Monday, November 24, 2014

The "Power of Habit" and working in schools

Every day we react.  We react in the way we were taught, programmed, advised, mentored, parented, etc.

Our reactions have become a habit.

I recently was reading this:


 Then again came across this podcast about habit.  Learn more about habit here.

But do we ever analyze the way we react?

Have we even thought about whether we'd react the same way if we were given new opportunities?

Imagine this:

A kid is misbehaving in class.

The kids misbehaving are the stimulus.  The black box, being the thought process happening in our brain based on habit.  This leads to a response

That stimulus typically leads to a response from the teacher.  The teacher can:
  • discipline the student
  • reteach expectations
  • redirect the students
  • ignore the stimulus
  • send the student out of the class
  • etc.
But what if........

What if we imagined a different school?  What if we projected how they might behave, what their responses might be?  What if we taught differently? What if we thought differently...

Imagine the staff of "THE SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE" (I know cheesy).

But how would the teachers at that school respond to stimulus?
If we can examine the habits we have, we may be able to analyze possible solutions and the adjacent possible solutions that impact our kids.

What we do an how quick we react impacts students.

Take some time to list stimuli that happen today, how did you react to it?  Would the staff of this fictional school react differently?

Time to form some new habits....

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Time well spent?

I am an amazingly productive person.  I pride myself in being to do more with a minute than most people can do with an hour.  I have leveraged a TON of resources to be more productive in a given day.  But yet, there's still something wrong.

I'm struggling with how I use my time.  I hate to admit it but it's true.  I'm not sure I'm doing the best I can.

About a year ago I wrote this post about balance.  I still think I'm a work in progress.

I turn to this space for a number of reasons:
1.  It's an opportunity to reflect.
2.  I know I'll get creative solutions.
3.  I know those of you that read this have something to give and are willing to give it.

I ran across this today that prompted this post:

So here are my priorities:

  1. Family
  2. Friends
  3. Webster Groves (where I work)
  4. ConnectED Learning (the company I started)
  5. Social media
  6. Reading books
  7. Reading blog posts (listening to podcasts)
  8. Religious obligations (church on Sunday, etc.)
  9. Working out
Here is how a day is typically structured:

Where are my opportunities for growth?  

Where can I be challenged to do/think differently?

If I were to base my priorities on where I spend my time, it would be:
  1. Webster Groves
  2. Family
  3. Social Media
  4. ConnectED Learning
  5. Reading blog posts (listening to podcasts) *typically do this while driving
  6. Reading books
  7. Religious obligations
  8. Working out
  9. Friends
What do you do?  How do you maximize and optimize your life? What does your day look like?

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Thinking about Experiential Learning

Great commentary from Grant Wiggins today I wanted to share.  It made me think of the conversations we’ve been having in social studies about content.

Grant shares:

"Student members of the Young Americans for Freedom at a school in Rome, Ga., marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany with a re-enactment at their school. They knocked down a graffiti-covered, 12-foot-long wall made from wood for the dramatization. "It is great to see them internalizing the lessons of history and exhibiting the power of freedom," said Brad Poston, history department chair.”

This is a great step in the right direction, can you imagine how powerful that experience was, see the image here?  Too often we think of history as words on a page and events on a timeline.  We can bring those events to life for our kids!

Also this event above is fun, the learning that happens before and after the event makes it closer to “Experiential”  Here’s a great resource on Experiential learning: http://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/experiential-learning/

When you’re planning your next history unit, consider the lessons/activities/conversations kids are having with these questions:
• What are you doing?
• Why are you doing it?

• What does this help you do that’s important?