What happens when you:

Allow students to determine what they need to learn, and then enable students to manage their own learning activities?

I recently started a wiki space for my Grade 8 Science classes called Science Alive!

The concept is to let students choose their own topic to explore, and then demonstrate learning on all the levels of Blooms Revised Taxonomy.

It has been exciting starting this project... and scary too!

I have been developing a rather critical blog post, looking at my own attempt at creating and using this wiki in my class. I have told myself time and again that I have bitten off more than I can chew, and that I am expecting too much from my Grade 8's. 

I asked my students to 'start' looking into their chosen subjects this weekend. Before dinner tonight (Sunday Night) I checked the 'Recent History' of Science Alive and saw no changes for the weekend other than one on Friday afternoon.  I have to admit to being disappointed. 

Well I just came back (at 9pm) and I got to meet Joyce.

So, what happens when you:

Allow students to determine what they need to learn, and then enable students to manage their own learning activities?**

Have a look at what Katie and Sara did this weekend:  Meet Joyce.

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(**See the Instructional Stategy Development section in this Bonnie Skaalid paper.)

A well-known scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise."
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?"
"You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

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Yesterday, I was in a meeting with a parent and one of my students, (why do teachers have parent meetings about a teenage student's education and not have the student there too?)

The parent observantly noted that although her son could be physically in a room, he could often 'disconnect' and be elsewhere in his mind. For him to be more successful, he would need to engage more in what was going on. I told him, with all honesty, that I too had that problem to the point that my parents worried that I might have been on drugs (I wasn't). It took until my Grade 13 year (Ontario, Canada) to recognize that I needed to be a participant in the classroom in order to 'stay connected'.

As I was talking my student interrupted and said, "I just had a flash of insight, I'm a mop not a sponge!"

He got it! And today he proved it. He was a fully engaged participant in my Math lesson. I can hear myself in upcoming classes, "Remember to be the mop".

"Metaphors may create realities for us, especially social relations. A metaphor may thus be the guide for future actions." George Lakoff & Mark Johnson "The more we understand metaphor, the more we understand ourselves." Dan Pink

We try to get 'all the way down' to the bottom of things when really what we need is insight into things. [Uhhhg! A perfect case-in-point: I just finished deleting an overdone, unnecessary paragraph describing this.]

We don't need to 'fix' as much as we need to understand... (deeply, not literally).

We must dance to the music, not count the bars, or get to the final note.

Metaphors are the foundation of our thoughts. They assemble ideas, they construct meaning, they build understanding. They create learning.

Metaphors teach.

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Some Metaphor Resources:

Tick-Tack-Treat (This leadership lesson plan is a favorite from my retreat!)
This includes an introduction to the use of Metaphors and Stories in Leadership Education taken from my Masters Paper.

Teaching Metaphors : Great stories that warm the heart, and teach the soul.

My del.icio.us tagged with 'metaphor'.

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Credits: Turtles all the way down, story and image are from Wikipedia. 'Magic mop' image by Chris Hogg on Flickr. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson quote, 'Metaphors We Live By', University of Chicago Press, 1980, pg. 156. Dan Pink quote, 'A Whole New Mind', Penguin Group, 2006, pg. 140. 'We must dance to the music' video link written by Alan Watt.

My most recent post, "I'm a mop not a sponge" , highlighted a metaphorical epiphany that one of my students had about his learning style. This post will look at metaphors I have found on my journeys through the blogosphere since then.

2 rules to my quest: 1. The post title must contain a metaphor. 2. The meaning behind the metaphor has to be worthy of quoting/highlighting/linking to.

I'll start with Lynn losing her glasses. Her Optical Powercut gave her a new perspective on things:

So, what have I learnt? That it’s good to look at things differently sometimes and everyone is much thinner than I thought!!

I think sometimes even 'rose coloured glasses' can impair our view of contrasting colours... and ideas!

Moving outward from personal 'insight', Carolyn examines classrooms with glass walls , she wonders about the safety of 'open' classrooms, but candidly admits,

One of the debates I’ve been having recently has to do with the publicness of learning through 2.0 tools like blogs. Don’t get me wrong. As someone who’s been blogging for almost nine years, and has a dozen different status messages broadcasting my moods & motions 24/7, I’ve set the bar low when it comes to my own privacy.

So we make ourselves 'open books' but justifiably worry about how 'open' our classrooms have become.

From our classrooms, Pete tells us about our children, The Wolves of Learning,

Our natural curiosity is like a wild animal; it hunts where it needs to in order to satisfy its deep hunger. As children, we awaken each day with an insatiable appetite to learn. It is in our early years that we are “wolves of learning”. There is a deep, DNA-based, natural connection between learning and survival; call it the burning relevance of the empty stomach.

Pete states that institutionalized learning has tamed, "The wildness of our natural curiosity..." and concludes very powerfully,

Let us find ways to give our children back their birthright, their natural curiosity and facility to learn. There have to be ways that we can organize our learning institutions to accommodate individual curiosity and the standardized curriculum. I believe that thoughtful educators can create environments that are less restrictive and provide much more natural habitat for learning. Let us find ways to foster the wildness and thrill of learning again. Let us answer the “Call of the Wild”.

This reminds me so much of the many links I provide in my metaphorically titled Square Peg, Round Hole post, which -each in their own way- comment rather eloquently on the misgivings of our schools... (Note Warlick's Alien World and the very appropriate Animal School for other meaningful metaphors on this topic.)

And finally on a larger scale Miss Profe notes, in What Really Makes the World Flat, where the most meaningful 'bridges' can be made,

Global bridges are important and necessary. But, what about the bridges that can be built between, say, a suburban school and an urban school within the same community? What about making connections between people who can have a real impact on each other and who may be dealing with similar issues? We can visit and meet face-to-face, and see how mutual suggestions are benefiting each other. One does not need a blog or a wiki to do that.

This reminds me of one of my favorite metaphors I use with students, John Heider's interpretation of Lao Tzu's Ripple Effect found in The Tao of Leadership. Our ripples of influence may be far-reaching, but often our greatest influence can be closest to us, where our ripple can be felt most. Miss Profe concludes,

Developing a deeper understanding of one’s community and the people who live there can provide a transformative learning opportunity for students, and in the process, lead to a flatter world in the most profound sense. As we like to say, learning is messy, and there is nothing messier than connecting with The Other within one’s own backyard.

Although I agree with Miss Profe, and value her focus on impacting our own personal communities, I also think that our digital world has made it much easier to have an incredible impact on a global scale.

The world isn't so much 'flat' as it is woven.

...and as I have said before, metaphors teach.

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Images: Glow by Steve Crane, bifocal by miss oddgers (Karen Rodgers), Celstial Artillery by jpstanley (Jeremy Stanley), Thanks All, you are my favorites by f2g2 (Florian), Divided we fall by mafleen (Kate Robison),  Creative Commons by ocean.flynn (maureen Flynn-Burhoe), and CBC 'Spring Carnival' detail by Velma's World (Velma Belchik).

 

 

 
I thought I was going to spend the long weekend reading my book for our book club, but I had a Whole New challenge instead: Putting together a million piece puzzle for my kids to play on in our back yard.... swings, monkey bars, slide, fort, climbing wall, and picnic bench all neatly packed in boxes Ikea style... 'some' assembly required!

Today I was back at school and boy has reality hit! Tomorrow morning our Grade 8 team has to get the ball rolling for our yearly Renaissance Fair (coming in May); Tomorrow at lunch I start training a Leadership Crew to run a Grade 5 leadership retreat/afternoon at our feeder schools; Some time in the next two weeks I have to set up an afternoon to introduce this program to other middle school leadership teachers/admin; I am running a Pro-D session on 'Starting Your Own Blog' a week from Saturday and I still have a number of hours work to do to set things up; I have a sleepover fundraiser at the school in just over two weeks; and my kids are in musical theatre plays (playing at alternating performances) this Thursday & Friday night as well as two shows Saturday... yikes!

 

 

 

And then there is my class Science Alive! wiki. As I said in a comment earlier this week, "I think that I am guilty of seeing the value of using technology in guiding learning, but not effectively guiding learning in my technology use."

I have done a pretty good job of getting my students going... but now as momentum builds I have come to the realization that I don't have a marking rubric to guide me, or my students, as we move towards a final product.

My class is assembling a lego model without the instructions, or even the image of the final product on the front of the box. This isn't a problem for the creative/motivated students; they will assembly a better model in ways that I could never have 'instructed' them... but some students need structure, they have been fed it for years and expect it (even from yours truly - this isn't finger pointing, it is observation).

I let technology supersede pedagogy. 

On the bright side, I am a teacher in my 9th year and I'm loving the vitality and enthusiasm my attempts at a 2.0 Classroom have given me. So what if I am out of my comfort zone, as are some of my students. So what if learning is messy. Of course my approach will be more pedagogically sound next time... but as I start putting all the pieces together, I have come to the realization that some things are worth doing... even if some assembly is required! 

Feedback and suggestions for the wiki are invited... 

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Images: 050724006lego05 & 050724007lego06 by quadrapop on flickr.

Read and comment on this post at the new Pair-a-Dimes location here: http://pairadimes.davidtruss.com/a-giant-teaches-me-about-success/

I've been tagged with a “what are your secrets to a successful life” meme by Kelly Christopherson. To be honest, I was dreading being tagged by a meme... I knew it was going to come eventually, but my writing process, my flow, seldom lends itself to creating lists... they are too linear for my big picture-right brained thinking process, and they often come out very contrived. However, Kelly dedicated his post to his Grandmother, and this reminded my of a special list related to this topic that I have already written.

So I dedicate this post, (my portion of my Papa's eulogy), to my grandfather, Leon Bernstein, March 24th, 1924 - December 4th, 2000. He really is the best role model for success that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

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Papa B. is a Giant!

    Like many of you, I know this because he told me so.
Papa wasn’t boasting when he said this, he was just
telling you the way it is. If you were to measure a
man by the legacy he leaves behind Papa would come as
big as they get. In this way he is still a giant and
always will be.

    Five children, 13 grandchildren, and a growing number
of great grandchildren, currently at 5 and a half,
make quite a legacy for Papa and Granny. Papa called
his great grandkids his Third Crop. Just on Sunday he
told me, "Boy, if I knew my Third Crop was going to be
this much fun, I would have had them first."

    We all miss Leon Bernstein, Mr. B., Dad, or Papa. But
our lives are so much richer from knowing him. Like
many of you here, I never really thought of living
without him in my life before now. Yet, I feel sorry
not so much for us, but for his Third Crop, for my
daughter, who will not get to know him. I speak to you
today to share with you some of the wisdom Papa has
taught me: some wisdom that needs to be passed on to
Papa’s Third Crop.

    So here are some lessons or rules that Papa lived by,
rules that made him the Giant we all know.

Rule #1
"Don’t wait for it to completely break before you fix it."
    Papa would walk into your house and see a loose tile
in the kitchen. Two days later, he would show up with
his tools and mend it before it became a problem.
There is an old saying that says, "Kill a snake when
it is small". Papa never had to deal with large
snakes.


Rule #2
"Stuff happens, just move on."
    Papa never dwelled on bad things, he would just move
on and, "Call that Wally". I can not remember Papa
being mad for more than five minutes. He knew there
were much more important things to focus on. Like his
favorite sports team, or making sure everyone saw the
beautiful sunset from his balcony. Or just playing
with his grand and great grand children.

Rule #3
"Don’t waste time on stupidness."
    This rule could also be called, "I look stupid to
you?" or the "What de-yass is dat?" rule. Papa didn’t
have time for stupidity. On this topic, Papa was very
expressive. He always used his time and never wasted
it. On the same note, Papa was always fixing things
and if there was a smarter way to do things, or a
short-cut to use, Papa found it. It was usually just
after one of his time saving discoveries that Papa
beamed, and would say, "Man, Papa is a Giant!"

Rule #4
"Enjoy everything you have."
    For Papa, nothing was too small to be appreciated. He
made it an art to celebrate the little things in life.
From his morning coffee and jumble puzzle to a
handmade birthday card from a grandchild, Papa
appreciated all that life had to offer.

Rule #5
"Business is business and pleasure is pleasure."
    Papa had the amazing ability to put on and take off
his business cap. He never mixed the two. He had the
knack of being small town friendly and big business
savvy without ever letting one get in the way of the
other.

Rule #6
"Be small town friendly."
    I remember going to a shopping plaza early one
morning with Papa. A woman walked pass us as we got
out of the car and she said, "Good morning". Papa
replied, "Good morning," and then said, "You’re from
the islands." The woman stopped and looked up oddly at
Papa wanting to know why he thought she was from the
islands? Papa replied, "Because you said good morning,
in a big city like this, people don’t talk to
strangers in parking lots". Turns out she was from
Trinidad. Papa loved to get to know people. From a
sales clerk, to a door attendant, to a doctor, to a
President, Papa was a magnet that people could not
help but be drawn to.

Rule #7
"Never retire."
    This is what kept Papa young and fun. He didn’t
retire…He became a tiler, a carpenter, a chauffeur, a
landlord, a banker, a fund-raiser, a board member, a
baseball coach, a plumber, a jack of all trades. He
continued to learn and to grow. He did all this
without spreading himself too thin. He did all this
keeping his family a priority, after all his main job
was as a loving husband, father, grandfather, great
grandfather, and a true friend.

Rule #8
"Smile…a lot."
    With us, his second crop, and his third crop too,
Papa could often be found, laying down on the carpet
with kids playing on and around him. His smile would
light you up. He would nap on the floor in a crowded
room, wake up and pretend to be mad for 10 seconds or
so because his grandchildren put hair ties and clips
on him. We would laugh and then you would see a glint
in Papa’s eyes and a smile that was contagious. Papa
was happiest around family and that happiness was
contagious too.

Rule #9
"Take care of your family."
    If I had to rank these rules, this would be number 1
with Papa. From fixing your toilet, to helping you at
the bank Papa was always looking out for you. As I
look around this room, I think I’d be hard pressed to
find a single person that he didn’t do more for than
they did for him. When it comes to family and friends,
he is the best role model anyone could have.

Rule #10
Always remember… "Papa is a Giant!"
   

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Papa B's "Crop", July 2007. His third crop count is now 10... and will continue to grow.

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I am only going to tag one person with this meme, my new voice #7 of 7: Dave Maclean. He is a new administrator that I had the pleasure of working with when he was a teacher at my school. Dave is always learning and changing his practice. He is fearless when it comes to trying to integrate and adapt new ideas into his role as an educator. Read his thoughtful post, "Teach to Respect and Students will "Police" Themselves".

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Check out our book club wiki that Kelly set up. Our first book is Dan Pink's Whole New Mind. 

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Do you have a special Life Lesson, Rule, or Secret to Success that was passed on to you by a parent or grandparent? Share it with me...

Here is the write-up for the 2 hour Professional Development seminar that I ran today for 9 dedicated teachers who showed up on a sunny Saturday, after a full day of Pro-D on Friday.

Start Your Own Blog
A practical session that will introduce you to blogging.
You will see how others use their blogs and you will get a chance to create your own blog.
You will also learn just how easy it is to create links, add pictures and even movies to your blog.
Also, you will learn a bit about web2.0 and very easy to use tools that make your time on the web faster and friendlier.

Start Your Own Blog on Edublogs Wiki on Wikispaces

& a blog post with instructions on how to hyperlink, embed images and videos, as well as tag a post on edublogs,

Making a Splash with Your First Post

I did my best to make these resources that could be: a) used by others to structure their own Pro-D sessions; and b) used as a self help tutorial.

... any feedback would be appreciated.

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 The session went very well with the teacher participants asking great questions and showing enthusiasm. Overall, I spent too much time talking about the tools, and didn't get onto creating their blogs until we were rushing against time. Feedback from one participant was that we should build the blog first, then talk about the tools- an excellent idea, and I will change the wiki sometime soon (well, not too soon, I've spent enough of my life collecting resources and building these tools over the last couple weeks!)

The power of WE: Special thanks goes to a few people who saved me hours of time by helping me out, and by having great resources already built, so that I didn't have to create them myself.

• Kris (Wandering Ink) for helping me find worthy links for my example page: A variety of bloggers, blogging mostly about blogs and blogging. Kris also edited my 'Making a Splash' post. I hadn't published it yet so I threw it into a Google Document, where she edited it. We chatted on MSN throughout and then I cut-and-pasted the edited sections back into my post. It was easy to do - especially with our dialogue via chat. A teacher and a former student collaborating, (late on a Friday night), to create a tool for teachers, in a way that was impossible not too long ago... very cool!

• Cool Cat Teacher Vicki Davis for 10 Habbits of bloggers that win and How to comment like a king (or queen)... both great posts!

• Mike Temple for his blog Edublog Tutorials. This blog linked to another great resource: MSU (Michigan State University) video tutorial. Mike has done a great job with this blog!

Thank you to these people, and all the wonderful people that I linked to in on the wiki.  

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 Personal Reflections:

-This was the first time I tried to do technology based professional development, beyond introducing a few tools to my staff, and I am happy with how things went.

-We only had about 1:45 minutes and this would be a great 3 hour Pro-D. A typical teacher blunder when trying something out of your comfort zone... pack too much in!

-As a mac user, I need to be a little more familiar with a pc lab. 

-I really should have them make their blogs first, as was suggested.

-I only got the e-mail address of 4 of the participants and none of their new blog addresses- I'll have to hunt these down for a feed I created. I think this is a good idea to offer support and community for new bloggers, and I should make the collection of this information more formal.

* I invite feedback on the Start Your Own Blog tools... and I hope that others will find them useful!

Thanks, 

Dave. 

Prelude
Two Brothers, Craig and Marc Kielburger, are my modern day heroes.
Tonight Marc is having dinner with Oprah Winfrey. The brothers' US office is hosted by Oprah. They have had an audience with Mother Teresa. They have been featured on Oprah, CNN, CBC, BBC, and 60 Minutes. They are sought after speakers that have shared the podium a number of times with former U.S. president Bill Clinton, as well as with such world renowned leaders as Nelson Mandela, Queen Noor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama.
But that is not why they are heroes to me.

Take the fame (and the accolades mentioned below) away, and they are still my heroes: Two brothers under 30 years old. Many of their accomplishments began when they were well under 20. In fact, they began to change the world when they were 11 and 13 years of age.

Craig and Marc are the founders of Me to We and Free the Children, the largest organization in the world of children helping children. They inspire kids to "Be the Change", to make a meaningful difference in the world... and their army of inspired kids have benefited over 1/2 a million needy people in the world... WOW!

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Helping Others
I heard Marc speak (for the second time) on Friday. After his talk, he spoke with students and teachers from our school. Our Me to We club is raising money for Free the Children. Under the direction of a teacher, Sarah, our students have raised over $9,000 so far. My 24 Hour Famine/Sleep-Over at the school will raise another 2-3 thousand, and yet another teacher Chris will make at least that much with Freezie sales as the weather warms up.

Last year we bought goats to give families an income and thus help students go to school. This year we are raising money to build a school in Sierra Leone. Sarah wanted to raise between 10 and 15 thousand. Thanks to countless students, their families and all of our staff, it looks like we will surpass that!

In the service of others we learn meaningful lessons ourselves. Mark spoke of developing empathy in kids. In so doing, he wondered if standardized testing 'taught' our kids anything meaningful? When do they learn about empathy and love?

They learn this from being in the servicing of others. Listening to Marc, a true hero, has taught me something very valuable.

Helping Me, and My Family
Every night when I put my kids to bed I ask them a question... "What was your favorite part of the day?" My kids will often offer up a list. My oldest daughter is very compassionate, she makes an effort to mention at least one event in which my wife or I are in one of her favorite parts of the day. My younger daughter meanders a bit... she is still learning... sometimes she has a list, sometimes her favorite is tempered with, "But you know what I didn't like about today?"

When I heard Mark speak, I wondered about another question I have stopped asking: "What did you learn today?" I also thought of the question my friend Mike asks his (older) kids: "What questions did you ask today?" ... this is a better question than 'what did you learn?', but not one that inspires meaningful answers from my Grade 2 child... even less from my preschooler. After listening to mark, I decided on a new question:

"Who did you help today?"

It is simple. It inspires empathy. It shows what we truly value... and I look forward to the day when my daughters 'favorite part of the day' is also the answer to 'who did you help today'.

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My Heroes

Thanks for the inspiration Mark!

Please take the time to find out more about my heroes. Or better yet, GET INVOLVED !

Marc is a Harvard graduate and Rhodes Scholar, who graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. He, "has been recognized for his vision and leadership with Canada's Top 40 Under 40 award and has received an Ashoka Fellowship for his innovation and commitment to social change. He is the youngest person ever to be awarded the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship and is the recipient of an honorary doctorate of education from Nipissing University for his work in leadership development. Marc has been honoured as a 2007 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum."

Craig "has received many awards for his work, including the Nelson Mandela Human Rights Award, the World Economic Forum GLT Award, the Roosevelt Freedom Medal, the Governor General’s Medal of Meritorious Service, the Human Rights Award from the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations and the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child, also known as the Children’s Nobel Prize." Oh, and Craig is also a 2002 and 2003 Nobel Peace Prize nominee. He is a Megastar. (Read this last link to learn about Craig's inspiration, and a hero in his own right, Iqbal Masih 1982-1995.)

Free the Children has recently been awarded one of ten Million-Dollar Awards from the Skoll Foundation.

 

 

 

...more on Empathy. 

Friday night I camped out at the school with 49 students, each raising a minimum of $50- to earn the opportunity to sleep over at the school. We hosted a 24 hour famine to raise money for our Me to We Club... we are fundraising to build a school in Sierra Leone.

It was fun, and it was exhausting! Three and a half hours of broken sleep... and totally worth it! Some things didn't quite go as planned, but overall it was a huge success. I've done many 30 Hour Famine's for World Vision, but this year I wanted the fundraiser to coincide with our school goal of $15,000.00 to build and help supply the Sierra Leone school. The famine itself is a great way to give the students an experience that many kids around the world are 'inflicted' with: Hunger!

So, I could go on about the kids that snuck junk food in, and indulged... or how these same girls were disrespectful to the female teacher that helped me out, (something I still have to follow up on Monday), but instead, I want to highlight empathy and compassion.  So, enjoy a few tales of the next generation doing good.

Callie: She didn't collect any money. I saw her leaving the school on Friday and said to her, "I thought this would be something that you would want to do?" Her response: "I wanted to Mr. Truss but I just couldn't ask anyone else for money." You see, we just finished a fundraiser selling boxes of chocolate bars - 15 bars in a box, $30 a box. My class sold 16 boxes, Callie on her own sold 22. I gave her a permission slip and where it said 'you must collect a minimum of $50-' I added "^ or sell 22 boxes of chocolates... Wow!" You should have been there to see the smile on her face. 

Reed: (He sold two boxes of chocolates) "Mr. Truss,  I can't ask anyone else for a donation, I'm just going to donate $50 myself so that I can come. I can afford it." He ended up donating $85... basically he got $35 in pledges but kept his personal donation at 50.

Sadey and Misha: For the second year in a row they raised $150 each. While some students just got their parents to write a cheque for $50, these girls collected money 1, 2 or 5 dollars at a time.

Braden: As he handed me his required $50 on Wednesday, "I don't get paid until the weekend, can I donate more after the famine?"

Nicole and Ian: They couldn't sleep over at the school, but still chose to collect money anyway.

Alexandra: We only had one grade 6 girl in attendance. I saw Alexandra from my (Grade 8) class talking to her when everyone was arriving. I asked her if she new the girl and she said yes. I said do you mind making sure this girl feels included? Her response, "Oh, of course!"

Andy & Carleigh: They are the backbone to our Me to We club. They both plan to go to the Leaders Today Take Action! Academy this summer run by Free the Children.  They are two young kids who are thoughtful and compassionate. They are, and they will continue, making the world a better place!

Empathy may not be part of the curriculum, but it certainly can be encouraged in school... by teachers and students alike!