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