Seeing and Drawing

A few weeks ago we traveled to St. Louis where we are working with the Lower School at Principia.  When we are in St. Louis we always look forward to visiting our home schools, St. Michael School of Clayton and The College School.  This visit, we were struck by student work of quality and the support of teachers that rendered student learning visible and striking. At Principia we witnessed a class of kindergarten and first grade students learning to carefully observe and contour draw leaves that they had collected outside their classroom as a part of a long term study of the woods nearby.

On the door of the kindergarten at The College School we saw careful drawings of sunflowers from the school garden among many other drawings and paintings from life around the school.

This month, in addition to school visits, Ashley and I had two lovely experiences tucked into the weeks of our autumn.  One was a watercolor class with artist Kate Gridley in Middlebury, and  the other, a trip to Ireland's northwest coast to visit good friends whose house sits on the edge of Clew Bay.  In our watercolor class, we renewed our own process of using materials thoughtfully as well as studying the world around us in a focused way so that we might represent it.

Slowing down to observe and notice carefully takes time and care.  Working with beautiful materials is a pleasure.  What we take away is a new way of seeing and also a memory of a process that requires us to be present and be in relationship with what we are studying.

I heard the most marvelous story the other day while listening to Krista Tippet interview Mirabai Bush who has been a leader in contemplative practice and mindfulness based stressed reduction.  Mirabai told the story of leading a several day introduction to mindfulness for college freshmen.  After a period of time studying and being present with a leaf, a football player who was the first to speak in the group, said, "May I say something?"  Mirabai said, "Yes, of course."  He said, "I love my leaf."

This is what happens when we are present and truly let ourselves notice every detail of small things.  And this is what happens when we draw or paint.  This summer during our Harvard summer Institute, Arts and Passion Driven Learning, Carlina Rinaldi said..."this is where real learning leads us...to make something beautiful for ourselves and for others."

May we all take time, make time, slow down, notice, pay attention, fall in love with the world, use beautiful materials and all the languages we have to represent what we love, and make beautiful things, for ourselves and for others.

Learning That Lasts

We have been reading Ron Berger's latest book, co-written with Libby Woodfin and Anne Vilen, Learning that Lasts.  Since his ground breaking book, An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students, Ron and others from Expeditionary Learning have written and edited a series of wonderful, detailed, specific books about teaching and learning that we find so helpful. These include Leaders of Their Own Learning and Transformational Literacy.   One aspect of Learning that Lasts that we appreciate so much is a review of what is called the workshop model in teaching and learning.  The authors name a revised workshop model Workshop 2.0 and refer to the original model as Workshop 1.0.  They outline how these approaches are similar and how they are different.  The most striking difference in Workshop 2.0 is the emphasis placed on student thinking, wondering and grappling with ideas and concepts often before the teacher teaches.  There is enormous value placed on students making a concept their own and making sense of it through dialogue with peers, hands on messing about and, in the end, producing work that matters to them and to others.  The authors review the Workshop 2.0 process for writing and for math.  In their chapter entitled, "Creating Scientists and Historians," there is a similar emphasis on student ownership and real world work as well as uncovering big ideas, disciplinary frameworks, and diverse perspectives.

In addition to the very informative chapters, the book includes Case Studies, specific examples and stories that illustrate the practices that they write about. In the chapter "Teaching in and Through the Arts," Linda Henke and Louise contributed a case study from Maplewood Richmond Heights Elementary School whose guiding metaphor is "School as Museum." Linda and Louise wrote an iBook about the teaching and learning practices at this school that we are able to send to people who are interested.  Let us know.

This detailed and very practical book also features videos of all of the workshop models and practices that the authors discuss in the book.  Many of these videos are available on the Expeditionary Learning website which is a fabulous resource for all of us.  So much of what EL produces is free for the public because it is a central part of their mission to broadly and widely change the conversation and the practice about student achievement.  Ron points out that currently all student achievement is based on test scores and that never again in a student's life will that be true.  From graduation onward, students will be judged on what kind of person they are and the quality of the work that they do.  Though students at EL schools do very well on tests and are nearly all accepted at top colleges, the primary achievement that is celebrated at EL schools is students' character and the high quality of their work for a public audience.

With that in mind, and also for pure enjoyment, view this video produced by second graders at the Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston, MA about their study of snakes.  Also go to the EL website and learn more about the resources and practices that guided their study.  We hope that you read this book.  It is powerful and immediately useful and transformative.  It is learning that lasts.

"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"

We received the following question in an email from our wonderful colleagues at Buckingham Browne & Nichols (BB&N), Anthony Reppucci, Assistant Director of the Lower School and Susan Kinsky, second grade teacher: Hi Louise and Ashley,

This afternoon Susan and I were talking and she was telling me about some conversations she was having with groups in her class. The conversation was about monarch butterflies. In second grade monarchs are not a big study, just something done in the first few weeks of school in science, but the conversation was interesting and we were interested in your thoughts. The conversations were different in each group and the direction came from the kids:

Group 1- Conversation about monarchs and asking questions about why they always migrate to Mexico. In this group someone said, "The big question is what is so special about Mexico?"

Group 2- How do monarchs pass down information from one generation to the next? The kids came up with theories on this and discussed them. 

If a teacher wanted to move forward with this conversation, how would you both do it?  For group 2 we thought kids could  show their theories on paper? We were just interested in hearing your thoughts. 

Here are my thoughts…in no particular order.

Paul Simon’s "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover"comes to mind.  On September 8th we attended a fabulous concert in Middlebury with Clint Bierman and Peter Day, lead musicians of The Grift.   They sang their own original songs as well as seventeen classics of Simon and Garfunkel.  The song came to mind, I think, because it evoked both possibility and pathos.  "He/she's the love of my life...but I've got other things I gotta do...."  Isn't this a bit like when you're in a classroom of live minds and one comes up with a fabulous idea, and you think, wowowow, but I have a zillion things I HAVE to do before lunch time.  What if, though, in our infinite wisdom, we remember when Carlina Rinaldi encouraged us all to imagine a hundred ways learning might occur around an experience.  She said, "Then, we might be ready for the hundred and one ways that children might imagine."

The concert and the song comes to mind mostly because…What do teachers do with giant opportunities such as this?  Often, like one line in this song, they Slip out the back, Jack becausethey are preoccupied with their own agenda and they don't really LISTEN to their students…they just move on to their OWN next thought.

However, there is also a following line in the song: Make a new plan, Stan.  If we really LISTEN to the children, we can make THEIR thinking our main agenda. This is what Susan and Anthony are in the midst of doing.  They have listened, stopped and wondered...How can be best honor our students' thinking and their original inquiry and questions?

What’s so special about Mexico?  

Possibilities for extending their thinking include:

You wonder about why they always go to Mexico and not to Brazil?  Why do you think…?

What is migration, anyway?

Do you know other animals that migrate?

Do humans migrate?

What is so special about Mexico?  What have you heard about Mexico?  (Be prepared for a political discussion!)

How do monarchs pass down information from one generation to the next?’ 

How do you think the information is passed down?  What are your theories?

What is the information that is passed down?

What is a generation?

Have you learned information from your parents?  What?

Have you found information in other ways?

What, how?

And on and on…following the big concepts: migration, genetics, geography, climate change, the wonders all around us…others?

Teacher’s role: record in writing…on white board…on poster board…near community meeting center.

Then, with each big theory, How could you show this idea?  Could you draw it?  What other materials could you use?

Then, after each group has developed a representation of their theory, have them present to the whole group.  Guide them in a discussion:

1. Present idea and representation

2. Ordered sharing from the whole group of “what did you see?”…then, “what associations are you making with their idea?”…then, “from what you’ve heard in this discussion, what do you wonder about?”

3. What is a next step in your investigation/research?

Now, having said all this, what am I missing?  What opportunities do you think of?  THAT is, of course, the wonder of collaborating with colleagues…to think more deeply about what happened and, therefore, what could happen.

By the way, there is a wonderful school in Miami, La Scuola, where students, teachers and parents are devoting the entire year to investigating: What is migration?  They are a largely Hispanic demographic.  Stay tuned for more on their investigations…and, hopefully, also BB&N’s.

Preparing Classrooms for a New Year

A fresh start is a good thing.  A new year promises an exciting learning journey, months of building relationships, celebrating milestones of achievement as well as living the challenges, joys, and ups and downs of daily life in school. Spending time organizing, freshening, cleaning, and designing learning environments for a new year is one of the ways that we, as teachers prepare to greet our students, set the stage for expectations, and create irresistible and welcoming places to read, make, share, gather, wonder and discover. Earlier this month, Ashley and I spent several afternoons helping our daughter-in-law, Caroline Cadwell, as she prepared a new classroom in Brookline where she will teach first grade this year.  

In the last week, we have received several images of newly prepared and reorganized classrooms from friends and colleagues.  Here is the newly reorganized atelier at The College School in St. Louis that Sarah Hassing atelierista posted on Instagram.

The last image features a fresh organization of the first grade classroom that Amena Zavery designed at Buckingham Browne & Nichols.

For helpful resources and inspiration for classroom design and organization, see this article from Edutopia and related links sent to us by Anthony Reppucci, Assistant Director of the Lower School at Buckingham, Browne & Nichols.

We know that many teachers and students start back to school this week and next and that some have been back in school already for some time! Organizing and refreshing a classroom to be a learning home for the year is an on going, daily process and part of the culture that builds with the classroom community.  These images are all linked to the websites of the schools where they were taken: IPS/Butler University Laboratory School, Public Schools of Brookline, The College School, Buckingham Browne & Nichols,

We wish you all the best for a stellar new year in spaces that you and your students continue to create, enjoy and care for.

Arts and Passion-Driven Learning Harvard 2016

On August 1-3, Ashley and I participated in one of the most remarkable professional development experiences of our lives.  Arts and Passion-Driven Learning, a Harvard institute sponsored by the Arts in Education Program chaired by Steve Seidel brought together Yo-yo Ma, members of the Silkroad Ensemble, Carlina Rinaldi, Glynn MacDonald, Ron Berger and others.  We could hardly believe the synergy and energy generated by the intersection and collective presence of these highly creative and accomplished people.  We lived three intense, moving, thought-provoking, challenging and joyous days together with about 100 other educators from all over the United States and all over the world.

Last year I attended the Harvard institute, Future of Learning, which was similar in format, however, it was a much bigger conference.  At both institutes we participated in workshops, plenary sessions, panel dialogues, evening events and dialogue groups.  The Arts and Passion-Driven Learning program overview reads: As educators, we need tools to connect students' passions, and our own, to meaningful learning for the 21st century. The institute begins with a conversation between cellist and Silkroad Founder and Artistic Director, Yo-yo Ma and Steve Seidel, and continues with a rousing performance by the Silk Road Ensemble.  Over the course of the program, Harvard faculty and Silk Road Ensemble members will present sessions where participants learn to create powerful learning experiences using the arts to connect students to their own communities and other cultures.

The guiding questions for the institute this year were:

1. How do/can we, as artists and educators, cultivate a practice of listening? 
2. How can listening to ourselves and our students support the development of passion-driven learning/learners? 

Carla Rinaldi is the person on the planet right now who can speak most eloquently and from decades of personal experience about the essential role and practice of listening for educators.  We were thrilled to be at this institute with Carla and to link our own experience in continuous learning inspired by the work in Reggio Emilia with the broad scope of this institute.

Glynn MacDonald was new to us and she is a force. She has worked at the Globe Theater with actors for years and started there with Mark Rylance.  The very first hour we were up and moving with her, all 100 of us, learning how to embody the archetypes of king/queen, magician, warrior, and lover and the elements of earth, water, fire and air.  These are now a part of my muscle memory and I will move with them as well as teach others gratefully.

Yo-yo Ma and the members of Silkroad offered us vibrance, diversity, courage, beauty, and joy.  We were swept away by their concert and the documentary about them, Music of Strangers.  We were indeed privileged to participate in workshops with them and to make our own music. They are unstoppable and inspired cultural entrepreneurs.

Yo-yo Ma shared his guiding metaphor that derives from the biological phenomenon, the edge effect, that the most dynamic, generative action in life happens between ecosystems.  He compares that to his experience of music; that the most dynamic, generative action in music happens between the notes...when the musicians are listening with their ears and their hearts.  And, he says, it's a practice...a skill and feeling that you can get better at.

So it is with every relationship, certainly with our spouses and colleagues and children.  Our experience, both personal and professional, is that the better one is at listening, the better one is at marriage and education.  Ashley likes to think in this vein, that the really alive and generative classroom is like a really good jazz band, where all the players are listening deeply to each other and responding in creative ways.

And, Ron Berger, now an old friend and colleague, never fails to inspire with beautiful examples of student work and an ethic of excellence. We were excited to see many examples of student work from The College School where we worked for many years in St. Louis, and also to learn of a new project about snakes that took place in 2012 with second graders at the Conservatory Lab Charter School in Boston. Please take a look at this short music video that they produced!

We plan to sign up and return to Arts and Passion-Driven Learning next year.  We can't think of anything we'd rather do.  If you can possibly attend, please do.  You will be inspired and uplifted.  You will leave filled with renewed hope and courage...so needed in our old and honorable profession, in schools, and in the world.

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