Category Archives: CHANGEd: What If…Weekly

Creating time and space to scale innovative practice #EdChat Radio @TomWhitby @BlairTeach @AngelaMaiers

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Regular readers here know that I listen to a small library of curated podcasts as I walk my dog Lucy in the early morning. It’s part of my personal learning plan.

Many of you may be way ahead of me on this recommended listen, but I recently added Tom Whitby (@TomWhitby) and Nancy Blair’s (@BlairTeach) #EdChat Radio podcast to my queue. In 10-12 minutes Tom and Nancy recap the recent topic of discussion from that week’s #EdChat, and they include a visitor or interviewee to add additional perspective and commentary.

For me, it’s quickly become a #MustListen. The sessions are concise catalysts for critical topics in education and learning. Check it out.

This week’s slot with Angela Maiers (@angelamaiers) about “20% time” and “Genius Hour” is a fantastic thought provoker about cultivating learner curiosity and creating intentional space and time for scaling innovative practices.

Time on Task and “Learner-centered”

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Thu, May 23 2013 07:40:45

Time on Task and “Learner-centered”

I had an “aha” moment today. While doing a deep re-study of Tony Wagner’s _Creating Innovators_, I’ve been tweeting some notes, insights, and questions. Andrew Carle answered back and pointed to the “lie” behind our “learner-centered” language. For me, this short string is a major R&D area!

  1. boadams1

    Bo Adams@boadams1
    In school, time blocks somewhat predetermine tasks. What if tasks/objectives determined time blocks? #RealLifeEd #CIStudy #SchoolStructure

    Thu, May 23 2013 06:35:11

  2. tieandjeans

    Andrew Carle@tieandjeans
    @boadams1 From my last decade of pushing for that, the main inst. roadblocks are equity, for both subjects and Teachers (workload).

    Thu, May 23 2013 06:46:07

  3. tieandjeans

    Andrew Carle@tieandjeans
    @boadams1 neither insurmountable. But they reveal the lie behind our “learner centered” facade.

    Thu, May 23 2013 06:46:44

  4. tieandjeans

    Andrew Carle@tieandjeans
    @boadams1 impossible to be learner centered when you hire adults for N hours of Y subject, 45 min at a time … and then look for Ss agency.

    Thu, May 23 2013 06:47:39

  5. boadams1

    Bo Adams@boadams1
    @tieandjeans My last half-decade shows same insights as you shared. Thank you! I could not agree more. Your 3 tweets are at heart of issue.

    Thu, May 23 2013 06:52:10

  6. boadams1

    Bo Adams@boadams1
    Curators of “lessons” exercise > meta-cognition. We need to make time & space for Ss curation. IF we want #creativity #innovation / #CIStudy

    Thu, May 23 2013 06:55:15

  7. boadams1

    Bo Adams@boadams1
    Love this paragraph. Harkens the real root of “education.” #CIStudy amzn.com/k/KsQmBLbJSRml… Beverley explained further, “It is a compe…

    Thu, May 23 2013 06:58:24

  8. boadams1

    Bo Adams@boadams1
    How’s our balance in schools among “succeed tasks” and “explore tasks?” #CIStudy amzn.com/k/I86DmuHlQ8Oh… So many kids are so programme…

    Thu, May 23 2013 07:18:57

  9. boadams1

    Bo Adams@boadams1
    Another “balance” to explore: delivering content vs creating opportunities. How might we know our pedagogical balance in schools? #CIStudy

    Thu, May 23 2013 07:24:26

  10. boadams1

    Bo Adams@boadams1
    “CQ [curiosity] PQ [passion] > IQ” Friedman via Wagner #CIStudy #SchoolStructure amzn.com/k/wFLhTpItSsSe… “CQ [curiosity] plus PQ [pa…

    Thu, May 23 2013 07:29:47

= = =
Note: I’m learning how to export Storify to WordPress. I’ll get better at it. Anyway, I share this collection of tweets in hopes of inviting more people into this reflection, discussion, and R&D.
How might we move forward on the big ideas of “student-centered” and learner-centered?” As long as the teachers are the primary curators of departmentalized content knowledge, how will we get to the type of Edu 3.0 learning environments that seem essential for transforming “content-delivery systems” into “creativity-and-innovation facilitation labs?”

Be cultivators of curiosity and inquiry – Ramsey Musallam #TED

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Rethinking our identity…

But if we as educators leave behind this simple role as disseminators of content and embrace a new paradigm as cultivators of curiosity and inquiry, we just might bring a little bit more meaning to their school day, and spark their imagination.

Ramsey Musallam: 3 rules to spark learning, TED.com

 

  1. Curiosity comes first.
  2. Embrace the mess.
  3. Practice reflection.

Classroom design for flexible movement and health #WhatIfWeekly

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With a bit more creativity and innovation, our school classrooms could do this, too.

A classroom of such flexible-use design would signal to learners that exercise, movement, and kinetics are invaluable parts of being and learning. I was inspired to think of such a classroom by reading this piece on FastCo Co.Design: “Sweating The Details: This Workstation Doubles As A Personal Gym.”

What if we reconfigured classroom furniture to use energy rather than squelch it?

Triangle Learning Community #NewSchoolModels @SteveG_TLC

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Two years ago, at EduCon 2.4, I was privileged to meet Steve Goldberg (@SteveG_TLC). Steve is a visionary educator and activator. In August, Steve and a team of others will open Triangle Learning Community in Durham, NC.

The three-minute video below overviews the form and function of TLC. And it also serves as a catalyst for re-thinking some of our assumptions about how “school” has to be structured. I appreciate so much that Steve lives out a profound idea – humans created “school,” so we can also re-imagine it, recreate it, and remodel it.

Along with new start-up schools, though, I deeply hope that long-standing schools with lengthier histories are also re-imagining school, recreating school, remodeling school. At the very least, I hope that we are engaging in such design exercises. If they reveal that our current structure and system is the best, then so be it. But what if school could be even better?! Shouldn’t we be willing to do that research and design, so that we can know more certainly, more confidently. Not let habit and assumption blind us to possibility.

 

You can also learn more about TLC at the school website and Steve’s great blog.