Day Four Recap: A call for deep reflection

Wow! It seems strange to write a recap for day four. Time does fly when you're having fun exploring with great people.

We started off the day with a reminder... a story that saving your work is important! I wrote for about 30 minutes on the blog this morning framing up some ideas. I got distracted and hit some key combination that made the web page move back one screen. The short story is... I lost 30 minutes of writing! When you write, save often, or in the blogs case... 'Save as Draft' often. Some quick typing and another gracious ride from Mena to the school and we were off and running.

We looked at some blog posts this morning, some great work by Chris Lehmann, from the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, on his blog called Practical Theory. We looked at two of his posts today: What I ask of all SLA Teachers, and What makes a great teacher.

Snipping a bit out of both articles, Lehmann offers some great, common sense advice:

Take care of yourself. Teaching is a marathon, not a sprint, and SLA teachers do put themselves out there early and often. I want my teachers to take time for themselves every day. I want SLA teachers to take trips, go to conferences, spend time with family and spend time with each other when they don't talk about school.

Understand that your class is but one of five or six or seven classes that kids have. Understand that school is one of many things in a teenager's life. And while what goes on in your class is important, I ask that teachers remember that, at any given moment in time, there are pressures on their kids' lives that makes what goes on in our classes seem powerfully inconsequential.

Remember that benevolent dictatorship may make for an orderly class, but it rarely helps kids become better people. Giving kids opportunities to feel ownership of the classroom is important because, in the end, you can get what you want or you can get much more.

Remember that inquiry isn't just for kids. If we want our kids to always push themselves to question more, dig deeper, figure it out for themselves, we must be willing to do that too.

A willingness to change. This one gets overlooked sometimes, I think. I've written about this before, but it bears repeating. We talk about how schools should be transformative for kids, but I think they can be just as transformative for teachers. If you expect kids to be changed by their interaction with you, it's got to be a two-way street.

A willingness to reflect. You've got to be able to ask why things went the way they did... both on the good and the bad days. And you have to be able to admit when the reasons it went bad were because of what you did, not what the students did. (Equally important is the understanding that often things go right because of what the kids brought to the table, not because your lesson plan should be bronzed.) Teaching requires a willingness to cast a critical eye on your practice, your pedagogy and your self. And it can be brutal.

Ok, I pasted more quotes than I intended! It's great stuff though... true to the title of Lehmann's blog (Practical Theory)!


I just looked at the blog for the first time in a week... and there's another great post up there that was just written.


The we took a look at a speech from Benjamin Zander 'On Music and Passion' from TED.com. Zander speaks of many things in this video. Maintaining a positive perspective will give you energy. Listening... is important. Practicing your craft... takes time, patience, love, and humility. Passion... transforming from impulse playing to, as he puts it, "one buttock playing" takes... all of the above. 

"... For me to join the B to the E, I have to stop thinking about every... single... note... along the way and start thinking about the long, long line from B to E."

My favorite part of the speech... "The conductor of an orchestra doesn't make a sound.... He depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful. I realized my job was to make other people powerful. And that changed everything for me... I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people... You know how you find out?... you look at their eyes, if there eyes are shining you know you're doing it... if the eyes are not shining... you get to ask a question... who am I being that my childrens eyes are not shining?"


Important perspectives, and important questions on personal craft and the craft of teaching. Deep reflection is a tough business. It's easy to beat yourself up, frustrated at what you don't know, what you can't do well, what you didn't do well. The trick though is patience, a positive attitude and perspective (the shoe salesman story from the Zander vid!) and a willingness to learn and collaborate. Ultimately though, committing to moving forward will help you recharge and grow, and to set a new course.


Here's Zander's full speech on TED:



After a short break, we took off on some project work. Many continued chipping away, and many shored up week-long inquiries. Some started prepping for tomorrow... and many, I think, started some deep reflection... and the realization is setting in that this is the final class coming up of a long journey.

We took a break for lunch and then dove into a quick recap of iTunes U and OpenCourseWare at MIT.

iTunes has a load of resources it can access on the web via 'iTunes U' and via the Podcast sections on the menu. Open iTunes and click on iTunes U and Podcasting on the top menu bar and explore! You can also get some background info here: http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/  There's an unbelievable amount of free content there... and don't forget to use the search box to find things you are interested in!

Then we dove into a quick intro on one incredible movement and mission called OpenCourseWare at MIT. A university giving away its undergraduate and graduate intellectual property took, well, some guts! Their efforts have made the incredible resources and intellectual capital available to the world and inspired other institutions to do the same. The site reveals more about the history of the program (it launched in 2001), and a great story of what's coming up next on their A Decade of Open Sharing Page.

Our friend Ari reflects on the week.

We said a farewell of sorts to Ari today. Ari left class a day early, off to her new job tomorrow. Before Ari left, she shared her work and reflections this week with the class, a tale of many projects and collaborative learning. Ari's been a mentor to many here in class and in this school and it's easy to see the admiration and love for her in the room. Best wishes, Ari, on the new job!

For all these great folks, a three-year journey of Masters classwork is coming to an end. With such times come tears... of accomplishment, joy, sadness, and the euphoria of closing out a long journey... and the excitement that the future brings.

Tomorrow we'll have some conversational presentations on learning this week... and with that, a whole range of fulfilling emotions, and hopefully a great celebration!