Faith

Welcome back!!
Tonight it became abuntly clear... "Variables Thinking" is here to stay.
Not only does it respond to the insanity of our time .... I mean what the hell is going on??? But it creates a very sane and simple way forward.

Lately I've been too immmersed in the day to day tasks of teaching design and painting to teenagers (#1 variable = time) to give energy to this Blog. In this immersion I have found this moment though. This time to put index finger to iphone keyboard, to put mind to message, to filter somewhat the outrageous thump and agressive sound from the high school dance which I chaperone... To share my certainty that to "identify key variables" is indeed the essential skill set of our future leaders.

For if we do not create future thinkers and leaders who can make sense of our wild world, and lead the way to rational & creative solutions... Well then... We may as well be stuck, trapped like a young child thinking they can tie their own shoelace but secretly knowing they do not have the skills to do so. Looking to that caregiver with longing yet determination... it seems the equivelant of the Emperor with no clothes.


What is the role of the teacher? I believe it is to save the world. One future thinker at a time.

Defining a Practice

Welcome!

Today I had a vision while listening to the radio.  My vision: every radio story, every expert interviewed, and every lengthy discussion would mention the handy term Variables Thinking.  Because every student had been given the opportunity to practice Variables Thinking from Kindergarten through 12^th grade, every adult would use the short hand term to describe the process of considering multiple aspects of any one challenge or problem.  Each variable would be considered in relation to the others thus completing the process.  And to describe this process: that’s right, the term I have coined, Variables Thinking.

I paint therefore I consider variables. My thinking process… from choosing subject matter, to deciding scale, to surface, to prepping that surface, to choosing brushes, to paint, to mixing paint, to rate of brushwork, to layers of brushwork, to extending drying times, to rushing drying times, etc and so on is one example of VT.  Any expert considers a large number of variables in everything they do well.  Cooks, athletes, scientists, doctors, astrologists, hedge fund managers, yoga Instructors and teachers do it.  Isn’t it time we begin to look at the meta process of considering variables and make it something our children get to practice?  And more importantly, isn’t it time we foster in children an understanding that all problems are essentially the same?  Problems have aspects/parts/elements which are variables.   Giving thought to the relationships between the aspects/parts/elements in addition to considering what aspects/parts/elements might be missing from the problem become fundamental skills.

Here are a few concrete ways I will use Variables Thinking this school year with High School students.

As idea generation:  Brainstorm Variables.  Example:  As you design your ideal home, list all the factors that would ultimately affect your choices.  (Budget, codes, materials, location, perceived spatial needs to name a very few.)

As focusing tool:  Isolate one variable.  Example: Tell a story in 5 paragraphs, then 1 paragraph, then 1 sentence.  LENGTH is the variable here.  Which length is suitable for what use?

As play:  Pick 3 variables from a list of 5 (color, texture, shape, line, value.)  Make 3 different compositions where you emphasize the three Variables differently. In other words in composition #1 prioritize Variable 1, then 2, then 3.  Then switch the order. 

As analysis:  Read two extremely different critiques of the work of Jackson Pollock. Then write about what possible factors contributed to such glaringly different points of view.

Variables Thinking is what goes on in any reflective practice.   Therefore it is adaptable and flexible.

Start with:  What are the parts?  How do they relate to each other?  The practice can address simple things (Play Doh) and complicated things (climate, poverty) and everything in between. 

With the world we live in, a routine practice of Variables Thinking across disciplines and grade levels is a pretty logical idea.  Or at least a pretty cool dream.

Thanks for reading. - L

Letter to a Young (Brain Surgeon) Teacher

(This post in honor of the brave souls who will begin their first year of classroom teaching this fall.)

Letter to a Young (Brain Surgeon) Teacher:

So of all possible fields you have chosen brain surgery.  You want to operate on the brains of young people without the respect, status, monetary reward and auxiliary support of a "real" surgeon.  And if that is not enough, you will be doing your work on multiple brains simultaneously without nurses and operating room staff supplying you with the customized tools you need in a moment's notice.  During group brain surgery, you will improvise your way, balancing the needs of each with the needs of the class as a whole. You will be endlessly challenged by all the learners before you and how to best unlock their potentials.  Scalpel, suction, compression!  You will decide -  make  mistakes and change course - in fact "improvise/revise" will become your middle name.  You have made the grand decision to be become an agent of change.

Your bedside manner will not only dictate your success, it will be crucial to the unfolding of the two-way street that must exist for "real" surgery to occur.  As you create an emotionally safe space in your classroom, the brains before you will become active participants.  With this success you will learn that you too are on the operating table, your students changing you as much as you change them.  You will become a guide, adjusting to the learning needs, rather than a know-it-all-sage with all the answers.  Mutual respect will define the two-way street of engagement between you and your students.

Learning on the job will become your addiction.  For to remain a teacher is to remain a learner with the job itself gracing you with the most profound laboratory you could ask for.  Each brain before you the unfolding of so many variables, you will have to draw lines and create strategies as you discover the complexities.  Who is this brain? What learning back story has lead it here?  What are its needs?  How does it understand?

For taking one of the hardest and most complex jobs, Congratulations!   ...And the next time you hear someone use the phrase "it's not brain surgery" or "rocket science" to describe something modestly difficult you may confidently add that "it's not teaching either."

Regards,
From a fellow teacher

Agenda Interuptus- time to think.

Stop everything it is time to really think.

Welcome!

It is time to get concrete again and give some really stunning examples of how thinking has occurred in my classroom over the years.  Three examples come to mind.  The first about 15 years ago, I had to stop in my tracks to address a homophobic comment.  The next, 4 years ago, another slur this time, racist.  And thirdly a couple years ago, a more planned thinking attack, my forced appeal to all my students to think through how the basics of composition are the same across all media (and that media could include snowboarding and teeth brushing- not just writing, music, painting, architecture, software but even “how I will spend my weekend”- design.)

Why these classroom moments are seared in my brain is probably a function of how memory works- emotionally laden- CHECK, novel (not the everyday routine)- CHECK, full attention (rest of stimuli filtered out- full attention on discussion)- CHECK.  These were present in all three “incidents.”

It’s not that thinking doesn’t occur regularly throughout school classrooms, it does, the question is how deep and how long.  When a student used a homophobic term, I could have sent him out, done nothing or used it as a teaching moment.  The fact that I made the call to stop in our tracks and discuss I credit to my personal belief in the beauty and responsibility of the teacher’s role.  Teachers are powerful.  And we need to realize all eyes are on us for leadership.

By the end of our chat students were deciding what it meant to be empathic, they were questioning sexuality, whether fixed or a choice, they were having lively debate about the Kinsey Scale. There were smiles and we all left feeling happy.  The student whose comment spurred the discussion was not criminalized.

A similar thing occurred when we went off topic after a racist slur.  This was years later and we discussed the invisibility of mixed race students who may be seen as one ethnicity or another. Students questioned what was ok to say in what company and how we decide.  Again, I’m pretty sure addressing the situation head on was the relevant thing to do.  A parent thanked me two years later.  Apparently her daughter had felt supported (as a mixed race student.)  What are the invisibles?  Is a purpose of thinking and conversation, in a safe place, to bring the invisible to view?  So, these are two examples of when the classroom can be an unexpected place for “real” life “lessons.” 

Third. 

Obviously this next example is about planned deep thinking.

I admit I became obsessed with a “common language” from the arts.  I had been posing that there could be a basic language and way that we address the creative and design process (not a unique idea but practiced less than one would imagine.) My definite agenda was to have all my students think through how the process of composing was at its essence the same across any discipline and medium. 

First move, we would NOT DO anything today.  We would only CONSIDER.  I think that got my students’ attention, because we are always doing and reflecting after doing.  Handouts covered commonly used definitions of principles and elements of art, composition etc.  Without boring or going into too much detail I forced every student to come up with a unique “composition story” about the medium of their choice.  Two stood out- a snowboarders choices as they carve their way down a mountain- what goes through their heads- why they do what they do- the interaction between boarder and terrain.  And a how I get dressed in the morning story about, mood, interactions of clothing pieces, weather, availability of favorites.  I added my own about brushing teeth, just because I wanted students to realize even our mundane daily exercises are “considered” and “composed.”

I also use ongoing thinking devices like this one for example: “PRACTICALITY” “AESTHETICS” & “ENGINEERING” students are divided into three teams and must debate what “matters” most in architecture.  This is fun because student teams have to argue why their consideration out weighs the other two.  This year perhaps I’ll let them choose their own teams, rather than randomly assigning their consideration.  That would require some thought.  Not my thought, but students.  Done. 

I’m also planning on ritualizing thinking in the classroom, maybe not just on Thursdays.  If it takes about every 2-15 years to have an amazingly stunning memory where students rocked their own minds and mine, well that’s just not often enough. 

Thanks for reading!- L

More of what I promised soon..  The beginnings of a working definition of Variables Thinking (as a practice), & the WWW, subjectivity and the need to share…..

John Dewey said it all!

Welcome!

Yes, it is true, I’m old news:  John Dewey addressed the tenets behind the classroom practice I am advocating for here.  Emotional security, the idea of teaching and learning as communication, the idea of exchange between teacher and learner rather than the “sage” to “sponge” pattern.  In Dewey’s mind this associative reflecting and communicating were the underpinnings of Democracy.   It is uncanny as I discover (or rediscover?) this great thinker how many of his ideas are 100% aligned with my own.  He seems to be pro discussion and debate, pro rigorous thought and allowing all thought to be valued, he seems to be a true problem solver and considered problem solving itself a life purpose.  Later he dismisses much philosophical thought as being built on a false premise that separated “mind” from “reality”...they are inseparable to his thinking.  Reminds me of the time a physics teacher told me “color exists in the brain”… I thought to myself…. And what doesn’t exist in the brain?  Dewey discusses relevance - “the problems of men” versus “the problems of philosophers.”  In the end, social progress and Democracy seem to be the true concerns of John Dewey.  His educational philosophy, particularly his positing the importance of deep reflection, was an essential part of that larger view.

But hardly anyone I’ve asked of late can say with any certainty that they know of or understand his work.  Is my job to become a Dewey scholar and lecture?  Or is my job to do my own rigorous thinking and allow my students to do theirs… and to work at communicating - what is relevant and important in a two-way or ten-way or however many minds are in the room-way fashion?

 

Would John Dewey be proud of the classroom tone found in “Race to Nowhere” or would he be horrified, probably seeing the collapse of our Democracy unfold before his eyes.

The trick of the teacher is to keep the agile young minds developing their own points of view, curiosities and inquiries, while keeping roughly on task.  (Whole post on TASK later.)

There is a term I heard recently in education circles- “working knowledge.”  It is a tricky one because it requires the ability to apply knowledge to new and unique situations.  Rigorous reflection is an undeniable part of this process.  Rigorous reflection is also essential to developing communication skills.  “Say it in your own words.”  This could be a John Dewey mantra.  Is there time in the classroom for each student?  This depends on whether “saying it in your own words” is valued.  It depends on the comfort level of the teacher to be a “guide on the side.”

Rigorous thought, which requires freedom, emotional safety (respect) and tolerance, is the underpinning of meaning making. Without it we may as well be in a different kind of society all together.

Bless you John Dewey!  And bless the teachers who create opportunities in their classrooms that would make you proud.

Thanks for reading. -L 

More soon on carving out a more succinct definition of “Variables Thinking.”  And more soon on how reflective thought can actually look in a classroom....& why it is not only practical but also pragmatic.  ( I'm simmering too some posts on the radical subjectivity created by the info age and the www  which also speak to a need for more sharing especially amongst adolescents.)

Race To Nowhere

Welcome!

Today’s Blog is about Race To Nowhere (http://www.racetonowhere.com/.)  If you haven’t seen the film – a quick synopsis:  A one size fits all approach to education focused on testing and over achievement is a recipe for depression, stress and burnout.  The student who best sums up his experience states he feels like he is in a “race to nowhere.”  It is a powerful and very sad movie, yet the fact that it was made and is a springboard for so many conversations around the country is incredibly hopeful.

Rather than recapping the critique of testing/rote learning/over achieving/more, faster, better, I’ll stay focused on my small part of the solution.   By doing my grappling, thinking and rethinking, alchemizing many related ideas about what I have come to believe is important in schooling, I am in a small way living out what is missing from the school factory- time to ponder.

How do classroom teachers make time for thinking?  Is this homework?  Or can it be an active ritualized, accepted part of every school week?  How about THINKING THURSDAYS!

On Thursdays every student in every subject area across every grade level would be invited to take a deeper look at the material.  This would be a “safe” day.  There would be no wrong answers, no wrong ideas, and no censorship.  The teacher would truly be the “guide on the side.”

Teachers need to be comfortable with NOT being the experts.  They need to be comfortable with the imaginations and tangents of students.  They need to be learners and listeners, not just correctors.  What are the boundaries of the conversation?  How much time is useful? 

Teachers will use trial and error to figure this out.  Is once a month enough? Or is every Thursday a THINKING THURSDAY. 

Set the tone.  Give permission.  Leave the judge at the door.  Let the students explore their own minds. 

Thanks for reading (more soon) -L

Mystery & Delight

Welcome!

“Life is a mystery, but people want to reduce it to a problem.” – Osho

A few days ago I awoke to read this as an “update” from an Astrologer who I am linked to on LINKEDIN.   Trusting only my excitement -no clue who Osho is- turns out a somewhat controversial Indian Guru –Rajneesh- I decided to book my second ever astrology appointment.

Ran into two Medical Doctors this week too, a pulmonary specialist and an ob gyn.  I verbally explained this Blog project three times (good practice) and learned about “Variable Analysis” – a thing doctors do to try to understand causation.  Is there a direct link between smoking and lung disease?  I don’t know let’s look at other confounding variables to be sure the link is real….  How do we precede at a birth?  How are decisions made at this most intense moment?  These are the conversations I was lucky to have this week.  In fact the Ob Gyn is remarkably brilliant, has passed the FLEX exam for foreign doctors who want to work in the US, and will need to redo years of residency here.   Now that shows commitment!

So where is this going… Mystery, Delight, Doctors & Astrologers?  What’s the connection? 

Maybe doctors and astrologists both share a great passion for mystery and the complexities of their work.  Maybe both delight in their detective work.  The deeper they go the more complexity they find.  One cause being intrinsically interconnected with many others….  

Teasing out variables, trying to solve the mysteries of disease or how to best proceed at a birth.  If, then, if not, then… Astrologers, weighing moving parts in a giant archetypal playground called the universe, trying to connect the individual with the archetypal meanings and forces of the planets. A predictive system in its own right….

Are medical doctors and astrologists really so different when it comes to their relationship to thinking? 

And is school a place where mystery is celebrated?  Do teachers allow students to see that the mystery of life requires simplification for the classroom, but the deeper you go the more you see, hear, feel, sense, observe, know?  Can we inspire curiosity?  A delight in mystery?

Definite intention decided July 14^th 2011 8:25pm: As an educational tool, a K-12 Throughline of Variables Thinking intends to inspire curiosity.  It will do so by teaching as self-evident the continuum of the simple to the complex and the potential of solving mysteries as a root of happy life long work. 

A simple concrete example:  7th graders study metabolism. “Change diet & exercise, in order to see changes in metabolism. Gain or lose weight.  Isolate diet for one week by controlling exercise, then isolate exercise the next week, while controlling diet.”  Chart it.  Explain findings.  Easily take this up a notch in complexity by introducing the idea of additional “confounding variables” and revealing how totally imprecise this experiment would be without exact measurement etc..

A complex concrete example: 12^th graders study “the self.”  “Write a 1-3 page outline response to the question: Who am I?  Consider what makes you you.”  Optional: cite previous readings, conversations or experiences that helped you form your outline.

We talk about helping kids problem solve.  Good!  Inspiring delight in mystery could be a part of that long term equation.

Thanks for reading (more soon.)-L

P.S. Apparently Saturn (how we experience “reality”) has been lining up with my progressed Mercury (reason, common sense).  Terrific news for this thinking project!

Why "Variables" instead of Critical/Creative/Design Thinking?

Welcome!

So why “Variables Thinking” and not critical thinking or creative thinking or design thinking?

I want to zoom out in today’s BLOG.  So many topics, it is easy to get side tracked into major asides on teaching styles and all the great things in education that are already being done, like the move toward “guide on the side” teaching.  But I need to paint with a bigger brush for a moment to begin to reason through my goal to create a curriculum throughline about Variables.

These 3 established kinds of thinking would make great throughlines:

Critical Thinking

Creative Thinking

Design Thinking

Any school that holistically embraced any of these would be a better school for it.  That is to say any school that picked one of these and taught it throughout grade levels and disciplines would graduate students with a toolbox for life.

So why do I have my mind set on navigating uncharted waters and trying to “popularize” Variables Thinking?  It’s a meta thing.  And a changy thing.  (whole BLOGS on META & CHANGY later)

When one approaches a piece of History from a “critical” perspective one asks questions: what is the context of this report or document or diary entry?  Whose point of view?  Did the interpretation of this piece of history change over time?  Is this true or false?

When one approaches a problem from a “creative” perspective one might think: brainstorm, try things out, think outside the box, play, embellish.

When one approaches anything from a “design” perspective one immediately thinks of needs, uses, how can we build a solution, let’s follow a process. 

When we indoctrinate students into any methodology we provide a profound opportunity for learning.

Here’s how Variables differs.  Understanding all the variables in any given problem or person or action or thing is literally impossible and indescribably mind-boggling.  That’s why it may be the kind of thinking that is going to rock kids' worlds!  Identifying parts, aspects, factors and their relationships is like meta critical thinking.  Ouch that hurt my brain... how about we keep it simple.....

Curriculum:  9^th Grade Science - Play doh for PHD students. 

Pretend you are a group of Phd students.  Identify all the factors when considering the “nature”  of Play Doh.  The nature of this product can include but is not limited to: ingredients, their origins, chemical make up and pathways to the factory, marketing and design, intended uses, unintended uses… that should be enough prompts.

The winning team lists 254 factors/aspects…..  Can you name them all?  Do they affect each other? Are they "constants"?

Thanks for reading (more soon) – L

Lecture & The Learner

Welcome to BLOG #4!

So many topics & so much time. 

Today’s Blog is about the notion of teacher as “sage on the stage.” And what better represents this teaching style than the lecture.

I love a lecture.  Spoon feed me your digested, assimilated knowledge anytime and I will gladly listen!  A great lecture is truly a joy.  But I have an idea- let’s use the lecture not just to teach….but also as a chance to invite students into learning about learning.

Lecturing quietly expresses: “I am the expert, I am all knowing, you are the sponge, you are all seeking.” It is the dark side (glazed over students passively sitting, sneaking a peek at the phone, day dreaming, God forbid falling asleep) that needs to be addressed.

Brain research finds that 10 minutes straight of lecturing without an aside in the form of a joke or emotionally laden story is all an audience can take.  See John Medina’s book “brain rules” for much more http://www.brainrules.net/.  Lecturers must “buy” time from an audience.  Teachers can use 2 minute breaks for discussion between 8 minute lectures.  But what can be done to address the divide between the “sage” and the “sponge”?

Let’s bring students in on the secret: a good lecture is a piece of brilliant composition.

Variables:

Pace

Clarity

Humor

Repetition of ideas

Emphasis on what is really important

Connections to other material/ideas previously covered

Suspense

Hints at future material/plant seeds

To name a few…

Creating a great lecture requires VARIABLES THINKING.  Since this iconic form of teaching is here to stay, I propose a piece of curriculum that is flexible and adaptable.  The goal is to allow students to pay attention to their attention (a form of metacognition) while getting acquainted with key elements of lecture.

Curriculum:  11^th grade any discipline (this could be assigned in Science, History, etc.) 

Locate 1 lecture on the Internet.   As you listen/watch pay attention to 3 things. 1-Your engagement (tuning out versus riveted.)  2- Your connection to prior knowledge (meaning does the content of the talk “hook up” with anything you know already.) 3- Pace (your ability to keep up/follow.)  Take notes and report back to the class on these 3.

Not “science” just “subjective self-observation” designed to address where the rubber meets the road (where attention drifts and why.)  Curriculum rarely addresses this.  This basic understanding should not be reserved for the learning specialist to discover, it should be part of a holistic approach to learning.  After all, knowing something about one’s attention is a life skill.

Thanks for reading (more soon.) –L

Play Doh 3 WAYS

Welcome!

Too hard, too soft.  Too wet, too dry. Less of this, more of that.  Just right.

INT: 3^rd GRADE CLASSROOM - MORNING

Several ingredients on the table.  Students divided into groups of 3-5.  Measuring cups and 3 plastic pales per group to mix the ingredients, plenty of newspaper to cover tables.  The Internet is available/optional.

                                                    TEACHER

The kindergarten needs Play Doh and your job is to make it for them. Here are some samples of Play doh they prefer.  Feel them. Think about how you might combine ingredients to create a “perfect” Play doh. 

You must work as a team.  Good Luck.  You may try three different combinations of ingredients and decide which recipe is best.  Have fun!  And tomorrow you will explain to the kindergarten how each variable makes a difference and how you came up with your winning recipe. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I wanted to jump in and BLOG a piece of “concrete” curriculum.

Learning to think through the variables in any project is the real beginning of thinking through the project.  Reflecting and sharing the process is helpful too.

Do teachers sometimes deprive students of thinking time in an effort to keep things rolling?  Or do we do it because we already have the answers?

There is “talk” in education circles about making the teacher more of a “guide on the side” instead of a “sage on the stage.” A handy topic for my next post.

Thanks for reading (more soon.) –L

P.S. Your thoughts, questions, insights are always invited.

A river runs through it. Throughlines

Welcome!

Have you ever thought about why rivers and streams, weaving and threads are so often used in poetry and in descriptive writing?

Today’s post is about “Throughlines,” a Hollywood & Project Zero term. Project Zero sprang out of Harvard’s School of Education and Hollywood- well you know... “X character’s isolation was a throughline in this movie- we reinforced it through this, that and the other.” 

At Project Zero a throughline is all about unifying and building stronger curriculum.

The idea is that every class needs throughlines- guiding questions, themes, overarching ideas.  Throughlines help students leave a class with broad understandings. “I learned that biology is really about systems and the relationship between these systems” as opposed to “I memorized different forms of life in Latin and can list them for you.”  “I learned that risk taking is really important to being an artist” as opposed to “I studied color theory, composition, shading, and learned all about pencils.” You get the idea!

So what does this have to do with my drive to create VARIABLES THINKING- a skill for life- a K-12 Curriculum Throughline? 

Variables Thinking needs to occur in all disciplines and all grade levels for the deepest understanding to occur.  It has to be designed to be flexible, adaptable and rich yet simple/clear enough to engage. It needs to be designed to create “habits of mind” (another great Project Zero term) and it needs to take the idea of THROUGHLINE to the next level – a holistic level. I love a challenge!

And I love a good taco.

Over the years I have returned again and again to a taqueria in the Mission district of San Francisco, Pancho Villa Taqueria.  I may be a taco addict.  Pancho V is hardly the only place I consume from but I do have a loyalty to it for the freshness and customer service.  I can go months without Pancho V (not without tacos!) breaking from my weekly habit of yesteryear when you could find me at Pancho on Fridays reliably. Not now- but let me tell you how good it is to go back now…

It soothes me.  It feeds me not just literally. I love you PANCHO VILLA.

Innovative curriculum will address the need for rivers, streams, weaving and threads.

It has to be reliable and put teachers at ease.  It has to be adaptable (no sour cream today or YES make it a super today or no tortilla, I’m trying a gluten free experiment.)  It will nurture one's faith in their mind and their ability to think through a problem.

My next post will provide some hints to the river ahead!  "PLAY DOH 3 ways" is next.  This is 3rd grade curriculum.  They teach the kindergarten.... for a day.

Thanks for reading this lengthy post (more in less soon) -L

Variables Thinking- an intro!

Welcome!
Have you ever said ... "there are so many variables"  or "the problem has so many variables it is difficult to understand"... or "I'm not sure we are looking at all the moving parts here" or even "I can't begin to tease out the factors to decide what needs to change.."

If any of these thoughts has crossed your mind in any context perhaps you will be interested in my project-  VARIABLES THINKING- a skill for life.

The project came to me as an artist and educator, or I should say the project bubbled up in me through years of painting and teaching (and learning about teaching and learning.)  It was difficult not to notice a major critique of our education system- regarding the lack of critical thinking skills and teamwork skills of America's high school and college graduates.  

It has been difficult not to notice that we are a culture that hasn't taken the time to teach "how to think, and how to consider all the variables- in any given situation."

This blog will be about thinking and it will parlay/follow my journey toward creating a K-12 (Kindergarten through 12th grade) curriculum throughline.  I will explain throughlines in my next post and I will pace myself as a blogger so as not to bore, overwhelm or simply go on too long.  

But for now just think of this blog as a work in progress.  By the end it may chronicle the making of a right brained piece of curriculum that empowers teachers and students to step back and take time to think conceptually, see connections between disciplines and subjects and problems.... or it may meander through an ineffable desire to make teaching and learning richer, broader and more universal without accomplishing this goal.  We will see and I do plan to enjoy the ride!

-thanks for reading (more soon) L