Category Archives: teaching

Carousel Horses: What Stories Do They Tell?

With my photography this week, I have been focusing on curves. And somehow, when I am out taking pictures that concept/word “curves” keeps getting translated in my head to “round.” Now I know that round and curves are related–that curved surfaces often result in roundness. So yesterday when I parked for a meeting in Balboa Park–our city’s urban park–the carousel immediately drew my attention. I could hear the festive music as the merry-go-round started its trip around and around. I took a few pictures as I thought about this curved trajectory and the combination of movement around and up and down.

I like the way this photo (with no filters applied) shows the movement of the carousel horse. I can also see the curved lines above. The people riding–adults and children–were energetic, giving off that feeling of summertime fun. I decided to move to my hipstamatic app–and dialed a couple of film types and lenses. One of them, this gangsta lens creates a round frame.

And while the curved frame works for my photo-a-day theme, what I love about this picture–and I knew it when I tapped to take the picture–is that somehow I had caught the guy with the while cowboy hat in the frame. In some ways this particular picture feels timeless–the “tough” guy in the white cowboy hat (doesn’t that make him a hero?) with the white t-shirt and jeans on a carousel horse with the young woman nearby. He’s on the outside so he can reach out for the brass ring, showing everyone his skills on this classic summertime ride.

This third photo is another hipstamatic photo using Americana film and lens that gives a retro feel to the picture. It also gives the sense of movement–but doesn’t have the same feel of summer as the other more colorful photos.

I’m wondering how photos like these might prompt my students’ writing and storytelling. How does the visual invoke the powers of imagination? What evidence is contained in these photos that leads to character development? An advertisement? An argument of some sort? Where would you go with one of these photos as a prompt?

Dream Weaver: a Mentor Text

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Sometimes it is the simplest books that pack a powerful punch. When I started to consider a recommendation for the #113texts Mentor Text Challenge so many books came to mind. I expect to add more than one!

Dream Weaver by Jonathan London is one of those simple books with beautiful language. The verbs create an orchestra of sound and movement.

A sudden wind, and the trees hum, the branches creak, and Yellow Spider’s web shimmers, like wind across a pond. But she hangs on and you stay with her. The whole world is in these leaves.

Besides the language, there are two other features of the book that I love. One is the way the books uses the space on the page and draws you in close to feel the insect view and then pulls back to give a human perspective. I also love that the back of the book includes facts about spiders. (The fiction/non-fiction mix is one of my favorites!)

This year we used this book as one of several to teach beginnings. Here’s the text of the first page:

Nestled in the soft earth beside the path, you see a little yellow spider.

This beginning takes the reader directly to the “place” in the book. Our students wrote a piece where they highlighted the qualities of our local community–exploring ways to share their opinions with evidence from their own experience. But like most young writers, they are still working to build effective beginnings. So they studied this beginning from Jonathan London and many tried their hand at making this structure work in their own writing. (Nestled did become a favorite word in our class!)

Here’s a couple of examples from students:

“B” , a second grader wrote this opening

Nestled between the blue beach and the desert there’s a small town called Cardiff-by-the Sea

Okay–I’m not sure that the beach and desert are quite close enough to “nestle” this little town, but she definitely got the idea!

“K”, a third grader tried this version where the setting is revealed in a similar way without using the word “nestled.”

A little town called Cardiff lies between two other towns in Southern California: Encinitas and Del Mar.

There are many ways to use this book as a mentor text. I highly recommend it, especially for students in grades K-3. I’d love to know how you’ve used this book (or others like it)!

Neverwhere and more: a book(s) review

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In the last few weeks I read two books written by Neil Gaiman. I finished Neverwhere last night and read The Ocean at the End of the Lane a few weeks before that. I read Coraline a few years ago…and remembering some picture books I bought last year, I reread The Wolves in the Walls and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish today. In some ways I’m surprised that I like these books, they are a little bit fantasy with some parable-type qualities woven in.

So what do I read, you might ask? That question seems to become more and more complicated. If you follow me on Goodreads you may notice that I have binged on several YA series. I’ve read the Hunger Games series followed by a number of dystopian novels including Blood Red Road, Divergent and Insurgent, The Water Wars, and the Maze Runner series (that was not my favorite series). I’ve also read some series more in the fantasy category including The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, The Mortal Instruments (City of Bones…), The Infernal Devices, and Graceling Realm. Interspersed were murder mysteries by Gillian Flynn and Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen…and then there were the 4000+ pages of The Game of Thrones (haven’t gotten to A Dance with Dragons yet). I’ve also read other odds and ends, novels and plenty of books for kids, especially graphic novels for the younger crowd.

But back to Neverwhere. I read a lot. Fiction and non-fiction, fantasy, mystery, realistic fiction, historical fiction and everything in between. And some books stay with me longer than others. I liked Neverwhere. Some reviewer described it as an urban fairytale. In some ways I think that most of Gaiman’s books are fairytales of sort…maybe in the Grimm tradition. When I think of Richard (of Neverwhere) and the unnamed narrator in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, they are both those anti-heroes who learn powerful life lessons as they interact with supernatural beings from somewhere other than the world of humans that you and I live most of our lives in. They are flawed, often seen as weak pushover types as the story begins. They find their strength in unusual ways.

These are stories about overcoming difficulties…in many cases difficulties that the adults around them just don’t get. When I think about Gaiman’s books I find myself thinking about the qualities of grit and resilience that we look to cultivate in our students…and that teachers need too in our current educational climate. Neverwhere is a story about trusting your gut, learning from close observation, and hanging in there even when the going gets tough and things are scary. It’s about feeling invisible and doing what is right anyway and finally about realizing that what you thought you needed and wanted for your life might not really be what you were looking for.

Gaiman’s books are richly layered, both readable and complex. There are books for kids (The Wolves in the Walls and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish), for older kids (Coraline) and stories for adults. And I haven’t read them all yet. I think The Graveyard Book is up next for me. What’s your favorite Gaiman book? What else do you recommend?

Teaching to See: The Value of Iteration

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Yesterday began our August photo-a-day challenge at #sdawpphotovoices with a focus on design elements…beginning with symmetry. Anna over at #clmooc posted this video about Inge Druckrey, a graphic designer and teacher, saying she thought I would appreciate it. And she’s right. It is about 40 minutes long (a pretty long video for me to watch!), but interesting on many levels.

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/45232468″>Inge Druckrey: Teaching to See</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/et”>Edward Tufte</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

The idea of teaching to see seems to be a theme of mine since I began this blog almost a month ago. Photography has proven to be a tool that has helped me see and look at my world in some more intentional ways.

A focus on symmetry has been challenging for the past two days. Neither of my pictures

quite captures symmetry to my liking…although I’m not sure I know what that picture will be. The beauty of exploring a concept over a week is that I begin to see it differently as I continue to look for opportunities to capture that idea in my photos.

While Inge didn’t use these precise words, the focus on iteration (which we call revision in the writing world) as a way to improve your craft continues to leave me thinking about my classroom and my own learning. It also takes me back to Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours as the time needed to gain mastery of something. And whether that number is right or not, I do believe that we get better at things as we practice them. But don’t get me wrong…I don’t think we need to drudge through rote and boring practice to achieve our learning goals. For me, passion is key–finding ways to get excited about learning something new, and to make the practice interesting and motivating–iteration for authentic and meaningful reasons. One of Inge’s students (now a professional artist) described his weekly practice of figural drawing for three hours every Friday. He talked about it still being hard, but worthwhile–said he didn’t go to church, but he continues to keep up his practice of weekly drawing practice.

Both my photography and blogging are like that. They are practices that require effort and time…and I enjoy the practice and the effort because I can feel myself learning and growing. I want this for my students too–for them to develop practices that support their own learning goals. I’ll be thinking about this as the new school year begins. What learning practices are you considering for yourself and your students as the new school year begins?

Learning From Blue

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As I have worked through photographing with a focus on a color each week during July, I have noticed that the weeklong focus pushed me to think about not only color but also composition differently.

Blue…only a short three days as July came to an end…expressed itself differently than I expected. When I originally crafted the color challenge I thought blue would focus on water…beachy things that are so prevalent in summer. But my end of July didn’t take me to the beach or near the water as expected. Instead, with the color in my head, blue appeared in unexpected places. When I photographed this butterfly I didn’t even know it had blue dots on its wings. I don’t think I even noticed it was sitting on a blue chair. What I saw was an opportunity to capture this beautiful creature through my lens. I took a shot, then crept closer took another shot, crept closer… I was amazed that the butterfly let me get so close. Maybe it could sense my appreciation.

I find myself looking at the world around me as an opportunity for composition. And I’m also thinking about the ways my eyes see things differently than my lens does. Sometimes it’s the light…and my camera captures a silhouette where I see color. Other times I can clearly see that bird in the sky…and my camera records a spot. It’s a reminder to me that our lens shifts our view and understanding of the world. We can look at the same thing and understand it differently. It’s important for me to remember that what I see and understand doesn’t necessarily represent what someone else sees and understands through their lens. And looking at those differences creates an opportunity to learn from one another. As Margaret Wheatley reminds us in her text Willing to be Disturbed:

We live in a dense and tangled global system. Because we live in different parts of this complexity, and because no two people are physically identical, we each experience life differently. It’s impossible for any two people to ever see things exactly the same. You can test this out for yourself. Take any event you’ve shared with others (a speech, a movie, a current event, a major problem) and ask your colleagues and friends to describe their interpretation of that event. I think you’ll be amazed at how many different explanations you’ll hear. Once you get a sense of diversity, try asking even more colleagues. You’ll end up with a rich tapestry of interpretations that are much more interesting than any single one.

This is what I love best about the photo-a-day challenge…I get to explore my own lenses and see what my friends and colleagues see through their lenses. And I know this openness and exploration helps me beyond photography…into my classroom, with my fellow educators, and out in the world.

Connected Wondering

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A friend of mine gave me two books the other day. One I have read all the way through and the other I have browsed through. They are alike…and they are 100% polar opposites. The first, more of a coffee table/picture heavy book is called A Lifetime of Secrets by Frank Warren. Warren invited people to send a secret to him on a postcard or in a letter that he curated as an art installation. They range from unthinkably horrible to silly, yet their arrangement and juxtaposition creates a powerful message. This idea of sending anonymous secrets on the back of postcards is an interesting one–and one, and one that people seem to get relief from the sending…and maybe relief in reading the anonymous secrets of others. Here’s a related website.

The other book is The Book of Awesome by Neil Pasricha. This is a collection of little things that make people happy…like when you find cash in your coat pocket or the grocery store opens up a new line just when you think the wait is endless. Each is written as short vignette–as short as a sentence or two to as long as a couple of pages. This book also has a related website where people can submit their own awesome moments (in 1000 words or less).

What strikes me about both of these pieces is the way people want to connect–even if it is anonymously. People seem to have an urge to know that those things that burden or delight them also resonate with others, that they are not alone. Like these water lilies I photographed today, tangled connections seem to help us as we live and grow.

So as my thinking often does, I came back to the classroom with my thoughts about these books. So how does the sharing of secrets and the sharing of awesome moments connect to the classroom? I’m thinking about all those little things we do in the classroom to establish a trusting, cooperative, and collaborative community. The ways we work to support each other in spite of our differences. And a lot of that happens through writing–just like it did in these books. Our writing uncovers our lives and lets others in. It exposes our interests and our fears, our hopes and our dreams.

In response to my thinking about establishing a genius hour in the classroom in yesterday’s post, another friend commented about her experience seeing “wondering walls” in classrooms where students wrote down their questions–those things they are wondering about. I’m already thinking about how a wondering wall might serve as an entry place for developing student-generated projects…and for encouraging students to use their classmates wonderings as springboards for their own. Would that be like Postsecrets and The Book of Awesome — a place to connect and learn from each other? A way to develop community and create collective interest as we pursue our individual wonderings? What do you think?

Spaces for Learning

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I’m seriously thinking about how to incorporate 20% time or a genius hour into my classroom this year. I want to create spaces for student-initiated learning.

The idea of passion-based learning–learning that students are motivated to do for their own reasons–appeals to me because of my experiences following my interests and passions as I learn. I’ve been known to tell people that I’m not a good students (in spite of my advanced degrees). That’s because I’m not particularly interested in doing other people’s assignments unless they are meaningful to me. And yet when I’m interested in something I pursue the topic relentlessly–uncovering information and testing and trying my own approximations as I learn. My photography is an example of passion-based learning.

And then I’m a teacher by profession. That means I give assignments to others to do. And a lot of the time my students do those assignments willingly and really do learn. But at other times they are resistant–for a variety of reasons–like me. And yet, I know that learning is deeper and lasting when it is personally meaningful. I have always worked to create meaningful learning opportunities for my students–and yet, I feel like I can still do better.

So how do I create time for self-initiated learning in a classroom full of kids? What structures will make this opportunity doable? What impact will this passion-based learning have on other learning in the classroom?

And how does being connected increase students’ learning? Can using their blogs amplify their learning experiences? What about opportunities to collaborate with other students in the classroom? Can we bring outside experts in using digital media?

I have a lot to think about and plan for before now and the beginning of the school year in less than a month. If you have ideas or have made this work in your context…please share!

Find Five Friday! Digital Tools

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Today’s post comes from Anna’s invitation at #clmooc to participate in Find Five Friday! (or maybe find five futures). I’ve had a week filled with digital tools…and thinking and conversation related to them. Here’s my curation of five (in no particular order):

iBooks Author

This tool came to light as I worked with a group to find an appropriate platform to serve the resource being developed at the NWP Resource Development Retreat. We wanted something skimmable, flexible enough to hold a variety of digital artifacts (video, pdf files, images, links,…), shareable, editable, and something that looks good. My colleague Beth was able to experiment with iBooks Author and create an early draft of the resource envisioned. Previewing it on the iPad showed it to have many of the features we were looking for. Were there glitches? Of course…and there is a learning curve (which I have not yet mastered!). My biggest disappointment is that you have to use a MAC computer to create with iBooks Author–it isn’t available for creation on the iPad–you can only read (be a consumer) there! I wanted to have my students use this tool. Anyone have other suggestions for a similar tool for use on an iPad?

Thinglink

If you’ve been on my blog before you know that I love iphoneography and love to use photos to convey information. Thinglink is a tool where photos can be tagged with other media including text, video, links… It includes an embed code so thinglinks can be included in other platforms…think Google Earth or your own blog! I learned about this at a CUE Rockstar training this week and then found this great resource from Richard Byrnes at Free Technology 4 Teachers. I’d love to know what you’ve done with this or similar tools!

iPhoneography editing tools guide by Nicole

This is another resource that I learned about at CUE Rockstar. (The presenters developed wonderful pages of linked resources associated with their sessions.) Nicole (who was not the presenter) has put together this amazing pinterest slideshow that highlights not only the tool she uses for editing her photos, but some of her thinking about why she wants to use the tool…and includes samples of her amazing photos. Thanks Vicky for pointing me to this!

Tagging and custom searches for student bloggers by Kevin and Bart

My work with Connected Learning and the clmooc this summer has pushed my thinking about my students’ blogs and how to help them connect with other students for meaningful comments not just from the adults in their lives, but from students all over the world. Bart had some ideas about tagging and embedding the classroom lessons that inspire the blog posts to help students from other places have some context for their responses and interactions. Kevin then suggested the idea of a custom search for student bloggers to connect with other student bloggers with similar interests. Brilliant! (Now to put this into action!)

Bee Bot and Tynker

I’ve been thinking about coding and how I might help my students think about the work behind the digital tools they use. I’d heard about lots of tools/games out there for students–Scratch from MIT and Gamestar Mechanic, for example. And I’d messed around a little… My students have iPads as their classroom device, so I really want to have something they can do with coding on the iPad. Today I learned about a few possibilities to try out. The first one surprised me–it is a little robot-like toy called Bee Bot (not for the iPad–just a little battery powered toy). This little bug can be programmed with up to 40 moves (like the arrow keys on the computer) and can make 90 degree turns. I can think of so many ways this little robot can introduce my students to the fundamentals of coding (and they can create their own games to review other concepts too!).

I also learned about Tynker. It’s not an iPad app–but since it doesn’t rely on flash it will play on the iPad. Tynker is very similar to Scratch with the linking blocks that students arrange to make their actors move on the screen. It’s set up for teachers–you create an account and can follow up on what students accomplish. I’ve only begun to experiment–but I’m excited about the possibilities. I love the way you can see sample projects–and look at the code (in interlocking blocks) behind it! I’d love to know if you have tried any of these tools–how did they work for you and/or your students?

I think that is already 6 (or 7) and I really want to include one more–Touchcast–an iPad app for making video with embedded real time apps (check out the little video link above). More on that to come!

What are your favorite digital tools? What are you currently exploring? How will you use them in the classroom? Teach with them?

Mini Book Review: The Boy Who Loved Math

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I’m always on the lookout for new books to use in my classroom. Not the ordinary books that are on display in every bookstore chain, but books written in interesting ways about interesting topics. A lot of the books I choose are non-fiction or based on true lives or true events.

I recently came across The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos, a biography of a mathematician from Hungary who died in 1996. I had never heard of Paul Erdos–and yet, he seems to be quite well known in math circles. Two of my favorite things about this short, rich picture book are the emphasis on Paul’s passion for math–I can’t imagine what his life would have been like if he had been born into a family that didn’t appreciate his single-minded passion for math!–and the illustrator’s ample and strategic use of math concepts and theories into the illustrations.

This is a book I will read many more times before I bring it into my classroom–and I know my students will pore over the illustrations once they get a chance to take a closer look. I’m already curious about harmonic primes and amicable numbers. I love when a picture book piques my learning!

$the boy who loved math$

What books have you come across that you can’t wait to share?

Does Design Matter? A Terminal Walk

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A week or so ago Bart over at the #clmooc shared this blog post about classroom design and it’s impact on teaching and learning. Yesterday I spent the day traveling from New York back home to San Diego and in the process spent time in three airport terminals.

Since I had a layover at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, I took the opportunity to take a short learning walk to give myself the opportunity to think about my experience through the photographs I took.

Airports are funny places. Institutional, highly regulated, and not terribly comfortable. The food is pricy—and not usually all that good, the restrooms are not as strategic as we would wish, and there are never enough plugs to recharge those electronics that are so necessary these days. And yet, as travelers we spend significant time in these places.

As I walked through the terminal I noticed the usual features—the Starbucks, the strategically placed trashcans, and the lettered and numbered gates.

And then I looked up. I noticed the green glass (or plastic or Plexiglas) on the ceiling. In some places the same design was yellow and others more of a tan color.

Down the main corridor looking up meant seeing flags from countries all over the work—and a world sculpture all under the latticed ceiling that lets natural light into the terminal.

I saw plenty of vehicles of the golf cart variety. Some were moving with flashing lights and beeping noises as they transported travelers who needed some extra help getting from gate to gate. I also found a place where three vehicles were parked…and loved watching the little boy “driving” the one with the awning.

The chairs designated for those with physical handicaps were red in this terminal. I did notice right away that they were different from the other chairs.

I also noticed some new, more unusual design features. There were the walls of plants on either side of a bank of chairs facing the windows. A closer look revealed that they hold potted plants arranged to fill both sides and the top so it looked much like a shrub. I also saw the interactive big screen game…challenging those who pass by to try to beat the latest fastest time.

These last two features remind me a bit of a hamster cage with the wheel for exercise or a fish bowl with the castle to make the glass bowl seem like an undersea world. They are still containers meant to keep the pets both healthy and restricted, but probably serve the pet owner more than the animal they hold. The plant wall and the interactive game don’t change the terminal experience, people are still contained inside the terminal building–and often experience boredom associated with waiting and waiting…

These props seem almost like bean bags in the classroom for reading. They make things a bit more comfortable, but don’t fundamentally change the experience of the space. Bart talked about the workbenches he wanted for his classroom–to shift the experience for learners from recipients of knowledge to makers as learners.

I’m thinking about the ways the design of spaces impact our actions, our feelings, our experiences. What are the implications for classrooms? For airport terminals? For living and learning?