This is an outstanding example of creative problem solving.
Being creative requires using different lenses and breaking through static or ingrained thought patterns. On a number of different levels, this video exemplifies how to turn obstacles into opportunities. It’s about a 7 minute video, and a little slow (with intro material) in the beginning, but hang in there and prepare to be wowed.
MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
This short article is from a business and marketing blog, but it relates to teaching perfectly. We had an interesting conversation about intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation at my Masters class yesterday. And it relates to that as well.
Wienies are extra.
Wienies are what you give the audience after they think they’re already satisfied.
Wienies are what you add when what you have is good – but not good enough.
No boss will demand that you add a wienie. In fact, your boss would prefer that you don’t waste your time with wienies.
A wienie is something you add for the sheer joy of it–not for any extrinsic reward or result or expectation. A wienie is what takes a project from good to great–a lesson or unit from beneficial to memorable.
I work with a seasoned veteran teacher who refuses to go on overnight field trips with students. She cites an example from early in her career when she did chaperon an overnight and ended up holding her breath for nine months praying that one of the students wasn’t pregnant.
This story coming out of South Carolina reminded me of that–and reinforced my own reasons for not doing field trips like this either.
Every spring we take our 8th graders on a two day field trip to Madison, our state capital. It’s about a 5-hour bus ride from here so we book rooms and get volunteer parents to help chaperon. It’s a good experience. The kids have fun touring the capital, visiting some shops on State Street, and strolling through museums. These are educational experiences we can not duplicate in St. Croix Falls.
I am an 8th grade teacher. These are my students. But I never go with them.
I always feel a little pang of guilt when this roles around every year. I don’t have to go–so I don’t. In the past, I had a second job I just didn’t feel right about leaving during that time. I also have a family and responsibilities to attend to on that front.
But those aren’t the real reasons I don’t go.
From my perspective, this is strictly a control and exposure issue. And the risks are not worth the reward. Middle schoolers are hard enough to control in the classroom. Now put them in a bunch of hotel rooms with a little piece of tape on the door and try to get a little sleep yourself? Fuggetaboutit. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about 13-15 year-olds it’s this:
Stuff happens–and fast. I mean lightning fast.
I don’t care how good you are. I don’t care how prudent you are.
I’ll give you a quick example:
Earlier this spring I took our 8th graders to a National Park headquarters for a short presentation on the National St. Croix Riverway. It’s right downtown, so I was actually able to take 4 smallish (20-25 students) groups one at a time. There was a brief film to watch in an auditorium, a brief talk by a park ranger, and some time to browse a through a few interactive museum exhibits.
One of these exhibits was a clear cylinder filled with about 5 gallons of water and stuff that naturally falls into the river like grass, leaves, etc . . . This cylinder was on a pivot so you could turn it around and see this sort of tea like mixture float and sink to the bottom. The idea is that this stuff naturally decays and gives the water a unique blend of pigments and nutrients.
Anyway, I’m milling around talking to students when I notice it’s about time to wrap up and hop back on the bus. So I make an announcement to head back into the auditorium for a little wrap-up by the ranger when I turn and see one of my students spinning this cylinder like a toy on a playground. He wanted to see how fast he could get it spinning.
I didn’t even have enough time to shout his name before the top of the cylinder pops off spilling water and rotting vegetation all over the floor and himself. What a mess. I wanted to rip the kid’s head off. I was incredibly angry. I was incredibly embarrassed–and for the record, so was the kid.
Here’s what you need to know about this particular example and, really, almost anything dealing with this age group. This kid is not your straight A-model-student. This guy’s more like a B-type-of-easily-distracted-boy. Make no mistake, he’s no angel. But neither is he the type of kid that’s always getting in trouble–or even on your nerves. He’s just kind of average. Normal. He didn’t mean to make that mess. I made sure he apologized to the park rangers both in person when it happened and in a letter of apology (I mean what a great opportunity for a writing assignment, right?), and he did both without hesitation. And I believe he did both sincerely.
And then later in the day, he sought me out and apologized to me.
You should have seen his face when he turned around at that museum. He was completely soaked and stunk immediately of river rot. Sure I was livid. But nobody was more surprised, embarrassed or remorseful than this kid. And it happened about 1 second faster than I needed to prevent it. He just lost his mind. A momentary laps of reason. And he paid for it.
I was thankful that the authorities at the park were so understanding. Which brings me back to why I don’t do overnight field trips.
Check out this mom’s response (from the story linked to above) upon learning her 14-year-old had been suspended from school for having sex on a field trip:
. . . The 14-year-old says she and six of her classmates have been suspended for the remainder of the school year.
“That’s why I’m upset. My child gets punished for an action she made, but what actions are they taking against the chaperone?” the mom told WIS News 10.
According to the mom, the chaperones were in another room when the girls snuck out of their room.
I’m sorry, ” . . .what kind of actions are they taking against the chaperone?” Are you kidding me?
Now (according to this logic) your kid screws up (oops a pun) and the chaperone should get punished? I’m not even going to address the fact that many of these chaperones are volunteering their time to supervise your kid. How about taking a little responsibility.
This kind of attitude burns me up. But it’s reality. And I know it. Therefor I use my own brand of logic to deduce that, as a professional, if I’m going to be held responsible for things ultimately out of my control, the risks are too great. Bad things happen with this age group–and they happen way too fast.
Yeah, my students wonder why I don’t go to Madison with them, but when I read (or watch) stories like this (this time in video format), I’m pretty sure I’m making the right decision here.
Glen Beck, a commentary writer for CNN and radio talk-show host, wrote an eye opening piece recently entitled Tax-free hypocrisy from higher education. This is interesting. I had no idea.
The top five college and university endowments reported a combined value of over $100 billion at the end of 2007. That’s five funds, a hundred billion in cash. Not a nickel in tax. Not an ounce of outrage.
Harvard University, which has the largest endowment in the country, has a total of $34.6 billion. To put into perspective just how much money that is, consider that the largest charitable foundation in the world, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has a total endowment of $37.3 billion.
But while their financial statements may look similar, their missions aren’t. The Gates Foundation is working to cure malaria, develop new tuberculosis vaccines, and stop the spread of AIDS. Most of our colleges and universities are only working to spread the radical political views of some of their professors.
This point was particularily interesting:
For what’s been estimated to be about $300 million a year (less than 1 percent of their endowment’s value) Harvard could completely waive tuition, room and board for every single one of their students. Instead, they announced an increase in those fees of about 3.5 percent for next year. Being a student at Harvard will now cost a staggering $47,215 a year.
Now I’m starting to get mad.
CNN Money uses numbers to paint an interesting picture of teaching nation-wide. Lots of jobs opening up, lots of layoffs, lots of larger classes to teach, little (relatively speaking) money to be made.
. . . In addition to the relatively low pay, heavy workload and bureaucratic pressures that have become synonymous with the profession, many more teachers throughout the country face layoffs because of budget issues, according to the National Education Association, the union that represents 3.2 million education professionals nationwide.
. . . Despite the layoffs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said that teaching K-12 is one of the top-growing job markets nationwide, in terms of sheer volume. The Bureau estimates a nationwide increase of 479,000 jobs between 2006 and 2016, to more than 4.4 million.
My take on money and teaching?
I’m not going to complain. I made my own bed when I left a higher paying job as a plant and production manager, and now I’m sleeping in it. I started teaching full-time seven years ago. We couldn’t make ends meet on just my salary so I got a second job purchasing supplies for a nursing home. Last winter, however, I left that job to pursue a Masters degree in Teaching and Learning.
I love the study (this blog was actually born of it), but it’s a professional development move that I’m paying for in more than one way. The degree itself will cost over $10,000. The lost wages from the second job I left will combine to over $20,000 before my degree is complete. Of course my district will (or at least they’re supposed to) start paying me $2,500 more a year 4 months after I get my Masters. So it’s pretty clear that this doesn’t really make a lot of sense when you look at my immediate bottom line.
Still, I pretty much love what I do. I just wish I didn’t have to go into such debt doing it.
If the player below takes too long to load, please just follow this link to her speech at TED Talks. It works great there.
You don’t want to miss her Stroke of Insight. Since she delivered this speech in February, this video has spread across the internet like wildfire. Her originally self-published book, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey will be re-released (by Viking) May 12. Which also happens to be the same day she’ll show up on the cover of Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people. And if that isn’t enough, she’ll also be interviewed by Oprah on her Soul Series Webcast.
Apparently I’m not the only one thinking this is pretty cool.
The easy part is understanding a new technology; what’s harder is to think creatively about it.
In this 3 minute video, Jason Pontin, editor in chief of the MIT published Technology Review, tells an interesting story about tanks, technology and how to stay young.
I like how he sums it up:
How can we be unconfounded by new technologies and remain creatively challenged by them?
We must be as little attached to the past as teenagers. We must expand the critical faculties we have, not in the disparagement of new technologies but in thinking intelligently, rationally and joyfully about how they can change our lives for the better.
Is the pursuit of intelligence–intelligent? This from an interesting short article in the New York Times:
Intelligence, it turns out, is a high-priced option. It takes more upkeep, burns more fuel and is slow off the starting line because it depends on learning — a gradual process — instead of instinct. Plenty of other species are able to learn, and one of the things they’ve apparently learned is when to stop.
What do you get when you cross a science nerd with a jazz saxophonist? Apparently, a researcher with enough curiosity, talent and intelligence to actually video, in real time, the brain functions of people at their most creative.
A friend of mine recently pointed me to the story of Charles J. Limb, M.D., a researcher and jazz musician at Johns Hopkins University.
Using advanced MRI scans, Limb and his pals have recently taken some pretty cool pictures of the human brain during intense periods of creativity. Their mission: To measure the difference between a brain in a normal state and one rocking out during a jam session.
Florida biology teacher says she was fired because of a part-time job.
Job requirements include, “looking hot in a bikini”–for the part-time job, not the teaching job.