Annabel: One Last Blog Post

In Edge I was asked certain questions. I want to answer them and give my final blog post as a student in Edge.

Who were you when you came in?

When I came into Edge I was a quiet person. I did not like to speak about who I was and what happened to me in the past or the project I was working on.  I don’t think I really spoke when people were around me, but I had so much to say and was the strongest voice in the group.  Then after tours came by with families interested in Kildonan, it became easier to talk to people, but I still had no idea what I was suppose to say.  Slowly, I learned how to communicate better.  Soon I felt comfortable speaking about myself in front of crowds, even going as far as advocating for public schools to have better education in the New York State government and speaking to senators.  I felt braver by the end.

What did you learn?

I started out in Edge learning about science fiction.  I read “The Star” by HB Wells and learned more about the world of science fiction and actually wrote a couple of short stories.  Soon I was getting bored with the idea learning about science fiction, because was I burnt out from all knowledge I learned from working so hard.  Then Mrs. Charlap mentioned tessellations because of the drawings that I made in art class.  I had no idea what that was.  It was patterns so I looked at them a little.  Then the next day she said that she meant to say fractals, not tessellations.

My first couple of thoughts about that new word was, what is a fractal and how is it important to my life?  So I learned all that I could with and about fractals.  Here is a small list of basic fractals: rivers, equations from math, and some very basics of physics.  I felt like I was speaking a language that nobody else knew how to speak.  So I used the same pattern, fractals, to figure out my way of learning.

Then it came to leaving eleventh grade.  I was excited to leave and come back for the next year.  Over the summer I learned more about scrapbooking, which is a hobby in my family.  I said out loud to my mom, “I wish they had this as a job.”

My mother replied, “That is a job, and it is called Graphic Design.”

So I looked further into this field.  Graphic Design helps describe my way of learning.  So I took some FIT pre-college classes in the city during the fall and ended up loving it.  After that experience, I decided to apply to college for graphic design.  I got into all five art colleges I applied to, and I chose my number one college, Lesley University: College of Art and Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Do you feel like you will be successful in college?

Yes, I do feel I will succeed.  Most people don’t think you can be successful in college because people who don’t understand others with learning differences think we are lacking.  I know I won't be that way in college.  This is because I am hard working.  I know myself very well and I can tell what my limit is and what is not my limit.  I have learned problem solving and creativity in Edge, which were harder to learn before I joined the program.  I will use this work ethic to help me out with learning because I know myself as a unique, hardworking, zany, chaotic, and amiable person.  I feel as if I learned more with the addition of Edge than just regular classes.

What are you going to leave behind?

I ask myself this question a lot.  This is because I did a lot of work, but it is the process of my work that has left a powerful mark in this community.  I will leave behind a legacy of fractals, my brain and knowledge, and ideas for others. I helped show people that it is ok that you can be you.  I also helped teach Ambrose a new way how to write in a form called fractal writing.  I am not worried for the future.  I feel very confident.  I have learned from my failures, celebrated successes, and I am able to move forward.  There is a quote that I have found by  B. B. King, “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”  Even though I did not use this as my senior quote, this means learning is beautiful, and no matter what, don’t let anyone take that away from you.

Most Likely to Succeed @ The Kildonan School

Poster for Most Likely to Succeed.  Promotional
advertisement provided and shared by permission
of mltsfilm.org.

Having completed the first month of the 2015-2016 school year, the students of The Kildonan School have realized a fundamental fact:  we (the faculty) spend a vast amount of time discovering how they learn best.  Our pupils engage in innumerable conversations with tutors, subject matter faculty, and administrators to design those conditions under which they can receive the greatest academic benefit.  In focusing on education at the individual level, the community ensures that our students experience success while developing their particular learning strengths.

Despite the benefits of this process, we occasionally forget to extend these specific thoughts toward larger questions.  Because they concern the nature and design of education on a fundamental level, these queries also deserve our attention:

• "What is school for?"
• "What does school look like right now? 
• "Going forward, what can school be? What should it be?"
• "What do students need to know in the 21st century?"
• "If we can agree that students need to know something, how should they learn that content/skill?"

Cover of Most Likely to Succeed (print version). 
Image located at amazon.com through
The Global Achievement Gap.

Fortunately, we did not need to invent the wheel in order to probe this conversation on-campus.  Spurred by an insightful analysis of 21st century learning that he co-authored with Dr. Tony Wagner (@DrTonyWagner), Expert in Residence at Harvard University's Innovation Lab (@innovationlab), entrepreneur Ted Dintersmith (@dintersmith) teamed up with American filmmaker Greg Whiteley to create a fresh perspective on American education in the form of a documentary:  Most Likely to Succeed (@MLTSfilm).  After MLtS gained recognition at notable festivals such as Sundance and Tribeca, interested educators, administrators, community members, and entrepreneurs began a movement to spur screenings (and conversations on innovation within education) nationwide.  Passionate about the philosophy contained within the film and excited to bring the conversation to the Mid-Hudson Valley, Kildonan signed up and applied for a screening during the summer.

Fast-forward to Friday, October 9th:  the beginning of "Parents' Weekend."  During this annual celebration, parents and family members join faculty and administrators in celebrating student work, raising money for the school, and discussing student progress.  This year, after observing all of their children's classes and meditating upon the day's information over a communal meal, parents and families sat down with administrators, students, and faculty to watch Most Likely to Succeed in its entirety.  Eighty-seven individuals brought eighty-seven different educational perspectives with them to our screening.  Though our distinctions remained to color our impressions of the documentary, they nevertheless fell away due to a shared sense of earnestness.  Indeed, our common threads, already exposed by the day's preceding events, tightened and manifested as an expectant hush.

(What occurs within the film, you may wonder? For that, we refer you to mltsfilm.org to request your own screening.)

Faculty, students, alumni, and administrator representatives on the MLtS panel. 
Picture taken and owned by The Kildonan School.

At the conclusion of the film, representatives of administrators, students, faculty, and alumni came together as a panel to help the community reflect upon the documentary.  They began by discussing their own school-based experiences with dyslexia as well as their thoughts towards the future of education.  They then meditated upon Kildonan's programs using the film as a lens.  They highlighted the innovative, project-based learning (PBL) approaches practiced by the Kodiaks and Middle Years Program (MYP).  Additionally, because a majority of the panel members are (or have been) affiliates of Edge, the panel then switched gears to consider questions of 21st century learning using the program as a reference point.  We explored questions concerning self-directed learning, interdisciplinary content, organic collaboration, marketability to colleges, and the future of the program in relation to Kildonan and its Orton-Gillingham (OG)-based tutoring approach.

Due to time constraints, we adjourned the screening to a complimentary sale of Wagner and Dintersmith's book (graciously supplied by a local bookstore, Oblong Books and Music).  However, as with any good film or striking news story, the conversations did not end there; they took on a life of their own.  More than one Kildonan parent has expressed gratitude for the film, claiming that it has helped them align themselves with the School's vision, maintain faith in the face of the college application process, and even negotiate parent-teacher conferences with Kildonan staff more effectively.  The immediate school community has seen changes, too.  One junior has cited the film as his inspiration in electing to join Edge.  A freshman, too, felt inspired to ask his Science teacher to continue working on a project because he wished to present the very best product (to himself and his parents).

Image of High Tech High student at work.  Promotional advertisement provided
and shared by permission of mltsfilm.org.

As our community continues to feel the positive reverberations of this film, let's thank everyone involved in this event.  Thank you panel members for your participation; your words towards the film, towards the strategies that allow your dyslexia to work to your advantage, and towards your educational histories served as great pivot points for discussions between students, faculty, and parents.  Thank you, Dr. Mary Taft and Kevin Pendergast, for assisting the book sale and supporting this project from its inception.  Thank you, Admissions Staff and Logistics, for helping to embed this event within an already busy day; we could not have done this without you! Thank you, Oblong Books and Music, for facilitating the purchase of books for the event and thereby extending the message of MLtS across media.  The entire MLtS staff (Nora Parent, in particular) have proven endlessly generous in helping us negotiate the finer details of the screening; thank you for your aspirations and your film! Finally, thank YOU...the student, the parent, the faculty member, the administrator, the staff member, or the reader for proving brave enough to advocate for a new vision of education.

Have thoughts on the movie? Please post in the comments section below!

(P.S. Curious to see the film yourself? If you would like to host your own screening, please sign-up via mltsfilm.org.  If you would like to purchase Wagner and Dintersmith's book, we refer you first to the proper page on Oblong's site.)

New Edge / IP Blog!

Welcome back! We invite the Kildonan community and our other readers to join the Edge / IP program for another yearlong journey.  The 2015-2016 academic year is underway, and buoyed by a new name, new students, and several new faculty members, we look forward to sharing the work ahead.

In order to best tell the coming story, the Edge /​ IP program has decided to embrace novelty with one additional feature:  we have launched a new blog via Blogger! Our profile boasts topic- and student-related labels on every post, a subscribe-by-email option, Twitter and Pinterest widgets, miscellaneous information about the program, and ALL posts published over the previous two years (sorted by month).  Ultimately, it has never been easier for faculty, parents, students, and interested individuals to stay up-to-date on all Edge /​ IP matters.

Please explore the site around you.  Remember to fill out the "Follow by Email" slot at right to receive regular updates.  We look forward to working with you over the coming year!

Best wishes,

The Edge Team

Our New Name

The idea began in the spring of 2012.  Sandy Charlap attended a lecture moderated by Sam Chaltain (@samchaltain) at Vassar College.  Inspired by his proposition that schools should pose "what if" statements rather than mission statements, she began to ponder how institutions might revolutionize practice and theory.  Exploring Chaltain's website during the summer, she stumbled across a video.  Recorded on-site at Monument Mountain High School in Great Barrington, MA, the film followed several students as they joined forces with faculty advisors to form a self-directed education program called "The Independent Project."  Ms. Charlap felt spellbound while watching the video, and the feeling did not leave her afterwards.  She and a colleague had a hunch that this program could give Kildonan's students a unique opportunity, so they began to work toward implementing it almost immediately.

Thus, IP was born.

Over the three years that IP has been in operation, we have found that faculty members and students agree with Ms. Charlap's initial "feeling."  IP has allowed students the opportunity and freedom to shine a light on their passions and to pursue them like locomotives.  Fantastic learning experiences have followed, and this year in particular, our students have been accepted to noteworthy institutions of higher education.  Our students have shown that IP does indeed assist them as they prepare for college.

In the process, however, our community - faculty and students alike - have realized that the name, "Independent Project," no longer reflects our philosophy or our day-to-day reality.  As one student pointed out, the IPians do not work "independently."  Yes, they launch individual pursuits that take them in directions that are, in a sense, theirs and theirs alone.  That said, this student went on, the IPians are always collaborating with one another, always learning from and supporting each other as they move forward.  In this way, the community members are very much "dependent."  Despite its claim to "independence," then, IP is a richly "social" experience.

We have also found that "project" no longer describes our status at Kildonan or our primary educational focus.  First, having grown over the past three years, IP is no longer a “project,” or pilot program, at Kildonan.  Additionally, because we support our students as they conduct multiple outcomes, or "projects," these pieces have grown beyond their inherent importance to become indicators of our learners' educational journeys, or "processes."  One student's "projects" are the result of the research and personal growth that he/​she creates for himself across several months.  One final piece at the end of the year, then, is neither accurate of, or the raison d'etre for, our existence.  With this name change, we hope to shift our concerns.  We wish to position our students in the debate concerning "project"- vs. "process"-based learning, and we assert that our students direct both features as they revolutionize learning away from a teacher-centered model.
 
Therefore, the time has come.  Earlier this month, the IP faculty published a post announcing that the program would witness a name change.  After much consideration, and after securing the approval of our students and administration, we found the perfect option.  This choice that will allow us to (1) remain edgy, (2) give our students a leading edge, and (3) function on the cutting edge of innovation in learning and education.  From here onward, the program will abandon acronyms and adopt the new name:  Edge.

David Flink Visits Kildonan and IP

David Flink (@DaveFlink) is a sort of celebrity in the LD world.  He approaches dyslexia from a mindset of pride, and due in part to this upbeat mentality, he earned a Bachelor’s degrees with honors in Education and Psychology from Brown University and a Master’s degree in Disability Studies in Education from Columbia University.  More notably, still, he co-founded the organization Eye-to-Eye while still a student in 1998.  As reported on the program's website, Eye-to-Eye (@E2ENational) strives to develop:

...a network of youth mentoring programs run by and for those with learning differences, and [organizes] advocates to support the full inclusion of people with learning disabilities and ADHD in all aspects of society.

Kildonan prides itself on having worked with David to create the first high school chapter of Eye-to-Eye in the nation.  It was a pleasure, then, to have David attend Founders' Day and mingle with assembled students, faculty, parents, grandparents, and relatives.

During his time on-campus, David gave a riveting keynote speech.  Using a humorous story, he shared kernels of advice for our dyslexic students:  self-advocacy, transparency and acceptance of one's LD, and a graceful sense of humor and patience.  He also provided a book signing in celebration of his first text, Thinking Differently.  Composed as a semi-autobiography, this book speaks directly to parents to help them understand dyslexia, successfully advocate for their children, and instill independence in them.

Finally, David toured the IP building.  He traveled between students, stopping to speak with Bull about his octopus, Clancy on nanomedicine, and Piterson on his wooden skeleton.  Ultimately, he expressed admiration for the program.  He asserted not only that IP's model could encompass an entire school but also that it should support the learning of all students, LD and otherwise.

Thank you, David, for visiting Kildonan!

Please post in the comments section below.

Description of images:  David Flink touring the IP building with Karl Oppenheimer, Sandy Charlap, and IP students.  All photos taken by the IP faculty with permission of David Flink.

Geoff Mulgan: "A short intro to the Studio School"

 
Director of the Young Foundation (@the_young_fdn) and UK government employee, Geoff Mulgan (@geoffmulgan) delivers a TED Talk on a powerful re-imagining of education:  Studio Schools.  Designed to "address the growing gap between the skills and knowledge that young people require to succeed, and those that the current education system provides," Studio Schools prepare young adults for the global economy and encourage them to take inquiry- and project-based learning to the next level (quoted content taken from the Studio Schools website).  Mulgan shares more details on these institutions below:

First of all, we wanted small schools -- about 300, 400 pupils -- 14- to 19-year-olds, and critically, about 80 percent of the curriculum done not through sitting in classrooms, but through real-life, practical projects, working on commission to businesses, NGO's and others. That every pupil would have a coach, as well as teachers, who would have timetables much more like a work environment in a business. And all of this will be done within the public system, funded by public money, but independently run. And all at no extra cost, no selection, and allowing the pupils the route into university, even if many of them would want to become entrepreneurs and have manual jobs as well. Underlying it was some very simple ideas that large numbers of teenagers learn best by doing things, they learn best in teams and they learn best by doing things for real -- all the opposite of what mainstream schooling actually does.

What do you think of the idea of Studio Schools? Do you think that they are needed? (Research exists to justify them.) Please post in the comments section below.

Description of image:  A mock-up of a Studio School.  Photo located at www.studioschooltrust.org.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the image above.

IP Meets the Board of Trustees

On Friday, April 17th, the IP community celebrated an unprecedented event.  Four students - Tim, Trey, Khaled, and Bull - organized a presentation for Kildonan's Board of Trustees.  Led by Tim, this panel sought to share their projects and request funding for the program.  Their primary reason for the presentation, however, was to educate.  They wished to discuss schooling more generally and to tout the powerful self-directed learning that occurs within IP.

The presentation was a hit for both students and trustees alike.  Equipped with talking points as well as images of students at-work, the IPians spoke eloquently about IP.  They each shared their stories in the program and disclosed the particular benefits that they continue to reap from the IP community.  The Board, in turn, provided inquiries that launched an engaging Q&​A session.  During this time, the students were able to speak more specifically to the logistics of the program, sharpen their pedagogical comments, and meditate on IP's structure for the 2015-2016 academic year.  Once the meeting broke up, too, the board members convened with individual students to engage in one-on-one discussions that proved enthusiastic and supportive.

Thank you, fellow IPians, for supporting these four students as they designed and executed this presentation.  Thank you, Tim, Trey, Khaled, and Bull, for representing your community members and for facilitating a thought-provoking, professional discussion.  Thank you, Mr. Pendergast, for scheduling IP into the Board's agenda.  Last but not least, thank you, Trustees, for proving a receptive audience and for supporting the program as it looks to the future.

Have something to share? Please post in the comments section below.

Description of images:  IP student panel, top right.  Board members listening to presentation, bottom left.  Photos taken by IP faculty.

IP Luncheon & Moving Forward

On Friday, April 10th, the IP community shifted part of its focus to the future.  Early in the afternoon, current IPians organized a luncheon for prospective students.  Over pizza and soda, they considered expert questions concerning a number of issues (e.g., the program's structure and requirements, collaboration between IPians, "product"- vs. "process"-based learning).  Current IP students also shared stories of their own experiences within IP, explaining the tribulations early on as well as the conventions, internships, concerts, and other opportunities that they celebrate in the present.  The meal disbanded with a sense of hope, with the promise that other students might soon enter the fold of the IP community.

Indeed, this feeling has borne fruit.  Since the initial luncheon three weeks ago, the IP faculty have been speaking with prospective students every few days.  Current sophomores and juniors alike have requested meetings, and they bring a host of possible topics to buoy the program for the 2015-2016 academic year:  fashion, environmental science, physical therapy, outdoor adventure education, etc.  Despite some differences, they share fundamental attributes with one another.  They approach these meetings seriously; faces earnest, they are concerned how they can best prepare themselves for a college - and life - after Kildonan.

No matter the changes the program undergoes - including projected increases in its enrollment - we look forward to the challenges and joys of meeting the needs of another IP community in the future.

Description of images:  Current IPians facilitating the discussion with prospective students, top right and bottom left.  All photos taken by IP faculty.

"This Is Genius," by Ryan Lotocki

What follows is a spoken word poem by student Ryan Lotocki (filmed by: Nick Stroczkowski and Kurt Schlewitt).  Rather than provide an introduction for this video, we will remain silent and allow it to speak for itself.

What did you think? Please post in the comments section.  * If you would like to consult a transcript, please see below: *

---

School Sucks. Now don’t get me wrong I believe everyone should have a general education. But when I know how to solve quadratic equations with imaginary roots graphically and am not sure how that applies to life… Or better yet, learned Cleopatra slept around, but never heard the history of my own city- you've failed. Now I’m not trying to sound cruel, but we live in a generation that would much rather smoke a joint then show up to school and to be honest, I’m tired of placing all the blame on them. I mean are we just pawns in a chess game waiting to accept their fate? Could the whole point of High School simply be just to graduate? You tell us to follow our dreams but have a plan B and don’t you see? The more you try to protect the children in this way, the more you reject the gifts they are trying to portray. See, school is a project in which students never get the chance to project their abilities. Having to follow a curriculum and take required classes, while stereo-typically the kid with high grades and glasses will make it into college and is more intelligent. Well, how about the student whose “Ingenious”, “In ordinary”, “Innovative”, “Intellectual”, “Incalculable”, “Inquisitive”, and has good intentions to change the world with his passion. I believe educating him would be something along the lines of ineluctable.

Take a musician for example: See to him, a score on a math exam will never mean as much as the score in front of him. Why waste his time trying to count and measure when he can already count each measure with just the tap of his foot- See this is genius; watch as the bow grazes against the instrument and his fingers pluck and pull at each string appropriately that creates a sound that just makes his body sway. But if he is controlled by a bell that just rings I guess you could say the school’s pulling his strings.

Or how about the cook with only a seventh grade reading level. If his ingredient list is not written in MLA format I think he’ll do just fine. Does his grammar matter when where you choose to dine is on the line and I’m not talking about margin. But when it comes to margarine and butter he actually knows the difference. He couldn't care less about the sophisticated words coming out of his mouth and more about the food going into yours- See this is genius. And if that doesn't fill the Hunger Games appetite you couldn't even think the Grapes of Wrath might.

Some Brilliance is as simplistic as hitting a ball. It doesn't matter if her science grade is an atrocity because I've never seen anyone spike a ball with so much strength, precision, and velocity, and the only elements she need know are those of speed and surprise, but to her parents’ eyes sports are just a waste of time- See this is genius. Practicing for so long she has little time to study for chemistry the only question remaining is, why can’t you be more like your sister Emily? What’s the matter? Kind of ironic though because like life, when it comes to school versus education every things the matter.

Putting children on an assembly line that has checkpoints. Where there only goal is to get us from point A to point Z but if we only get to F then we've failed. Plus our values and gifts are locked up and jailed. And why do we take tests? To tell us we’re wrong? It’s a number, not my wife. There is so much more to life than a grade in a book and what even of the SAT I just took. Because we all receive a number or a grade if you will, but our answers are locked up in vaults. Was the point to learn, or the thrill? And Common Core won’t solve anything so take a chill pill. We are not here to memorize facts but figure our future; and if the future holds taking a test to see who’s the best I want no part in that, there’s a fact. Now while I’m speaking to adults, I’m relating to the youth. I’m not pointing out your faults, but showing you the truth. Stop labeling us by standards and put us all on an even playing field. But let us choose our positions based on our passions, values, and where we can be proactive. Make schooling less multiple choice and more... Interactive. Because maybe your exponential at math, but that’s not how he functions because we all don’t have the same mechanics. Or possibly, you rock at science but in her opinion she’d rather not fill her head with space.

We are all sculpted in a different way. All made with different values, ideas, and clay; and if during my day, the only offered opportunity is continuity I could never get the chance to say: I am genius.

Brandon Busteed: "What can schools do?"

 
Speaker, author, social entrepreneur, and executive director of Gallup Education (@GallupEducation), Brandon Busteed (@brandonbusteed) possesses vision.  He has set his eyes on creating "a national movement to measure the educational outcomes that matter most, connect education to jobs and job creation, and to promote a paradigm shift from knowledge mastery to emotional engagement in education" (for the source of this passage, click here).  This is no short order, especially concerning the resistance so often seen by educators in the classroom as well as the turbulent "emotions" surrounding Common Core.  So where does a concerned student, parent, or educator start?

Busteed begins to answer this question in the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) (@NAISNetwork) video above.  Although he offers several cogent points, one in particular proves particularly striking:

There's a lot of things that schools can do. There's a lot of things that adults in any kind of mentoring or coaching role can do.  I mean, one is we need to change what we value. ... If we really care about people being engaged in what they're doing and thriving in their well-being, we would refocus our priorities on things like spending more time allowing students to explore what they're good at.

What do you think of Busteed's talk? Please post in the comments section below.

Important Update: Name Change

The IP community would like to announce that we will be instituting a name change.  Details on the "why" and "what" are soon to follow.

"Why Curriculum Constrains Learning," by Harold Jarche

We in IP believe strongly not only in championing the conditions that allow authentic student-driven learning but also in connecting with like-minded individuals and organizations.  One of these is Educating Modern Learners (EML), an educator's portal created by longtime educator and technological expert Will Richardson (@willrich45) and Bruce Dixon (@bruceadixon), respectively.  This site offers insights into the new learning contexts that teachers, administrators, parents, and students themselves must confront in the 21st century.

International consultant, speaker, and educational "subversive" Harold Jarche (@hjarche) published an article on EML entitled "Why Curriculum Constrains Learning" (April 2, 2015).  Within, he questions one of education's benchmarks.  He posits that "Curriculum is a type of confinement: a confinement of learning experiences. Defined content, isolated classrooms, and fragmented schedules of time, coupled with impersonal testing, are institutional bullying."  Though some may consider Jarche too strident, he encourages all of us - the IP community, Kildonan, parents, students, administrators, and others - to evaluate educational practice using the questions, "Do our students need to know anything? If so, what?" Once we begin to posit answers, we must consider various factors - organic learning environments, educational trajectories (their content, their presence), and others - in order to achieve the results we seek.

For Jarche's article, please click here.  Please post in the comments section to share your views.

Ramsey Musallam: "3 rules to spark learning"

 
As we enter the spring, the last months of the academic year hang blissful and ominous before us.  Will we have the energy to endure? Will our students succumb to senioritis?

Fortunately, an answer has come from our personal learning network in the form of Ramsey Musallam (@ramusallam).  Chemistry teacher at Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep in San Francisco, CA, Ed.D. recipient, and manager of the Cycles of Learning blog, Musallam has had time to consider this question across fifteen years of teaching.  In a TED Talk delivered in 2013, Musallam critiques contemporary trends in education and argues that teachers must assign themselves a very specific purpose:  cultivators of curiosity.

You know, questions and curiosity like Maddie's are magnets that draw us towards our teachers, and they transcend all technology or buzzwords in education. But if we place these technologies before student inquiry, we can be robbing ourselves of our greatest tool as teachers: our students' questions. For example, flipping a boring lecture from the classroom to the screen of a mobile device might save instructional time, but if it is the focus of our students' experience, it's the same dehumanizing chatter just wrapped up in fancy clothing. But if instead we have the guts to confuse our students, perplex them, and evoke real questions, through those questions, we as teachers have information that we can use to tailor robust and informed methods of blended instruction.

What did you think of Musallam's presentation? Please post in the comments section below.

Nikhil Goyal: "Why Kids Hate School?" @ TEDxBFS (2012)

At the age of 19, activist and author Nikhil Goyal (@nikhilgoya_l) has accomplished no small amount.  An activist and champion of self-directed learning, Goyal has spoken at Google (@google), MIT (@MIT), Yale (@Yale), Stanford (@Stanford), and the University of Cambridge (@Cambridge_Uni).  He has appeared on various news stations, has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, and has even authored the book One Size Does Not Fit All:  A Student's Assessment of School.  In this #TED Talk delivered at the Brooklyn Free School (#TEDxBFS) in 2012, Goyal begins by speaking about the shortcomings of school.  Although he is perhaps too strident and jumps from topic to topic using quotes, he does offer an organic vision of education that considers not only educators, administrators, and parents but also students themselves as its policymakers.

'Education is a process of living, not a preparation for future living.'  Let me say that one more time.  'Education is a process of living, not a preparation for future living.'  ... Because we have to get over this notion of education prep and move to life prep.  We have to create an educational society where learning is democratized and where kids are natural learners.  Where we're tinkering with the world.  Where they're changing things, they're pushing the human race forward.
...
Around the world today we're watching millions of young people that are under the age of twenty-five collectively protest for self-expression, transparency, and the sweet taste of freedom.  What we're doing to them is we're not giving them a voice.  We're not letting them speak out.  We're putting them on the sidelines.  What I like to say about public education is that we have 'the kids table' and we have 'the adults table.'  At the adults table, that's where all the decisions are made.  It's like Thanksgiving; we're separated.  And really, that's how it is.  We need to have one table where we have kids and adults.  What we offer, most importantly, kids, is a fresh perspective.

Thoughts? Please post in the comments section below.

Sam Chaltain: "The Art (&​ Science) of Great Teaching" @ TEDxYouthBFS

 
Former educator, writer, and education activist, Sam Chaltain (@samchaltain) partners with schools and school districts "to help them create healthy, high-functioning learning environments" (passages taken from URL of Chaltain's talk).  In this #TED Talk delivered at the Brooklyn Free School (#TEDxBFS) in 2012, Chaltain highlights the recent changes to education and advocates the need for balance:  between teacher and student, art and science, and - most fundamentally - between understandings and applications of freedom.

...the biologists are telling us that life - whether it's an ecosystem or a public school system - is best organized by principles of ecology, not hierarchy.  The quantum physicists would tell us that change - whether it's a human being or a sub-atomic particle - is best understood by principles of relationship, not force.  And we should take heed that freedom - whether it's a teacher or a student - is best unleashed through simple, shared structures, not unbounded prairies.  This is the lesson that exists for all of us.  This is what the natural world reminds of us every day.  This is what Dewey was urging us to think about one hundred years ago.  And this is our road map forward:  art and science, individual freedom and group structure.

What did you think? Please post in the comments section below.

Rachel Smith: "Drawing in class" @ TEDxUFM (2012)

Senior Consultant and the Director of Digital Facilitation Services for The Grove Consultants Internationa in San Francisco," Rachel Smith is a visual facilitator, has led her own graphic design company, and continues to explore the intersection of education and technology (passages taken from the description of Smith's TEDx Talk).  As such, she proposes that visual note-taking - a record system consisting of pictures in addition to words - is an important learning tool...not for dyslexic students but for all children.  Smith elaborates upon her thoughts in a talk given at TEDxUFM (@TEDxUFM) called "Drawing in class":

Visual note-taking opens the door for more playful connections between information, for students to use their imaginations in an activity that can often be very passive (note-taking).  It also helps students to create a personal visual memory aid that they can study from later, that they can look at and [use to] tell themselves the story again.  When a teacher is teaching, what they're doing, really, is telling a story about something they're passionate about.  And when a student takes visual notes, what they're doing is making that story visible.

We're going to go over three simple steps that will get you set on this road, get you started.  And the first one is to choose a tool that works for you.  The second one is to start building up that mental library of images (that I talked about).  And the third one is to really practice listening and capturing the key points.

When you've done visual notes, the way that you tell if you did it right is if you can look at your notes and tell back the story that you heard from that speaker.  Then you did it right.  There's all there is to it.  There's no more than that.  Can you look at it and recall the story?

What do you think? Do you employ visual note-taking? Please post in the comments section below.

Description of 1st image:  A sample of Rachel Smith's visual note-taking strategies.  Photo located at nsanc.org.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over this picture.

Sugata Mitra: "School in the Cloud: What Happened after TED Prize 2013" @ TEDxUFM

Two years ago, Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences (@secls) at Newcastle University (@StudentsNCL) Sugata Mitra (@Sugatam) won the 2013 TED Prize.  In the following @TEDxUFM Talk (delivered at Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala), Mitra speaks about the progress he has made over the past two years:  "I made a project for TED. ... I would build seven laboratories, seven learning laboratories.  Five of them would be in India, and two of them would be in England."  His insights remain provocative, and his passion for self-directed learning proves as infectious as ever.

Well, there are reports from all around the world that children are not asking questions to people.  Or at least if they have to ask a question to a person, they do that after they have asked their phones.  Children don't want to learn how to multiply, divide, add, and subtract because they say they already know how to do that.  It's done with phones.  Children don't want to particularly learn to read because they say there are things that can read out things to them even if they don't know how to read.  At the moment, they don't like to write by hand because they want to know why they should learn to write by hand.  Will ever do it in the rest of their lives? So what happens in a world where reading, writing, and arithmetic are treated in such a cavalier manner?

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In Killingworth, this is a room:  it just looks like a nice lounge with computers and an XBox (@XBox)  And the teachers, when I built it, they said, 'Sugata, this is a bit too much.  Do you have any idea of what they will do with that XBox? They will do nothing else except play with the XBox.'  So I said, 'Well, that's our challenge, isn't it?' If you've gone in there to teach Geography and the students are playing with the XBox, it means that Geography is more boring than the XBox.  Then we should re-look at Geography, chuck it from the curriculum, or put it into the XBox.  Somehow.

Description of the 1st image:  Mitra's SOLE learning laboratory in Killingworth, England.  Photo located at blog.ted.com.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the above image.

For a post discussing Mitra's "The child-driven education," please click here.

For a post discussing Mitra's "Build a School in the Cloud," please click here.

Austin Kleon: "Steal Like an Artist" @ TEDxKC (2012)

During a windy snow day this past week, the IP faculty asked the iPeople (a term synonymous with "IPians," introduced by Khaled A.) to watch a video on "stealing" and art.  We, the IP team, hope that this talk will inspire our learners to not only form collaborative partnerships with one another but also to re-evaluate the notions of influence, plagiarism, and originality as they move forward in life.

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Writer, author, and New York Times bestselling author of Show Your Work! and Newspaper Blackout, Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) has spoken to young artists and at organizations such as Pixar (@DisneyPixar) and Google (@google).  In 2012, he delivered a talk at @TEDxKC, "Steal Like An Artist," after releasing a book of the same name earlier that year.  During his presentation, Kleon offers a list of ten ideas that all beginning artists should consider.  His talk amounts to a radical yet timely reinterpretation of creativity for the 21st century.

So not only was my idea idea completely unoriginal.  It turns out there was a 250 year-old history of finding poetry in the newspaper.  So what am I supposed to do? Instead of getting discouraged, I kept on.  Because I know something that a lot of artists know but few will admit to.  And that is:  nothing is completely original.  All creative work builds on what came before.  Every new idea is just a remix, or a mash-up, of one or two previous ideas.
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How does an artist look at the world? Well, first, she asks herself, 'What's worth stealing?' And second, she moves onto the next thing.  That's about all there is to it.  When you look at the world this way, there is no longer good art and bad art.  There's just art worth stealing and art that isn't.  And everything in the world is up for grabs.  If you don't find something worth stealing today, you might find it worth stealing tomorrow, or the month after that, or years later.

What did you think? Have you "stolen" anything notable lately? Please post in the comments section below.

Description of 1st image:  Kleon's visual representation of how artists see the world.  Photo located at sharingisliberty.wordpress.com.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over this picture.

"The Radicalism of Conversation," by Jonathan Bisson

Let's begin on Friday, December 5th.  Ms. Charlap, myself, and Khaled (affectionately known as K.) had just settled down in the IP office to one of our formal meetings.  K. had just told us that he was researching children's literature a la J.R.R. Tolkien.  He had explained, like Tolkien, that there was no definable entity known as "children's literature."  All literature, he posited, possesses merit (even if certain stories, he went on to say, lack a certain sophistication that might relegate them to a sphere for children).  * To learn more about K.'s explorations in this area, please click here. *

All of a sudden, when I asked “why,” something erupted.  K. answered.  I, feeling dissatisfied, parried his argument.  He - looking positively ravenous - pulled up a chair, issuing forth a torrent of qualifications.  As we locked horns, I had the distinct impression of something irrevocable and fundamental shifting.  Fundamental to my expectations for the meeting, certainly, but to something else too.  Fundamental to education.  Fundamental to the behavioral expectations set forth in schools for decades.

Something died.  And we - student and educator - were to blame.  What happened?

On one hand, K. was still being “taught” at this moment.  He was gradually narrowing his conception of childishness to produce a specific definition of children’s literature and to explain how it might differ from “adult” literature.

On the other hand, however, he was coming to understand the radical notion that he could challenge conventional forms of authority.  And the source in this scenario? His teacher.  Me.  When he and I began our verbal battle, the traditional educational roles, that hierarchy between teacher and student, those weighted identities for which I had prepared myself at the beginning of the year as an educator new to the field…they proved untenable. 

I realized that I simply could not teach him. I began to understand that, at that moment and perhaps at every other moment before, K. and I did not occupy a space in which the roles of teacher and student made any sense.

So...where was the teacher at this moment?

Perhaps the question defies a single response.  Realistically, it seems rather silly, too, in its infantile grasping for some authority figure that can contextualize the situation. 
So...why not abandon that need altogether? Why not consider that the true authority of this moment rests with the act of #conversation itself?
Sure, it would be rash to say that “talking” is somehow innovative.  Having spent the last twenty years in various education systems myself, I remember receiving feedback on countless occasions.

But let me explain.

There is a distinct difference between talking to and talking with someone.  Students are often talked to in education; teachers do not advise but tell them, unequivocally, what opinions they should form, what questions they must consider, and what their learning objectives are.  Now, only now, are teachers beginning to alter that practice by talking with their pupils.  Only now are they beginning to allow their agendas to breathe, to speak not to dominate learners' arguments but out of a genuine interest in the ideas that they are formulating.

It is that domain, among others, that holds particular promise for the future of education.  As I walked away from that conversation with K., I felt consumed by the burning desire to know, to create more of those scenarios so that I could begin not only to understand my students on a "whole child" level but also to collaborate with my colleagues more meaningfully.  I left, too, with the enduring impression that conversation, real conversation, gloriously begins to separate "learning" from "schooling."  It begins to build that supreme level of engagement so sought after in classrooms; it works to instill personal passion.

Conversation, when distilled to its quintessence, builds stronger relationships.  To accomplish this, it cannot function divisively; it cannot preserve the traditional roles of "teacher" and "student."  Instead, it can only equalize.  Rapturously, it must only create "learners."

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For more reading on the power of dialogue in learning, please explore Steve Wheeler (@timbuckteeth) and his two blog posts:  "Learning as dialogue" and "Teaching and learning through dialogue."

Description of 1st image:  A shot of the conversation between K., at left, and myself.  Photo taken by Ms. Charlap.

Description of 2nd image:  A roundtable consisting of teachers and students.  Photo located at www.vicsrc.org.au.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over this picture.

Shelley Wright: "The power of student-driven learning" @ TEDxWestVancouverED

A teacher/​education blogger living in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Shelley Wright (@wrightsroom) enjoyed a career-altering experience when a course on pedagogy opened her eyes to self-directed learning.  In a TED Talk delivered at TEDxWestVancouverED (@TEDxWestVanED) Wright relates that, one day, she created the space for her science class to independently launch a project.  They decided to raise money for a non-profit organization attempting to build schools for Ugandan refugees.  The goal of Wright's students? $20,000 in 45 days.

And so as I stood at the front of my room looking at my students, I said, 'If you could design school to be anything you wanted it to be, what would it look like? What would it sound like? What would I hear? What would I see? What would it feel like? What would you be doing?' And when they realized that I was serious, they began to write.
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That day I learned to believe in my students.  To believe in what really, deeply matters to them.  And to remove whatever obstacles I can to try to make that happen.  More importantly, my students learned to believe in themselves.  They learned that they can make a difference.  They had a saying the entire forty-five days:  'We are not the future.  We are right now.'