Transformational Education

Bat Stars

"Silently I sought and picked up a still-living star, spinning it far out into the waves.  I spoke once briefly, "I understand," I said. "Call me another thrower."  Only then I allowed myself to think, he is not alone any longer.  After us there will be others. . .  I picked and flung another star.  Perhaps far outward on the rim of space a genuine star was similarly seized and flung.  I could feel the movement in my body.  It was like a sowing -- the sowing of life on an infinitely gigantic scale.  I looked back across my shoulder.  Small and dark against the receding rainbow, the star thrower stooped and flung once more.  I never looked again.  The task we had assumed was too immense for gazing.  I flung and flung again while all about us roared the insatiable waters of death." 
-- excerpts from Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley

A friend of mine, Erik Mollenhauer, (from the Monarch Teacher Network) shared the story Star Thrower with me last summer, the above quote is a small section of that story.  I've read this story in its entirety a few times since and pondered on the message and the beauty in Eiseley's words.  It is a story of transformation.  The main character transforms, not by logic or through formal education . . . he transforms by walking a beach and observing a man throwing starfish into the sea.  He begins his journey "inhumanly stripped . . .without voice, without hope, wandering alone upon the shores of the world. . . devoid of pity, because pity implies hope. . ."  The story ends with a renewed love for life, . . "I would walk with the knowledge of the discontinuities of the unexpected universe.  I would walk knowing of the rift revealed by the thrower, a hint that there looms, inexplicable, in nature something above the role men give her.  I knew it from the man at the foot of the rainbow, the starfish thrower on the beaches of Costabel."

As teachers, we are called to be transformational.  It is a new buzz word with its own "Instructional Matrix."  I love this 'new' emphasis and perspective and maybe it's because I've always thought our vocation called us to be transformative in the lives of students and in the world.  What a privileged and noble calling. However, saying it and even trying to define transformation, doesn't make it happen. After years of struggle and often failure, here is what I think . . . transformation is really hard to capture in a definition or a pedagogy or a style. Transformation is emotional. It is taking knowledge and learning into the recesses of our emotions; into our hearts. Sometimes, it is as simple as kind words of encouragement or a smile shared with a student that can actually transform that student's outlook on school and learning.  Maybe, it is a teacher who sets high expectations for a student who never had anyone believe in him/her before. Perhaps it's a shared love for equations or books or science.  Sometimes it happens when you least expect it, like requiring a student to write a poem and transforming a reluctant writer into a poet.  I think that sometimes I was transformed by a teacher and didn't know it until years later. Transformation is, by definition, very personal and specific to the individual learner. It is illusive and yet so life-giving. I'm glad we are talking about transformational education, it really is a noble calling, but I hope we never package it up into a quantifiable and measurable object. That will never do.  We cannot strip it of its most important qualities...the human, subjective and emotional ties that pull us into a love for learning and a quest "too immense for gazing."

The Star Thrower story holds the beauty of transformation.  It is not about the science of it all, it's about "the discontinuities of an unexpected universe" and the love of it all.  "Call me another thrower...  [We are] not alone anymore.  After us there will be others."

Peace, Love and Transformation.

Bird Study

We are in the midst of studying the common birds of Michigan, and we look forward to the North American Bird Count in February!  Kent Martin, from the Kalamazoo Audubon Society, will join us for this fun adventure!  We will head out into our backyard and identify and count all the birds we see and hear, and then we will post our findings online with thousands of other citizen scientists.  It's a fun nonfiction reading and writing activity with the bonus of learning about common backyard birds!

Poem For The Day

                   

The Sonnets To Orpheus: XIX

By Rainer Maria Rilke

Though the world keeps changing its form
as fast as a cloud, still
what is accomplished falls home
to the Primeval.

Over the change and the passing,
larger and freer,
soars your eternal song,
god with the lyre.

Never has grief been possesed,
never has love been learned,
and what removes us in death

is not revealed.
Only the song through the land
hallows and heals.

(Translated by Stephen Mitchell)

In this ever changing world, there is forever a constant mystery that perhaps is best captured in the "primeval" because the "primeval" captures nothing... We hear it in the songs of birds and in the whispering of the wind.  We glimpse it in the snowfall and the woods. We feel it in our hearts.   It is a beautiful mystery that is beyond us and yet it is the very thing that grounds us.  It is what "hallows and heals."  If this sounds foreign, it is only because I lack the words. If you venture out into the woods today, breathe in and listen.   

Gratitude

                                   

       

                                                                  Forgive Me

By Mary Oliver

Angels are wonderful but they are so, well, aloof.

It's what I sense in the mud and the roots of the 

trees, or the well, or the barn, or the rock with

its citron map of lichen that halts my feet and

makes my eyes flare, feeling the presence of some

spirit, some small god, who abides there.

If I were a perfect person, I would be bowing 

continuously.

I'm not, though I pause wherever I feel this

holiness, which is why I'm often so late coming

back from wherever I went.

Forgive me.

Winter Break is a time for the gathering of one's tribe, breaking bread together and giving thanks.  The first two items on that list have been well accomplished and I am left with a deep need to give thanks to those who have helped teach, inspire and support me, my classroom and my students. 

Thank you to the amazing folks that I work with here at North Shore Elementary.  I stopped in today, thinking I'd fill the bird feeders and water my tree along with straightening up my classroom after flying out the door on December 19th.  As it turns out, the bird feeders were full and a retired Christmas tree was placed nearby, giving my birds not only food, but a place to roost between feedings.  Thank you Bob!  And thank you for taking time to fill the feeders during school hours with my students.  Thank you Teresa, for making Gingerbread cookies with my students and I.  Just when I was thinking, "How can I possible roll out cookies, watch the oven and frost cookies with my entire class!?" you stopped by to tell me you had extra time and if I needed help, you'd be there.  You saved the day (and my sanity).  In the scattering of papers left on my desk, I found a Christmas card from a fellow teacher and friend.  She wrote, "Keep on being the awesome teacher you are!"  Thank you Jill!  Your words lit up my day and your support means more than you know!  Walking into my classroom today, the floors had been cleaned, the desks washed, the tree watered and the boards cleaned.  Thank you Girard and Mike!  You make this school shine over and over again.  Girard has even become a faithful caregiver to Harold, my messy, hungry, ornery green iguana.  He and Harold are now on friendly terms (as friendly as Harold can be).  Thank you.  You both go above and beyond to help and support me and North Shore.   I would be remiss, if I did not mention Tech Support.  Listy and Pete have been amazingly supportive as I fumble my way into chromebooks, user names, google accounts, kidblogs, Google Teacher and various apps. . . to name just a few.   And when things go south with my computer, projection camera or other devices . . . Sam is always there to troubleshoot and fix things that I know nothing of. . . Thank you Tech Support!   I can't forget the many students who trust and believe in me, more than I believe in me, and the parents who nurture and support their kids and myself. Over the few years that I've worked in this building, I have been blessed with friendships and kindness I haven't earned.  Many people have not only supported my teaching, but have supported me.  Thank you friends and colleagues, too many to name.  I need to also thank the many folks, again I couldn't begin to name them all, who have helped with the Outdoor Learning Center; Boy Scout troops, Eagle Scouts, Master Gardeners, Sign-builders, trail-blazers, bulb donators, outdoor educators and enthusiasts . . . A special note of thanks to Russ and Ilse who have generously and consistently brought the love of birds and butterflies to hundreds of students here at North Shore Elementary.  It's really amazing to think of the generosity my students and I have received.  Thank you.  Here's what happens when I begin to think of those who have helped me along the way in this amazingly challenging educational career . . . I realize there are too many people to name and I have left many out.  Forgive me.  I am certainly imperfect.  

Perhaps I should have started by thanking my family, who have inspired me to become a teacher and who look through rose colored glasses to see me as better than I am.  I am thankful for their generosity of love.  Finally, I thank the woods and trails, the birds and butterflies that inspire me and all of us everyday.  They are the background of our lives without which our lives would be greatly diminished.  "If I were a perfect person, I would be bowing continuously."  

Many thanks to all and here's wishing you a very Happy New Year!  

Project-Based Learning

The Real Work

It may be that when we no longer know what to do 
we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have begun our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.
                          --Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry (a farmer, poet and naturalist) captured my feelings on education in his poem, The Real Work.  "The mind that is not baffled is not employed."  This captures my life as a teacher . . . a constant stream of baffling moments.  It is sort of a balance between the unknown and the heart of a child.  But, as Berry so poetically says, "The impeded steam is the one that sings."  How do we move into this new age of education and find the song?  

The new buzz word these days in education is "project-based learning."   When the term project-based learning came out, I was under the impression that it required additional knowledge, skills and equipment . . . a place to build robots and do those things that are the great new mysteries to me . . . How does this computer work?  What is the "cloud?"  Who needs Twitter?  And maybe more importantly, where do I fit in?  I don't know the answers to any of these questions, and those are just a few that come to mind.  How do I proceed?

As a teacher of 20 years or so, it is hard to know where to begin and how to make this new age of teaching my own.  How does outdoor learning fit in?  Last year, a couple of business people, interested in curriculum and alternative education, came and visited the outdoor learning center here at North Shore Elementary.  I tried to explain my vision and goals.  I talked about tying math into our garden of bulbs, writing poetry outside (for our poetry night at a local theater), various science studies (outdoor bird count, monarch tagging etc) and basic explorations that happen when you walk a trail . . . simple, easy outdoor learning.  They both responded by saying something like, "This is a great example of project-based learning!  How can we capture this in the curriculum market?"   I have no idea how to answer that question, but their first response caught me.  I had never thought of this work as project-based.  I thought a new buzz word meant a new concept.  But I think they are right:  this new project-based learning is really a very old concept.  Liberty Hyde Bailey talked about getting out into the fields and woods, exploratory education, bringing learning and knowledge out onto the farm and into the everyday.  It's about building learning around stories and life.  It's about taking life experience into the classroom.  It's taking the little "making it real" moments and building around them.  I've started looking at the project based learning concept in this simple and practical way.  

The video I posted above is an example of an easy project we did yesterday.  My kids love LEGOs and (if I'm honest) mostly dislike writing, so I thought I'd blend the two and see what happens.  I had them build settings and characters out of LEGOs.  After they finished their creations, I gave them time to talk about ideas and form problems and story lines based on their creations.  And then (the tricky and potentially unpleasant part) I had them individually sit down and write stories.  It was interesting to watch.  After a good hour of building, creating and discussing, they all seemed to have a story to write.  This project was simple and will be done by next week.  We will publish the stories on their new "KidBlogs" and call it good.  It was easy and engaging, but I'm going to call it project-based.

I think that in elementary school, project-based learning can be this simple.  And I don't think that learning or teaching has changed dramatically in this new age of technology.  It's always been baffling as we try to make it real for each unique human that is in our classrooms.  I think we are simply asked to continue to teach with mindfulness, engaging our students with learning that's connected to their lives.  And isn't that what learning has always been about?

I take heart in knowing that to be baffled in this life and to wonder what to do is simply facing the real journey that is before us.  We are called to be baffled and continue on, knowing that it really is the "impeded stream that sings."  Happy teaching and learning in this new/old age of project-based learning!
         

New Beginnings . . .

"What the caterpillar calls the end, the master calls a butterfly."       --Richard Bach

A new friend

A new school year has begun and we are again in the company of monarch butterflies!  We have had the good fortune of having four caterpillars (one actually started as an egg in our class) turn into chrysalises and so far, three have become butterflies!  These first three are all females and they seem healthy and anxious to cross the borders into Mexico.  We have tagged one and already sent it on it's way.   We are waiting for a sunny, breezy day (perhaps Tuesday) to set the next two free.  We hope the last one comes out of his/her chrysalis during class.  We are also participating in "Project North," a symbolic migration.  We will be sending butterflies we have made, a letter translated into Spanish and information about our town (along with photos and postcards).  With any luck, our butterflies will find a class of students in Mexico somewhere and we will make friends and cross borders of our own.  We are also learning a little bit about the culture in Mexico.  This week we are reading and learning about the Mexican festival, Day of the Dead.  This celebration is a time to honor and celebrate those who have died with parades, good foods and fun.  The Day of the Dead is celebrated around the same time as the monarchs' arrival in great masses to their overwintering homes in the trees of Mexico.  Many say that the butterflies carry on their wings the souls of their ancestors.  I would like to believe that four butterflies will also carry with them good will from the hearts of students in classroom 104 to the people in Mexico who will be seeing them soon.   

Our class set of butterflies headed on a "Symbolic Migration"

Our Class, "Being the Butterfly"

One of our caterpillars becoming a chrysalis

New Beginnings and Transformations

Tagging my butterfly

This past week I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a Monarch Teacher Network workshop entitled Teaching and Learning with Monarch Butterflies!  It was sponsored by October Hill Foundation and Hope College. The presenter was Erik Mollenhauer with additional help from Cindy and Paul Wackerbarth.  I have raised Monarch butterflies in my classroom before and it is always a thrill. This workshop brought new depth of appreciation, knowledge and joy of this amazing insect and I am forever grateful.  I learned how to spot an egg on the milkweed leaf, how to identify several of the other insects that live on milkweed, how to handle and feed both the larva (caterpillar) and the butterfly, how to breed butterflies, how to tag them and how to release them. All of that was amazing, but the real treasures in this workshop and Erik's presentations were the connections that he made between this amazing insect and the critical issues that we face today, including migration across borders, global warming, monoculture cultivation, and deforestation.  It's a story of an annual migration that spans three nations from Canada through the United States and into Mexico.  The workshop included many resources for bringing these issues and topics into the classroom setting and beyond. I look forward to incorporating this amazing story into language arts, social studies, math and science lessons. Erik, Cindy, Paul and all the participants (including monarchs in various stages) reminded me again of this amazing planet we inhabit and the great fortune we have to be a part of it.  This workshop was not simply about the transformation and travels of the monarch; it was about a transformation in the hearts of those of us lucky enough to participate.  As Erik writes, "If it takes a village to raise a child, perhaps it takes a butterfly to bring that village together."  Thank you to everyone who is making a difference in the lives of the butterflies and the heart of the village!

Releasing my new found friend!