Dear Collaborators,
A few weeks ago a 1st grader presented me with a sudden problem on the playground. She decided right in front of me on the three swings that both of the boys on either side of her were going to be her boyfriends. Quick reactions are important in life. I saw two mangos near by on the ground which had fallen down, and so I picked them up and started juggling them. "You can only have two boyfriends when you can juggle two mangos like this one hundred times in a row without dropping either of them," I said. "And if your current boyfriend" (one of the two guys on either side of her) "can juggle two mangos one hundred times without dropping either one, he can have two girlfriends." "Practice and then come show me for your test," I dared them. Where did such a response come from in me?
I already had the essence of the virtues project as a behavior management program deeply held within me. I want highly motived, happy, harmonious classes. In order to achieve this, I need to make sure my students are appropriately challenged but not overburdened and working in cooperation with one another in a caring supportive manner. Playing the two boyfriends game, sounded like a high liability activity to me. I wanted the young girl to understand that this was going to turn into a complicated burden for her that she might not even enough. I didn't want to moralize it and just tell her no. I wanted her to find her own internal answer. In a sense, the virtues project includes, or I was fusing it with, the education paradigm of constructivism.
The virtues project, constructivism, and a long list of other tools and templates live within like active vocabulary. I use these tools every day. However, I can plan most of these lessons. How could I have planned this character lesson on student relationships? I had no idea that a first grader was going to declare suddenly that she was going to have two boyfriends. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much that students bring to the table each day, emotionally, intellectually, energetically, creatively and in every way imaginable. Because of this, we as teacher need to be educational taekwondo masters of sorts, taken everything thrown at us and morphing into educational success.
The way that I do this is that I act as a teacher constantly through an intricate web of educational schema (memorized and reflexively applicable paradigms) that allow me to constantly modify and maximize the productivity of the schema in my students. What are schema? Let's dive in fast for a snap shot description from wikipedia:
QUOTE (... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema_(psychology) ...):
In psychology and cognitive science, a schema (plural schemata or schemas) describes an organized pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them. [1] It can also be described as a mental structure of preconceived ideas, a framework representing some aspect of the world, or a system of organizing and perceiving new information.[2] Schemata influence attention and the absorption of new knowledge: people are more likely to notice things that fit into their schema, while re-interpreting contradictions to the schema as exceptions or distorting them to fit. Schemata have a tendency to remain unchanged, even in the face of contradictory information. Schemata can help in understanding the world and the rapidly changing environment. [3] People can organize new perceptions into schemata quickly as most situations do not require complex thought when using schema, since automatic thought is all that is required. [3]
People use schemata to organize current knowledge and provide a framework for future understanding. Examples of schemata include academic rubrics, social schemas, stereotypes, social roles, scripts, worldviews, and archetypes. In Piaget's theory of development, children adopt a series of schemata to understand the world.
END QUOTE.
It is time that I start making a laundry list so to speak of all these tools that I am using. There are a growing number of fellow teachers that I am collaborating with, so I must be clearer with all of your about where I am coming from theoretically and what tools I am using. The first thing that you should know about me though is that I am constantly moving from the abstract to the concrete. If I can't see how it fits into a larger theory, I am likely to resist using anything in my teaching. I cannot tolerate anything feeling arbitrary to random. There must be a deep purpose for everything I use in education and everything I use must have a deep purpose. This is how I find a place to remember everything in my mind and how everything maintains its place within me. Kandel taught me in Principles of Neural Science that "neurons that fire together wire together," and as he is the world foremost nobel prize winning expert on the biology of memory, I am as committed to his proverbs and axioms as I am to any deeply treasured truth that I have. I will always insist therefor that everything I teach and even everything I do must fit into a larger web of interconnected meaning.
Anyway, all of this will take me time to explain. For now, let me get back to the laundry list. These are some of the topics and tools I need to address.
(1) The core strength of the Waldorf methodology is in resisting the arbitrary and in infusing everything taught with a deep sense of awe, wonder, and meaning. Art is used to teach math, and math is used to teach art. Everything connects to everything else in such a deep and mesmerizing way the system has barely changed in 100 years. We as teachers need this power of interconnectedness to inspire our students, but like clever spiders we must not get bound up in our own web. The sad thing about the Waldorf World is that the web of wonder has gotten so sticky for teachers and parents that they have more often than not gotten bound up in it themselves like hapless flies rather than using the model to capture the hearts and imaginations of students only when needed.
(2) Differentiated instruction means breaking the chains of limitation on all students individually at all times as often as possible. It requires building structural opportunity into the classroom environment and culture. The Montessori method pioneered differentiate instruction, but the movement is somewhat lost in the production of manipulatives and toys. We need to modernize Montessori with technology like iPads and resourceful production and utilization of local resources, even sticks and stones in the back yard, rather than continuing to purchase a lot of high priced toys that most students can't afford and will never have access too.
(3) Bloom's taxonomy shows us how to build schema in the minds of students like a pyramid from the bottom to the top. It is immunization against the rush into too much critical thinking and creativity without a firm foundation in facts. Boldly opining students with no mastery of evidence are no academic heavy weights. They are just headstrong at best and increasingly hardheaded and difficult to teach at worst.
(4) The SIOP methodology packages 8 elements of all the best research over the past decades into clear procedural points like creating learning expectations, building background and using language students can understand. This includes both the ESL teaching theories of Jim Cummins (contextual and cognitive demand scales) and Stephen Krashen (i + 1, comprehensible input theory).
(5) Mnemonics, or memory aids cover everything from Tony Buzan's Mind Maps, to Imaginative Association, to the Major System, to Logical Association, to Memory Palaces, and much more. Mastery of human memory is of massive value to students.
(6) The virtues project, leadership skills (like at Envision Academy in Oakland, CA), the 7 Habits of Happy Kids, knowledge of the Meaning of Life (Logotherapy), and all non-religious (but religion friendly) character education systems are of massive value. Their power to motivate students cannot be underestimated.
(7) Khan academy and other such free online resources are a massive boon.
Too be continued...
Sky
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