What Drives the Wheel: On Becoming an Affective Opportunity Designer

And yes, I do mean 'affective'...

At the very core, I am a Middle School Teacher.  I can’t help it. It’s tough to put my finger on exactly what it is that lends to the comfort I feel around those between the ages of 11 and 15 - it’s certainly not the smell, but I find them to be some of the most interesting, inspiring, and authentic people on the planet.

I teach at a gifted school which means they can be some of the most anxious, intense, and abstract teens you can come across.  Recently I met “Landon.”

Landon had a falling out with his bus driver.  An issue of injustice arose and Landon has spent over a week trying to calm down in and out of the Administration Office.  His focus in class is entirely diminished, his capacity for positive contribution is at an all-time low, and the structure of school is continually rubbing salt into the wound.

When I met Landon, I had no idea of any of this.  He was just like any other student who comes to the Makerspace lately to gather around the new 3D printer I invested in.

I’m really passionate about Education.  When I say education, I’m really passionate about the Positive Affect of intentional designed pedagogy.  I create opportunities like this in the Makerspace and I’m always excited to share with the students that I’ve only just opened the door -- it is up to my “Makerbots” to take everything to the next level.

Landon was curious how he might get access to print off ideas of his own on the 3D printer.  This led to a conversation about creating a structured economy that could reward algorhythmic work with “Currie-Coins” and would provide a stipend for all students of 150 Vygots.  As an aside he noticed that there was an open design challenge in the Makerspace to create a handheld vacuum that would be well suited to clean the glue build-up at the bottom of the new Ultimaker.

Landon appeared two days later with a list of materials he was hoping to find in the makerspace and a napkin-drawing of a mini-vacuum.  He peppered me with questions about the mechanics and showed me what he was intending.  I was able to point out a few design flaws and he returned the next day with a working prototype.  People were amazed and inspired by his work and he was pretty proud of himself.  He wasn’t done.  He took it home and started designing nozzles for it.  He prettied it up, and here is a picture of the “finished” vacuum after a week of after school work.

That’s when Landon started to talk to me about a “Bank”.  It would seem that he was keeping himself up at night trying to solve the problem of managing and tracking the PLA currency exchange.  He had gone so far as drawing up a prototype cheque, ledger sheet, file-cabinet and even a work-plan for how to manage bank-employees should we need it.  Landon, in his hyperintense excitabilities was trapped in a problem-feedback loop that needed adjustment or he was going to meltdown.

Landon is in Grade 6.  Let that sink in while I provide the following tangent:

I collect evidence of how SSID applies in my line of work because I’ve become passionate about the Double-Loop Learning Model as the engine that drives the practices teachers have been asked to employ to improve learning.   It applies to Design Thinking, Understanding by Design, Backwards Design, Project Based Learning, Challenge Based Learning or any of the umpteen practices we’ve labelled to assess our practice.  It’s the magic that makes the work, well, work.

At the time I meet Landon I had just recently finished designing and creating a reward coin for the Middle School Robots club and I realized I had a great object-lesson for my Grade 10 Applied Design, Skills and Technology class that showed the opportunity design model as a series of “Marshmallow On-Top” moments.

 

I was able to share this story with Landon and we had a conversation about looking at what the real problem with the Maker-Economy is.  The conversation allowed us to establish that Landon needs to identify what he’s really passionate about.  In twenty minutes of intense and inspiring Empathy Mapping I was able to point Landon toward learning to find elements of the challenge that were appropriate for his level of technical skill, and in a direction that would ultimately excite and inspire him.

Landon returned the next day and said “Mr. Currie, I thought a lot about that model you showed me last night, and I realized that I do have to go slowly and start small with the Bank.  I really want to go in a direction of making something with my hands that sorts coins instead of trying to make an entire business model for a bank.”

My administrator approached me and related that Landon was suddenly doing really well.  I receive a lot of affirmation that my work has a tangible Positive Affect on the students who are exposed to what I do - My grade 8’s laughed at me the other day and mentioned they didn’t see me as a teacher, so much as “some dude who like teaches us what we need to know” which made me smile.  What I have noticed is that over the last three months the culture I hope to promote has been accelerating and spiraling outward at an increased rate.  But this story isn’t about me.  It’s about Landon.

Landon has arrived at a Procedural and Affective knowledge of Opportunity Design as a result of my own Functional skill as an Opportunity Designer.  I have refined that skill by teaching with Empathy, Imagination, Inspiration, Creative Confidence and the ability to Tell a Story.  Landon and I are both better for it.

The Design Flaw in AI?

I've been captivated by https://www.deepmind.com/ of late.  Well not so much captivated as motivated to think about it more deeply.

Since I was a middle-school student I was a student of science-fiction--  Became an avid Asimov fan the first time I read Foundation and the aspect of the singularity occurring in so much of the classic SF literature certainly captures my imagination.

I'm a teacher now.  Sort of, or rather - of sorts.  I noticed something this morning that I felt compelled to share because I want to know more about it, talk to more people about it, and I see something I've never seen before:  There is a way past the singularity.

If you don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to AI and the singularity you can go here for some context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

The Telus School for Innovation by Design started up this year as a collaboration between Calgary's Spark Science Museum: http://www.sparkscience.ca/ and The Innographer https://theinnographer.com/ and I was welcomed as a member of the inaugural cohort.  As a teacher, this has helped me understand what it is about the Design Process that works (On Design Thinking: http://www.creativityatwork.com/design-thinking-strategy-for-innovation/ )

The fundamental take away, for me as a teacher, has been the incorporation of the double-loop learning model pitched as the energy behind the machine of Design Thinking.  It is in this that I see a path around the singularity:  Empathy.

Here's the quick and dirty of it:

Defining the Problem
HL approaches me looking for a way to reward the students who won her robotics competition.
I listen and connect to what it is she is looking to do.  Ultimately it comes down to using the new school 3D printer (An Ultimaker 2 Extended!) to do something for the students we've never been able to do before.

Ideation and Pitching.
I take the idea away and work up three potential solutions to present to her (informally)

Iteration
She chooses elements of two of those ideas that work best.  Taking advantage of our growing local Maker economy using coins for PLA we will be supplement the winner's Maker account by giving them a unique coin that can be cashed-in for an extra 150cm of plastic.

Prototyping
I work up the prototypes and have them ready for when she needs to gift them to the students.

Critical Feedback.
During this phase I have to learn the programs, rely on help from local experts and mentors, and design and redesign as I look for feedback.

Design Thinking:  Better results than I would have started with because it involved the work of many for the benefit of many.  More than that, I became more skilled AND more knowledgeable because of my work with technology.

According to the Innographer - this should count as Double Looped Learning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_loop_learning otherwise known as the engine that drives the success of Design Thinking.


Learning is not a product based economy.  Our schools often result in a product based economy because it's efficient, mobile, and universal.  Unfortunately it's why so many have argued that the Industrial Model of education is broken; learning is a process.

In my very limited understanding of the work of AI scientists I see us still living in the industrial thinking model.  At it's best - what can we make faster, stronger, and more efficiently, at it's most basic - how do we program the machine to win?  A very industrial view.

Back to the Point
What strikes me is the story of Fan Hui (really great Wired article:  http://www.wired.com/2016/03/sadness-beauty-watching-googles-ai-play-go/).

If the purpose of AI is to create a machine that learns in order to create a product then soon the product may come at the expense of the person.  This is the technological singularity that we fear.

If we employ what happened for Fan Hui - i.e., the machine learns in parallel with the improvement of the human, then we have a) empathetic learning and b) no risk of learning in order to win.

Perhaps it's a bit socialistic.  Perhaps it's Utopian.  What if our machines learned to be our companions, who pitched prototypes of their ideas to us and then relied on our intuition and interaction to co-develop the processes that would lead to the product?  That's the discussion I want to have.  I think it will improve schools, and I think it will accelerate AI.  That takes research and smarter people than I... but I suppose it warrants thinking about.

Afterall, all of us are smarter than one of us... even if the one of us is the world's smartest computer.

Reflaluating Design Thinking

It's an ugly word, but it's mine: 

reflaluation - that process which both evaluates and allows for reflection on an experience.

It implies that we find the value in, and also find ways of curating the salient artifacts of the experience.  To that end I hope to record the experience of my foray into leading Grade 8 students in Design Thinking.

Preface

Maker Kits

As with most things in teaching, one workshop is often enough to inspire activation of a new way of doing things but it does not an expert make.  We (as teachers) are often required to wear the mask of "expert" in the face of the students while being continually aware that we might only understand the process from a distance.  It is those who are willing to risk getting it wrong in public who welcome new process into their classrooms without intense study and mentoring.  The irony being that so many professional development mandates demand that a teacher indicate how they will immediately apply the expense that has been made to bring in the experts.

I, as you may have read, have recently been exposed to Design Thinking.  I am not a Design Thinking expert though I do find that it lends itself to my natural inclinations well and so, perhaps, I am more an expert than I realize.  Having been exposed to the vernacular and handed the template it was only a matter of opportunity that would allow for immediate experimentation.

Alberta's Mechanical Systems unit for Grade 8 lends itself well to the #MakerEd movement, and is rich in room for students to thinker and ideate. (not my words)

Fruits of Thinkering

The  project (still and always in refinement) was installed in partnership with the Grade 8 teachers who would normally be responsible for this Unit.  They, in a sense, partnered with the Learning Commons to go deeper into the mechanics of Design Thinking as they scaffolded the physics of  Mechanical Systems.  It would be another blog post entirely that would properly address how an entire unit was captured by Design Thinking, what I want to reflaluate here is on one element of what happened that was unexpected:  rich partnerships.

Reflaluation

In design thinking methodology a student is made responsible for recording and empathizing with another student's ideas.  They become active listeners and engagement experts hoping to draw out the best from the person they are listening to.  That in itself could be enough but yesterday I noticed something deeper: Trust.

Making groups is common in a classroom, and Design Thinking makes group-work better.  There is something that happens in the community though that has inspired me to share; students forge trust.

Under Pressure

Item 1:  Students are often asked NOT to work with their friends as they are familiar, too common, and often sources of distraction.  In Design Thinking it is possible for students to gravitate to their friends.  Where this would normally be something that does not expand a student's experience in this case it is actually an excellent place to start.  When you become responsible for your friend's work, and you are asked to represent your friend's work to others in the group there is a loyalty there that means a student who might normally "phone-in" the work is now directly responsible for the way that their friend looks in the eyes of others.  Particularly for the boys, but I suspect for all of the students, this addition of risk draws out better work from two friends than you might expect to see, and it also solidifies a relationship between two students.

Item 2:  Students might be put into a situation where they are working with someone they would not normally choose to experience learning with, much less speak to.  They might be encountering this partner for the first time, and in that experience they are presented to the unfamiliar as being a responsive, engaged, active listener who will stand up and advocate on behalf of their partner who knows that they are not owed this grace given the social context of a middle-school classroom.  The amount of trust that this builds between two unfamiliar people; the way that it sets up two strangers to demonstrate the capacity for reliability, loyalty, and friendship appears organically, is not contrived (as it so often is) and is allowed to happen naturally.   The authenticity of the experience can bring out the best in the community (in this case the classroom) and creates yet more impetus for employing Design Thinking structure in any and all of the activities which involve collaboration in the classroom.

My School Endorses Forgery

I considered a title like; This student was caught in the middle of forgery... what happened next will make your eyes leak.  Then I thought better of it.  Watch this instead, then let me explain:

About a month ago I was approached to open up a High School for credit course for students who were struggling in the 'traditional' classroom, and were coming up to a critical period in their schooling where credits were important, but gaining skills were more important.  What could I offer in the way of a "Maker" course that could give these students a different way of engaging school -- not because they needed credits, but because they needed a better, safer way of being themselves at school.

Storing a Forge in a Maker Space

A steel shank?

Two students were requesting to make a fully functioning metal foundry and forge for the school campus where they would be allowed to liquefy metals and create weaponry.

In Open-Learning one must always say yes.  Improv has taught me to qualify that with a "yes, and..."  In this case I was able to say yes, and that we would provide any necessary resources and supervision they may require.

Today we fired up the forge (and the foundry) and showed off what happens when you let students off leash for a while.

Preparing Kindling

Obviously there were safety considerations, we had to evaluate the practicality, and we had to seek out reasonable ways of asking for funding and space, and we had to learn how to do it well.  It wasn't without conditions, but we were as open as we could be.  Things ebbed and flowed as the students learned to navigate without a leash.  What has been crucial for me is to ensure that I stay as far back and wait patiently to be invited in.  Well today I was invited in, in a big way.

The conventional work that goes along with a project like this would be the places where we (as teachers) believe that everything comes down to documentation.  That if we can't curate it, then it didn't happen.  -- the ugly side; if we put external motivators in place like "we will fund your project so long as you can dot these 'i's' and cross these 't's'...  These students are the archetypes for students who don't respond well to that and yet... and YET... they were able to acquire their own building materials, arrange for their own supervision and coaching, and over the weekend they built (after a bit of hard labour and error) a working forge and foundry that they were beyond excited to bring to school today.

30 seconds in a Fire

Here I will insert a quick anecdote about how the school science-fair closed on Friday.  These students were not enrolled.

Try as I might I could not avoid being 'teacher-minded' this afternoon -- searching for a way to have these students document, share, WORK in the classic sense on the parts of the project that weren't making things burn, and melting metal... and kept wanting to kick myself in the shins and yell "WAIT"... just wait.

Shaping Steel Rods

And then I asked if maybe I could make something with their foundry... maybe they'd let me play too.  Maybe I could make a metal cast of my own.  Oops!  Not only were they interested but the heated-argument which ensued about the process I would have to use to make it happen... and all the things that would have to be thought about before I could make it happen... basically they fought like two teachers who thought there was a very different way of teaching their pupil the 'right' way of doing something.  And then we went outside together and played.

I learned something today.  I just had to talk to them, and ask honest questions, and really I didn't have to act like a teacher... I just had to be me.  Which has been the secret I've held onto since the very beginning;

"They will learn in spite of what you're trying to teach them... you are not an expert and no better than any other teacher on the planet.  But you can do one thing better than everybody else in existence -- you can be yourself."

People wondering about what we are up to...

I'm pumped.  People around here are pumped.  Two students who are not known for being pumped are pumped.  We learned something without grades, without boundaries, without structure... simply because it was there to be learned... and we're on course to learn even more.

I don't know where we go from here, and it's big... scary big.  But I'm thankful that these guys helped me find a way to make it meaningful and real.

Maker Day VPK

It could be that I am a product of my mentors, or that I choose my mentors as a product of my mentality.  Either way Susan Crichton remains an important connection whom I am privileged to share an remarkable amount of pedagogical ethos.

Yesterday I was invited to participate in a Maker Day hosted by Victoria Park High School in Lethbridge AB facilitated by Susan and Deb from the UBC Okanagan Innovative Learning Centre.

A Social Wall as a way for Introverts to Connect

I was invited because within my local network it was felt that what we are doing in the Westmount Learning Commons is very much inline with what this PD opportunity was addressing, and it was time to visit and measure where we are at against this research-based, professionally driven ideology of "Make".

What has struck me, seven years later, about why Susan et al are important mentors is that they teach philosophy not by speaking about it, but simply creating within it.  You buy into the philosophy not because of their rhetoric but because you experience the positive results of having learned from within it.  I believe it is no accident then that we have found ourselves employing "design-thinking" in how we are addressing the desire for structural change for the population of special-needs students within our school walls.

To begin with you may wish to peruse this Tool-Kit provided by @UBCOILC.  This information has been used now to show that Gifted Ed at Westmount naturally aligns with Design-Thinking because as a gifted educator (duality implied) I believe in;

1. Inside Out: the idea that a student requires accommodation, or rather "space" made for the student's innate abilities and proclivities the which have been derived through a reflection of oneself within one's community, and reinforced by all whom they encounter in a day.
2. Lateral Thinking:  the idea that an 'exceptional' student is naturally inclined toward 'outside the box' attitudes, interests, aspirations, and abilities; in particular the ability to approach an abstraction with ease.
3. Enriched Content: the idea that without meaningful and relatable challenges, the exceptional student struggles with desire to learn unless motivated by a desire to 'please'.
4. Community: the idea that 'exceptional' students feel isolated unless offered access to peers and mentors who are capable of, or trained to relate to the complex abstractions, emotions, or anxieties of those students.
5. Ego: the idea that the 'exceptional student' is aware of their exceptional abilities and must be coached to appreciate and value the contributions of those who may not share the same exceptional abilities.

To Make (according to Mark Hatch, writer of The Maker Movement Manifesto 2014) "is fundamental to what it means to be human.  We must make, create, and express ourselves to feel whole."  To be "gifted" is to be "human" and the essential humaness of a "gifted" student is to "feel that humaness" in exceptional ways.

Novices are allowed access to Tools

Making (according to the Manifesto) involves "sharing what you have made and what you know about making with others... the act of making puts a small piece of you in the object.  Giving that to someone else is like giving someone a small piece of yourself... [it is a] movement, and it requires emotional, intellectual, financial, political, and institutional support."

Here we see that Making reflects the first and the fourth values on our list.

Continuing, "You must learn to make".  Here my own personal philosophy, and that shared by some of my group on Thursday is that it might also be true to say "you must MAKE to LEARN."  Mark mentions that Making is "being playful with what you are making [ultimately allowing you to] be surprised, excited, and proud of what you discover".  The spirit of "a maker" is that a maker desires to "learn, and push yourself to learn new techniques, materials, and processes."

Part of our Design Churette

Here we see the modern educators desire for rigor and mastery of curriculum, but it is paired with the intrinsic motivation of the student to be curious and the follow through on that curiosity, in a structured, intentional way which allows the student to document that experience, and ultimately allow others to evaluated the efficacy of that experience.  This model allows for enriching, personalized learning which is also structured in such a way as to allow a teacher to navigate mandated curricula.  It also provides, in the design of the "Churette" a way to coach those whom have been engaged in the sharing to properly express feedback that is deeper and more meaningful than flattery or derisiveness.

The design thinking method itself (which is very similar to the rules laid out in Improvisational Theatre - a topic I explore in a "Why Dramaticscience?") allows for a student to develop abstract, lateral thinking solutions to important, valuable, meaningful problems, but the solution itself is corporately derived and demands contribution from all parties.  It is never done "by oneself" and by nature does not allow one person to "own" an idea.  It allows a community to draw from its strengths without relying on mandated corporate buy-in; something I have found to be very unsuccessful in a classroom environment, particularly so with gifted students.  The anecdotes shared in another post, "The Excellent and Most Lamentable Tragedy of Teaching" speak to this. To sum up, here we see the third and fifth values of our school reflected in the structure of the design thinking exercise.

So I now understand why our Library Learning Commons Maker Space has been so well received, and has encouraged disenfranchised students to step out of isolation and approach the school for support of their own personal learning goals.  The Maker Space has provided the technology that was missing; the tools, accessibility, supervision, and space for students to independently arrive at their own conclusions, explore things which are curious, report their curiosities, and be in proximity (ergo relationship) with master-makers and mentors.

It has been grounded accidentally on purpose in the ethic and structure of "Design Thinking" and has been crafted carefully and intentionally in "relationship" with the stake-holders.

The next step is to provide this experience to the staff who routinely encounter new meaningful, valuable, important problems in education and have at least two days at the beginning of every year to bond and align as a community united in vision, or spiral out to their "silos" engaged in the ritual of classroom management... but now I'm just being petty. ;)

An Augmented Reality Sandbox

Two years ago, while sitting with my then 3yo son, and an iPad I was exploring an app called Science360 which allows you to spin a sphere of videos and articles - science related - and choose what interests you.  My son is/was a nut for science-related media and one of the videos we discovered together was this video published by Oliver Kreylos of UCDavis:

Being a science-8 teacher in Alberta meant I immediately saw how this tool could be used to open learning for Water Systems.  I added it to the list of things I wish I had time to build. Of late, the job situation has changed and I found myself with - time to build -.  Project one was to create my own Augmented Reality Sandbox, with the help of students, in the middle of the school-library during lunchtime. I spent some time with the open-source instructions published here: http://idav.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/ResDev/SARndbox/ a National Science Foundation sponsored research project that has been published online for all to enjoy. Having established a rapport with the school I went out and purchased $2K of hardware to run the software and started developing relationships with the students and parents of the school and quickly found myself a very helpful and talented Architectural specialist, Vera Parlac who sketched up a design for housing our sandbox.

The soon to be built "Sandbox"

A $1200 box and a borrowed screen

Using calgaryfreecycle.org as a daily point of "found-treasure" I was able to locate some free wood, and incorporated an old desk that was being turfed by the school, and a defunct bookshelf from the library storage.  All of this was put together to hold my version of Frankenstein's Monster using the expertise of mostly grade 5 and 6 students who would rather cut, measure, and fasten than play out in the mild Calgary fall weather.

Learning to remove old nails

Learning to wield a saw

It took a few months to get to a point where programming would take place, and that stage (for those of us who struggle following step-by-step instructions) was easily the most difficult.  Thankfully the read-me files supplied with the programs answered the majority of questions, and there is an online forum for those who wish to participate globally in making more and more of these projects.

A bookcase on an old desk

Hockey-tape and wire... nature's solution

When the time came to calibrate, and after some major troubleshooting, my son and I stuck our hands into the sandbox, at school, in a library, and welcomed parents and students to come and play with us.

The infinite Sandbox

Playing in the dirt

The learning is obvious, but the reactions are my favourite part.  Such positive, responsive, and authentic joy being demonstrated by all ages.  The only question that comes up now; what's next Mr. C?!

Teaching Drama Online through Immersion - The ACSI Drama Xchange 2014

If there has been one event in my teaching career that I have felt "blessed" by it is the ACSI Drama Xchange. For those who follow my blogs you may have read about the inaugural event I was involved with, and certainly my reflections on the quality of the event have not changed. This remains one of the most important Theatre Immersion programs for Christian students that I have ever been a part of.

I was privileged enough to return again this year with a new batch of students, and an entirely different context.

I have been dreaming for years about the potential of Theatre in the Distance Education world. How might a course designer approach building a stage production when the students will not meet face-to-face until the day of the performance? How can a collaborative project done entirely at a distance turn into something as personal and intimate as a live performance? How can the inherent introversion that an online-student enjoys be translated into the implicit extroversion required in delivering a powerful monologue? These were all questions I've had for years, and I found myself actively researching as I prepared my students for a performance on the Rosebud Theatre Stage in May 2014.

I write this reflection as a template I hope others can follow and also as a thank you to the test-subjects (students) who participated in my "study".

Goal: To create an original short-piece for the stage collaboratively and online which would then be performed by the collaborators on the day of their first face-to-face meeting.

The Stage
Set for the Diary of Anne Frank

To begin we had to choose subject matter. One of the students found a well written play from the 19th Century called the Youthful Martyrs of Rome which, in it's form, had to first be decoded and translated before it could be reinterpreted.
Learning Outcomes: Historical Theatre, Verse, Dramaturgy

One of my students (in Grade 8) took the task of decoding the play very seriously and he became crucial to helping us all create a vision for what would become our script. He began by rewriting the prologue in elegant verse of his own.

Next students had to imagine the characters of ancient Rome as they might appear in a modern community setting. Who would "we" be? What would "we" look like? What might our conflicts entail? In an online dialogue lasting roughly an hour we were able to take the story and imagine these characters in modern time; yes we still have martyrs, yes they occur in everyday Western Culture, yes their stories are still important.
Learning Outcomes: Creating Character, Storytelling

Students at Script Analysis Workshop

With characters in place, and a setting decided on we now had to create meaningful conflict and relationship in our script. We started with an outline and over the course of three hour-long sessions we were able to construct a script that encompassed the moral and theme of the original play but had it's own original feel and personal importance. Most importantly during this approach was to have students work together in teams of two, online of course, and on one scene only. Embedded in this design is the nature of Improvisation: Expanding on the ideas of others, and letting go of the control in a story. So each student was able to put their own spin on the tale, knowing that the others would be working to support their story by "extending" the ideas rather than the typical creative work that is so often seen in groups of this age.
Learning Outcomes: Collaboration, Improvisation, Script Writing

Unfortunately it was at this point that we realized our time was up (for preparation) and our time at Rosebud was at hand. We would be meeting for the first time with a script in hand but no rehearsal (part of my research that would have to be tabled another time). Moreover we had a final scene which had not yet been envisioned. The last scene of the play, the denoument, would have to be discovered together, on-stage, in front of an audience.

Rosebud Professionals bringing Scripture to its Feet

Fast forward now to Rosebud. Having shared our situation with the staff at the Xchange they welcomed the opportunity to witness something that was entirely new, and entirely different than they had ever seen on that stage, from the students. We were afforded 20 minutes of time to acquaint ourselves with the stage, and another 90 minutes to rehearse in the hallway. It was at this point that our script was read aloud for the first time.
Learning Outcomes: Rehearsal, Acting

The students, being familiar with the story, were able to dive into the characters with little reluctance. We set our goal for the day (and ultimately the performance) as: "Make sure we have a lot of laughs among us, not because we're embarrassed but because we're having fun." I reassured them that if the project failed, it would be my failure and not theirs, and if the project was a success it was because we were all in it together. So much of what I try to teach in my "drama classroom" was being put in action in the hallway of the Rosebud Theatre.

The diversity of students and their skill was apparent immediately. Some were evidently NOT the "cold-read" type, delivering their speeches stilted, and broken. Others took to the stage as though they had been missing it -- improvising lines and reactions and thoroughly enjoying their scripts as it was "revealed". The most important discovery at this point was that in order to collaborate, tell a good story, and be entertaining to the audience we had to a) tell the truth of the story, b) tell the truth of OUR story (who we are, and what we were faced with) and c) get up on-stage and simply improv it!
Learning Outcomes: Readers' Theatre, Acting, Improv

We added some games to each scene to keep the students from staring at their scripts. Stand-up, Sit-down, Lie-down; introducing unpredicted elements, audience participation, and challenges to overcome were introduced in rehearsal to allow the students to realize that the story could happen no matter what they faced on stage, and it allowed me as the director to find ways for each students' strength to be showcased in some way. It also took the tension off them to be "perfected" on-stage, as they realized that in improv it's not what you have perfected that makes for a good show, but what you're willing to put into a scene.

When the time came to show what we had prepared we were lucky enough to be the last group to go late that night. The audience was effectively "Cooled-down" and were definitely looking for something different after five schools showed their short-stories on-stage. Credit to those students for creating excellent performance pieces of a diverse genre range, and to have taken the time to craft something worthy of the stage. We were not going to be "those schools"....

These seats would soon be filled.

We stayed true to the approach. We brought in audience members to play characters, asked for scenes to be adjusted to match what they wanted to see. We had fun. We played. And in the end, we had a show that the audience warmly received, the students I brought were glowing with smiles and comaraderie and the feedback from the adjudication essentially boiled down to appreciation for having discovered a "new style of theatre" and intense appreciation for the nature and ethic behind what we attempted.

The students were then able to dive into the workshops put on by the camp, meet other students, and enjoy what Rosebud offers similar to what was posted in my last reflection. I pause now to allow the students the space to reflect themselves having shared what I felt were the "take-aways" and "carry-with-yous" that make this type of event all the more perfect for being.

The ever-popular Fight Workshop

Why Dramatic-Science?

I have been looking for a copy of this for ages.  This was my final "thesis" for my undergraduate Ed Degree, and goes a long way to explain the history behind my handle "@dramaticscience".  Just thought I'd share for those who are passionate about the Theatre, or about Science Education.

Link to the original document through HERE

Mind-Craft: Building an Island

an ACOS moment

Every so often someone is able to demonstrate the capacity of what I dream of when I teach.  

As a science-teacher I am always running little experiments.  This year I am running a social-science experiment in Alberta combining, quite literally, Social Studies 8 with Science 8.

"How's that!?"  you ask.

Well, it starts with the history of Japan, and Water Systems.  Can a student learn the importance of understanding how to identify, categorize, describe the management of a water system... and at the same time walk through a history of Japan.

As far as I could tell this has never been tried.

But we've done something amazing.

Let me take a moment away from this for a second.  I want to talk to you about symmetry in Science.  This is NOT your mathematical version of symmetry we're all used to; you know, a triangle might have three planes of symmetry etc etc ad nauseum.

Symmetry in science points to the elegance and simplicity of the hand of God in creation.  Symmetry in Science tells us that if a formula, law, theory or project is bulky, large, filled with inconsistencies and difficult to break down (like many of my lesson plans) then it's probably not finished yet.  It is symmetry that has lead us to some of the most elegant and informative principles in Physics, Biology, Mathematics and Chemistry.

The most famous example being E=mc^2

If you know anything about the history of how that formula came about then you will find a miraculous symmetry that appears in the end which allows us to simply marvel and the immense simplicity of something as complicated as time-dilation, or relativistic physics.  For more on symmetry watch this guy -- it will change you forever:

http://www.ted.com/talks/marcus_du_sautoy_symmetry_reality_s_riddle.html

But I digress.

With some reading, some creativity and an elegant simplicity I have a student who has created a short presentation that shows;

1. an understanding of the formation of an island in the ocean near Japan
2. the features that would accompany that island's formation
3. the details of a water system that might form on that island
4. the connection between the water ways and the agriculture that grows in association with it
5. a historical view of how populations started to gather in Japan

And this all takes place in under a minute.  And it's not complete yet... 

This has been an ACOS moment.

The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Teaching

Romeo & Juliet - Ford M Brown

Two classes, both alike in dignity,
In fairest cyber-space we lay our scene:
An ancient failing pedagogy breaks
and from its wounds heuristic theory spills;
A pair of star-cross'd classes lose their life:
Whose misadventured piteous work-attempts
do with their death bury their teacher's strife.
The fearful passage of their work, so brief,
And the continuance of their teacher's angst
which, but the classes end, nought could remove,
Is now the two-page traffic of this stage;
The which if you with patient eyes attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.




My glorious, uncompesated readers I present, for your learning pleasure, this complex and important anecdote so that you may continue seeking enlightenment, satisfaction, and fulfillment from the work you have chosen to do.

Scenario A

A class of grade 9 boys, studying Space.  They begin in conversation simply pouring over the lexicon of work required to fulfill the Alberta Program of Studies, not as a reminder of what MUST be done, but rather what COULD be done.  They meet and express their unique loves, as boys, for things that are mysterious, foreign, to be mastered, and ultimately explode.  They approach me, their teacher, and announce that the most exciting part of learning about Space will be to build themselves a ROCKET.  Their teacher, with pomp and exuberance relays to them that this is exactly what they will do so long as they complete the research necessary to get the rocket to space safely.  He lays out four tasks which rocket-engineers must understand before undertaking any building project and sets them to task fulfilling these requirements as quickly as possible so they can make it to the rocket-building.

Scenario B

Now a class of grade 8 boys and girls, studying Water Systems.  They begin, not in conversation with me, but with a simple task:  To open up a website; http://waterquest.ca to be precise, and begin the drudgery of data-mining information that is barely relevant to their everyday life.  Their teacher is there at times to simply respond to their questions, and construct the space within which they will record their "regurgitated" information.  They are not offered a deadline, they are not offered a rubric.  Nothing is exchanged but a web-address and an assignment.

If you are not an expert in Human Motivation then I ask you to consider the two scenarios (both real) and offer that your gut-instinct is very naturally telling you that scenario A is MUCH MORE appealing than scenario B, and very likely the students are MUCH HAPPIER within scenario A as a result of knowing that they get to build a ROCKET.

And, like I was, you would be wrong.

For the last few days I have been racking my brain as to why I can't motivate 5 boys to use the web to research Space.  Especially since there is an actual tangible reward in it for them.  I am overwhelmed by the creative thought, energy, and efficacy with which the students in Scenario B are turning in work -- and the moxy they are showing solving their own problems and experimenting within the format, but I can't get the grade 9 students to open a website- much less begin the process of real research.

I have
a) considered that maybe it's just a developmental stage for the grade 9 boys that the grade 8's aren't at yet
b) that it's because they're boys and easily distracted by other ventures
c) that it just happens to be a circumstance of being in a classroom environment while the students in 8 are abundantly working from home
d) that they haven't had enough "responsibility" attached to the "learning"

And so I have
a) told them that we will play out a scenario of "World Domination" where they will master Space on route to mastering the world.  I will be their General and over the course of their learning they will earn Rank points to move them up the hierarchy
b) given them an evaluation form for the information I am hoping they will return before we get to BUILD the rocket
c) rewarded them with the very real potential of creating a rocket
d) listened and responded intently to their concerns, issues, and desires, and responded in kind by provided what they appear to be looking for.

And then, because I'm exhausted from having to be so creative (and not being adequately compensated for the immense work that I choose to do) I am lying in bed listening to Drive by Daniel Pink...

For those who have read it you're probably chuckling to yourself right now... else you should be... :)

The SCIENCE does not match the THINKING.

The Grade 8's ARE working intrinsically even though the material itself is not NEARLY as interesting as the Grade 9 Space work.  They have not been told that they HAVE to do anything, and there is not proverbial CARROT hanging near the STICK threatening their work as being anything more than them choosing to do GOOD WORK.  In the class where I felt I was doing everything WRONG it turns out that I was playing to the actual nature of the Grade 8 psyche:  do work for the sake of doing work, and balk at anything that tries to get in the way of that.

Counter to that, though I thought I was onto something AMAZING with the grade 9's I have done everything absolutely bass-ackward.  I have taken something as intrinsically interesting as SPACE and said the only reason we are studying it is because we have some outcomes to achieve and I'm even going to take away the fun of building a ROCKET by making it a REWARD for doing (what should be) inherently interesting work.

Moreover I'm in contact with a group who's essential task is to create a game-ified, badge-based open learning pathway network (that's a mouthful) thinking that this might be an amazing way of opening up students to the potential of defining their own skill-set and making their own map of learning.  AND I believe it will work simply BECAUSE it gets the teacher out of the way of the REWARD.

I am a walking contradiction with an alarming alacrity.

Working in reverse:

The last solution is simple, and I mirror it in my job right now
a) I abused an incredible amount of hours creating an online course that I offer for free, simply because I love teaching about stuff, I feel like I have something to offer, and I REALLY LOVE designing things.  http://sites.google.com/site/artistsoftheigeneration-- there was a little carrot in that the Public Library offered me a forum, but no compensation really other than the joy of getting to "perform" a little.
b) I have quit my job as a high-paid geologist, to become a well-paid teacher, only to quit to become a part-time employee of a private-school start-up... the more experienced I get, the better my work gets and the LESS I am compensated to do it AND the MORE I feel fulfilled.
c) I don't need a badge, an honour-roll, or a reward to do it - BUT because the work is good people keep dropping by and OFFERING it to me, UNEXPECTED... so....

Solution 2 (Badge-Based Learning):

Let the students create and map their own learning path.  Then share the immeasurable creativity and uniqueness of their work, and carefully and intentionally support them with words of praise, and informative feedback.

Solution 1 (Cold Dead Space):

Drop the rank points (no one cares anyway)
Drop the facade, space is interesting -- very little motivation required
Let them build the rocket because building a rocket is the learning, unlink it from the project and they will bring it back around -- because inevitably it does
Start looking for the parts of the learning that ARE algorithmic (and VERY LITTLE of science is algorithmic) and put those rewards where they should be.

Conclusion:

Learning is NOT algorithmic, but there are things that MUST be done in order to create a safe place for learning.  In the absence of GAMIFYING those mundane tasks use other EXTRINSIC motivators, but for the love of teaching, and the love of PEDAGOGY...


HEY, TEACHER, LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE. 

Bake Cupcakes for Middle School Science - A Quick Reflection

Very quiet and then suddenly...

attribution: http://www.flickr.com/people/yosoynuts/
share-alike, no derivatives

So I'm immersed in deconstructing the Alberta Program of Studies for Grade 7-9 Science and I get to thinking about cupcakes.  I'm not sure how the two are related just yet, but I think hey, you know what would be fun for a science lesson -- Bake Cupcakes.

1. Baking = Mix and Flow of Matter, and Matter and Chemical Change (Grade 8 and 9)
2. Icing Value = Light and Optics (absorptive properties, subtractive mixing, digital-number colours), Space Science (remote sensing)
3. Mosaic = Organization of Data using appropriate methods (skill outcome 7-9)

Result.  Fun for the pinterest loving science student, or the DIY minecraft maker.

Here's a quick link to a site that lays it all out nicely:

http://www.zillycakes.com/Obama_.php

That is all.

How will Christian Ed Serve 21st Century Graduates?

An Outline for Serving the 21st Century Graduate by Tom Currie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

An Outline for Serving the 21st Century Graduate

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Disclaimer:  The following document should be applicable to all schools, in all regions, and within many contexts.  Consequently, it is to be seen as a sounding-board for your own unique school vision, and goals.  Though it is Christian in its character and its claims, it should theoretically be directly transferable to other secular, or religious environments.  This document attempts to provide common core-definitions for stakeholders within 21st Century Education.  It is based upon three years of conversation, and work-shopping at the Vancouver Symposium on Christian Education for the 21st Century.

Furthermore, this document is to be left “living and unfinished”.  In the sections below, each of the bolded titles should have hyperlinked resources to projects, schools, facilities, and networks that at any given time reside as the exemplars for the values stated.  The validity going forward will depend on activating a network of students and educators who will participate in its cultivation and curation.  

The connection to “the letter” exists only in that the statements that follow should be found to be consistent with the prediction made in the letter.

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A Definition for 21st Century Learning (The Vision)

To feel adequately prepared to face the scope of a unique future feeling the strength, hope, resiliency, and purpose that comes from knowing God by way of examining His creation.

Three Modes of 21st Century Education

What There Is

1.  The Educator

They who shall cultivate a culture of innovation and creativity borne from unassailable values of christian community and knowledge.

• Leadership - The educator shall model the conventional, regional, and cultural values of their christian context, work to maintain a professional and personal network of those who can positively affirm their commitment to The Vision, and devote themselves to humble service of others.
• Assessment - The educator shall regularly interact with students and their families to account for, document, and reflect on the Learner’s  journey toward The Vision.
• Relationship - The educator shall work to facilitate a growing network of resources, support, harmony, accountability, and love surrounding the Learner, while the Learner works toward a fulfillment of The Vision.
• Development - The educator shall continue to pursue The Vision themselves, by at times affording themselves the privilege of being a Learner.

2.  The Learner

They who shall navigate the prescriptive paths of curriculum with the intention of achieving a passion for life-long learning.

• Participation - The student shall be responsible for finding ways of engaging any prescribed direction toward learning, and at times be relied upon for determining new paths moving forward.
• Community - The student shall be responsible for engaging and maintaining positive, affirming, and relevant social relationships while working toward a sense of personal character and integrity.
• Focal Point - The student shall, at all times, be made the focal point for any educational decision made, as they are the ones ultimately who must demonstrate the adequate preparation outlined by The Vision.

3.  The Technology

That which is used in mutual symbiosis between the teacher and learner to create, manage, facilitate, and document the growing relationship between the educator, the learner, and a knowledge of God.

• Space - Educators and Learners will work together to find beneficial places to engage in relationship with God (learning).  The space will be managed and maintained by this partnership within the economic, physical, and personal limitations of the unique context of “school”.
• Tools - Educators and Learners will work together to find beneficial tools to help create, manage, facilitate, and document within the economic, physical, and personal limitations of the “school” context.
• Time - Educators and Learners will work together to negotiate the appropriate time required to create, manage, facilitate and document within the economic, physical, and personal limitations of the “school” context.

What There is NOT

1. There are no ‘class averages’ or comparative statistics
2. There are no grade levels, or specified age groupings
3. There are no prescriptive timelines,
4. There are no year-ends, so no year-end tests.
5. There are no “Teacher-Experts” or “Silos”

The above list, represents only a few scenarios that would be in direct conflict with the guidelines indicated and could be considered antiquated in a 21st Century Learning Model.  Suggested changes to these practices might include the following:

1. The community celebrates individual efforts in areas of high quality work.
2. Curriculum is seen as a dynamic and growing portfolio in the name of the individual student, the community forms around the learning and is managed appropriately.
3. Deadlines related to the goals would set by strategic negotiation between the Learner, the Educator, and any required resource person.
4. Standard testing could be used as a personal indicator of movement along a spectrum that has no definable end-point.
5. Educators link students to the resources, and may at times serve in that space.

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A Reflection

We believe, as educators, this is a strong outline for the future of learning because it:

1. Holds to the belief that all students CAN learn
2. Holds to the belief that all people have the RIGHT to learn
3. Holds to the belief that people require CONTEXTUALIZED learning
4. Holds to the belief that people will learn BEST when allowed to PERSONALIZE
5. Does not prescribe the HOW or the WHAT to learn, rather examines the WHY.
6. Fosters an environment where learning happens in COMMUNITY
7. By deepening our knowledge of God we move toward a realization of His ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

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