Brief bit of writing after we finished working on our proposals.

“How does thinking about defending your project proposal help you?”

Began the day by thinking about two questions:

if you believe that school is like real life, what traps do you run into?

if you believe that school is not like real life, what traps do you run into?

There were a number of great student responses (see below).

Two issues I like focusing on:

If you believe that school is like real life, how do you help students work in ways that emulate historians or playwrights or craftsmen? They aren’t experts (yet) and you can’t demand that they work to those standards. Scaffolding the work so that students can be successful as they travel towards expertise is a critical part of the teaching process.

If you believe that school is not real life, then you believe that people have an on-off switch, as if they can make a choice when they feel like it. I’ve written a lot about this (link) — it’s a natural state of adolescence — but it’s an idea that I try and approach with kids as often as possible. If you never go all-in on something, it’s hard to know what that feels like.

Got off the plane and sat down to brainstorm.

Took a cab to the edge of Golden Gate Park

Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

(King James)

Behold, a sower went forth to sow.
And as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up.
And some fell upon stony ground, where they had not much earth, and anon they sprung up, because they had no depth of earth.
And when the sun was up, they were parched, and for lack of rooting withered away.
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up, and choked them.
And some again fell in good ground, and brought forth fruit, one corn an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and another thirtyfold.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

(Geneva 1599)

“Once there was a man who went out to sow grain. As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn’t deep. But when the sun came up, it burned the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up. Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants. But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants bore grain: some had one hundred grains, others sixty, and others thirty.”

“Listen, then, if you have ears!”

(Good News Version, the one I read in Reading, Mass, CCD class, 1970s)

Last year Senior CR constructed an “I believe” mural on the outside of our building. It was the centerpiece of this morning’s circle.

What you want from your work together: things that get used over and over again.