Tag 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)!

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?

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?

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?

Fireflies

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Like tiny fireworks, sparks of light danced along the pathway as I took an evening walk the other day. Fireflies!

If you’re from the Midwest, you’re probably thinking, “What’s the big deal? We have fireflies every summer.” But for a southern California native—a place where we don’t have fireflies, the opportunity to enjoy this natural spectacle is magical.

I’ve heard all the stories of childhood firefly wonders. And the affection that those who know fireflies have for these gentle, easy to catch insects. I was surprised when I first saw them up-close, they aren’t so magical or elegant when they aren’t glowing. They are more of the sturdy, ordinary bug variety. But when they do their thing…I am mesmerized!

http://news.discovery.com/animals/videos/why-tell-me-why-fireflies.htm

I love the way something so seemingly ordinary can also be magical. I think of my students that way too. It’s easy to clump students together in categories. There are the ones who are slow to start, there’s the ones who race through every task without much thought or care, there are those who spend their time in their own daydreams, and those that never stop moving.

But watch carefully, create spaces for inquiry and imagination and play, and we all might just see those sparks of light…that magical natural spectacle…learning!

Learning Walk: a Photo Essay

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I made time for a learning walk this morning, just a 30 minute or so ramble up the paths around this conference center in the woods. For me a learning walk is a quiet introspective time for noticing the world around me. I find that in addition to looking for interesting images to capture with my iPhone, I am more attuned to sounds during a learning walk. This morning’s walk in the warm, but not too warm sun of Westchester, New York was accompanied by a symphony of birds as they called to one another and flitted through the leaves and branches of the plentiful trees. The backbeat percussion was provided by the hum of cicadas. Occasional scurrying sounds suggested that I was not alone on my walk.

As I headed up the hill I noticed this rustic chimney on a building along side the path. I went around the other side hoping to find a beautiful old building, but really, the chimney was the outstanding feature. I noticed a sign pointing the direction of the tree house. A tree house? I was intrigued and continued my walk.

This isn’t my definition of a tree house. Looks more like a conference building near trees–not stunning or particularly interesting. But…I took a few minutes to sit on a picnic bench and attach my macro lens to my phone and then set off to explore some of the plant life.

I love the texture of this thistly plant…and its spiky stem and leaves. But this week is orange in my photo-a-day challenge, so while I was drawn to this beautiful purplish-pink I continued to look for examples of orange.

I discovered that these berries that I had seen as red, had a stage where orange was prominent. And I love the hint of orange highlights on this berry!

As I looped around the tree house to head back I noticed some other buildings and happened on this interesting little building…with a rusty orange stovepipe!

I backtracked the way I had come, noticing things I had missed on my way up. A tree stump with a hole. I wonder what might live in there?

I also wondered if there were storms here in the winter. These roots from a very large tree are facing up instead of anchoring the tree in the ground.

I came across this clearing…a surprise opening in the otherwise moderately dense woods. I wonder why this space is open? Does it have a use? Is it a pasture of some sort? It looks freshly mowed.

I returned to the conference center with lots of interesting things to think about. I love taking the time to notice and wonder. It’s a great way to explore a new place and also to allow for re-seeing someplace you already know. For me, the photography aspect keeps me from turning my learning walk into a work-out, speeding by without taking the time to stop and notice something that catches my eye…or ear. I saw so much more than I captured with my camera…the elegant white moths that fluttered around the plants, the way the sky looked through the trees, the tiny white flowers that were enough off the path that I didn’t venture through the brush in my flip flops.

I want to provide time for my students to take some learning walks this year. We might take our ipads and do some photography. Or we might take our sketch pads and stop to capture our noticings that way. We might even head out with our writer’s notebooks. Whichever tool we choose, the important part of the process is taking the time to notice…and then taking the time to think and reflect to make sense of the experience once we return. I hope to share some of our class learning walks when school starts in the fall.

I invite you to try a learning walk. I’d love to know what you notice and learn along the way.

Can We Crowdsource Equity?

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I’ve been thinking about photography and the power of images to influence perceptions…and to change actions. Litterati came to my attention earlier this month–a movement that encourages people to photograph litter they find, clean the litter up, and post the photo on social media with the hashtag #litterati. I love the idea! And I also love the way that so many of the photographs that people post are so beautiful! My friend Janis took this amazing photo of an abandoned yellow bucket…and some others including one of a Starbucks cup today on the ground nestled in some orange tulip tree blossoms. As I admire the beauty of her photography, I also think about the impact of the trash and I become more aware of the trash around me.

And then Mia over at the #clmooc posted this video about the Landfill Harmonic where a music teacher, a garbage picker, and children from a Paraguayan slum make musical instruments from trash in the landfill, and then work to create a better life for the children who play beautiful music on these instruments.

This morning a tweet about a TED talk caught my eye. The Silent Drama of Photography.

I listened to Sebastiao Salgado to tell his story about his obsession with photography as he captured the devastation of war and death and destruction–to the point where doctors told him that his photography was killing him. He turned away from photography and returned to Brazil, his homeland, and decided to work to restore the rainforest that was lost to human encroachment by planting native trees and plants–and giving his family’s ranch to the country as a nature preserve. Through this work he found his love of photography again and changed his focus from photographing humans to photographing nature, capturing the beauty of the land reclaimed.

I find myself considering the question Janis asks in her post about the abandoned yellow bucket…how can we, as educators and those who care about the education of our young people, use photos to bring attention to the “litter” in education–all those practices that stamp out the passion for learning and treat students as cogs in a learning machine–to allow spaces for creativity, critical thinking, and pure joy of learning? To allow all students this access, regardless of socioeconomic status, skin color, language background, and test scores. Can we use photography as a way to crowdsource awareness towards equity in education?

Dandelions: A Photo Essay

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Dandelions fascinate me. These pesky plants, often referred to as weeds, are hearty, resilient, and strong and at the same time delicate, graceful, and intricate. During the winter I had the chance to watch a dandelion transform through its growth phases. It somehow ended up thriving in an abandoned planter in my front yard—one of those spaces where I always have plans to have something beautiful grow—but lack of consistent watering and attention seem to spell doom for whatever I purposely plant there. We’d about given up on the planter, planning to relegate it to the back yard where it wouldn’t be such an eyesore—its been just a planter of dirt for some time–when I noticed a dandelion flower blooming bright and yellow seemingly oblivious to the neglect of this newfound home. I grabbed my macro lens for my iphone and worked to capture that sunny globe.

Each day as I arrived home from work, before the daylight had dimmed, I noticed another phase of the dandelion’s life and attempted to capture it with my macro lens. I love the way the macro forces me to slow my breathing, lean in close, and look carefully. Steadiness is paramount to a successful photo—and I find myself angling the lens this way and that as I work to achieve the optimal focus on some aspect of my subject.

As the dandelion turned from yellow flower to white fluffball, I realize how little thought I had really given to these two very different versions of the same plant. Like so many people I had played with these “weeds” as a child, picking these little fluffballs and blowing while I made wishes, never considering that I was in fact helping their cause as those pieces of fluff, each with a seed, attaches floated to a new home.

I got closer still and worked to capture what happened day by day as the dandelion naturally progressed. And that’s when my view of dandelions was forever transformed.

I became obsessed with taking pictures of dandelions…in all their states. And I began seeing what had once been ordinary in new and extraordinary ways.

Instead of my “go about my business without paying too much attention to the little things” stance, I suddenly had a caterpillar’s eye view, which opened up new ways of seeing.

So my takeaway…look closely and pay attention to the ordinary, searching for the hidden beauty. I feel like that’s also a lesson to heed even without my iphone in my hand. In my classroom and in my work with teachers I also need to search for the hidden beauty masked by the ordinary–that’s where the treasures lie. What treasures are hiding from you?