The Wayfinders by Wade Davis

As Explorer-in-Residence at National Geographic, Wade Davis may well have the coolest job in the world and definitely the best title.  And while his recent collection of lectures does give us a peak into the life of a modern-day explorer, it also is a collection of some of the most poignant prose and thoughtful evaluation of modernity I have read in quite some time.  With discussions of the power of language to craft culture and the void created when languages are lost and the force of sacred geography and how we respond to the physical spaces in our lives, this book touches on so many things that continue to come to mind in conversations in class.  I can't recommend the book enough...

I'll leave this with two quotes:

"We too are culturally myopic and often forget that we represent not the absolute wave of history but merely a worldview, and that modernity -- whether you identify it by the monikers westernization, capitalism, democracy, or free trade -- is but an expression of our cultural values.  It is not some objective force removed from the constrains of culture.  And it is certainly not the true and only pulse of history" (p 193).

From the Joint Declaration of the Mamos of the Sierra Nevadas:   

"Who will pay the universal mother for the air we breathe, the water that flows, the light of the sun?  Everything that exists has a spirit that is sacred and must be respected.  Our law is the Law of Origins, the Law of Life.  We invite all the Younger Brothers to be guardians of life.  We affirm our promise to the Mother, and issue a call for solidarity and unity for all peoples and all nations" (p 147).

Against School?

This article is probably the most interesting piece I've ever read on education.  I find myself challenged everytime I read it.  I question how much overlap I have with the historical model, the breadth and meaning of the content I teach, the level of curiosity and thinking that really goes on in the room.  It's from Harper's Magazine and came out when I first started teaching.  Teacher Man, by Frank McCourt, comes to mind as a parallel.

Against School

Yet Another Argument for Practice

Another argument for the importance of practice (although Allen Iverson might disagree http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGDBR2L5kzI) - it's not just for students.  The article notes that practicing something beforehand with a colleague reduces anxiety, and most importantly, yields results.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/jobs/in-the-workplace-practice-puts-perfection-in-reach.html?hpw

As a follow-up, an interesting post from Freakonomics with links to relevant pieces on 'deliberate practice'.

http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/05/04/deliberate-practice-how-education-fails-to-produce-expertise/

Advocating for "long reads"...

Schooling: What Should Children Read?

Shakespeare vs. menus: The battle over public school reading lists.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/what-should-children-read/?smid=pl-share

This article references the type of longform writing that provides opportunities for breadth of subject matter, but enough depth to challenge the reader in important ways.  Both ProPublica and Longform are fantastic sites, and of course the Gladwell articles from the New Yorker are powerful reminders of how good non-fiction writing can be.

Links:

http://www.gladwell.com/

http://longform.org/

www.propublica.org

Freedom & Diversity: A Liberal Pentagram for Living Together by Timothy Garton Ash | The New York Review of Books

While he is writing specifically about today's Europe, Ash's comments on multiculturalism (or moving beyond it) have relevance to our school communities as well.  He writes:

Nor is this only a task for public policy. It is the personal responsibility of every one of us who lives in such a society. The character of everyday interactions, at school, at work, on the street, in the café, will affect the attitudes of migrants and postmigrants at least as much as any high policy. Small slights alienate, small courtesies integrate.

Freedom & Diversity: A Liberal Pentagram for Living Together by Timothy Garton Ash | The New York Review of Books

This American Life: The Importance of 'Character'

     I really enjoyed this podcast of 'This American Life' - it brings a personal voice to many of the ideas discussed in Paul Tough's book How Children Succeed:  Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character (which Ryan Spring recommended as a 'Good Read' in an earlier post).  Although the podcast and the book both deal with problems in the Chicago Public Schools we certainly do not encounter at Blair, the discussion of the importance of 'character' is relevant to Blair's classrooms, athletic fields, and residential life.  You can get the podcast on iTunes or listen to/download it here:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/474/back-to-

Happy Thanksgiving!

Three Random Links...

There's no real connection between these links, but they are things I've come across in my readings over the past couple of days and I thought they may be of interest:



1)  Freedom:  Internet blocking.  A simple app that blocks all internet activity for a period of time in order to help focus our work offline.  This has been recommended by a huge number of content creators and media professionals.  Perhaps, it could find a role to play in our academic/residential environment as well.

http://macfreedom.com/

2) Zotero:  Pinterest for Researchers.  I've not played with this much yet, but it has been recommended to me by some friends as something that has revolutionized their reading, researching, and writing along with Evernote and DropBox.

http://www.zotero.org/

3)  An Easy Way to Reduce Cheating:  Willingham argues that the context within which we discuss honest really does matter.  Labeling people as cheaters confronts the basic self concept of honesty in a way that doesn't allow them to rationalize cheating-behaviour.  An interesting argument...

http://www.danielwillingham.com/1/post/2012/11/an-easy-trick-to-reduce-cheating.html

'Old School' Skills Matter

Some "old school" skills worth teaching:
This Time article shows the continuing value of some "old school" skills and why students still need them. Using word roots and basic math facts are keys to higher skills in language and mathematics. Listening to skilled reading aloud appeals to students of all ages.

Why Kids Should Learn Cursive...

What Distinguishes a Super School?

The link to this article from Time showed up in a Teach for America school leadership newsletter I get.  The following line is most interesting:  What the study shows, Ellison and Swanson suggest, is that a school’s expectations and environment matter even for students who arrive with every advantage.  The article reminded me of the "Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition", where several teachers were informed of students who were "ready to bloom", even though the students were not floral in any appreciable way.  Turns out expectations matter- a lot.

Time's article: 

http://ideas.time.com/2012/09/06/what-distinguishes-a-superschool-from-the-rest/

And the Harvard study, via NPR:

http://m.npr.org/story/161159263

Steven Pinker - The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

I was just reading Pinker's book on the decline of violence - fascinating, if not a tad long, but I was struck by this quote he had arguing for why empathy with the regard for human life began to rise during the 18th century leading to a decrease in violence; specifically, events like live cat burning and the stockades.  Pinker looks at many of the theories put forward and settles on the idea that the increasingly wide-spread ability to read because of cheaper books and an increase in the literacy rate lead to a growth in empathy.

"Reading is a technology for perspective-taking.  When someone else's thoughts are in your head, you are observing the world from that person's vantage point.  Not only are you taking in sights and sounds that you could not experience firsthand, but you are stepped inside that person's mind and are temporarily sharing his or her attitudes and reactions...Stepping into someone else's vantage point reminds you that the other fellow has a first-person, present-tense, ongoing stream of consciousness that is very much like your own but not the same as your own...Slipping even for a moment into the perspective of someone who is turning black in a pillory or desperately pushing burning faggots away from her body or convulsing under the two hundredth stroke of the lash may give a person second thoughts as to whether these cruelties should ever be visited on anyone." (175)

Another good argument to encourage our students to read both deeply and widely.

Arthur Levine on Millennials & the Digital Native Generation

An interesting summary of Levine's impressions of the Millennial/Digital Native generation.  As boarding school faculty, we are fortunate to be in a position where we can make strides re: this generation's ability to communicate face-face, to learn from failure and to take ownership of their decisions 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/arthur-levine-discusses-the-new-generation-of-college-students.html?ref=edlife&_r=0

--
Rachel E. Stone

Assistant Headmaster for Faculty

2 Conflicting Ideas of Struggle

I've considered the role of struggle regularly over the past few years, both as a teacher and a coach.  The NPR clip is from this morning and details cultural differences between East and West concerning "struggle" in schools.  The Psychology Today link downplays the role of struggle, even going so far as to argue it's negative.  As a coach, I bounce between teaching technique and proper training, both of which occur at low intensities- intensities which are far below those in a race.  As a teacher, I want my kids to struggle, especially in the classroom, but there are basics they ought to know to make any struggle relevant.

Both are quick and easy, though the topics are not.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/12/164793058/struggle-for-smarts-how-eastern-and-western-cultures-tackle-learning?ft=1&f=1001

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/insight-therapy/201008/what-doesnt-kill-you-makes-you-weaker

Journaling for Athletes

This article focuses on the use of journaling to help athletes improve their athletic performance.  A UMaine professor, Richard Kent, has worked with athletes and coaches at a variety of levels to develop and refine his template for an "athlete's notebook."  On page 4 of the article Kent lays out the five sections he uses for his notebook.

http://umainetoday.umaine.edu/past-issues/fall-2012/sports-writers/

I will try a modified version of his approach with my girls' JV basketball team this winter.  I may use Google docs instead of physical notebooks so that I can keep better track of their responses.

Hearing is Easy, Listening is Hard

In the 'The Science and Art of Listening' (link below), Seth Horowitz, notes that 'hearing' and 'listening' are two distinct processes our brains continually perform.  In the article, he discusses the various levels of hearing that occur,  the importance that should be placed on this vastly underrated sense, and our brains ability to switch its 'attention' to those sounds that it thinks are important - how then to make what occurs in class important enough to students to trigger listening.  He notes that '[listening] is a skill that we're in danger of losing in a world of digital distraction and information', but that '[luckily], we can train our listening just as with any other skill. Listen to new music when jogging rather than familiar tunes. Listen to your dog’s whines and barks: he is trying to tell you something isn’t right. Listen to your significant other’s voice — not only to the words, which after a few years may repeat, but to the sounds under them, the emotions carried in the harmonics. You may save yourself a couple of fights.'

The article prompted me to think about how to encourage listening in my classroom, and to try think about different ways of helping students to train their listening skills.  During discussions this year, I have tried to emphasize to the students that they should strive to use each other's names, make eye contact, use parts of what was said previously to construct their own comments, use the text as much as possible, keep a pen in hand, and to work on keeping open/attentive body language, but I would enjoy hearing from others how they help students to 'listen' rather than just 'hear' in class.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/opinion/sunday/why-listening-is-so-much-more-than-hearing.html?smid=pl-share

Klingenstein Summer Institute

http://www.klingenstein.org/content/summer-institute

If you are a faculty member in your 2nd-5th year of full-time teaching, please take a moment to explore the link below.  The Klingenstein Summer Institute has proven to be an invaluable experience, and we strongly encourage you to apply if interested.  The application deadline is January 15th, 2013; the 2013 Summer Institute will run from June 19 to July 2 on Lawrenceville's campus.

From their website:

Dedicated to affirming beginning teachers and encouraging their continued growth, the Klingenstein Summer Institute gathers 75 teachers from around the world for an exploration of teaching styles, educational philosophies, educational issues and personal development. Meeting for two weeks in late June, the Institute challenges these participants to embrace the complexities of the classroom and to explore the art of teaching and the delicate balance of subject mastery, judgment, intuition and creativity.
This intensive program offered in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, is especially designed to make teachers more effective leaders in the classroom and throughout the school. Participants come together in a variety of workshops, seminars, and collaborative exercises, and are guided by prominent education experts, talented Teachers College professors, and master teachers. Participants also attend a theater production in New York City and explore the neighboring town of Princeton.
The Klingenstein Summer Institute offers a full fellowship, including tuition for four graduate credits, as well as room and board. In addition to the high caliber of the academic program, meals prepared by prominent chefs are a highlight of the Institute.

  

The Heart Grows Smarter

    

     On Tuesday, Election Day, David Brooks chose to write about the Grant Study that I mentioned during my Chapel a few weeks ago.  He focused on one of the key findings of the the study, that  '[the] positive effect of one loving relative, mentor or friend can overwhelm the negative effects of the bad things that happen.'  I have created a permalink to the article here, and I encourage you to take a look at it on your own:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/opinion/brooks-the-heart-grows-smarter.html?hp&_r=0
     As we go through our daily professional lives at Blair, it struck me that we are, possibly/hopefully, helping to foster and create just these types of relationships for our students which will serve them throughout their lives as they encounter the usual obstacles and challenges that life presents.  Brooks also chose to focus on one particular member of the Grant Study who seemed to 'turn things around' and achieve the type of success he always sought starting in his 60's, demonstrating that we are all life-long learners, and that in fact, all of us can change, grow, and develop at any point in our lives.  
     For further reading, here is the link to The Atlantic article that goes into the Grant Study in greater detail:  http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/

Social and Emotional Education in a Community

The selection below is from a blog post by author Sam Chaltain (I've put the link to his blog below).  It inspired me to think about how we as an educational community structure social and emotional education at Blair.  While we regularly talk about this type of education as a strength of the school, there is little conversation about how this education is actually provided, other than through the "process" of Blair life.  Should we be looking at a more curriculum based approach to educating the whole student at Blair?  Are there are methodologies already developed out there in the world that would help us engineer more formal opportunities for social and emotional education in our dorms, our school meetings, our chapels, our dining hall and our classrooms?  How can we maintain a conversation about this issue at Blair?

The good news is that our historically myopic view of schools as knowledge factories is starting to fade away, and public voices like Brooks and Tough are helping to promote a more holistic view of education to a wider audience of Americans. The bad news is that too many public voices are continuing to overlook a body of research and evidence-based practices that schools can rely on right now to transform their learning environments.  Across the entirety of his new book, for example, Tough cites copious research studies and school-based programs – yet not once does he reference the expansive field – social and emotional learning, or SEL – that has, for twenty years, been at the forefront of researching how schools can apply the science of learning in ways that will deepen, not diminish, the art of teaching. (Sam Chaltain)

Links that may prove relevant to the discussion:
Sam Chaltain's full blogpost
The Ruler Approach
Greater Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life
Yale's Health, Emotion, and Behavioral Laboratory
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning
Responsive Classrooms

Using Blogs with your Class

 

 I recently started using blogs for both my AP U.S. History and Western Civilization classes.  The Western Civilization blog has been a tad slower getting off the ground because of the power outages, but so far, I am quite happy with the results of the AP U.S. History blog and the posts the kids have created.  I task one student for each class to blog about our discussion, the areas we found confusing or that connected to previous discussions, or to write about whatever they feel like on that day.  The kids can post by sending an email which then goes into the 'drafts' section of the blog - I then go in and edit and add 'labels' so that the posts are easily searchable.

     My hope is that over the course of the year the blog will serve as a forum for discussion, a repository for the collective memory of the class, and a helpful site for students to review the ideas and topics we covered during the year.

AP U.S. History Blog:  http://blairacademy-apush.blogspot.com/

Western Civilization Blog:  http://blairacademy-westerncivilization.blogspot.com/

Many-to-One vs. One-to-Many: An Opinionated Guide to Educational Technology — The American Magazine

Another Econtalk podcast (see my previous posting regarding the interview with Paul Tough) led me to this article by Arnold Kling.  In this brief article, Kling offers his assessment of various technologies (tablets) or practices (flipping classrooms) that are being promoted in educational circles.  In particular Mike Eckert and I are going to use on upcoming unit to test out the "Independent Certification" idea he promotes.  Using Mike's syllabus, I will create and grade the assessment of his students.  Many-to-One vs. One-to-Many: An Opinionated Guide to Educational Technology — The American Magazine