Category Archives: clmooc

Beach Study: People

You may have noticed, I love the beach. There is nothing like a long walk on the beach to clear my mind, relax my body, and stimulate my thinking. And I take lots of photographs…many of nature’s beautiful handiwork.

On Sunday, instead of a focus on wildlife or other natural features, I found myself focused on the people at the beach and the diversity of activities they were engaged in. In spite of the unexpected rain early in the day, the beach was full of people. It was warm and humid…and by mid afternoon the sun shone brightly.

I noticed these two girls sitting near the cliffs…checking their phones. I couldn’t resist a shot!

As we headed further down the beach, I noticed these spear fisherman putting on their gear to head out into the surf.

And not far from them divers had their equipment spread out on the rocks as they chatted about their upcoming dive.

There was lots of activity out in the water too, surfers and paddle boarders, body boarders, and swimmers. And some people sitting out on the rocks watching the activity or just gazing out into the sea.

And not everyone was into water sports. This pair cruised by on their bicycles, taking advantage of the packed sand of the low tide.

And this couple was simply enjoying a walk on the beach, walking hand in hand, and then stopping for this selfie with the ocean as backdrop.

Still others settled themselves near the water’s edge for a shore-side picnic.

People come and go at the beach. This couple finished surfing, hefted their boards and headed back down the beach toward the parking lot.

And of course, there were lots of kids on the beach playing in the waves, digging in the sand, and creating elaborate sandcastles.

And some of the kids haven’t been born yet…there are always pregnant women on the beach.

As we finished several miles of walking on the beach, we headed back toward the parking lot…stopping off at the showers to rinse the sand from our feet. The showers are another popular place as moms wash babies and people stand under the fresh water showers before heading for their cars and homes.

As I paid attention to people on the beach, I became more aware of the variety of activities they engaged in…and there were so many more people not represented by this small selection of photos. Taking pictures of people was a very different experience than taking pictures of nature. I found myself creating stories about them, paying attention to their movements, their interactions, their equipment… I watched teenaged boys tossing a football, a fisherman chatting with a friend, two little boys with flotation devices braving the waves, a little girl with a container picking up shells as her parents trailed behind…

Sunday’s beachwalk was a different kind of learning walk for me, with people as my focus. The beach is definitely a playground with many things for people to do.

Contained by Containers?

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I’m thinking about containers…at least in part because of the weekly photo challenge over at the Daily Post. But I don’t want to limit myself to boxes and jars, those typical containers that we find around our homes and in our workplaces. Instead I want to think about other uses for containers. What capacities do they have?

Maybe like this skyride traveling high over the San Diego Zoo, containers can propel. In this shot, my mom–with a tremendous fear of heights–decided to board the ride to quickly descend from one side of the zoo to the other. She didn’t end up seeing any sights, her eyes were tightly closed throughout the whole scenic ride, but she did get to her destination!

And then there is my coffee cup from a trip to Starbucks the other day. I took this photo because this is the first time anyone has ever managed to spell my first name wrong! (Kim is not easily misspelled!) But then again…it is also a reminder that there is always a first time to be surprised, to be misread, to be redefined. And in defense of the barista, he has a family member who spells her name with the “y.”

In this photo, my container is the rear view mirror. Stopped at a stop sign, in a line of traffic, I couldn’t help noticing the beauty of the ocean reflected in the mirror. Instead of containing the reflection, it magnified and refracted the blues of the sky and the sea reaching into my heart and mind allowing me to relax in spite of the traffic, taking me away from the hustle and bustle of commuting into the wonder and majesty of the natural beauty around me.

And so I find myself reminded about a conversation going on at the CLMOOC today about the containments/limitations/shallowness about many of the containers we use on the web. How likes and plusses and hearts and favorites push us like a tide, more flow than ebb if we aren’t paying attention. Stopping to consider our containers and the forces that move (or don’t move) them can change the quality of our experiences. Maybe it is in our attention and in our interactions that we can reconsider and reinvent the containers.

What do you think?

The Art of Learning: A Five-Image Story

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What makes a story? That is a question that emerged during a Twitter chat last week that I wasn’t a part of…but somehow kept popping up in my twitter feed. And this week our CLMOOC make of the week is to tell a story in five images. I often use images to support my blog posts, prompts for my thinking, metaphors for ideas I am working to understand. I don’t often think of myself as a storyteller…but I’ve decided to give it a try today.

I’ve decided to call this five-photo story “The Art of Learning”…and it purposely does not have a linear structure, no purposeful beginning, middle and end. And yet, it reads like a story to me.

What sense do you make of the story? If you were to put words to it, what would it say? What songs would it sing?

Let Them Fly!

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Wispy propellers twist and turn

they float, sail, drift, glide, soar

freefalling

sinking into available spaces

and if conditions permit

bloom

with yellow brilliance

until the ticking clock

transforms blooms into

balls of puff

waiting for wind

for wishes

for the breath of children

let them fly!

Sunshine on a Stem

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I spied it from afar as I was heading to my car this morning. And I had to stop. Right in the middle of our gasping-for-water, drought stricken lawn a dandelion stood tall and yellow, sunshine on a stem.

I’ve definitely become obsessed with dandelions…in all their forms. They represent the tenacity, resourcefulness, and strength I want to help cultivate in learners and teachers. Learners as hot house flowers that have to be carefully controlled and cultivated seem too fragile to become the innovators and explorers we need in the world. Teachers are often portrayed as gardeners, nurturing their crop of learners…but I’m wanting to reject that image too, it seems to take all the energy and agency away from students in that scenario.

Like dandelions, I want learners to thrive where they live. I want them to land in places where they can dig in and grow tall. And I want teachers to be like dandelions too, not dependent on specialized tools but instead drawing on the processes that honor writers and tinkerers and explorers. And when they happen to be plucked by the curious child who takes a big breath and blows on the puff, I hope the wishes fly far and wide and land on fertile ground so that these tenacious and resourceful survivors populate our classrooms and our world.

A Learning Walk: Relics

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Inspired by an upcoming trip to Montana and an opportunity to explore Yellowstone National Park, I have taken up hiking. It’s a pastime my husband has enjoyed–without me– for quite some time. And yet, inspired by play and my photography, we make an effort to include some kind of adventure–with an opportunity to explore through my lens–on our days off from work. So for the past three weeks we have hiked, exploring the local backcountry with our feet.

What I like best about hiking is being outdoors, enjoying the sun, the natural terrain, noticing the native flora and fauna, and finding views and interesting photo subjects that aren’t available without hiking in at some distance. It gets hot in the backcountry around here, so we headed out pretty early this morning to hike before the mid-day heat. After climbing some distance, I looked out to see this view of the mountains in the distance veiled by the clouds that were just beginning to yield to the sun.

And there are relics of days gone by in these wide open spaces. Evidence of the native peoples who lived here before the white settlers, knowing that the native plants served as a food source and pharmacy…that this arid place sustained life long before our modern conveniences.

Tucked up in the hills of the Daley Ranch, on an offshoot of the Sage Trail, we found this rusted old water tower.

After a much longer hike than we had anticipated (at about our 7 mile mark), we came across the old ranch buildings from the days when this land was a working ranch. It’s interesting to me to think about how much smaller buildings tended to be in days gone by. Compared to some of the surrounding homes, these buildings are barely the size of a single room of modern buildings.

But it was this relic that made me take a second look. More than a mile from the trail head, near these old buildings, sat a more modern relic, something that is seldom used these days…a pay phone!

We ended up hiking more than 8 miles today! Much longer than we planned, but also entirely enjoyable. The weather was warm, but not hot. The trails were varied and interesting, but not incredibly steep. It was a perfect learning walk and photographic adventure…with some exercise and fresh air thrown in as well. And who can resist a shadow selfie…this one is a hiking shadow selfie!

I wonder what relics future generations will find as they hike and look at evidence left from our lives. How will our remains help them understand a life they haven’t experienced? What will amuse and confuse them?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Light

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Do you speak in images? Enjoy taking photos to document your experiences or just to express what you notice in the world? Love to share them with others? Welcome to the weekly photo challenge! I post a new challenge each week…check in regularly and join the fun!

One of the things I love best about the summer is the light. Days are longer and filled with warmth and flooded with light. I find myself noticing how light shines from different angles, how different objects catch light, and how some light seems harsh while other light feels soft somehow.

I’ve been messing around with selfies (and subjecting my husband to them too!), trying to capture different angles and places and light too. I love the sky in this one and the way the light catches my hair and shoulder.

During a late afternoon glance around the back yard I noticed the way the light and shadow played with this succulent.

And I was drawn to the burr on this weed and the way the light served to highlight the prickly spines. I had to get my macro lens to capture it’s miniature beauty.

Yesterday was Hack Your Notebook Day, which meant we were playing around with lights and writing and notebooks…and I captured Henry testing the limits of his parallel circuit, lighting up one, two, three, four…

Today I was craving the outdoors and sunshine and solitude…so I took a lunchtime photo walk out on the UCSD campus.. There are so many interesting art installations (part of the Stuart Collection) on campus…I found myself heading off toward the rock bear and noticing the light bouncing off the boulders that are the bear.

And if you look closely into the light and shadow of this shrub you might just see the little bunny rabbit that froze when it saw me…allowing me to snap a photo (although I couldn’t get close enough for a great shot of the rabbit).

So this week’s challenge is to find the light in your photos. Indoor light, outdoor light, dim light, bright light, direct light, diffuse light…take advantage of all the light that summer has to offer!

You can post your photo alone or along with some words: commentary, a story, a poem…maybe even a song! I love to study the photographs that others’ take and think about how I can use a technique, an angle, or their inspiration to try something new in my own photography. (I love a great mentor text…or mentor photo, in this case!)

I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #light for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

Chase the light with your lens…can’t wait to see what lights up your life!

An Invitation to Hack

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On Hack Your Notebook Day I found myself thinking about all the possibilities for hacking curriculum. Especially as we think about our students and who we are and are not reaching with our teaching,, we often think about the materials we are compelled or choose to use. I feel strongly about the need for teachers to hack their curriculum on the behalf of their students…and to encourage students to hack the curriculum for themselves too.

By curriculum, I don’t just mean those self-contained programs in binders and workbooks, but also the novel unit, the teacher-developed projects and materials, the cute unit inspired by a pin on pinterest… Even the lessons we have poured heart and soul into–they all deserve careful scrutiny with our students’ needs in mind.

We all have students who need scaffolds and we all know (or are) teachers who need scaffolds…there’s nothing wrong with leaning on some support structures. The problem, for me, is when the structures get in the way of student learning and teacher development. My least favorite words out of the mouth of a teacher are, “Just tell me what you want me to do!” And I’m not really fond of those words from students either. They imply a lack of investment, a lack of agency, a lack of understanding of purpose and audience. And all of those might be true.

So what do we (I) do about it? I propose that we hack. Let’s carefully examine the materials we are required to use and/or decide to use. Who do they work for in our classroom? Who benefits? Who doesn’t? Who do we give permission to “break the rules?” Who is handcuffed by the materials?

A Burr in Your Sock

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Today was a prickly kind of day in the SDAWP SI. There’s something about confronting formulaic writing that sticks in your socks like those little burrs you find on weeds that seem to plant themselves in the most unlikely places.

Over the weekend we read a collection of articles about formulaic writing, thinking about why this approach to writing instruction persists, and the implications for student writing. Even teachers who are proponents of using a formulaic approach to teaching writing still complain about the deadening experience of reading the resulting student writing. Who wants to read paper after paper of repetitive phrasing and uninspired thinking?

I contrast that with the playfulness of this week at the CLMOOC. This week’s make is to hack your writing. And already on day two interesting writing is filling my feeds. I woke up this morning to a poem by Kevin “stolen” from yesterday’s blog post:

I live in contrasts
in the space between here
and there
I find the nook to hide in
and observe the world
through many lenses
I seek but never find
the whys of the world
so that every movement is
equally beautiful, equally interesting
and entirely different from each other
but only if we take the time to pause
and notice.

And this creation by Sherri:

Both Kevin and Sherri played with language and writing, creating their own message and meaning from words I had written. They wrote for fun, for their own purpose, and gifted their words to me on my blog. I grant you that they are adults and they are not composing “academic” texts, but I know that the spirit of fun and play supports them as writers.

I worry about who in our schools gets the most formulaic writing. Why are our English learners, our students of color, our students who live below the poverty line most likely to get writing instruction that is pre-chewed, scaffolded to the point that no thinking is required? In the name of being helpful, we are robbing students of the opportunity to make sense of their thinking through writing.

And yet, letting go of the formulaic means inviting messiness, losing control, welcoming confusion in order to find clarity and coherence. What replaces the formula? That is a question that I am asked over and over again. The answers aren’t easy, they aren’t neat, and they mean teaching writers rather than writing.

Sometimes that search for answers feels like a burr in your sock. But if you look closely–maybe using your macro lens–you’ll see the details of the beautiful weed, a natural hacker, springing up where you least expect it.

This and That: Consider the Microclimates

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I live in a place filled with contrasts. There is the breezy casual of the beach to the west and less than a thirty minute drive away you can be hiking into dry, hot hillsides, exploring vineyards or admiring the abundance of avocado groves. Our weather reporters call them microclimates…and we tend to be adapted to the microclimate where we spend most of our time. But what I love most about this place that I call home is that it is not either/or, it is this and that.

Just this weekend I spent time in two of these contrasting spaces…equally beautiful, equally interesting, but entirely different from each other. I loved exploring the old oak forest as I walked in the dappled sunshine…and looking up in surprise as I watched a mule deer leap across the path I was walking. It was hot early as I hiked uphill and I could see evidence of wildfires past and the dry brush that continues to be a threat for future fires.

And the beach is always a source of inspiration. The holiday weekend prompted us to get up early and walk the beach before the crowds arrived. It was sunny and warm and the water was unusually clear. We noticed sand sharks and stingrays swimming a few yards from us as the waves crashed. The water was warm by our standards…up to 70 degrees, perfect for barefoot walking.

I’m so happy that I don’t have to chose to love and visit only one part of my place. I’m feeling like there is such a push to simplify our choices, to turn every decision and discussion to the binary choice. Right or wrong, left or right, boxers or briefs, apples or oranges. In my experience, those binaries just don’t represent the rich complexities of everyday life. Just this morning a friend sent an article about “balanced literacy” where the author lamented the kind of “conventionally rigorous” instruction he had received as a young English learner. The article implied that “balanced literacy” was essentially an absence of teaching compared to the experience with the effort-full teaching he had received in his childhood.

I’m reminded of the reading wars in the not too distant past. The phonics versus whole language debate that implied an either/or approach to teaching. These arguments miss the subtleties and complexities of teaching and learning. This “all teacher” or “all student” approach ignores the body of student-centered teaching that effective teachers practice every day. It dismisses the diversity of the needs and interests of students as irrelevant and assumes that if the teacher simply transmits enough information, students will learn what they need to learn.

Let’s start a new conversation. One that is about learners: teacher learners and student learners. Let’s bring their microclimates into the conversation.