Learning is Change

Choices, Choices…

This is the first podcast in over a month because I needed to upgrade for more storage space. It is not an enhanced podcast, but I’m sure it will be illuminating nonetheless.

I was trying to figure out which content management system to use for The Academy of Discovery. I am still not sure if I picked the best one, but I am pretty confident that we are doing some great things. Check it out at http://academyofdiscovery.com.

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The Ripe Environment: It’s the content, stupid.

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It has taken me quite a while to figure out how to come back to The Ripe Environment with all of the things that I am doing within my school. It came to me when my students were finally ready to work with their blogs on authentic writing. I was struck by a question that I’m sure others would have considered long before: “Why use blogs vs. any other teaching tool (digital or analog)?” I have had a pretty decent answer for a long time, but it wasn’t mine. It was the pat answer that THE Journal came up with. It was for the reasons/purposes that Edublogs espouses. These aren’t good enough for me now.

For the Ripe Environment to exist, we have to have better (and more simple) reasons for doing what we do with technology. So, I was struck with the simplest of all reasons for using blogs in your classroom: It’s the content, stupid. (I believe this is the one and only time that my mind has blatantly stolen from Bill Clinton and his 1992 presidential campaign.)

The following is what I shared with my students after I shared my rather abrasive reasoning for blogging in the classroom.

That is why we use blogs to communicate, not because they are easy, not because they are more collaborative, it is simply because they let the content speak for itself. Without content you are nothing. Without great ideas there is no hope for the future. It is the content that matters, not the format. That is why we do blogs, to pull content up through the rss straw, roll it around in our mouth-like readers, tasting each smooth milkshake post and swallow it down, totally satisfying our desire to fill our bellies with content.

Now, content can be anything from stories to videos to embedded PowerPoint. The only crucial element of content is that you are proud enough of it to consider it yours. That means that content does not exist in an answer that was just done to get it over with. Content does not exist in the unrealized half-wonderings of a before school speed post. Content exists in thought-provoking ideas. It exists in well-worded prose or original poetry. Content is the torrent of inspiration that is created when authenticity is the goal, and you actually have the time to do something.

I actually wrote the preceding piece on my Palm Treo while I was eating cereal. I didn’t start writing it as a way of addressing The Ripe Environment, but this piece really gets at prerequisite number 6: Students and Educators should know that their products and ideas as valuable. If we are concerned with content, students will know that we genuinely care about what they express and teachers will know that their ideas will have some impact. If we focus too much on adding more features or tools to our toolkit, we will never get to the act of content creation. And that would be a very sad thing.

09.12.07

I am at a Digital Educator Meeting Today, but here are my substitute lesson plans: 091207.doc

09.11.07

Core 1:

  1. Share-on: Share with at least one other person what you have written about The Road Less Traveled and the concept of change.
  2. Introduce concept of thought exploration and Mind Mining: We are going to use a lot of paper and markers and ideas today. Today is going to be about producing the most ideas. We will worry about the best ideas later. You see, volume has its advantages sometimes. When you produce ideas voluminously, there is this thing that happens in your mind. You stop seeing boundaries and you start making connections. When you are constantly worried about getting a right answer, it is hard to see what isn’t obvious. We need to be able to say things that are divergent, that are connected but not not the same. Get into groups of four or five. Make sure that you are with people who you can work well with and not those who will distract you.
  • Brainstorm ideas about change and white down ALL responses.
    • What ideas come to mind when you think about change?
    • What kinds of things change? What is it about them that changes?
    • How do you know when something has changed? What evidence do you look for to determine whether a change has occurred?
  • Categorize the ideas that were written down, putting them into groups and giving each group a title.
    • How could you categorize these ideas into groups?
    • What could you call each group? Why?
    • Do all of your changes fall into groups? Might some of them belong in more than one group?
    • Is there a different way you might categorize your ideas? What other categories might you use?
    • What are some of the characteristics of change, based on the ideas you have written?
  • Brainstorm a list of things that do not change.
    • What are some things that do not change? What are some things that always seem the same or always happen the same way?
    • What evidence or proof do you have that these things do not change?
    • How might you group the things that do not change? What can you call each of these groups?
    • How are the groups of things that do not change similar to or different from the groups of things that do change?
    • Think about the following ideas whether they show change: routines or habits, rules and regulations, table manners, laws, customs of cultures. Explain your answers. If they show change, where would they fit into your categories of changes? If they do not, where would they fit into your categories of things that do not change?
  • Make generalizations about change.
    • A generalization is something that is always or almost always true. What generalizations can you make about change? Use your examples and categories to guide your thinking, and write several statements that are generalizations about change.
  • The Five Generalizations/Truths of change.
    • Change is linked to time.
      • How is change linked to time?
      • Are all changes linked to time in the same way?
      • How do some of the changes you listed relate to time?
    • Change may be positive or negative.
      • What is progress?
      • Does change always represent progress?
      • How might a change be thought of as both positive and negative?
    • Change may be perceived as orderly or random.
      • Can we predict change?
      • Select specific changes from your list, and describe which aspects of them can be predicted and which are unpredictable.
      • Even when we know a change will take place, can we always predict exactly how things will turn out?
    • Change is everywhere.
      • Does change apply to all areas of our world?
      • What are some specific changes which are universal, or happen everywhere, and some specific changes that may apply to only a small area at a given time?
    • Change may happen naturally or be caused by people.
      • What causes change?
      • What influence do people have over changes in nature?
      • What influence does nature have over the changes people intended?
  1. (Really Number 3) Extensions:
    • After all of our work with change today, answer the following question in your writer’s notebook or on your blog: How are change and persuasion related?

Core 2:

  1. Write-on: What are all of the purposes for writing that you can think of? And, how would you attack each one differently?
  2. Which genres fit into these purposes?
  3. Explore purposeful writing by starting with Sports Writing.
  4. What do you recognize as the format of the following sports writing:
  5. Extensions:
    • Read your AR book.

Core 3:

  1. Write-on: So far in The Lottery, would you say that the characters are realistic/believable (like real people)? Why or why not?
  2. Read the rest of The Lottery and answer questions on the handout.
  3. Discuss handout and other questions about The Lottery.
  4. Extensions:
    • What “Lotteries” do we have in our society and why do they exist?

Core 4:

  1. Show-on: Pull up (on the Smart Board) one piece that you found that you thought was authentic from last year.
  2. Explore and add to the Constantly Growing list of Authentic Writing Ideas.
  3. Extension
    • Attempt your first Academy Authentic.

09.07.07

Core 1:

  1. Write-On: What is the most difficult dichotomous choice (only two options) you have had to make in your life?
  2. Read The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
    • What do you notice in this poem?
    • Answer questions on theme and change (from handout).
    • Discuss poetry analysis, dichotomous choice, and change.
  3. Extension:
    • Answer the following question with supporting details from The Road Not Taken: What does this poem tell us about the idea of change?

Core 2:

  1. Write-on: Write the most simple sentence that you can think of that is still a sentence. Then write the most complex sentence that you can think of that is still a sentence.
  2. Share imponderables.
    • zebras.jpg
    • i-before-e.jpg
    • ice-cream.jpg
    • thongs.jpg
    • thongs2.jpg
  3. Continue reading “Thou Shalt Not Kill Thy Sentences.”
    • Take notes on types of sentences.
  4. Extensions:
    • Find a simple and a compound-complex sentence in a book (AR or otherwise) and bring it in for next Thursday.

Class Notes:

[flash http://s3.amazonaws.com/slideshare/ssplayer.swf?id=105271&doc=independent-dependent3100]

Core 3:

  1. Write on: How can you change/question tradition when everyone else seems to buy into it?
  2. Read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
    • Answer questions on theme and change (from handout).
    • Discuss the nature of this tradition, change, and choice.
  3. Extensions:
    • Answer in your notebook or on your blog: What lengths do we (in this American Society) go to in order to preserve our sense of tradition and society. (Categorize with 1940’s)

Core 4:

  1. Write-On: What is the most difficult dichotomous choice (only two options) you have had to make in your life?
  2. Share the best Authentic Writing Idea that you had with at least 4 other people.
  3. Read The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
    • What do you notice in this poem?
    • Answer questions on theme and change (from handout).
    • Discuss poetry analysis, dichotomous choice, and change.
  4. Extension:
    • Answer the following question with supporting details from The Road Not Taken: What does this poem tell us about the idea of change?

09.05.07

I was away at a district-wide Discovery Language Arts meeting today.

Here are my sub plans: 090507.doc

A moment from my student life…

 

I am sitting here in a professional development about inquiry in writing and I have been asked to write a small anecdote about my own school experience. Here it is:

My Cross pen is always, always by my side. Slipping it over the edge of my pocket feels grand. It is that extra insurance for everything I do. I will never be without an idea because the idea instrument exists. It is connected to me.

I will use it on mundane homework, the calculus equations that fit so perfectly on the page. But, its real work, the strokes it was meant to make are the ones in my titled notebooks.

I sit in the cubicles that look like a swastika, only because they are the quietest place I can find. I pen the prose that only my best friends will see. This pen is for me, just like the time. I own it, forgetting all other writing implements, all other worries.

I am a cross pen moving the page to meet my needs. I am the world of ideas, stroking ego and creating the colossal theories that outline my outlook, my personality.

09.04.07

Core 1-4:

  1. Discuss-on: Why do MAP results matter?
  2. Explore Lexile levels:
    1. Lexile Map
    2. Find a book database: put together a book bag and print it out.
  3. Today is the first day that AR tests are up and running. Here is the conversion to go from Lexile to AR level: reading-level-conversion-chart.doc

Core 1:

  1. What does it mean to write a post?
  2. Extensions:
    • Read your AR book.

Core 2:

  1. Share imponderables.
  2. Extensions:
    • Read your AR book.

Core 3:

  1. Go over Translations.
  2. Extensions:
    • Read your AR book.

Core 4:

  1. Discuss converting inauthentic prompts to authentic topics.
  2. Extensions:
    • Read your AR book.