August 15, 2012
Articulation - gaining power over words 
A description of the work of articulation taken from the scholarship of Ralph Waldo Emerson: 
-quoted from page 23 in Lessons from Great Lives: learn to be rich in all areas of your life 
by Sterling W. Sill and Dan McCormick 

"As one of his most profitable stimulants (one of the ways he got his mind working), Emerson decided to keep a journal, and once began, he kept it up faithfully. In his journal he wrote down every thought,  every helpful suggestion, and he recorded every success. Each day he collected in his journal his disjointed dreams, his mental reveries. and the fragments of all of the ideas that his mind was able to conceive. The act of writing an idea down improves both the idea and the mind. Bacon said, "Reading makes a full man, but writing makes an exact man." You have to think an idea through before you can write it down. Writing the idea down gives it form, exactness, and makes it visible. When one's ideas can be 
brought under the scrutiny of the eyes, the ideas can be more readily improved. 

(And in this paragraph describes ARTICULATION  personified:)

"Mr. Emerson's journal also became the hive in which he stored the honey of his mind as the bees of his brain produced it. Once his ideas were written down, Emerson could then go back and review them again and again, with the idea of making needed improvements. As he visited with great ideas, every day he grew accustomed to their faces. He discovered among them a great many family resemblances, and some intrriguing future possibilities were suggested. Then he measured their abilities and learned to arrange them a little more attractively. After he improve their dress, brightened their faces, and increased their muscle power, he was able to join them together in a more effective order. Almost always, his ideas came in fragments, but he knew that the missing links would soon show up to make his thoughts complete. 

Once snared by Mr. Emerson, no good idea was ever allowed to get away. He not only wrote it down immediately, but he put it in his mental incubator so the idea itself could grow. He knew that ideas have a natural tendency to propagate. Each idea has the possibility of an extensive posterity and ideas come from parents just as people do. With all of these laws working in  is favor, Emerson became a great, man, a great thinker, a great communicator, and a great writer. His journal was very valuable, and he knew that even his unused thoughts would fit somewhere into an effective pattern of expression." ……

What does this mean to you? Write your thoughts in your own journal.

May 29, 2012 

Musings: The Learning Journey: Short Form

Great ideas and questions mix in the mind of the learner;

the learner looks for answers in his/her prior knowledge. 

He/she then seek out resources to fill in the gaps in their knowledge, 

Resources including: school, teachers, curriculum; libraries, books, internet, mentors, etc. 

Prior knowledge + resources x Play = understanding

Sufficient time is required for the learner to 'PLAY' with new information; for the body achieve understanding and return that understanding to the mind.

The mind of the learner is now ready to ARTICULATE  its own answers; to make new understanding visible in

media of choice. This process activates imagination and generates creativity. 

The learner produces new products/services that are published to the 'world'.

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