Rock On

Last weekend I was at a neighborhood party which the police broke up at 11:00 pm.  I think they expected to find 18-20 year olds rather than the 40-60 year olds in the backyard when they came around the corner of the house. All of which made me think of how some people continue their energetic pursuit of life and others resign themselves to wistfully thinking of what once was or what could have been.

In terms of the education world, the energetic pursuit of excellence has revitalized many veteran teachers (see any of the writings of Mark Barnes, Dave Burgess or AJ Juliani among others) and caused them to embrace a new way of thinking and to give students educational autonomy rather than the age old system of lecture, quiz and test.

For those who cling to the legacy educational methods along with many students, it seems like teachers who encourage student control of their learning are taking a lazy way out by making kids do most of the work.  In fact, even the students in our Arete PBL Academy when surveyed expressed the belief that teachers who lecture work harder than those who require students to pursue their interests, and solve authentic problems.  John Koker, Dean of Letters and Science at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh captured traditional school perfectly when he said, "School: the place where kids go to watch adults work."

Even though providing student voice in their education invariably takes more energy, creativity, research, interactions, feedback, the results are invigorating.  Seeing student excitement and engagement with their learning is thrilling for any teacher.  Knowing that students are staying up all night in July talking about project ideas for next year is mind blowing!!

Summer Reading: Be Inspired

Inspirational and useful books to consider reading this summer:

1. Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink is my favorite book ever. His assessment of bonuses, rewards and their counterintuitive effects is shocking. He breaks motivation into easy to understand explanations using vignettes.

2. Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin (pdf) This book is incendiary.  Godin examines what is needed for success in the 21st Century and how schools, as currently structured, are irrelevant.

3. Poke the Box by Seth Godin  Have you ever had a personal cheerleader encouraging you to pursue the idea that has always captivated you?  Now you have one.

4. Writing the Standard for Project Based Learning by John Larmer, John Mergendoller & Suzie Boss discusses Gold Standard PBL practices with examples of how they are used.

5. Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess  Use creative and consistently great ideas to generate enough interest that you have to sell tickets to your class.

6. Learn Like a Pirate by Paul Solarz Restructure your classroom environment to put the kids in charge of their learning and daily operations of the class.

7. Most Likely to Succeed by Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith A companion to the documentary of the same name, Succeed builds the case for examining the guiding principles of education and gives necessities, suggestions, and examples of how a forward minded education must operate to give students a school career which truly prepares them for the future.The final two chapters provide teachers, principals and superintendents with specific ideas and actions which will transform their classrooms, schools and districts immediately.

8. Creating Innovators by Tony Wagner This book should be read by every parent and teacher.  Wagner uses examples of Millennials who used their passion to create something extraordinary and how their parents planted the seed to pursue their passion.

9. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon Funny, creative look at how being creative is not limited to coming up with ideas no one has ever thought of before. In effect he says, “Steal them,” meaning apply and combine ideas from varied sources in a new way.

10. Creative Thinkering  by Mike Michalko From one of the leaders on creativity, Creative Thinkering contains many exercises to boost creativity.

11. Creative Schools by Sir Kenneth Robinson This is my favorite of Robinson’s books.  A departure from some of his other books, he gives some specifics as to how schools should be run.

12. Role Reversal by Mark Barnes  Ditch grades and encourage students to learn for learning’s sake and the rest will work itself out. Barnes teaches English Language Arts in the middle school and gives many of the tips and tricks as to how he pulls off not giving grades, but giving grades (at least on report cards)

Inquire by Rob King Do you love the 4 C’s?  King breaks down Collaboration, Communication, Creative and Critical Thinking and so much more into this handbook for students.