The term full circle happened to me professionally when we had our book club meeting at my house last Tuesday. The circle started with me reading about the book on a blog, and I bought it. I then followed the #Allwrite tweets for two days and saw the book was mentioned. I tweeted to my friends who were there let's do a book club on my dock. Mary Lee and and Cathy at Reflect & Refine took me up on my offer and finally we met. Mary Lee was first to post at Year of Reading and she captured our book club so well that I "stole" her post about Making Learning Whole . I enjoyed how David Perkins connected the game of baseball with helping students learn to play the whole game. I echo all of her thinking especially the connections that I have made through twitter this summer. The past two days I was lucky to have lunch with my friends from school, and they don't follow twitter. I offered some advice and start with being a quiet observer for awhile and then all of a sudden your learning community will hit a grand slam! In addition, I've decided to build my own baseball field of learning so here are my key bases:
Home Plate: Teach today what learners will need to understand and act on tomorrow because tomorrow is a moving target. pg. 220
First Base: Making work visible- takes steps along the way and the final results need to be shared in order to make the game worth playing. p.180
Second Base: Aptitude is not the same things as attitude. pg. 70
Third Base: Part of the art is throwing out what is not so important yet, while leaving the general spirit and shape of the game intact. p.38
Thanks Mary Lee and Cathy I absolutely agree with your comments as well on Mary Lee's post -you two hit it out of park for me!!
In tribute to the game I love here is a small clip-enjoy!
One of my favorite parts of summer is having the time to take longer walks in the morning. As I walk, I listen to my iPod and today a Montgomery Gentry song "Something to be Proud Of" came on that I have probably heard this song a 100 times, but today I heard these lines differently:
There's a story that my daddy tells religiously
Like clockwork every time he sees an opening
In a conversation about the way things used to be
Well I'd just roll my eyes and make a bee-line for the door
But I'd always wind up starry-eyed, cross-legged on the floor
Hanging on to every word
Man, the things I heard
And I started reflecting on my classroom as I was walking, do I take advantage when I see an opening for a conversation or a quick mini lesson to clear up confusion? Or am I so set on my lesson plans to get through them that I just keep on teaching. I personally think I am better with the openings in the fall and even probably until Spring Break but once I get back and the TEST gets into my thinking I loose the openings. There is nothing better than after a conference and you hear a student tell their peer about a strategy that helped them or a new book title that I just shared.
On the other side, I wonder how many times when I am teaching do my students roll their eyes and wish they could make a bee line towards the door. I am currently reading Making Learning Whole by David Perkins and I am entranced with the thinking. He relates education to baseball connecting backyard ball ( the junior version) to the whole game (9 innings). I am only 5 chapters into the book but WOW the idea of pushing students towards the three overreaching themes: enlightenment, empowerment and responsibility are concepts that I am really focused on right now. As the summer continues, I am going to reflect and think about how I can have my students hang on my every word in the classroom.
