Friday, May 30, 2014

Stop stealing dreams

"If you want to teach someone how to be  a baseball fan would you start by having them understand the history of baseball...who Abner Doubleday was..the influence of cricket...would you do that..would you say ok here is a test...I want you to memorize the top 50 batters in order by batting average...and then rank the people based on how they do on the test so once you do well you get to memorize more baseball players...is that how we would create baseball fans?"
"Here is the key distinction: what people do quite naturally if it is work they try figure out how to do less, if it is art we try figure out how to do more. And when we put kids in the factory we call school, the thing we built to indoctrinate them into compliance, why are we surprised that the question is: will this be on the test? Someone that is making art doesn't say can I do one less canvas this month? They don't say can I write one less song?"
"Until we can't agree on what school is for, we are not going to get what we need"
The economy has changed, probably forever. School hasn't. School was invented to create a constant stream of compliant factory workers to the growing businesses of the 1900s. It continues to do an excellent job at achieving this goal, but it's not a goal we need to achieve any longer. In this 30,000 word manifesto, Seth Godin imagines a different set of goals and starts a discussion about how we can reach them. One thing is certain: if we keep doing what we've been doing, we're going to keep getting what we've been getting. Our kids are too important to sacrifice to the status quo.
(from Squidoo)
Seth Godin is the author of 14 books that have been bestsellers around the world and have been translated into more than 35 languages. His free ebook on what education is for is called STOP STEALING DREAMS and it's been downloaded millions of times since it launched in January, 2012. In 2005, Godin founded Squidoo.com, a Web site where users can share links and information about an idea or topic important to them. Excellent presentation.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

How to truly listen

This is a wonderful talk about how to truly listen. The speaker talks specifically about music, but doesn't this apply to everything?

Percussionist and composer Dame Evelyn Glennie lost nearly all of her hearing by age 12. Rather than isolating her, it has given her a unique connection to her music. In this soaring demonstration, she illustrates how listening to music involves much more than simply letting sound waves hit your eardrums. She's the subject of the documentary Touch the Sound, which explores this unconventional and intriguing approach to percussion. Along with her vibrant solo career, Glennie has collaborated with musicians ranging from classical orchestras to Björk. Her career has taken her to hundreds of concert stages around the world, and she's recorded a dozen albums, winning a Grammy for her recording of Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, and another for her 2002 collaboration with Bela Fleck.
"Music is about communication... it isn't just something that maybe physically sounds good or orally sounds interesting; it's something far, far deeper than that."
"I suppose I don't hear things, but I listen, if you know what I mean. And there is a big difference between hearing and listening. So it's like a conversation, you know. When you speak to someone, it's one on one, and that's exactly how I play."

Monday, May 26, 2014

Toxic Culture of Education

"Any education reform that doesn't address high-stakes testing and the non cognitive factors of true success like character and integrity is a complete waste of time and it's killing our kids. Right now the public narrative in education is all about curriculum, all about schools, all about teachers. We need to start paying attention to our students and who they are."
"Right now in this toxic culture all students are forced to study abstract classes in order to be college-ready and we throw around buzz words like "rigor" and "STEM" and the public loves it! We eat it up, we think it's fantastic but we're missing the point that "rigour" has replaced the word "relevant."
"In public education we've got an amazing opportunity to mold a better tomorrow, yet what we are currently doing is so incredibly toxic."
"..So we have to fight this toxic culture of education we have to change the public narrative away from the curriculum away from the school's even away from the teachers and we have to focus on our students. We have to teach them how to think and how to learn and how to innovate, not how to take tests these are human beings! Why not stop judging the fish on how they climb trees?" 

The US have created a "Toxic Culture of Education" that is damaging students, impacting economy, and threatening their future. Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, they have embraced a culture of high stakes testing and are perpetuating a false sense of failure in their schools. They have ignored research and data on effective policy making practices in order to serve the interest of private industries that have monetized their students. The impact is being felt in communities, on college campuses, and in our economy. The solution lies in a common sense approach to student development, curriculum choice, career exploration, and relevant data analysis. This talk will present a vision of an education system that allows us to embrace our full potential if we only had the courage to ask "Why Not"?
Joshua Katz is a high school math teacher in Orange County, FL.
Great presentation. Excellent points.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Peace One Day - Education

Peace One Day Education aims to inspire young people to become the driving force behind the vision of a united and sustainable world by advancing active learning in the areas of conflict resolution, global citizenship and human rights - using Peace Day 21 September as a focus. They have several initiatives to help educators across the world teach their students about Peace Day and to involve young people in activities on the day. These include free online education resources (accessed by thousands of educators in almost every country), the Schools’ Network and a number of other projects.
-- access RESOURCES



FRIEND OUR WORLD
Friend Our World is an online learning hub for children to unite in friendship games of geography, languages and global citizenship. Be part of the millions of children who will come together in the spirit of "Let’s be friends."Friend Our World is being created by Skoolbo in collaboration with Peace One Day and Microsoft.

Working together we can create Peace One Day

Institutionalising Peace Day and making it self-sustaining is everyone’s legacy. In order to further increase participation around the world and to empower third party groups to take ownership of the day, Peace One Day has created a series of global coalitions. These coalitions consist of member organisations that are committed to activity on Peace Day and to engaging their networks around the world. Organisations within each sector are able to unify their messages and activities in support of Peace Day, thereby achieving greater impact. In addition, the Schools’ Network is an opportunity for educational institutions and teachers to come together in support of Peace Day. Membership of these coalitions and the Schools’ Network is growing rapidly (from Peace One Day - Coalitions)
-- watch Global Truce 2012 Coalitions

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Did You Know? Shift Happens

"We are educating students today for jobs that do not exist yet, to use technologies that have not been invented yet, to address problems that we are not aware of yet."
Did You Know? originally started out as a PowerPoint presentation for a faculty meeting in August 2006 at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado, United States. The presentation "went viral" on the Web in February 2007 and, as of June 2007, had been seen by at least 5 million online viewers. Today the old and new versions of the online presentation have been seen by at least 20 million people, not including the countless others who have seen it at conferences, workshops, training institutes, and other venues.
Karl Fisch has been teaching for over 25 years; he now serves as Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. He also runs an education blog, The Fischbowl.
The following version, updated to early 2012, was created by David S. Rose for use in the Finance, Entrepreneurship and Economics program at Singularity University.
-- watch original version from 2007

Caution: schooling may be harmful to your learning!

"The challenge is that we are trapped in a paradigm of education from an earlier age and it is a self perpetuating system which is dominated by those that have done rather well in it and who are a bit like the prisoners in Plato's cave, they can't imagine anything fundamentally different"
With new technology, rapid changes in the global economy, and an evolving workforce, the need to improve the way we teach is becoming more and more urgent, says David Garner. In this talk at TEDxIndianapolis he explains why going from outdated models like specialization and standardization to a more multidisciplinary approach is necessary to equip students for tomorrow’s challenges.
David Garner arrived in the U.S. five years ago from his previous post in the Netherlands to become Head of School at the International School of Indiana (ISI), an independent school that serves 600 students from pre-school through Grade 12 and is part of a worldwide network of schools sharing a similar mission.

Friday, May 23, 2014

"What The World Needs Now"

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. Three elements the Lennon Bus certainly embraces with its daily workflow. In 2010 the conference theme was "What The World Needs Now." The Lennon Bus was honored to be invited to the conference and to work with amazing artists on producing a piece that reflected the ideas of the attendees. Person of Song, Jill Sobule, invited her all star list of friends on board the bus to spend the week working on song and music video directed by Aaron Koblin. Here is the result:

More from the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus

The Lennon Bus of Europe launched on May 8th 2013. The VERY next day they kicked off their tour with a visit to the Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool, U.K. and they brought along with us our favorite patron.



Some of the most recent videos from students - good stuff.
-- uploaded by the johnlennonbus
-- visit their website

"Get Reggie" by The Kingston Six from Frankfurt, Germany
"Within one day and eight hours, six talented students from IGS Mainz-Bretzenheim came onboard Lennon Bus Europe and created their inspiring original music video, while the Bus stopped in Frankfurt, Germany on Adel Tawils Liedertour." (johnlennonbus)



"No Matter What" by Punk Panda from Brussels, Belgium
"Punk Panda is here! The form you decide to take within the Lennon Bus has infinite possibilities, and these kids from Brussels decided that a Panda with an edge would be the most inspiring. We agree."(johnlennonbus)

The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus

“This is precisely the kind of project John Lennon would have loved.”- Yoko Ono Lennon

We have talked about it long time ago...The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is a non-profit state-of-the-art mobile audio and HD video recording and production facility. In its seventeenth year, with the very newest technology and gear, the Bus continues to be dedicated to providing young people with tours of the studios and participation in free songwriting and multimedia production workshops. With the assistance of three on-board engineers, students learn how to write, perform, record, and produce original songs, produce and shoot music videos and documentaries and complete a broadcast quality music video – all in one day! (from website)
We will feature a few very nice older videos and some newest ones in the next post - all uploaded by the johnlennonbus

"A Love So Deep" by The Lovelight Messengers
"Georgia will forever be on our minds, and one of the first things we'll think about will be this session. Not only did we have an incredible group of students to work with, but notorious piano pro Chuck Leavell was around to contribute to the song and make it EXTRA special" (johnlennonbus)



"I'm In Luv Witchu" by Fernando Pullum School of Performing Arts (Los Angeles, CA)
On October 12th 2010, the bus stopped at the Fernando Pullum School of Performing Arts. We worked with an incredibly talented group of students and shot a video for their track entitled "I'm in Luv Witchu". Check it out. It's pretty cool. Wooty. (johnlennonbus)



"We Are One" Toronto International Film Festival
"The Toronto International Film Festival has struck gold yet once again but this time it didnt come via red carpets or silver screens. Instead the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus made the trip across the border to collaborate with students from Remix and Shoot With This to produce a simple request: Equality. After putting the finishing touches on the track the students hit the rooftop of CTV to proclaim their message to the world."(johnlennonbus)

Thursday, May 22, 2014

We are not in the industrial age anymore, are we?

"Instead of giving test all the time to find out what we taught the, did they get it right? Tests should be used to find out what they don't know and need to know. Wrong answers in that case are opportunities and needs. The problem is we start at the end, we preordain the outcome..we have the list of right answers, we tell them our answers before they ask the questions..We then drill them and test them and if they don't regurgitate back what we told them, we say you have failed. The system is built for an industrial age, for the assembly line..everyone is the same, students as widgets, but we are not in the industrial age anymore, are we? We are in the Google age"
Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine.com. He is associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New Yorks new Graduate School of Journalism. Quite an explosive guy, very good points.
“Indeed, education is one of the institutions most deserving of disruption--and with the greatest opportunities to come of it.” 

Reclaiming the Conversation on Education: Janine Sopp

"I saw a very two tiered system within one school which did not serve the entire school....I was very disturbed by that because my daughter (part of a gifted program) when she leaves the school, she is going to join the rest of the universe and if she only separated and only taught with a certain elitist identity, how is she then going to fit in with the rest of humanity?"
Ceramic artist Janine Sopp creates one-of-a-kind pieces and collections in her studio in Brooklyn, NY. She spent the first seven years of her career designing clothing and textiles. With this rich and varied experience, she traveled across Europe and Morocco, where she uncovered her deeper artistic desire of molding clay. The artist favors clay because it is a responsive medium that indulges her passion for texture and colour. She is also an activist and fights for fairness and equity in education.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

International Day of Peace

"On this International Day of Peace, let us pledge to teach our children the value of tolerance and mutual respect. Let us invest in the schools and teachers that will build a fair and inclusive world that embraces diversity. Let us fight for peace and defend it with all our might."
-- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Do you know Peace Day is 21 September, every year?
In this film, the founder of Peace One Day, Jeremy Gilley, talks about his journey creating a day of ceasefire and non-violence on a fixed calendar date, Peace Day, 21 September.



Jeremy Gilley of Peace One Day talks with Tony Brannon about Peace Day and Bermuda...
Bermuda Peace Day Weekend - September 18th - 22nd

Monday, May 19, 2014

Peace Education for Social Change

"I teach about peace because I believe that education can lead to peace..but not any education. I think education has to make a conscious choice between changing the world or educating about it as it is. We either teach the world as it is and leave the injustices as they are or we make a choice to teach for peace and to teach in a way that changes the world to be more just and peaceful."
Michael Klein, faculty at University of St. Tomas, Saint Paul, MN, discusses how education can change the world through a peace pedagogy utilizing the Circle of Praxis. The Circle of Praxis, as described by Klein, is outlined in this video as a method for peace educators to fuse theory and action to address injustice and oppression. Interesting.

A realistic vision for world peace

"What I consider to be peace [is] a sustainable peace in which the majority of people on this planet have access to enough resources to live dignified lives."
"In my view, what we need today is people getting up and taking action to reclaim the meaning of peace. It's not a dirty word. It's hard work every single day. And if each of us who cares about the different things we care about got up off our butts and volunteered as much time as we could, we would change this world, we would save this world. And we can't wait for the other guy. We have to do it ourselves." 
Nobel Peace laureate Jody Williams brings tough love to the dream of world peace, with her razor-sharp take on what "peace" really means, and a set of profound stories that zero in on the creative struggle — and sacrifice — of those who work for it. Jody won a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to eradicate landmines. Now she’s teaming up with five other female peace laureates to empower women to fight violence, injustice and inequality. She believes that peace is defined by human (not national) security and that it must be achieved through sustainable development, environmental justice, and meeting people’s basic needs. To this end, she co-founded the Nobel Women’s Initiative, endorsed by six of seven living female Peace laureates. She chairs the effort to support activists, researchers, and others working toward peace, justice, and equality for women and thus humanity.
-- go to TED page



More on her views on sustainable peace and how to build it in today's world.
In the following interview by PVTV, she argues that several conditions need to be met before we can realize sustainable peace - for example, global re-education about conflict resolution and peace and the meeting of human needs to achieve human security.

Kids and Classical Music

Do kids and classical music go together? Watch and see how culture can change the world...cute

MAN

Out of topic...but very powerful.
Animation created by Steve Cutts, an illustrator and animator currently residing and working in London, looking at men's relationship with the natural world.
Music: In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg.

Roots & Shoots

"What children are learning through Roots & Shoots and other such programs is that they have a voice...There aren't nearly enough schools playing a strong enough role in this learning, partly because teachers are so busy these days. This passion for test, test, test, which tests only the parrot-like retention of facts, has negatively affected teachers' ability to care for individual children. Yet one of the most powerful ways Roots & Shoots has grown is through dedicated teachers, teachers who get it. Once children see the positive impact of their actions, it is like an addiction: It feels good, and if you feel good once, you want to do it again. The harder it is and the more you work, the better you feel.
Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots is the youth-led community action and learning program of the Jane Goodall Institute. The program builds on the legacy and vision of Dr. Jane Goodall to place the power and responsibility for creating community-based solutions to big challenges in the hands of the young people. Through the program, young people map their community to identify specific challenges their neighborhoods face. From there, they prioritize the problems, develop a plan for a solution, and take action. This is interesting.
-- read "Kid Power: The Roots & Shoots Program" by J. Goodall Edutopia

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Guitars over Guns - choose your sound

“I can play peaceful song and all my emotions drain out of me,” “Instead of going out on the street robbing a store you play an instrument and you feel good with it” -- Thoby
Music has the power to inspire society, to motivate people and to change lives, and thanks GOGO (a local Miami band) it is taking kids off the streets. GOGO, or the Guitars Over Guns Organization, brings together students and local musicians, like the South Florida band Suenalo, in hopes of transforming their lives. In collaboration with Communities in Schools of Miami, members of Suenalo get together with students at North Miami Middle School every Wednesday after school and teach them how to play the guitar.





Celebrate Mistakes!

"You cannot learn anything unless you make a mistake..so I tell my students when you make a mistake celebrate..and the way to celebrate is like this: how fascinating!!!"
"Our educational system is based on a downward spiral because there is no way to go from an A but down, so we should not be surprised if our kids look anxious"
"The new leader is first of all the one that can distinguish the downward spiral and then has the power to take people from there over here to radiating possibilities..anybody can do it...there is a key to the kingdom of possibilities...don't take yourself so damn seriously!"

Benjamin Zander is the conductor of The Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and a guest conductor around the world. He is one of the most sought after speakers in the world. He gave the opening Keynote address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where on another occasion he was awarded the Crystal award for "outstanding contributions in the Arts and international relations". In 2002 he was awarded the "Caring Citizen of the Humanities" Award by the International Council for Caring Communities at the United Nations.
This is an excellent presentation, truly inspiring.
-- watch his TED talk on music and passion (see previous post "The transformative power of classical music")

Saturday, May 17, 2014

The transformative power of art

Freelance illustrator Katie Daisy lives in a world where dreams and reality are the same. Her honey-laced hand lettering and spring-scented illustrations have been gaining notoriety since she burst onto the scene in 2009 when she graduated from renowned Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Since then, this farm-grown, Illinois-born wanderer has lived everywhere from the misty Cascades to the Great Smokies, sharing her passion for uplifting art with everyone she encounters. Katie loves taking simple, everyday shapes and turning them into something beautiful. Watch as Katie explains why she believes the power of art can change lives.

TRUST: Second Acts in Young Lives

“There is something hopeful in the act of creating a work of art.” -- David Feiner
Moving, intimate, and celebratory, TRUST follows the teenage actors of Chicago's Albany Park Theater Project as they transform through courage, storytelling and community. TRUST begins in a small theater as a group of teenage actors receive a standing ovation. The film then takes us back to the beginning, when Marlin, an 18-year-old Hondureña shares a little bit about her childhood with the company. It is a traumatic story. Amazing things unfold as the young actors transform the story into a daring, original play. TRUST is about creativity and the unexpected resources inside people who are often discounted because they are poor, young, or of color. APTP is a neighborhood theater project dedicated to helping young people reimagine their experiences on stage. Since 1997, APTP has created highly-skilled, artistic and transformative theater. And they do it with kids who never audition. APTP co-founder and artistic director David Feiner, who holds a masters degree from the Yale Graduate School of Drama, has a practiced method and he stays with the kids as they grow. The experience is truly artistic and transformational for the ensemble members.
Marlin’s is one of incredible struggle and pain, from enduring rape as young girl, to the difficult journey of immigrating to the U.S., to further abuse at the hands of her own brother, and finally to emancipation and overcoming substance addiction.
-- TRUST, Second Acts in Young Lives, a film by Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto

The transformative power of classical music

"People in my orchestra came up to me and said, "Ben, what happened?" That's what happened. I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course, I wanted to know whether I was doing that. And you know how you find out? You look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you're doing it...So if the eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: who am I being, that my players' eyes are not shining? We can do that with our children, too. Who am I being, that my children's eyes are not shining? That's a totally different world."
"Now, we're all about to end this magical, on-the-mountain week, and we're going back into the world. And I say, it's appropriate for us to ask the question, who are we being as we go back out into the world? And you know, I have a definition of success. For me, it's very simple. It's not about wealth and fame and power. It's about how many shining eyes I have around me."
Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections. Since 1979, he has been the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. He is known around the world as both a guest conductor and a speaker on leadership -- and he's been known to do both in a single performance. He uses music to help people open their minds and create joyful harmonies that bring out the best in themselves and their colleagues. His provocative ideas about leadership are rooted in a partnership with Rosamund Stone Zander, with whom he co-wrote The Art of Possibility.
This is the most compelling talk we have heard about classical music and life in general. Please take the time to watch, simply beautiful.

Matt Damon speaks at Save Our Schools

At the Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action Rally on July 30, 2011, thousands showed up to demand better for our schools, students, teachers, parents, and communities. One of those people was actor Matt Damon, whose mother Nancy Carlsson-Paige, is a professor of education and an education activist. A product of the American public education system, he spoke to the crowd of thousands with sincerity and strength.



Never mess with Matt Damon... :)

The learning process is not linear

"The learning process is not linear, it is not just I say this, now you know it so take the test, the learning process is circuitous, it wanders, it rambles, you look out the window and sometimes it goes out the window, and it comes back years later."
Brian Jones is a teacher, actor and activist in New York City. He has been a public elementary school teacher in Harlem for eight years. Jones is on the board of directors of the non-profit organization, Voices of a Peoples History of the United States. He was also the co-narrator of an Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman. He spoke at a meeting on May 2, 2013 about testing in the schools sponsored by the San Francisco UESF group Educators For A Democratic Union.
Such a passionate and powerful speech, definitely worth listening to him.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Reclaiming the conversation on education

On May 4, 2013, US teachers, parents, students, scholars, and administrators gathered together at Barnard College in the city of New York to work toward the common goal of reclaiming the conversation on education. In the one day conference, they shared their experiences with educational “reforms”, imagined equitable and sustainable alternatives, built coalitions and supported resistance to the standardization, privatization and corporate take-over of education.
-- read about this here

Albert Einstein

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” -- Albert Einstein

10 LESSONS FROM ALBERT EINSTEIN

1. Follow Your Curiosity 
 “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
2. Perseverance is Priceless 
“It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
3. Focus on the Present 
“Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl
is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”
4. The Imagination is Powerful
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
5. Make Mistakes
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
6. Live in the Moment 
“I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.”
7. Create Value 
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
8. Don’t be repetitive
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
9. Knowledge Comes From Experience
“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”
10. Learn the Rules and Then Play Better 
“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.”
“Never give up on what you really want to do.
The person with big dreams is more powerful than one with all the facts.”

Let them fly


Thursday, May 15, 2014

A Teacher's Story: More Than a Number

"Education is about making people excited, it's about sharing stories, it's about narratives that can pull people in, it's not about simply filling things up and measuring them"
Inspirational education has more to do with the narratives that we each bring to the teaching/learning experience than the use of standardized measurement tools to rank each teacher and student. The current thrust towards quantifying teaching and learning marginalizes the essence of teaching which is complex, unpredictable, often challenging, and always human. The policymakers and the politicians and the media clamor for more accountability as we watch the fire being extinguished in the hearts and minds of our young people. Something is wrong with this picture and we need to act now to fix it. Dr. Dodge, the chair of Educational Leadership and Administration Department at LIU Post, addresses these issues by pulling from years of experience as a teacher and administrator (see more about him in previous post)

Reclaiming the Conversation on Education: Arnold Dodge

"Maybe there isn't a metric that is quantifiable for teaching, maybe it has more to do with creating an atmosphere, creating experiences for kids...if there is anything I'd like to have a joy index, as silly as it sounds I would like to see schools joyful.."
Arnold Dodge is the chairperson of the Department of Educational Leadership and Administration at LIU-Post located in Brookville, NY. Dr. Dodge retired in August 2007 after serving as Superintendent of Schools in the East Rockaway School District. Prior to assuming the superintendency, he served in districts in Nassau and Suffolk Counties as a central office curriculum administrator, school principal and teacher. In his forty-third year in education, Dr. Dodge’s particular interest focuses on the effects of high-stakes testing on students, teachers, schools and families. Additionally, his research has included the impact of poverty on schools in the US and in South Africa.

Reclaiming the Conversation on Education: Nancy Carlsson-Paige

"Today’s cultural pressures on children—media saturation, materialism, test-driven schools, and the fast pace of life—threaten to undermine some of the basic building blocks of healthy development. But we adults can navigate these difficult waters when we understand what it is children need and how we can best help them in these rapidly changing times."
Nancy Carlsson-Paige is Professor Emerita at Lesley University where she taught teachers for more than 30 years and was a founder of the University's Center for Peaceable Schools. Nancy has written and spoken extensively about the impact of media on children's lives and social development, and how children learn the skills for positive relationships. She is a critic of current education reforms that promote standardized tests and the privatization of schools. Nancy is the author of five books and numerous articles and op eds on media and technology, conflict resolution, peaceable classrooms, and education reform. Her most recent book is called Taking Back Childhood: A Proven Roadmap for Raising Confident, Creative, Compassionate Kids (from Nancy's website)
-- watch her TED talk "When education goes wrong"
-- read New York Times article: Early Learning: This is Not a Test
-- read "One Size Doesn't Fit All", a Boston Globe Op Ed

Monday, May 12, 2014

Why massive open online courses (still) matter

"The last big innovation in education was the printing press and the textbooks. Everything else has changed around us. You know, from healthcare to transportation, everything is different, but education hasn't changed." 
"Now, I really believe that we can transform education, both in quality and scale and access, through technology."
2013 was a year of hype for MOOCs (massive open online courses). Great big numbers and great big hopes were followed by some disappointing first results. But the head of edX, Anant Agarwal, makes the case that MOOCs still matter — as a way to share high-level learning widely and supplement (but perhaps not replace) traditional classrooms. In this TED talk he shares his vision of blended learning, where teachers create the ideal learning experience for 21st century students.
Anant Agarwal is a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and President of edX, a worldwide, online learning initiative of MIT and Harvard.

What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools

The future of teaching and learning, as imagined by those who know students best: practicing teachers. That's what you'll find in TEACHING 2030, coauthored by twelve accomplished teachers and CTQ founder Barnett Berry.
"Teaching 2030 is a brilliant look at the future of teaching in America from the perspective of those who know most about what it is and should be: accomplished teachers. Working with Barnett Berry, himself a former teacher and one of the nation's foremost experts on teaching, these voices frame the issues and the possibilities with passion, knowledge, and insight. Everyone who cares about teaching and learning should read this book."
-- Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University and author of The Flat World and Education

Friday, May 09, 2014

Redifining Teachers' voice

This is a MUST WATCH for all teachers and is dedicated to them.
"How can we us teachers and educators in general use our voices to elevate the profession?"
José Luis Vilson is a math educator, blogger, speaker, and activist in New York City, NY (read more about him in previous post). His blog has insightful essays on education, race, and politics through the eyes of a middle-school math teacher.
"I would never let anyone take my voice away from me as long as I knew that students issues come in front of adults issues"

"..Who gets weaker? The king or the teacher. It’s not about a salary it’s all about reality. Teachers teach and do the world good kings just rule and most are never understood..."

-- KRS-One, “My Philosophy”
Teachers push us to think critically whereas rulers push men and women to concede to their demands. That’s why it’s not about a salary, and it’s all about reality. The idea of poor righteous teachers doesn’t mean that we’re settling for less; it means that our pedagogy is inclusive of all who desperately need their voices elevated. That means you -- view José's blog post

This is Not a Test: I am a Bubble you Can Not Erase

"Given an answer sheet, these students shaded in L-O-V-E over ABCD 
A set of standards commonly set forth before 
Acing geography by means of peace instead of war 
Shaping the world henceforth 
They will elevate our math to where the sum of the people 
Is greater than the parts 
Becoming fluent in the languages of English, Spanish, and caring 
America, please put down your pencils 
This is not a test!"

This is Not a Test is a poem written and performed by Jose Vilson at the Save Our Schools March in Washington, D.C. on July 30th, 2011.
José Luis Vilson is a math educator for a middle school in the Inwood / Washington Heights neighborhood of New York, NY. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in mathematics education from the City College of New York. He’s also a committed writer, activist, web designer, and father. He co-authored the book Teaching 2030: What We Must Do For Our Students and Public Schools … Now and In The Future with Dr. Barnett Berry and 11 other accomplished teachers. He currently serves as the president emeritus of the Latino Alumni Network of Syracuse University and as a board member on the Board of Directors for the Center for Teaching Quality. He writes for Edutopia, GOOD, and TransformED / Future of Teaching, and has written for CNN.com, Education Week, Huffington Post, and El Diario / La Prensa NY. He has also spoken at TEDxNYED and the Save Our Schools March.
This is so POWERFUL. 
-- read whole POEM here
-- Get his book "This is not a Test"

We must have vision

"Standardized testing is cheap and is easy, but it it not good..why would we trust what somebody put on a test, on a bubble sheet that they (students) took on one day of the year better than what we see with our eyes every day, why do we allow that..."
"In our cities, in places where they are not passing the test they are stripping art, they are stripping history, they are stripping gym, they are stripping everything out just to give them really good math prep so they can pass the test..That is not education, that is training and what are we training them for? We are training them for the 21st century workforce...I want the 21st century citizens. If we shoot for citizens we will get the workforce we need, if we shoot for citizens, not only we get workers, we will get husbands and wives and friends and neighbours and politicians and activists and scholars..."
Chris Lehmann is the founding principal of the Science Leadership Academy, a progressive science and technology high school in Philadelphia, PA. Chris has returned to his native Philadelphia after nine years as an English Teacher, Technology Coordinator, Girls Basketball Coach and Ultimate Frisbee coach at the Beacon School in New York City, one of the leading urban public schools for technology integration. Great passionate presentation.
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn" -- Alvin Toffler
-- read Chris' blog

Thursday, May 08, 2014

The importance of public schools

"Public schools are the only schools that are accessible to all children...there is no other institution, no other service, no other organization that is as accessible and as committed to meeting the needs of children as are public schools. Even when public schools don't work well academically, we have to keep that in mind...Public schools are still part of making sure we have a vibrant democracy, they are still important to make sure there is a sense of integration and cohesiveness within the society. It is really a vital resource that is under appreciated".
As a leading urban sociologist, Pedro Noguera examines how schools are influenced by social and economic conditions in the urban environment. Here, he talks about the importance of public schools.
"We believe in a society where education should serve as pathway to opportunity, where your talent and your ability and your effort should be what determines how far you go, not who your parents were, but in fact who your parents were matters a whole lot more".
"It is in our collective interest to ensure that all children get a good education. And that's the part that rubs against our individualism, our notion that it is our self interest that matters more than our collective interest".

A MUST WATCH if you believe that every child is entitled to a proper education, regardless of their background. This man is truly inspiring.

How do schools promote equity among students?

"The term equity has come to mean the need to focus more directly not simply on equal opportunity, that is making sure that all kids have access to school...but really focus on outcomes and results...In schools that are really focused on equity, they are trying to meet the different needs of kids and do so in ways with a focus on outcome...Schools are set up to be the equalizers of opportunity, that was the mandate early on, that we would use education to promote merit and talent and so theoretically you want to make sure that all kids, regardless of background, have similar education opportunities..but that is not what we do..even within schools we exacerbate inequities...largely because it serves political purposes..."
Pedro Noguera is the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University with faculty appointments in the departments of Teaching and Learning and Humanities and Social Sciences at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Development and the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education. In this interview he discusses the term equity and the forces that sometimes prevent schools from providing children with equitable outcomes. "Schools are set up to be the equalizers of opportunity," but often fail to do so.
"In this country (US) we tend to think that the more we do for excellence, the less we will be able to do for equity because in our mind there is only a small number of elite kids who are excellent and we are going to give more to them....and then we forget about the rest of the kids...When we combine excellence and equity what we are focused on is: how we make sure that all kids are exposed to high standards, quality teachers....What we really should be aiming for are kids who are learning ideas, knowledge and skills that they can apply to their own situation so that they can understand the utility of what they have learnt and how it is relevant to their life circumstances."

The Smartest Kids in the World

Amanda Ripley is the author of The Smartest Kids in the World--and How They Got That Way, a New York Times bestseller, and The Unthinkable. She writes feature stories for Time Magazine and the Atlantic and speaks on various topics, including global competitiveness, education and parenting. The Smartest Kids was selected by The Economist, The Washington Post, The New York Times and Amazon.com as one of the most notable books of 2013.
What is it like to be a child in the world's new education superpowers? To find out, author and Time Magazine writer Amanda Ripley spent one year following American teenagers living in Finland, South Korea and Poland. Their stories, along with groundbreaking new research into learning around the world, reveal a pattern of startling transformation. These countries got smarter fairly recently--and not by spending more money or creating more tests.
(Amanda Riplley's website)
-- Watch her talk at POPTECH 2012



Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Finnish First - an insightful analysis

"We need to care about what has happened in a lot of places that have turned their education systems around in the last 30 or 40 years.."
In just 30 years, Finland transformed its school system from one that was mediocre and inequitable, to one that consistently produces some of the world's best students, while virtually eliminating an achievement gap. And they do it without standardized testing.
Linda-Darling Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where she launched the School Redesign Network, the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute, and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. Her work focuses on school restructuring, teacher education, and educational equity. She was education advisor to Barack Obama's presidential campaign and was reportedly among candidates for Secretary of Education in the Obama administration (Wikipedia).
In her book "The Flat World and Education", she looks at the roots of the American modern education system and how the skills required for the 21st century global economy can not be learned in traditional education systems, which have been in place since the early 1900s when the majority of students were expected to become factory workers. She identifies an “opportunity gap” that has evolved as new kinds of learning have become necessary - a gap where low-income students, students of color, and English language learners often do not have the same access as others to qualified teachers, high-quality curriculum, and well-resourced classrooms. She then offers a coherent approach for effective reform, focusing on creating successful systems, inducting and supporting quality teachers, designing effective schools, establishing strong professional practice, and providing equitable and sufficient resources.
The following interview is excerpted from Dan Rather Reports' show on Finland's education system, Finnish First.
Please take the time to watch.

What Testing Has Done To Schools

"Is testing the same as education?..No...What the testing emphasis has actually done to American schools has been to narrow the curriculum..." 
According to Diane Ravitch, professor, former advocate for charter schools and No Child Left Behind, and author of "The Death and Life of the Great American School System", constant testing hurts students, narrows curriculum, and doesn't improve learning.
-- Read "Ravitch: Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching"

More on design thinking and education

Rinat Aruh is the co-founder of award winning design and strategy firm, aruliden. With her non-traditional approach to design and brands, Rinat has led industry-provoking projects for companies that include PUMA, BMW Group, Microsoft, Lacoste and Motorola Solutions. Rinat’s passion lies in introducing design into early education as a process for problem solving. In 2007, Rinat began collaborating with The School at Columbia and in 2010 the studio introduced Tools at Schools, a non profit designed to introduce students and faculty to the value of design thinking as a creative problem solving tool.
-- watch Rinat's talk "Interjecting Design in Early Education" at (co)lab summit 2013
-- watch more videos on Tools at Schools



The Benefits of Music Education

The Royal Conservatory of Music (Canada) has published a summary of the recent neuroscience research proving that music education is a powerful tool for attaining children’s full intellectual, social and creative potential. “The Benefits of Music Education: An Overview of Current Neuroscience Research” highlights studies offering compelling insights into the potent, long-term value children gain through music training. This initiative is part of our ongoing commitment to advancing the transformative effects that music and the arts have on individuals—and ultimately, society. For more than 125 years, The Royal Conservatory of Music has been using the power of music and the arts to inspire people to set their sights high and be the best they can be.
-- download “The Benefits of Music Education
-- go to The Royal Conservatory of Music website

The Art of Leadership

“Commit yourself to a passion that moves you.”
-- Bill Strickland, Make the Impossible Possible: One Man's Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary
As president-CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation and its subsidiaries, Bill Strickland builds partnerships to help the disadvantaged build a better future. He is nationally recognized as a visionary leader who authentically delivers educational and cultural opportunities to students and adults within an organizational culture that fosters innovation, creativity, responsibility and integrity. He's also the author of Make the Impossible Possible, which includes his story of how a kid from Pittsburgh's ghetto would go on to lecture at Harvard and serve on the National Endowment of the Arts board.
Very inspiring.
-- talk given at "A Collaborative Leadership Summit", Atlanta, September 2013



Tuesday, May 06, 2014

Creating the Classrooms we Need

"Our schools are so stuck in the model of control and compliance that when you actually try to propose something that is innovative and creative, the mentality around it, the structure that controls it is of control and compliance and you are never gonna get there."
Another great talk by Diana Laufenberg, educator. Over the past two years, she has been invited to work with teachers throughout the United States and the world on project based learning, inquiry in the classroom, modern teaching methods, and structuring modern learning ecosystems. Her current endeavors have her serving as Lead Teacher and Managing Director of Inquiry Schools, a non-profit focused on creating schools that are authentic, vigorous and empowering for all members of the community.
-- talk given at "A Collaborative Leadership Summit", Atlanta, September 2013

How to learn? From mistakes

"We deal right now in the educational landscape with an infatuation with the culture of one right answer that can be properly bubbled on the average multiple choice test. I am here to share with you, it is not learning."
Diana Laufenberg has taught all grade levels from 7-12 in Social Studies over the past 15 years. She most recently taught at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, an inquiry-driven, project-based high school focused on modern learning. Her practice has deep roots in experiential education, taking students from the classroom to the real world and back again.
-- read On Being Resilient and Embracing Failure
"Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes." – John Dewey

Monday, May 05, 2014

Transforming Education - Will Richardson

"We can't be creative if we refuse to be confused. Change always starts with confusion."
-- Margaret Wheatley
A parent of two teenagers, Will Richardson has spent the last dozen years developing an international reputation as a leading thinker and writer about the intersection of social online learning networks and education. He is an outspoken advocate for change in schools and classrooms in the context of the diverse new learning opportunities that the Web and other technologies now offer. Will has authored four books, most recently Why School? How Education Must Change When Learning and Information are Everywhere (September, 2012) published by TED books and based on his most recent TEDx talk in Melbourne, Australia. A former public school educator of 22 years, Will is a co-founder of Modern Learner Media which is dedicated to helping parents and policy makers develop new contexts for new conversations around education. He also co-founded Powerful Learning Practice, a unique professional development program that has mentored over 10,000 teachers around the world in the last six years.
"In times of change learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."
-- Eric Hoffer, The True Believer
Please take the time to watch, excellent presentation.
-- talk given at "A Collaborative Leadership Summit", Atlanta, September 2013

From Outlaw to International Hip Hop Artist

Another great example of the transformative power of the arts and of the potential life changing role of teachers.
"Art changed my life, and now I know it can change other lives."
David Garibaldi is a performance artist with a calling. Garibaldi dances on a drop cloth while two DJs and drummer play hip-hop music. Compact and energetic, he grabs paintbrushes as he moves. Holding one in each hand, he starts making brush strokes on a life-size canvas board. As he dances, a portrait slowly emerges before your eyes: Martin Luther King Jr., Jimi Hendrix, Madeleine Albright. He calls the piece "Rhythm and Hue." He frequently performs at schools. And during the show, he tells the students his story urges them to stay in school. He was failing in high school; he was more interested in painting graffiti late at night in rail yards and back alleys. That was true until his junior year: "That’s when I walked into the classroom of . . . Mr. Sullivan..." Over the next few years, Garibaldi learned animation, taught himself formal painting, and began creating his hip-hop performance show. He’s toured with the Blue Man Group, performed during halftime at sporting events, and took his act to Europe. A documentary about his work, Walking Dreams, has been released in 2009
-- from Edutopia





How Design Thinking Can Empower Young People

"When you think about applying and teaching design thinking to really anyone, and especially kids, it's again kind of getting to the heart of empowerment in my mind. And giving them tools and processes internally that they can use to impact the world around them. And instead of running into a wall and deciding that they can't go any further, because they don't have that brainstorming tool, or that problem solving tool, they can think of different ways that they can move past that hurdle, move past that obstacle, and kind of get on to the next thing in their life."
Minneapolis-based People Serving People is a non-profit whose mission is to provide services to assist families experiencing homelessness in becoming self-sufficient and reconnected with their community. People Serving People established a D3 Lab (Dream It, Design It, Do It) in 2012 for teens. The D3 Lab challenges young people to be problem solvers, innovators, risk-takers, and makers as they develop projects that are meaningful to them. Very interesting.
"You need to challenge students because they'll rise to the occasion. They'll rise to the challenge you set forth. And by putting students in the context of a business environment, or real world, you are requiring them to rise to the challenge and you're setting a high expectation of how they're going to perform, how they're going to behave. The output that they're going to produce."
-- from Edutopia



Sunday, May 04, 2014

Reclaiming the Freedom to Learn

"If we realize that the real world is the best classroom, that we should not have a separation between living and learning, then I think we could move towards a much better school system, a much better society where creativity, curiosity and passion are the most important things that we look to."
Nikhil Goyal is the author of One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student’s Assessment of School, by the Alternative Education Resource Organization. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and more. For his efforts in education, Goyal accepted the 2013 Freedom Flame Award. Past winners have included Dr. Martin Luther King and John Lewis.
Very passionate and clever for his young age.

Transforming Education - Sir Ken Robinson

"Education is the way in which we invest in our own future and the future of our children..It's education that we depend upon to cultivate the sensibilities, the talents, the abilities, the outlook, the attitudes on which we all depend, both our children, ourselves, it is the way we pass on our traditions, our history, it is the way we engage in the the present and we prepare for the future"
Sir Ken Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation. He is also one of the world’s leading speakers with a profound impact on audiences everywhere. The videos of his famous 2006 and 2010 talks to the prestigious TED Conference have been seen by an estimated 200 million people in over 150 countries.
This is another excellent talk that summarizes Sir Ken's vision on education reform and humanity as expressed in his older presentations. This is so enlightening and entertaining at the same time.
"The real shift is in changing metaphors. The industrial metaphor has dominated education since the middle of the 19th century. The industrial metaphor has given us the current system. I believe we need to shift to a different type of metaphor, to an organic metaphor. Culture is an organic term. Schools are not like mechanisms, they are like organisms, they are living breathing communities of people, who have reciprocal hopes dreams and possibilities. I have yet to find a kid that can't be educated. I have yet to find a school that can't be improved if the capacity of innovation is given to the schools, the principals and teachers that do the work."
-- talk given at "A Collaborative Leadership Summit", Atlanta, September 2013

America’s educational failings

Extracts from Washington Post column by Fareed Zakaria.
"The tests demonstrate that people everywhere develop skills at a young age, peak in proficiency at age 30 and then begin to decline. So, if people start out with bad education and low skills, those disadvantages are likely to persist and grow throughout their lives.""
"What we learn from this study is really just an extension of what we have discovered in the PISA results. The biggest force behind falling American rankings is not that the United States is doing things much worse but that other countries have caught up and are doing better. The U.S. system of education and training is inadequate in the new global environment."
"“The principal force for convergence [of wealth] — the diffusion of knowledge — is only partly natural and spontaneous. It also depends in large part on educational policies,” writes Piketty. In other words, if we really want to reduce inequality, we need to reform the system, spend money where needed — such as early education — and get to work at it now."
-- read article on Washington Post

Saturday, May 03, 2014

The science of learning

Judy Willis is an authority on brain research regarding learning and the brain. With the unique background as both a neurologist and classroom teacher, she writes extensively for professional educational journals and has written six books about applying the mind, brain, and education research to classroom teaching strategies, including an ASCD top seller, Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning.
Here she talks about the science of boredom, how to get students' attention, and the most important lessons for 21st-century learning.
-- found on Edutopia



Also she discusses the Video Game Model as a Learning Tool - We are not big fans of video games in general but this is interesting..

Friday, May 02, 2014

Education Reform - teachers perspective

The Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) is a non-profit advocacy organization based in North Carolina. They are dedicated to improving education by advancing the teaching profession through targeted research, outreach to policy-makers, and fostering teacher leadership.
Barnett Berry, President and CEO of the advocacy organization Center for Teaching Quality lays out a roadmap for reforming our education system and improving the school environment for "teacherpreneurs." - Edutopia
"We need more highly adaptive solutions on how to help a variety of children reach these high standards. There can be no more top down one size fits all approach to school reform."
-- read "Turning the Tide: Taking Competition Out of School Reform"

The Evolving Classroom

David Thornburg is an award-winning futurist, author, and consultant whose clients range across the public and private sector, both in the United States and in Brazil. As the founder and director of global operations for the Thornburg Center, he conducts research and provides staff development. His educational philosophy is based on the idea that students learn best when they are constructors of their own knowledge -- found on Edutopia
-- read David's blog

Dedicated to all teachers

We already spoke about this guy. Taylor Mali is one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and one of the few people in the world to have no job other than that of poet. He became famous thanks to his poem "What teachers make" which talks about what it really means to be a teacher.
-- get his book: What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World
-- Taylor Mali’s List of 1,000 Teachers



Thursday, May 01, 2014

"The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation"

"The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation, which should be directed to the same purposes as education; society and the public authorities shall endeavour to promote the enjoyment of this right" -- DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 1386 (XIV) of 10 December 1959
For children, play is a fundamental need just like eating, sleeping or drinking. It is an essential part of growing up and enables children to develop skills for life. Yet despite its recognised benefits, play is increasingly under threat. We need to ensure that children have better and more opportunities to play.
In the following video Toy Industries of Europe (TIE) teamed up with Early Childhood Ireland to ask children what they think about play. Let's forget all the economic interests that might be connected to this...We think that the message is important.
-- go to The Importance of Play website



On the occasion of World Play Day on 28 May, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Anna Maria Corazza Bildt hosted an event in the European Parliament entitled 'Taking play seriously: investing in Europe's future' to enhance understanding of the unique role of play in supporting children's development. The event was kick-started by Fredrik Härén, a leading expert and author on creativity, who presented his thoughts on how play and creativity benefit society. This event was supported by Toy Industries of Europe (TIE).

Connected Learning: Playing, Creating, Making

The Institute of Play, a not-for-profit design studio, founded in 2007 by a group of game designers in New York City, pioneers new models of learning and engagement.
The meaning of knowing today has shifted from being able to recall and repeat information to being able to find it, evaluate it and use it compellingly at the right time and in the right context. Education in the early part of the twentieth century tended to focus on the acquisition of basic skills and content knowledge, like reading, writing, calculation, history or science. Many experts believe that success in the twenty-first century depends on education that treats higher order skills, like the ability to think, solve complex problems or interact critically through language and media.  Games and the related attributes like play naturally support this form of education. They create a compelling need to know, a need to ask, examine, assimilate and master certain skills and content areas. Some experts argue that games are, first and foremost, learning systems, and that this accounts for the sense of engagement and entertainment players experience.
-- read on Institute of Play website

Learning through play

"When kids fail during the creation of Rube Goldberg and then they iterate, they are really learning to take risks"
"Failure is really bad, but I guess if you have a good attitude, then you can always make it what you wanted it to be and not to get frustrated. So failure's not so bad if you know how to fix it"

What if instruction could actually engage students and get them excited about learning? What if school could foster student creativity and support their expanding imaginations? What if educators around the world had the tools to provide students with the 21st century skills to imagine and create their own futures in our ever-changing global society? At New York City's game-based learning school Quest to Learn, sixth graders take risks in the process of designing a Rube Goldberg machine, which enables more creativity, innovation, and engagement.
-- go to Reframing Failure as Iteration Allows Students to Thrive on Edutopia
-- go to Boss Level: Collaborative Student-Led Learning at Quest to Learn on Edutopia
-- go to Institute of Play
-- watch more videos here


Failure is Reframed as Iteration / Rachelle Vallon from Institute of Play on Vimeo.



It Kinda Feels Like Play / Leah Hirsch from Institute of Play on Vimeo.