Personal Teaching Quest refined

April 20, 2012

Articulation by Linda A.J. Johnson

As a teacher/mentor my personal mandate is to introduce my students to the best of the great ideas, to lead them to the discovery of their own questions and to provide resources where they might begin to answer those questions.

Personal teaching goals:

1. Change compliant ‘tell me what to think, say, do’, behavior, back to: ‘Here are great ideas; what do you know about them; what questions would you like answered? Stop imposing learning, start extracting ideas together. Acknowledge and respect the needs of each learner and provide them with access to accurate information.’ Curriculum is resource NOT end in itself.

2. Re-introduce time and opportunity to develop thinking skills: replace the ‘here’s all the information you need, and here’s your homework assignment’ with the time to ponder ‘great ideas’ on purpose; notice personal feelings, thoughts (questions) and ideas (possibilities) and write/draw them down.

3. Provide time to re-experience multiple ways of examining ideas: Be re-allowed the time to “Play” with ‘catching’ ideas by writing, drawing, labeling, talking, touching, tasting, constructing, composing, demonstrating, etc. etc. Realize that curriculum is not the end in itself but provides resources to choose among and play with. Be encouraged to use imagination in creating connections between ideas; be in charge of self-development - of ‘voice’; articulate understanding by sharing in media of choice.

4. Build on confident voice; continually searching out the great ideas in all disciplines; continually strengthening personal thinking skills; continually refining creative connections into product: writing, art, constructions, models, recipes, compositions etc. that can be published to audience and make the world a better place. 

Teaching Quest

As a teacher/mentor my personal mandate is to introduce my students to the best of the great ideas; to lead them to the discovery of their own questions and to provide resources where they might begin to answer those questions.

 Personal goals: 

1. Change compliant ‘tell me what to think, say, do’ behavior back to ‘I have questions to answer; I need to meet the great ideas; I expect you to acknowledge and respect my needs and provide me with access to accurate information.’

2. Re-introduce opportunity to develop thinking skills: replace the ‘here’s all the information you need, and here’s your homework assignment’ with the time to ponder ‘great ideas’ on purpose; notice personal feelings, thoughts (questions) and ideas (possibilities).

3. Re-experience multiple ways of examining ideas: Be re-allowed the time to “Play” with ‘catching’ ideas by writing, drawing, labeling, talking, touching, tasting, constructing, composing, demonstrating, etc. etc. Be encouraged to use imagination in creating connections between ideas; Be in charge of self-development - of ‘voice’; articulate understanding by sharing in media of choice.

4. Build on confident voice; continually searching out the great ideas in all disciplines; continually strengthening personal thinking skills; continually refining creative connections into product: writing, art, constructions, models, recipes, compositions etc. that can be published to audience and make the world a better place. 

The Learning Journey in Quotes

Mr.s J’s    One Page   Inservice   March 5, 2012

The Learning Journey in quotes:

1. “The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we don’t understand”. –Frank Herbert

(But have interest in and questions about!)

2. “Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the only one who asked ‘why’.” -Bernard Barach (Ask your questions!)

3. “Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare.” –Anthony Burgess (Seek for answers; ponder what you learn)

4. “When you make the finding yourself – even if you are the last person to see the light – you’ll never forget it.”

-Carl Sagan

5. “Supposing is good but finding out it better.” –Mark Twain

6. “Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they are blind.”-Marston Bates (Learning takes action; the body informs the mind and new ideas are born.)

7.  “Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them and pretty soon you have a dozen.”-John Steinbeck

8. “Intelligence recognizes what happened; genius recognizes what will happen.” –John Ciarda

9. “Establishing goals is alright if you don’t let them deprive you of interesting detours”.-Doug Larson (Allow your own creativity.)

10. “A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.”-Charles Kettering

11. “In Science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not the man to whom the idea first occurs.” –Francis Darwin

(Organize and ARTICULATE your own answers.)

12. “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson (Honor voice.)

The Learning Journey - details

Monday February 27, 2012

GREETINGS all you learners!

I am adding new content to my postings! Writing is so very important! It is time to review the Learning Journey that has evolved through my teaching of the last several years because the Learning Journey provides the foundation principles for the reasons we need to write.

We are all on a learning journey, everyday of our lives. As learners we are constantly bombarded with new information; not all of it can be processed; we pay attention to what is most intriguing to us personally; to the ‘great ideas’, to the things we want to know more about, to the things that fill us with questions. As learners we go after the answers to our questions and assume we are gathering accurate information as we WRITE (in our idea-catcher notebooks) and take opportunity to ponder the information we gather. We must think about what we WRITE on purpose; we must practice paying attention to our feelings and thoughts and ideas, watch for answers to appear that may satisfy our questions.

We must test our answers by “playing” with them; we must use our whole body to talk, draw, write, craft, design…..test, try, prove our ideas work. Our body informs our mind.  Imagination kicks in and connects new understanding to our ideas and helps us create a product or service that makes our idea visible; (and we WRITE/draw how we will make it visible) we show it off to others, demonstrate it, articulate it, prove it works and see how the “world” responds. We may make adjustments (re-writes) but we don’t abandon our “great ideas”. Act on them, build on what your answers demand, publish(->in writing) them to the world, make a difference.

Teacher/parent note: When we mentor learning for others we are on a special kind of journey. We are obliged to seek out and offer the “great ideas” (truths) to our learners. We strive for the best methods for introducing these truths and expend every effort encouraging learners to ask their own questions. We are charged with providing the very best resources possible for our students to explore as they gather accurate information. We give honest feedback, and show the wide variety of ways product can be made visible. We create service and growth opportunities for our learner.

RE-VISIT THE WRITING IDEAS ON THIS BLOG AND “PLAY’ WITH WORDS EVERYDAY!

Yours In Learning,

Further posts pending….!!

Mrs. J

What is a Mentor?

I spent an interesting hour this morning with half dozen 1st to 3rd grade learners discussing the need for mentors on our Hero Journey. We read and discussed the beautiful picture book story Me and Mr. Mah 
written by Angela Spalding and illustrated by Janet Wilson. Mr. Mah is a wonderful fictional portrayal of the qualities of a great mentor. Here is the list of mentor behaviors in Mr. Mah that the children helped me discover: 1. He completely accepted Ian as he was - no judgements. 2. He gifted Ian with sunflower seeds and 3. invited Ian into his garden and 4. he let Ian touch and nibble and smell his way through the unfamiliar vegetables. 5. Mr. Mah taught him specific skills about how to take care of his sunflowers. 6. Mr. Mah gifted Ian with his time and 7. a listening ear and heart. 8. As they shared feelings and memories  9. Trust grew between them. 10. They showed concern for each other and, most important, 11. through serving each other unconditionally they grew to love each other.
Notice all the ACTION words; mentors DO things. Who are the mentors in your life? Who can you mentor in return? Can a great book be a mentor? Can a beloved pet be a mentor? Pay attention, learn to recognize when you are being mentored and enjoy the journey!

Always learning,
Mrs. J

It is a sunny Wednesday morning, January 25, 2012. A Gilded Flicker, numerous Collared Doves, Sparrows and Red Poll are jostling for food outside my window. The sunshine feels grand on my face. I love sunshine and I love beautiful language. These January days I am having opportunity to visit one on one with all of my students. Yesterday afternoon I had a wonderful visit with a ninth grade young woman who has discovered the delight of figurative language; the power of personification,  alliteration, simile, metaphor and more. I invite all of you to be on the look-out for beautiful words, words that enlarge understanding and are delicious to the ear. Share your findings ...

Enjoy these samples of similes: 1. Little Women: "…she tried to get rid of the kitten which had scrambled up her back and stuck like a burr just out of reach."
2. The Red Badge of Courage: "In the eastern sky there was a yellow patch like a rug laid for the feet of the coming sun…".
3. Magnificent Obsession - "…utterly absorbed by the curious experience that still clung to him like a garment."
4. East of Eden - "Kate inched over her own thoughts like a measuring worm."

Changes!

It is the morning of Tuesday January 17, 2012. We have all just come through

a very balmy holiday season, enjoying record breaking warm temperatures. Suddenly, literally overnight, we have been plunged into deeply cold air; an abrupt change for all of us, including this flock of Eurasian Collared doves that come to feed outside my office window each  morning. Yesterday my internet connection was down all day; I felt cut off from a communication source that I never  imagined even 20 short years ago. Today I am communicating again but missing the hot water unable to reach my shower due to frozen pipes.  

A ponder challenge: How did your own feelings change when we moved so quickly from warm to cold temperatures? What freedoms did you lose? What blessings in your life do you most take for granted? What would you miss most if it is gone? 

Ask your own questions; think your own thoughts, catch them on paper and share them.

Yours in learning, 

Mrs. J