I Tech, Therefore I Think

I Tech, Therefore I Think

Design Thinking: An Introduction (Crafted for NAIS)

Design Thinking: An Introduction

God Particle & Education

Welcome back dear readers one or many.  It has been too long since I've put energy into this wild and crazy blog about my recipe for education.  Gotta love a blah blah blog for this!


Remember my proposal: "Variables Thinking" across K-12 and across disciplines.  Students routinely reflect, analyze, play and act on their understanding of the various moving parts in a situation.  They learn that all problems have aspects and elements that interact and that figuring the right balance is key.  They learn this skill is transferable between disciplines and types of challenges.

Great... but what else might be missing from schools?



I think it is the "GOD PARTICLE"  (or GOD DAMN PARTICLE if you prefer.)  The finding of the particle that attracts matter and is the beginning of everything seems an apt metaphor for what our schools are trying to find.  More than ever educators are redefining what matters in teaching and learning and doing their best to find meaning, define and build curriculum that "gets the job done."


At this stage, having a GOD PARTICLE to organize curricular vision is needed. 
And what should this GOD PARTICLE look like or be?

I think every school should take the time to define that vision in 3 words, and then make a promise to their community that they will make these three words real and realized.

Creativity, Communication, Curiosity
Reflective, Resourceful, Responsible
Innovative, Interconnected, Interesting
Leadership, Life Affirming, Persistant
Technological, Inclusive, Global


What I think is most interesting about this is the process teachers and administration (and possibly students too) would go through to reach consensus.  Herein perhaps lies the real "goods" of this proposal.

Thanks for reading!
-Lisa B

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/story/2012-07-05/Higgs-boson-explanation-particle-physics/56045722/1

Q: What does it do?

A: Simply put, the Higgs particle interacts with other subatomic particles that are building blocks of atoms in a way that slows them down. It's the reason that matter in the universe has mass. Mass gives the particles inertia, or resistance to being moved faster.

Q: What is a simple analogy that describes this effect?

A: Compare Higgs bosons to groupies mobbing a celebrity. The other particles are the celebrities, desperately trying to move but slowed by autograph-seekers. Higgs bosons don't have pens, but the attention they give to the other particles slows them, creating inertia.

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…..