiasm. His stories are often filled with small bits of information that nobody knows. As my Dad says, he knows more about everything than I know about even one thing. He too can keep you entertained and on the edge of your seat for hours.

Tomasen and Jamie

Stories provide us with a sense of belonging to something that is bigger than ourselves and each time one of these comes up there is an energy that surrounds them. We all laugh as the telling begins and those who have married into the family often find the need to leave as once we get going there is no stopping us. They exit the room saying, “Here we go again, the one bare light bulb and the drunks in Labrador stories…”

Then there are the stories that were told at Jimmy’s celebration of life last weekend. Jimmy, 23 years old passed away from Ewing’s Sarcoma on March 16^th. (See previous post) In lieu of a funeral his family organized a service of stories. One after the other were people who took the stage and told of a boy, a man, a son, a brother with the biggest heart of anyone I have ever known. It was not just a rambling of how wonderful Jimmy was…you know the words that anyone could say about anyone, but detailed stories that I find I play over and over in my mind. Stories that punctuated who he was and what he believed in.

And then I meet with a group of teachers and they tell me that they do not have room in their schedules for read aloud anymore. And my heart sinks and aches for all of those stories that will not be told, read, discussed and written. For some kids these will be the only stories they will hear. There is scientific research in the area of stories and how those enrich and actually activate our brains in ways that we don’t even know.”

See here for Your Brain on Fiction, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html?pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share&_r=0It states, “By simply telling a story, the woman could plant ideas, thoughts and emotions into the listeners’ brains”

See Vicki Vinton’s latest post here to see what is happening and the kinds of texts 3^rd graders are being asked to navigate independently, and all this without daily practice with stories. http://tomakeaprairie.wordpress.com/. This post speaks about what so many of us are so heartbroken over.

And in the end, I ask, what stories will be told after we are gone? They will not be stories of the scores we got on what tests, or the achievements we made or the trophies we accumulated. They will be the stories of connection and what made us unique and individual, the stories that demonstrate how we were part of something larger in this world, how we touched others, the humorous stories, and how we integrated ourselves independently into a larger sense of the world. Those are the stories that will live on.

So how do we change the narratives that are being played out in our schools? In another article, The Stories That Bind Us, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/fashion/the-family-stories-that-bind-us-this-life.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0,

Bruce Fieler states,

“The last few years have seen stunning breakthroughs in knowledge about how to make families, along with other groups, work more effectively.” He goes on to say, “ The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative.”

And this idea of narrative is taken even further as corporations work to develop community. Developing community is one of the hallmarks of a great teacher. Time in the beginning of each year used to be devoted to creating these communities and creating the narratives where each student became a part of a larger story. These days, there is no time to create community because there is testing in October so often Community building is replaced with test prep.

We are only as good as our stories and I am finding myself feeling almost embarrassed on some level to claim that I am in education, that I believe in the right to a fair and equal public educational system for all when this system has taken on a life of its own and missing is any sense of story that I would ever want to be a part of. It is the story of money and corporate power. And so we must work together to re-write this narrative into one where each character matters and has a part in the larger story, because the alternative is a sterile ground with words on a page that nobody wants to read.

And it begins like this…Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to go to school everyday to see classmates, to discover new ideas, to create, to sing, to play, to explore, to inquire, to wonder, to read and write and be a part of her larger school community…

One story at a time…

Miss-Interpretations of The Common Core and Teaching Writing: Dumbing Down with Ridiculous Rules, Mortifying Myths and Loquacious Lies

Posted on March 6, 2013 by conversationeducation

I am just home after meeting with some very talented and knowledgeable 6^th grade teachers. Our goal, to discuss the Common Core standards and get a feel for where they were in planning for their upcoming insurgence.

Part of the discussion was that in writing a persuasive piece of writing that the use of “I” is forbidden. I asked by whom it was forbidden and they both looked at me like, “everyone” knows this. And in walks the infamous “They” that makes these rules. Who is the “they” in this arena? And while you can find that in certain places the use of “I” is frowned upon it is not in others. What about the fact that some of the best persuasive pieces ever written have a very capital and strong sense of I!!

For instance, if you read through my blog entries, how would you classify (for lack of a better word) what kind of writing it is? What box would you put it in? Persuasive? Argument? Narrative? Informational? Fiction? Non-Fiction? Opinion? Or is it a brand new genre called blogging? Or are there strands of each and all of these?

Or is it just ranting from a girl who lives in the grey areas of life navigating through a world of black and white…forever bumping into the boundaries set by others; hard and fast rules that become the letter of the law lacking any theory to back it up.

I envision it as writing my own newspaper column each week. Where would that fit in?

I see it as a place where I gather my thoughts, opinions, and ideas and then attempt to support them with the thoughts and ideas and opinions of others. Sometimes they are simply ideas of my own that I attempt to connect to begin to make sense of what I am thinking about. I write for the surprise that Donald Murray always wrote about. Does this change what “kind” of writing I am writing on each and every attempt? Or does it even matter what “kind” of writing is if my readers are reading it and it is making them think and wonder and respond?

Donald Murray

And why do we insist on creating “new” kinds of writing that only exist in the world of school? Have you ever seen or read a book report in the “real” world? What about the whopper of a 5-paragraph essay? When is the last time your boss came to you and said you need to write up a 5-paragraph essay, due on my desk by Monday? NO, you have not because the idea of 5 paragraphs is another myth created in the world of education in an attempt to dumb down the process of writing.

These teachers showed me a template for a persuasive (yes 5 paragraphs in this one too) where the students could essentially fill in the blanks and create a piece of writing that would fulfill the requirements of the Common Core Standards. I have to SHOUT out here that I really don’t believe these are the intentions behind the CCSS. This narrow thinking goes back to what Don Graves speaks about as teaching writing in terms of painting by number. All of the writing in these mythical genres look the same, feels the same, reads the same. BORING!!! BUT, as the teachers respond, if we do this then all of the standards will be met and we will be able to point out specifically in different colored pens which parts fulfill which standard. This leaves teachers in an impossible stance. They have to choose whether or not to do what they are told or to teach what they know is good writing. Wouldn’t you think they would be the same thing?

Donald Graves

Our car is making a horrible noise. (Using a story/narrative strand here to make my point) There is a screeching sound that just makes your ears quiver when you turn the wheel. We need to take it to the mechanic to get it fixed. When it arrives he will listen to it, diagnose it and make the necessary changes. Imagine another world, say the world where school meets auto repair and instead of relying on the mechanic there is a checklist that says he must add some simile, a bit of metaphor as well as a heave dose of dialogue to fix and complete this engine repair. When done he can return it to us with all the things he can check off the list, but still with a broken car.

Taking the person OUT of the process only creates nonsensical ridiculous and completely absurd moves. There is NO sense in it and yet this is exactly the response I am seeing to the CCSS. It is about coverage and covering one’s ass, if I may be so blunt…but who cares if your ass is covered if you are turning out broken down cars and students? Taking the writer, the “I” out of the process is not going to create confident writers who know and understand when and where to use a writerly move if they have never had the opportunity as writers to make those decisions. (Using compare and contrast to drive my point home)

I do not start writing thinking; I will use metaphor, simile and dialogue in this piece. I start out with an idea and then as I write there are opportunities where these moves may or may not be useful to make my writing what I envision it to be. I may even remove my car metaphor before this piece is formally posted on my blog. The point it that these decisions are made my ME, the writer, so that I can create something that makes sense and that will engage my readers (hopefully) and allow them to think about something in a way that maybe they had not thought about it before.

My daughter sent me a link the other day about some middle schoolers involved in inquiry projects and created controlled experiment and then wrote it up and submitted it to various scientific journals to share their findings. Many of the journals, while they praised the work of the students and it’s originality were not open to accepting the work of these student because their report started with “Once upon a time”, in other words it did not follow the “rules” of the scientific genre.

And yet, you can see here on this link to TED that the work of these students was eventually published and is now one of the most read scientific reports on the Internet. http://www.ted.com/talks/beau_lotto_amy_o_toole_science_is_for_everyone_kids_included.html

And here is a link to the actual paper that was published. http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/12/18/rsbl.2010.1056.full

So why are so many people reading this and watching this TED talk? I would argue (making this an argument piece now!) that they are reading it and listening to it because it is original and interesting and shows us what our kids CAN do if given the opportunity.

So what are we doing? In our efforts to do what is “right” we are forgetting to think about how kids learn, why kids learn and why they don’t. Why are kids so totally removed from their own educations, their own thinking, their processes of discovery and wonder and curiosity? Why? Why? Because that is exactly what we are asking of them. To fill in the blank, not to think about what they are writing, check it off the list and move onto the next genre. And the beat goes on…

Photo Credits: BLG Consulting Group, communicationissuccess.blogspot.com, http://unhmagazine.unh.edu, UNH Alumni, http://theclimatescepticsparty.blogspot.com/

Nothing In Common: Boutiques and Big Boxes

Posted on February 23, 2013 by conversationeducation

I just spent four days working in a school district out in Plainfield, Illinois and after getting sideswiped by the blizzard Nemo on my way there and delayed on the way home by President Obama’s departure from Chicago at the same time as mine, it was a successful trip. Of course my travel woes are another blog and story all together!! And yet, are they?

As I was driving from Chicago to the Joliet, Plainfield area in search of my first school to visit I realized as I looked out the car window that although I was in Illinois I really could have been just about anywhere in America. On my left, I see a Target, and on my right a Home Depot. Lines and lines of chains from Dunkin Donuts to Burger King stood proudly next to their big box neighbors. And it got me thinking about the goal of so many schools and districts; heck the ENTIRE nation right now is fixated and obsessed with having everything in “common”. Common language, common expectations, common outcomes, a Common Core and the list goes on. And so I ask myself, what is so great about everything being the same?

When I travel I seek out what is different. Where can I find some little restaurant, café or shop that I have never been to before? Where is there something new I can try in terms of experience, food, or even atmosphere that will provide me with some insight as to what makes this town or city or place tick? How do people make their livings? What kinds of homes do they live in? Where are the tracks and what is on each side of those tracks? I enter these new places in the same way that I enter each classroom that I visit. What is different here? What do these students have to offer and what will I learn about them and how they work in the small amount of time I have to work with them?

My contacts and colleagues in Plainfield are two young dynamic women who brought me back to their district after a one -day workshop on writing in October to do some follow-up demonstration lessons in classrooms k-8. Before I arrived they asked me to send them some lesson plans for each day. And so I sat with the list of classrooms and the schedule before me and realized that I probably had not actually written a “real” lesson plan since I was an intern over 25 years ago. There was a bit of me that actually panicked and began making things up, but I knew in my heart that even if I took the time to write these plans that they would change. They would change based on the “read” of the students, where they were, what they knew and where we could go. And so I had to figure out how to send them something open and flexible but concrete as well.

And so I determined a list of my favorite mentor texts that I would be using and then a bullet list of possible teaching points for each text. I explained that I walked into classrooms with these possibilities in my head, but that I never really knew what I would be teaching before I actually started teaching. I realize how uncomfortable this makes so many people, but for me there really is no other way. Don’t get me wrong, there is a plan in my head, but before I begin to implement that plan I am responding to those students I am working with. My plan is a back up because ultimately I am there to teach the students, not the material. In fact when I focus solely on content I am removed from those I am teaching: lost in what it is I think I am “supposed” to be teaching…when in reality I am ALWAYS teaching the students. And so “what” I will be teaching depends on those I am teaching. In this way I almost teach in a “choose your own adventure” kind of method. If this, then that, but again I never know until I am there.

And so I enter with a bag full of books that I know and love, stapled paper (books), markers and an open mind. That is it? Yes. That is it. I quickly try to connect with the students, perhaps telling them something personal about me and then hear bits and pieces about them. As I am listening to them I get a sense of where they are and which book might work with them. Then I reach into my bag and the decision is made.

When I am in this mode of listening I realize that the possibilities are endless and so my role is to focus in on one or two or maybe even three different noticings that the students are making and ask them to talk about what they noticed and why they think the author has made such a move. If they do not notice then I begin by noticing something and ask that they then look for this same thing as I read on. I love these kinds of encounters with students. I am looking and listening intently for what is different in their thinking and what they notice.

After reading the book, A Stranger in the Woods by Sams and Stoick, one student notices that the animals are talking. Together we name this craft, personification as well as a couple of other crafts used by this author. I set the students free with a “book” made out of 4 sheets of paper stapled together and markers and to begin writing this book on anything of their choosing. I ask that before they leave the carpet that they first tell me what it is they plan on writing about and one kind of craft that they were planning on trying. As students revealed their plans, new plans formed in the minds of others. Taking this time allows for each student to leave the group with purpose and to get right to work.

One student in a second grade classroom decided to write a book about snakes and he was going to attempt to use strong verbs. As I approached his table I could see his book filled with colorful illustrations and great details as he worked with purpose. When I kneeled beside him I asked if he would talk about and read what he had written. He read with great inflection and voice and then came this incredible verb, “lurking”. I asked him how he came up with that word and he began to tell me that he loved snakes, that he was in fact, obsessed with snakes and that because he read so much about snakes he knows that lurking is what snakes do! He then ran off to his book box to find many different books on snakes. He poured through them showing me his favorite parts. This was unique and different than what anyone else was doing in the class and celebrating this writer’s moves is what I am all about. I asked that he read it to the class after telling everyone where he got his ideas and what kind of book he was writing about snakes. He talked about how he used the word lurking because another author had used it. I confirmed his smart writerly move talking about how all writers borrow from other authors. I focused on what he was doing and what he thought was important. This is teaching in my highest self. This is where I find energy. This is where I long to always be. In the moment with a child as he or she identifies what it is they are working on and just what he or she is doing as a learner and how it is or is not working. I am always moving towards, “Getting kids to “reveal” what they know in order to discover where they might go.” Johnston, Choice Words.

And dare I even say that in these moments I feel a sense of synergy that I also find in my yoga practices. It is that moment of being in the “zone” where I can see things clearly and instinctively know where to go with each child that I work with. This does not happen all of the time, but when it does it is beautiful. It feels incredibly whole and complete and it has absolutely nothing in common with any other interactions I have with any other student. It is DIFFERENT. It is not the same and so I have to wonder in our quest for sameness, in our desire for consistency are we not losing the individual processes, identities and the creative thinking of each individual?

In my debriefs with the teachers after the demonstration lessons I am always surprised by what it is they ask and comment about. And after a recent rereading of Peter Johnston’s, Choice Words, I realize that so much of my teaching is defined in this book. The language we use and the responsive teaching is what I am always aiming for. And if you have not read this book then I encourage you to add it to your list of must-reads. It is essential for teaching our kids how to be independent agents in their own learning.

And so I left the same way I came in passing Best Buy and Lowe’s, asking myself, are we forgetting what makes life interesting? Are we aware that in our efforts to be the next Wal-mart that we are losing our downtowns and our small businesses? I am fortunate to live in a town that still has a downtown and I love walking through the shops and knowing and talking with those working in the shops. There is something wonderful about knowing people and seeing what is new and different that you would not find in a Target. And yet, it is a fight to keep our downtowns open because the big box stores are more affordable. But in the end, can we afford to lose what has yet to be discovered in each child in the name of what is simply common, consistent and so very much the same? Or am I just a boutique kind of teacher trying to survive in a big box world?

Conversation Education

Talking through what it means to lead a literate life and beyond.

Tag Archives: Choice

Writing Is…Totally NOT School!

Honoring Space and Time

Let’s Simplify, Not Justify: In Defense of the ART of Teaching

Reflections on Drama, Drama Worlds and the Land of Misfit Kids

The Power of Modeling, Connection, Trust and Play

Alternatives and Activism: Reclaiming the Conversation on Education

The Joys of Teaching: Bringing Back the Poetry, the Puppetry and the People

Stories as Community

Miss-Interpretations of The Common Core and Teaching Writing: Dumbing Down with Ridiculous Rules, Mortifying Myths and Loquacious Lies

Nothing In Common: Boutiques and Big Boxes

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