This week's keyword!

This week's keyword is "Active Pedagogy." This term is a part of Expeditionary Learning Schools Core Practices. I will take a look at the basic definition of each of the words, active, and pedagogy and in another post dissect the meaning. For now, here are the definitions to ponder...

Active:

1. Being in physical motion: active fish in the aquarium.

2. Functioning or capable of functioning.

3. Marked by energetic activity; involving or requiring physical exertion and energy.

4. Being in a state of action; erupting or liable to erupt; not dormant: an active volcano.

5. Marked by or involving direct participation; currently in use or effect; openly acknowledged or expressed: an active dislike of the new neighbors.

6. Producing an intended action or effect.

7.Expressing action rather than a state of being. Used of verbs such as run, speak, and move.

8. Being a source of electrical energy; capable of converting or amplifying voltages or currents.

Pedagogy:

1. The art or profession of teaching.

2. Preparatory training or instruction.

3. The function or work of a teacher

4. The art or method of teaching

What I love about ELOB principles!

ELOB's ten principles are the foundation of teaching in and out of the classroom. The principles are based on the works of Kurt Hahn, the founder of the Outward Bound program. Below is a link to the ten principles:

http://www.elschools.org/aboutus/principles.html

Here I will list what I love about each ELOB principle and my personal take on them...

1. The Primacy of Self Discovery

Learning is not about memorizing and stating facts. It is not alone about knowledge and presentation of knowledge. The most powerful kind of learning is that which evokes self discovery. That which promotes emergence of ideas. Emergence of ideas is what leads to self discovery. Imagination is required! Oh, imagination! Another powerful tool for the emergence of ideas which leads to further curiosity and learning. Teachers help students overcome their fears. With every report card I received as a child, the teachers always stated, "Chelsea is a pleasure to have in class, very smart, so much to offer! She needs to speak up more!" How wonderful it would have been if one of those teachers had realized my difficulty and fear of speaking up in class and helped me!

2. The Having of Wonderful Ideas

Wonderful ideas cannot come about during one lesson. Often a person needs more time to consider a topic and to let their wonderful ideas emerge. This principle states that "learning situations should provide something to think about." This philosophy understands the importance of thinking and the time it might take for ideas to emerge. With ELOB students are given learning expeditions that last twelve weeks. A classroom will look in depth about a particular subject for this entire time! They can take this one topic and it can cover language arts, math, science, social studies, art, and technology requirements. And it gives students a chance to focus on one topic and to unfold their ideas.

3. The Responsiblility for Learning

What I like about this principle is that it presents the notion that learning is a very personal thing. All students learn in a different way and to recognize and strengthen your particular style of learning can be a wonderful tool.

4. Empathy and Caring

"Teachers and students ideas are respected." As a child you need to know that your ideas, however silly they may seem, are respected. Your teacher is always learning just as you are. There are no wrong answers. A "wrong" answer leads to curiosity and the emergence of ideas.

5. Success and Failure

This principle states that students will "learn to persevere when things are hard." It is very important to teach children that challenges are positive tools for learning. When you make a mistake you will probably learn something you wouldn't have otherwise.

6. Collaboration and Competition

Another principle that promotes the emergence of ideas! Students are not competing, but working together. This allows for children to share ideas and to rely on not only themselves, but each other to solve problems.

7. Diversity and Inclusion

"Diversity increases the richness of ideas." Teaching children about diversity is very powerful. Teaching them about the diversity of their own neighborhood and school and the one down the road and on the other side of the world helps them to realize how emergence is happening in different ways all around them.

8. The Natural World

It seems that ELOB's focus on the natural world is not alone science and fact based. They teach children the importance of a connection to the environment and their surroundings. This philosophy is able to take the classroom outside and relate not only science, but language arts, math, social studies, and art to the natural world.

9. Solitude and Reflection

"Students and teachers need time alone to explore thoughts and reflections." This has a nice balance to principle #6 about collaboration and competition. Here students are taught the importance of allowing themselves time to think through their own ideas. Ideas emergence and present themselves in a group and can be expanded upon when you have time to think to yourself. They are able to learn the power of their own curiosity, imagination, and creativity.

10. Service and Compassion

Teaching children about the importance of helping others is huge. In these schools there are often service learning type of projects where students of all ages go out into the community and help others. Having compassion for others in the community allows children to see the importance of every individual person. They can reflect on their service in the community and become aware of their personal strengths.

Course Syllabus

Class Description

This will be a 2 credit course that will expand on my research last quarter entitled, The Classroom as a Body without Organs. I will look at more philosophies and implementations of this idea of teaching and learning that has a similar framework to Deleuze and Guattari's analysis of The Body without Organs. Some things I will include in the course are the Montessori method, Brian Massumi's writings, taking a closer look at another D & G concept, and the philosophy of ELOB schools (Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound). I would like to visit Thornton Creek Elementary in Seattle and observe the teaching style there. My main objective with this course is to gain a better understanding of teaching styles already in practice that follow a similar philosophy to The Classroom as a Body without Organs. I would like to be able to look at these philosophies critically and compare and contrast. I would also like to implement another D & G philosophy into the classroom as well as one of Brian Massumi.

The readings in this class will be short essays by Deleuze and Guattari and Brian Massumi. I will also read mission statements and statements of philosophy of both Montessori and ELOB schools and I'll take a closer look at lesson plans from some of those schools as well.

The most difficult part of this course will be staying within the 2 credit guideline. To make up for classroom time and outside of classroom time for a typical 2 credit course I will commit to spending about four hours/week on this course.

Assignments

For each week I will choose a keyword from my readings, dissect it and look at its meaning further. I will post blog entries that will present my insight with each reading. For mid-quarter I will present one 2-3 page paper that will expand on some of my keywords and look more in depth at ideas that have been expressed. For the last week of the course I will visit Thorton Creek Elementary - an ELOB school in Seattle - and observe how they are implementing concepts and using ELOB effectively or not. For a final display of what I have gained, I will write a 4-5 page paper that will encompass my findings throughout the course and how they relate to my observations at Thornton Creek.

Revised Syllabus

April 26 - May 2

Focus: ELOB
Dissect ELOB's mission statement and philosophy, find examples of lesson plans
Keyword: Active Pedagogy

May 3 - 9

Focus: D & G
Read excerpt from Deleuze and Guattari's, A Thousand Plateaus.
Implement a piece of this philosophy into the classroom
Keyword: TBD

May 10 - 16

Focus: Montessori
Read mission statement and philosophy of Montessori
Find lesson plans used in the Montessori classroom
Keyword: TBD

May 17 - 23

Focus: Massumi
Read excerpt from Massumi's, Parables for the Virtual
Implement and idea of Massumi's philosophy into the classroom
Keyword: TBD

May 24 - 30

Focus: Classroom visit
Compile findings throughout course and prepare plan for visit to Thornton Creek Elementary
What will you be looking for in the classroom?
Observe Teachers and Students
Actions and Reactions

May 31 - June 6
Focus: Final
Record observations from classroom visit and make connections with insight gained throughout this course.
Final paper due June 10th

Expanding on Ideas...

Here is a rundown of some ideas I would like to look at further for my Independent Study. My study will be an expansion of the original paper I presented, The Classroom as a Body without Organs.

• Philosophy of ELOB - Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound - schools. This philosophy is closely based on Kurt Hahn's learning principles
• Seattle schools to visit/volunteer - Thornton Creek Elementary, Giddens School
• Why might the classroom as a body without organs deter parents from accepting this philosophy for their own children?
• How can standards be met while teaching in this manner?
• What are the opposing viewpoints on Montessori?
• Look further into Deleuze and Guittari's philosophies and relate them to the classroom

Here is a link to the classroom expeditions at Thornton Creek Elementary. How rad is this??

http://www.seattleschools.org/schools/ae2/classrooms/index.html

Building a Better Teacher - NYT Article

Here is a link to the article I read today in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?pagewanted=1

After reading this article, I realized that the ideas I have about teaching might be slowly coming into fruition. It is very exciting that people are discussing these issues. I hate to sound cliche, but something has obviously had an effect on our children. Could it be technology? Could it be that technology is affecting the adults, those who are raising and teaching our children, in a negative way? With the amount of texting, facebooking, and everything else that lessens actual social interaction, even intelligent adults are forgetting the difference between they're, their, and there. I cannot believe the grammatical errors I see among some of my classmates. It is completely ridiculous that students in college misuse "are" for "our," which was typed in an email I received the other day. Mally's second grade teacher wrote in an email, "That is to funny!" To! And she is qualified to teach a classroom of children.

I have made three attempts at starting a book club. I have purposely invited friends who are not in school. Students, including myself, do not have time to read any additional material, which is why the books I chose were books for an independent study. I thought it would be a way to re-introduce community and to see my friends outside of facebook. One person joined. I invited over thirty people. On three occasions. Trying to get people away from the computer (and their gosh darn blogs!) is a complicated task. I believe that reading a book, a real, tangible book seems unnecessary to people. Why strengthen your knowledge when you can type any question you have into google and get an answer? Why challenge yourself to see things in another way when seeing things on twitter is working just fine? Why read a book and discuss it with your friends in order to gain insight and learn about their views and interests when you can go to the bar and simultaneously facebook on your i-phones?

I do believe I'm getting off topic here. Let's bring it back to the kids.

So, many people are wondering what the dilemma is here, is it the kids or is it the teachers? As you might be able to sense, I am blaming technology. I think it is affecting the adults who teach, raise, and influence our children. That is the issue. That is why we need to implement new teaching styles. Our teachers need to be educated not only on how to teach math, but how to manage a classroom, and how to engage children. And if they can't even engage their friends enough to join a book club, as I cannot, there is a problem.

One quote from Green's article states, "A teacher’s control, he said repeatedly, should be “an exercise in purpose, not in power.” When I see the homework that some children are bringing home, I wonder what the teacher's purpose is in that classroom. Does she know her purpose? Does she care? The definition of purpose is, the reason that something exists. Why does she exist? To teach 2 + 2? To hand out dated packets and dark brown crayons on Martin Luther King Junior Day? Please do not take offense, this actually happened, and unnerves me to this day! Is her purpose to call out questions and look for the correct answer? Or is her purpose to look for the incorrect answer and direct the classroom to deconstruct that answer? To challenge themselves.

For example, from Elizabeth Green's article:

"On one tape from that year, Ball started her day by calling on a boy known to the researchers as Sean.

I was just thinking about six,” Sean began. “I’m just thinking, it can be an odd number, too.” Ball did not shake her head no. Sean went on, speaking faster. “Cause there could be two, four, six, and two — three twos, that’d make six!”

“Uh-huh,” Ball said.

“And two threes,” Sean said, gaining steam. “It could be an odd and an even number. Both!”

He looked up at Ball, who was sitting in a chair among the students, wearing a black-and-red jumper and oversize eyeglasses. She continued not to contradict him, and he went on not making sense. Then Ball looked to the class. “Other people’s comments?” she asked calmly.

The Sean video is a case in point. Ball had a goal for that day’s lesson, and it was not to investigate the special properties of the number six. Yet by entertaining Sean’s odd idea, Ball was able to teach the class far more than if she had stuck to her lesson plan. By the end of the day, a girl from Nigeria had led the class in deriving precise definitions of even and odd; everyone — even Sean — had agreed that a number could not be both odd and even; and the class had coined a new, special type of number, one that happens to be the product of an odd number and two. They called them Sean numbers..."

For a teacher to be able to improvise in that manner is a great skill. I don't believe it can necessarily be taught. I think it comes from a desire for children to learn. It is hard work to teach in this way. You stay up late creating a lesson plan only to disregard it when it is not fully immersing your students. It involves taking risks for your students. To devise a lesson plan and then to stray from it basing your decision entirely on your student's interest takes pride. Pride in your classroom and pride in the students that you are teaching. It takes the ability to let go of the structured diagram of teaching.

One first year teacher came up with a concept that addresses the notion of "the correct answer." It is described below from Green's article:

"The concept is deceptively simple: A teacher should never allow her students to avoid answering a question, however tough. “If I’m asking my students a question, and I call on somebody, and they get it wrong, I need to work on how to address that,” Bellucci explained in February. “It’s easy to be like, ‘No,’ and move on to the next person. But the hard part is to be like: ‘O.K., well, that’s your thought. Does anybody disagree? . . .I have to work on going from the student who gets it wrong to students who get it right, then back to the student who gets it wrong and ask a follow-up question to make sure they understand why they got it wrong and understood why the right answer is right.”

This is exactly the way that children are able to learn, and to get excited about knowledge. By disregarding "the correct answer" and allowing children to openly discuss and be confused enables emergence to happen in the classroom. This is how the students are able to find the conclusion to a problem by using each other as support. I have yet to witness this in a classroom, but I imagine it is an amazing sight to see. I hope to teach students in this way. It makes me incredibly happy to know that some students have the opportunity to grow, emerge, and succeed in a classroom like this.

The ending paragraph of the article was completely inspiring,

Lemov, for his part, finds hope in what he has already accomplished. The day that I watched Bellucci’s math class, Lemov sat next to me, beaming. He was still smiling an hour later, when we walked out of the school together to his car. “You could change the world with a first-year teacher like that,” he said.

I cannot wait to experience the joys, chaos, anxiety, happiness, and everything else that comes along with being a first year teacher. I cannot wait until I have the unique opportunity to encourage a classroom of children to be confused, to rely on each other's confusion, and to never think twice about voicing their own desires.

Thoughts on the Montessori Method

While discussing my research with colleagues, some have mentioned the Montessori method of teaching. Which I have never been completely fond of. I sincerely agree with the basic concept of spontaneous play and free flowing of classroom interactions, but overall I feel that it is a very passive way of teaching. With this entry, I would like to sort out my thoughts and possibly have a more firm standing. I plan to do more research on the Montessori method, possibly visiting some schools that practice it, rather than basing my opinion on the one Montessori school where I worked. It is difficult for me to passionately express my ideas about teaching and to have someone tell me it sounds similar to Montessori. I will try to work out this dillema!

With Montessori there is still a huge aspect of control, structure, and limitation. Rather than controlling the children specifically, what is controlled by the teachers is the children's environment. They place specific items and subjects in the environment to get a desired result. For a short time, I worked at a Montessori school and this is what I witnessed. Children were presented with materials, allowed to pick and choose how to use these materials, but they were not encouraged to make connections, to further contemplate and relate the subjects they were given. As soon as a child became bored, which could be quite quickly, he moved along to the next subject. By doing this, how is he able to make connections? The teachers are supposed to observe this and not interfere. Often, becoming bored, rather than constructive confusion, is "natural" for the child. This is what Montessori practices, the "natural" inclinations of the child.

The way of teaching that I am promoting involves the teacher's compassion and sincere desire for children to grow, become, and emerge. To not stand back so passively, but to encourage confusion. To present children with ideas and subject matter and to help them find ways to further their curiosity, to think more deeply. Even small children are capable of doing this. To discuss ideas with children, not treating them as subjects, but as learning, growing, capable beings. Although, I am more interested in K-5 students, I am interested in learning more about the Montessori method, which usually takes place at the preschool level. With colleagues referring to my ideas as similar to the Montessori method, I will need to voice that, they in fact, are very different. I believe that for teaching K-5, the Montessori method is not the best method.

I feel that in Montessori, children are outwardly treated as "little adults." But inwardly, they are not challenged. The Montessori method does not want to interfere and wants to allow the children to do whatever is "natural" to them. But I am a "big adult" and I still need encouragement, I still need professors to insist on critical thinking, exploration, and connections to be made. I still need to read books in subjects that are slightly uncomfortable for me in order to allow my thoughts to emerge. Right now I am reading a book about meditations with animals - by hunting. With Montessori I don't see children being challenged enough. I feel that presenting something challenging or mysterious is a way to get anyone to become confused. And being confused is the only way to explore knowledge.

The idea of self-directed activity is intriguing, but I believe that children need some direction given to them. How will they know something exists if we don't tell them? I agree that allowing children to attempt at making their own connections contributes highly to their understanding of the particular subject they are interested in, but there is a point where the teacher needs to be intellectually involved in order to present curiosities and to introduce concepts that will incorporate absolute thinking.

The Montessori method focuses on a child's "natural interests." I am interested in children, vegan baking, Iceland, german literature, knitting, and thrift stores. If I did not challenge myself by looking outside of my interests I would not be able to emerge as a person. This is why I am volunteering with developmentally disabled adults, to challenge myself to connect with a new group of people, other than children, whom I do most of my work with. Children, especially those of the typical Montessori age (2-5) are not able to realize this concept. This is why, along with the teacher observing a child, she needs to introduce new subject matter that will create confusion for that child. Children are not able to comprehend the need to be confused. It needs to be presented to them.

The materials used in Montessori are the same basic materials that would be found in any creative preschool, the only difference is the lack of teachers involvement. Or rather, the form of teachers involvement. With a "normal" preschool, the teacher practices structure and organization, whereas with Montessori, the teachers practice observation with a lack of structure. This aspect, I do not disagree with, but I do disagree with the lack of interference, leaving it completely up to the child to challenge herself.

There is more that needs to happen aside from letting children follow their natural instincts. If I followed my natural instincts I would sleep in, eat cookies all day, do a couple of crafts, read a magazine, go to work if I felt like it, study - maybe? The point is that I understand the concept of challenging myself, of bettering myself, and of creating unique opportunities for myself. I have learned that if I want to create thought and to think, I need to do these things which may not come naturally to me. I need some discipline.

For children in Montessori, it would benefit them to be introduced to discipline, challenge, and emergence. Deeper connections need to be made and this is not possible without a higher level of interaction from the teachers involved. A sincere desire to confuse children! Problems need to be presented to the children, on an intellectual level that they can understand.

The Girl with Organs!

Back in the day when I had organs.