Gandhi Story

No one is required to change more than those of us who present ourselves as leaders of educational reform and transformation. Why? Because we are required to model the behaviors we want other to adapt.

There is a story of a woman in India who was upset that her son was eating too much sugar. No matter how much she chided him, he continued to satisfy his sweet tooth. Totally frustrated, she decided to take her son to see his great hero Mahatma Gandhi.

She approached the great leader respectfully and said,

Sir, my son eats too much sugar. It is not good for his health. Would you please advise him to stop eating it?”

Gandhi listened to the woman carefully, turned and spoke to her son,

Go home and come back in two weeks.”

The woman looked perplexed and wondered why he had not asked the boy to stop eating sugar. She took the boy by the hand and went home.

Two weeks later she returned, boy in hand. Gandhi motioned for them to come forward. He looked directly at the boy and said,

Boy, you should stop eating sugar. It is not good for your health.”

The boy nodded and promised he would not continue this habit any longer.

The boy’s mother turned to Gandhi and asked,

Why didn’t you tell him that two weeks ago when I brought him here to see you?”

Gandhi smiled,

Mother, two weeks ago I was still eating sugar myself.”

Gandhi lived in such integrity that he would not allow himself to give advice unless he was living by it himself.

This is a worthy summer reflection for those of us who give advice to others in the name of educational change.

pete

Note: I will be away for the next week camping at the beach. No electricity. No cell coverage. My best wishes to all for a peaceful and restful week.

Constructivism Defined

Note from Pete:
I found these definitions of constructivist learning posted in Don Mesibov’s, Institute for Learning Centered Education newsletter, very helpful in expanding my understanding of this learning theory.

Newsletter Edition Volume 9, Issue 29

Four of the 43 teams registered for our summer constructivist conference that begins July 21 are from Milwaukee. They are being coordinated by Anne Nordholm who has been working under a grant provided by TALC New Vision which receives financial assistance from the Gates Foundation. According to its web site, “TALC New Vision assists leaders creating new small schools in Milwaukee from the visioning process through the school’s opening and first two years of operation.”
As the period of the grant from TALC runs out, Anne will continue her work with a collaborative of Milwaukee secondary schools through an organization called Basante LLC, a spin off of TALC.

I was impressed with a definition of constructivism on a flier from Basante LLC.

Constructivism Defined
As a theory of learning, constructivism is not a specific theory or format for teaching. Project based learning and other discovery learning formats are sometimes narrowly assumed to encompass all that constructivism is. However, constructivism includes a variety of learning formats that reflect the following characteristics:

• Learning is facilitated (not delivered or transmitted) by posing structured and unstructured problems and questions. The learners, rather than the teacher are responsible for defending, proving, justifying, and communicating their ideas to the classroom community and the community at large. Time is considered an adaptable resource not a confining obstacle.

• Ambiguity and paradox are navigated not avoided. Knowledge is constructed in context, not representative of a fixed reality. Disequilibrium facilitates learning, so errors in thinking should not be minimized or avoided. Challenging, open-ended investigations in realistic meaningful contexts need to be offered which allow learners to explore and generate many possibilities, both affirming and contradictory. Contradictions, in particular, need to be illuminated, explored, and discussed.

• Dialogue within a community engenders further thinking. The classroom needs to be seen as a democratic community of discourse engaged in activity, reflection, and conversation. Building communities of trust are critical since the constructivist learning approach asks student to take

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Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com. Requests to be dropped from this list will also be honored. Copyright (c) 2008, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

The Institute is currently registering teams for the 2008 summer constructivist conference, July 21-25, at St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org
or, e-mail a request for information.

The Journey…Step One: Look in the Mirror

The Director of Technology’s face was drained of all joy. She was sullen and unsmiling. Donna’s office was a sloppy mix of cables, computers, boxes, and papers. On her desk were a phone, a computer, keyboard and mouse. They where freckled with yellow sticky notes, each one with an urgent task to be completed. If her inner life was anything like her office, she was in trouble. It was obvious to me that she was in complete overwhelm and was suffering greatly.

Less than a week ago the superintendent had attended a meeting with some other superintendents and had returned to request that the entire district’s data and management resources be updated. He wanted a new student information system, and a data warehouse. He wanted parent and community connections and teacher web pages. All of this was great; but Donna was already tapped out, and sinking in overwhelm.

She had been putting in long hours and staying late, very late. She had a family; but she was sacrificing her home life for the job. She kept telling herself that they’d understand; and they did. But every time she missed dinner or one of her children’s school or sporting events, she felt terribly guilty. She justified it by telling herself that if she could just get this or that cleaned up, she would be on top of things again.

And then the superintendent threw all this new data stuff at her.

Added to all of this was her feeling that he and the rest of the staff had no idea of the amount of work she was putting in, and no idea how much of her home life she was sacrificing. She sunk in on herself; resigned and drained of spirit. She felt there was no way out. She showed all the signs of a growing depression.

At first Donna blamed those around her. The superintendent and staff didn’t “get it”. The demands on her time were inevitable and there was no way she could say “no” to he many requests that swamped her. If she said, “No” she might get in trouble or fired. People might think she didn’t care or wasn’t committed.

There was never money to increase staff or to get outside help.

“God,” she exclaimed in frustration, “if they only new how much time I spend updating the web page for them. Being webmaster around here would be a full time job for most people.”

I offered to coach her through this.

In our first meetings we talked about the predicament in which she found herself. Who was accountable for it?

Over and over, she fell back into the victim’s story. It wasn’t her fault. There was nothing she could do.

It took some time, more than one meeting with her; but eventually she began to see that it was she who had said “yes” to the requests that had plowed her under. It was she who created the unrealistic expectation that she could do everything, be everything to everybody, as if she had some magic abilities that no one else possessed. It was she who was unable to verbalize her value or take a strong stand for more staff, more resources, and outside help.

When “push came to shove”, she de-valued herself. She subordinated herself to others, and rationalized it as being dedicated. It was she who was willing to sacrifice her home life for her work life. She had lost her way. Her purpose for entering education was long forgotten.

As she began to see the role she, herself, played in creating this situation, she began to feel ashamed of herself.

“I can’t believe I am so weak that I let this happen to me. I am a loser.” was her general feeling.

Shame is negative self-judgment and added nothing to the situation except to make her feel worse about herself.

I continued to work with her.

“The past is done. We can’t change it. It just is. What we do from here is filled with possibility. You’ve taken the first step. You’ve recognized your own accountability. You’re looking at yourself, the one person involved in this drama that you can control; and you’re saying you can do better.”

She smiled for the first time since we started working together. It was a smile of recognition of some inner knowledge that she was remembering,

“I’m changing my story from ‘Oh woe is me! I’m a victim of people who don’t understand me; to a new story … I have a choice about how I do my job, and how I live my life!”

“How does it feel when you say that out loud”, I asked.

“I feel a little afraid; but overall it feels like a weight is off my shoulders.” she paused, “I feel hope for the first time in years.”

Her face dropped back into doubt, “But what am I going to do? What’s going to happen if I…”

I interrupted, “You’re slipping back into doubt again. Whose life is it, Donna?”

“Mine, Pete. It’s my life!”

Donna had taken the first step; she had looked into the mirror.

And so began this leaders journey

pete

My Daydream: A Student’s View of One to One Computing

I closed the cover of my Asus eee, tucked it into my backpack, and headed off to English class. I didn’t eat much today. I wanted to see the MIT lecture on Mitosis and Miosis because we were going to be spending some time on this in Science class this afternoon. Lucky for me, Mrs. Woodruff’s class was just around the corner from the cafeteria where I had just finished lunch.Anyway, I wanted to get there early to ‘IM’ Jamie Milledge, who was helping me build out my “Fahrenheit 451” wiki.

Jamie would be up by now. I live on the East coast and she goes to school in Torrence, California. She is a major Ray Bradbury fan. We met up about a month ago when I found some of her science fiction writing on the Fan Fiction web page. Turns out she was the same age and studying “451” in her English class the same as me. We Face Book each other all the time now.

I get to class and whip open my computer.
Jamie wassup?
Getting dressed.
Did you find the movie?
Yeah. Not easy to get.
Great.
What part do we want to use?
I love the RR tracks scene.
Where they all become their favorite books?
Yeah. So cool!
OK. I’ll upload it at lunch today.
You’re the best.

We chat until the class is ready to start.

Mrs. Woodruff is already leaning over a student helping them with whatever project they’re working on.

Last night I searched out some blogs that deal with “451″ and have added them to the RSS feeds in my aggregator. They may come in handy as we go through the book.

“Okay class, you can get into your teams now.”

Mrs. Woodruff speaks over the discussions that have already begun. I don’t know why she feels she has to say this every day because we never wait for her. We’re already in our groups.

Our group project is to build out a vocabulary blog for “451” . We each take a few chapters, find the more difficult words, and look them up online. Usually, when we do this we create a team blog where we post the sentence from the book that contains the word, as well as the definitions of the words. We organize it all by chapter. Here’s the vocabulary blog we did on our last book, “The Outsiders”.

(Courtesy of JIm Coe and Tom Woodward of the Bionic Teaching Blog)

This time, in addition to what we usually do, we decide to add some online photos from Flickr, drag them in Comic Life, and write the words used in funny contexts. Michael, our team leader, is really good at coming up with the funny stuff.

(This example courtesy of Jim Coe and Tom Woodward of Bionic Teaching)

After a bit, Mrs. Woodruff asks us to close our computers and report out on how we are doing. One group has done research on all the books that have been banned over the years. Marcy plugs into the projector and shows the Censorship website they’ve created. They’ve worked with the school library media specialist, and a number of outside organizations who are very anti-censorship. I’m surprised at some of the titles on the list. I copy the URL. I want to check it out when I get to study hall later today.

Another group shows the product they are creating in response to the “451″ WebQuest they were working on.

The other groups plug in to show their particular projects; but Terry’s group gets into trouble because they havn’t done much since the last time they presented. Terry says that they have been doing a lot of the work after school; but they havn’t had an online work session this week because a few of them had late sports practices. Terry’s team always has an excuse. The truth is they put in no effort. They do what they can during free time in school, but they almost never hold group work sessions at night. They’ve got to get themselves a better leader or they’re gonna get creamed at the end of the marking period.

I can’t wait to show the vocabulary site we created. Everyone laughs at Michael’s funny comments that are in the Comic Life bubbles. I also take a moment to show the “451” wiki site that Jamie from California and I have been working on. Believe it or not, Jamie has already uploaded a scene from the movie. I click on it and play a minute or so.

Mrs. Woodruff claps her hands, “Great job! guys. Now, let’s get to our writing projects.”

We all pull our desks back a few feet from the groups we were in so we can work on our own for awhile. I pull up the draft of the paper I have been writing from my virtual locker storage space. I’m working on an essay topic from an old Regents exam. I figure it’s good practice. We write in silence, saving frequently, as we have been taught to do. Mrs. Woodruff walks around giving some individual advice to different folks. I run my paper through the online Writing Evaluator. I like this because it picks up most of the simple mistakes I tend to make when I write. It saves Mrs. Woodruff some time, too.

“Class!” She says. We all look up. She walks to the SmartBoard in the front of the room and taps on it a few times. Up come the notes from last week. She enlarges the words THEME and PLOT.

“I see a number of you are getting theme and plot confused. What is the difference between the theme and plot?”

A few brave souls raise their hands.

“You know what? Rather than doing this verbally, I want you to e-mail me your explanations for homework tonight. Include the basic theme of “451” . I don’t need you to rehash the plot.”

Man, more homework.

Mrs. Woodruff continued, “We’re getting close to the bell, so just a reminder that I will be online for extra help on Thursday from 8:00pm till 9:00pm. Terry, I expect that at least one member of your team should be there. Your team needs lot’s of help.”

The bell rings. I sling my Asus into my backpack and dash out of the room. My science class is at the other end of the building; I’ve gotta hustle.

pete

This is a daydream. I’m sure there are many more creative constructivist ideas out there. The Asus and other products used in this post are for illustrative purposes only and not an endorsement.

The technology is transparent. The Asus is one of a number of sub-$500, mobile, wireless computers. WIreless access from everywhere in the school. VIrtualized desktops with access to all school applications and files from anywhere, including the home. Appropriate software. Engaged and empowered students, learning both in school and outside of school, formally and informally, collaboratively and individually. Learning partners that extend outside the classroom.

Special thanks to Tom Woodward and Jim Coe, two groundbreaking educators from the Henrico schools who are making the daydream reality.

Using Music to Create Cognitively Challenging Activities

Reprinted with permission from Don Mesibov’s Newsletter for the Institute for Learning Centered Education

Teacher: “OK class, listen to this song and then tell me what is unique about it.
Hint: It has to do with the grammatical construction of the lyrics.”

Teacher then plays “You and I” (you youngsters can probably find it with a Google search. My favourite recording is by Ray Charles and Betty Carter, but it has been performed by many artists.)

Allow the students to guess individually. Then distribute the lyrics and ask students, in pairs or groups of three to punctuate them:

“Darling you and I know the reason why a summer sky is blue and we know why birds in the sky sing melodies too and our love will grow from the first hello until the last goodbye so to sweet romance there is just one answer you and I.”

Here is the correct punctuation:

“Darling you and I know the reason why a summer sky is blue; and we know why birds in the sky sing melodies, too; and our love will grow from the first hello until the last goodbye; so to sweet romance there is just one answer: you and I.”

The song is all one long sentence and that is its uniqueness.

Here’s another: play “Moonlight in Vermont” and ask the students to identify what is different about it from most song lyrics. The answer: there is no rhyme scheme.

This creates a good opportunity to point out to students that song lyrics are poetry. Have them recite lyrics from some of their favorite songs. Many students don’t think of songs as poems. It’s also a good opportunity to discuss whether a poem can be a poem if it doesn’t rhyme. Many students think if it’s a poem it must rhyme.

As Paul Vermette says,

I’ve come to believe that my only task as a teacher is to make my students think.”

These songs will make students think about grammatical structure and poetry. And for social studies, what about Billy Joel’s “We didn’t start the Fire.”

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Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com. Requests to be dropped from this list will also be honored. Copyright (c) 2008, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

The Institute is currently registering teams for the 2008 summer constructivist conference, July 21-25, at St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org
or, e-mail a request for information.

The Tips and Techniques Approach to Leadership

In seminar after seminar I encounter educators who are looking for a simple ‘tips and techniques’ approach to mastering the art of leadership. Talk is cheap. Advice is plentiful. Yet, effective leadership remains rare. For those of you looking for the secret shortcut to being a great leader, I took a few minutes to pull together the highlights from just a small number of the books, blogs, and other resources that are happily giving you the road map to success.

Seven Habits of Successful People -Stephen R. Covey
1. Be pro-active
2. Begin with the end in mind
3. Put first things first
4. Think Win/Win
5. Seek to understand, then to be understood
6. Synergize - collaboration
7. Sharpen the saw - balanced self-renewal

The Eighth Habit - Stephen R. Covey
Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs

The Six Secrets of Change - Michael Fullan
1. Love your employees & your customers
2. Connect peers with purpose
3. Capacity building trumps judgmentalism
4. Learning is the work
5. Transparency rules
6. Systems learn

The One Thing You Need to Know - Buckingham
Narrowing your focus is a fundamental element of success.

Do Schools Kill Creativity? - Sir Ken Robinson
“If you are not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”

Turnaround Leader - Michael Fullan
Relentless instructional focus
Leadership depth
Capacity building
Non-Judgmental
Data Driven
Define closing the gap as the goal
Attend to the basics
Tap into people’s dignity
Be sure the best people are working on it
All successful strategies are socially based
Stay the course through continuity
Build internal accountability
Establish conditions for the evolution of positive pressure
Use the previous 9 strategies to build public confidence
Effective leaders are energizing - not just innovative
Recognize you are dealing with well-qualified and well-educated group of folks that deserve to be treated like mature adults
Don’t be afraid to compliment people for their efforts
Keep your ego in check
The term ‘principal’ used to mean ‘principal teacher’. Try remembering what it was like to be a classroom teacher.
Never use your authority to threaten, intimidate, or demean.
Lead the school with moral conviction.
Be humble.

If You Don’t Feed the Teachers They Eat Students - Neila Connors
1. Care and be concerned for others
2. Desire to be successful
3. Handle stress
4. Be in good health
5. Think logically

Leadertalk Blog
One can’t overemphasize the value of building relationships with colleagues
Taking notes makes a difference - simply ask to take notes during a conversation
If you don’t know something don’t try to fake it
Roles and value are not the same. We may have different roles but doesn’t mean we have different worth.

LeaderTalk Blogger’s Advice for New Administrators
I will do it. Volunteer to do just about anything
Tackle a major project
Get involved at the District/State level
Understand your School’s and District’s priorities
Model online collaboration and enabling others
“Staff your weaknesses” John Maxwell

National Ed Tech Plan
“For educators to get the most from the rapidly evolving development of information and communication technology, leaders at every level; must not only supervise, but provide informed, creative, and ultimately transformative leadership for systemic change.”

There isn’t much to argue with in all this advice. It’s like ‘mom and apple pie’.

The problem is, even if you memorized every one of these points, even if you discussed them for hours with other prospective leaders, even if you wrote essays about them and gained a deep understanding of their meaning; it would not make you a better leader.

Knowing the elements of leadership is not the same as embodying the elements of leadership.

There are no shortcuts.

For example, (and this applies to most of the items on the lists above) knowing that you should be ‘humble’ does not make you humble. If, in fact, you are not humble, you won’t become humble by just ‘wanting’ to be humble. The insight itself isn’t enough to change a lifetime of behaviors make up the person you are. Embodying what it is to be humble takes a serious commitment to personal change. Personal change comes through ongoing reflection and daily practices.

I’ll never forget the Principal who raised his hand during one of my sessions and proclaimed emphatically,

“I already know about leadership!”

I’m sure he could recite the “7 Habits” or the “6 Secrets”; but as the rest of the class looked at him, it was clear that his leadership journey was going to be a very long one.

pete

Failures Lead to Success

Republished with permission from: The Institute for Learning Centered Education

A well known actress said in a recent magazine feature that she liked the quote “Embrace failure because it points to a direction for the future.”

I recall a staff developer once telling of a chemical company that would call all its employees out to the front lawn to surround a cannon whenever someone tried something new and failed. The boss would set off the cannon “to celebrate that we are one step closer to success.”

The story is told that when Thomas Edison was asked if it hadn’t been frustrating all the times he had tried a different way to create a light bulb, his response was that when he stayed up all night trying different options he was inspired by the thought that he had narrowed down the possibilities.

What has this got to do with school?

The common denominator in the aforementioned situations is that there was a safe environment for trial and error that encouraged people to view failure in a positive light (as long as they gave forth their best effort). Would the chemical company employees have been as likely to take the risks necessary for discoveries if they felt that one failed attempt would leave them open to being reprimanded or fired?

Do our schools create environments likely to reduce the stress level of students so that they can be relaxed enough to try what they fear will not succeed? Teachers, do you make a conscious effort to create a safe and nurturing environment? Administrators, do you create a safe and nurturing environment for your staff aware that what you model in the handling of your staff will often be reflected in the way your staff relates to students?

Happily, many teachers and administrators can answer “yes” to these questions. Unhappily, too many cannot. Do you think that when employees of the chemical company achieved successes it was because they had been threatened with reprimands and were told that letters would go home to their families giving them a negative rating if they failed?

— 30 —

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com. Requests to be dropped from this list will also be honored. Copyright (c) 2008, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

The Institute is currently registering teams for the 2008 summer constructivist conference, July 21-25, at St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org
or, e-mail a request for information.

Administrator or Leader?

I believe that each of us has a leader within and that educational leadership is not the sole domain of school administrators. I have seen classroom teachers step up and lead incredible school transformations without the authority of title or degree. But that is topic I will write about on another day.

Today, I want to examine the not so secret, ‘secret’ among educators:

While every school has at least one administrator, few have leaders.

A recent workshop participant paraphrased Peter Drucker and said it this way,

“Administrators do things right. Leaders do the right things.”

While that simple statement captures some of the gulf between leadership and administration, I think it falls far short.

I have a long list, developed over many educational leadership seminars, that outlines the differences between administrators and leaders; but today I will start with the one element that seems to encompass so many others…

Leaders deal from their hearts as well as their minds; administrators work almost exclusively from the mental framework.

We’ve all encountered administrators who kick off the school year with speeches stating the districts goals and objectives, or by reciting well meaning mission statements; but it is rare to find leaders who articulate a vision and inspire their staffs to embrace that vision.

Administrators are comfortable speaking from and appealing to the cognitive domain, hoping others see the logic of their goals and objectives; while leaders want to stir the hearts, as well as the minds of those they seek to lead.

It is the power of the heart that injects a special life into the team. Leaders who use their hearts and minds when they speak have an authenticity that creates trust. Administrators who speak only from their heads may say the right words; they may have perfect scripts; but they appear less authentic, less fully committed, and therefore they create less trust.

Without trust it’s difficult to lead effectively.

I remember the Principal at my son’s eighth grade graduation ceremony speaking to the audience of proud parents and students. His first words were,

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be here with you tonight.”

Unfortunately, he spoke these words in a monotone with no emotion (heart). Even worse, there was no smile, no crack in his bland and blank façade. He continued this way through the entire speech.

While I have no doubt that deep inside he meant every word he spoke; because he closed off his heart when delivered his words, it destroyed his message. It reeked of an administrator fulfilling his job requirements, when it could have been a leader expressing gratitude to his victorious 8th grade troops and sending them off to the high school full of inspiration and hope.

Not every leader needs to be a charismatic speaker. Even speakers who speak haltingly and uncomfortably, if they speak from the heart, touch the hearts of those around them; their authenticity comes through and with that, trust flows. We feel their commitment.

One of the first steps in the transformation from administrator to leader is to access the power of the heart. Tapping into the heart shows up in every aspect of leadership, not just in speaking. It is a way of tethering ourselves to something deeper than just our ideas and thoughts. It ties us to our purpose, values, and beliefs.

When we work from this place, we are grounded. We don’t change directions every time the political breezes shift. We are more apt to go the extra mile, even if it seems risky. We walk our own talk. We don’t have hidden agendas, they’re all out there for people to see. When we work from the heart, we don’t make decisions based solely on complicated political calculations; but we factor in our beliefs and values.

Most importantly, when we are grounded in the heart, we have the courage of a leader. Interestingly, the word courage comes from the French root ‘cour’ or heart. As leaders we don’t avoid difficult conversations, or put off difficult decisions out of fear. We address them because they need to be addressed. The heart gives us the strength and passion to do the difficult things.

The transformation from administrator to leader is largely a journey of the heart.

pete

Constructivism – a simple explanation

I have asked for and received permission to reprint The Institute for Learning Centered Education’s weekly newsletter. Don Mesbibov, the Director of the Institute is a brilliant educator who works to develop teachers and administrators that will transform teaching and learning. Interestingly enough, Don comes at this through pedagogy, not technology. I find his newsletter informative and inspiring and a welcome reminder that the educational changes we hope for are primarily changes in pedagogy.

I hope you enjoy these posts from a pioneer in the field of constructivism.

pete

Newsletter Edition Volume 9 Issue 25

Whether you are a parent, teacher, administrator or staff developer, the following applies:

How do you know whether your approach to conveying information, teaching a concept or helping someone learn a skill is based on constructivist theory?

Which of these two categories best fits your approach:

1. I think of ways I can get my points across. I know what I want people to learn from me and I try to come up with ways to get my knowledge from me to them.
2. I try to create an activity, project or some kind of experience so that I can set people to work as soon as possible and then teach what I want them to know and understand by offering suggestions as they work.

Do you doubt that the second category is more effective for teaching? Think about your own children. Don’t you find dozens of opportunities a day to point out what you want them to know while they are actively engaged in something they either want to do or see the need for?

If you’ve ever said,

“I’ve told you a thousand times . . . .”

then you realize that what you say has little meaning except if it’s said while someone is struggling with something they are anxious to accomplish.

Because of the frequency and intensity of our relationship with our children, opportunities constantly arise for us to coach while they are engaged. In a classroom setting the teacher needs to create the activities that will motivate students to engage so that teachable moments can emerge like popcorn snapping to life in a popcorn machine.

You don’t get many teachable moments while you are talking and someone else is listening. Teachable moments abound when people are engaged in something they are not completely sure how to accomplish.

—————–

Please feel free to forward this message to a friend or colleague. If you know someone who would like to be put on the list, please send a message to Don Mesibov at dmesibov@twcny.rr.com. Requests to be dropped from this list will also be honored. Copyright (c) 2008, Institute for Learning Centered Education. All rights reserved.

The Institute is currently registering teams for the 2008 summer constructivist conference, July 21-25, at St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York. Don’t miss the opportunity for this unique conference that models the constructivist behaviors that teachers are using increasingly in the classroom. Check out the website of The Institute for Learning Centered Education: www.learnercentereded.org
or, e-mail a request for information.

Laird Bishop

It was the late 70’s or early 80’s. (My memory doesn’t serve me well when it comes to dates.) I was a young English teacher and was carpooling with a teacher from the elementary school. Her day ended an hour after the HS, so I had an hour a day to kill before being picked up to go home.

Laird Bishop and one of his friends poked his head in my door late one afternoon.

“Mr. Reilly, can we come in?”

“Sure. What’s up?”

“We were down in Mr. McCarthy’s office (the principal) a few days ago and we saw two boxes stacked there. They were computers.”

Now, for you younger folks reading this, you have to understand that there was not a single computer in the school district at this time. No labs, no classroom computers, no office computers. There might have been a terminal in the central office that connected to a mainframe for payroll; but maybe not.

“We asked Mr. McCarthy who ordered them and he didn’t know. He said he needed a few days to find out what was going on. We went back today and he said he still doesn’t know who ordered them or who they were for. We asked him if we could open the boxes and set them up somewhere. He said he’d be okay with that, if we had a teacher to supervise us.”

I knew what was coming next.

“Mr. Reilly, would you supervise us? We’d bring them up here after school and set them up and stuff, and leave them in your room. We’ll come after every day and figure out how to use them.”

To be honest, this sounded interesting. I’d never seen a computer other than in magazines.

“Sure, Laird. But you’ll have to leave when my ride comes.”

“No problem, Mr. Reilly. Thanks! Thanks a lot!”

With that Laird and his quiet friend disappeared. Laird was one of the most interesting kids I knew. He was a free thinker, quirky, and really smart. He had shaggy brown hair with bangs cut a little longer than the Beatles. I knew this would be a bit of an adventure. And it was.

The next day, the two of them showed up and unpacked the two Apple IIe computers. This was the black Bell and Howell model, retrospectively called the “Darth Vader” model. I hovered behind them as they slipped the large computer disks into the disk drives and turned the computer on. The drives made loud grinding noises and I thought they might be breaking the machine; but I kept my mouth shut. Suddenly, on the monitor green words appeared.

[HELLO}  Magic!

Each day they showed up and began to play with the machine. I sat at my desk correcting papers but I was really more interested in what they were doing. They had the Basic programming manual open and were figuring out ways to make the machine “beep” and play music. More Magic!

One day, out of nowhere, they appeared with a game, Asteroids, or something like it, that they had copied. Now, neither of them had a home computer, so I have no idea how they did this. This still baffles me to this day. They called me over to play and I did.

I began to integrate into their world just a bit. They taught me a little about programming in Basic. They showed me what a Word Processor was…another copied version from ‘who knows where’. They took time to make copies of programs for me to keep.

The three of us explored and played…and learned, for the remainder of the year.

Sometime during the next year or two I ordered a couple of more Apples and volunteered to teach programming during one of my prep periods. Whenever I didn’t know how to do something, I’d call on Laird to explain it to me.

It doesn’t seem possible; but I owe my whole career in educational technology to two curious students staying after school… to learn on their own.

Laird Bishop, eighth grader…inquisitive explorer…

…teacher of teachers.

in gratitude,

pete