How do we use design to address human behavior?

MT: Make your object feel like it’s not work.
AH: Make it appealing to the eye; make them want to look at it.
AH: Make them laugh!
HG: Make it pretty/neat.
MH: Visually and intellectually engaging.
MG: Fun (whimsical)
KH: Make them conscious of what they’re doing.
SH: Negative impact of when they don’t do it.
VG: Make it social (imply that everyone is doing it)
KM: Make it relevant to their lives and the things they do.
TC: Make it simple to operate; does it stick out?

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A solid list. Here’s what I wrote:
make them laugh,
make them see stuff that’s usually invisible,
make them stop in their tracks; surprise them, and
take advantage of things people do automatically.

Check out what the pros had to say. We did pretty well.

Here’s the link to my “Case for Compost” brochure.

Facing History

“Let us not forget, after all, that there is always a moment when the moral choice is made. Often because of one story or one book or one person, we are able to make a different choice, a choice for humanity, for life.”

Please write an essay responding to Wiesel’s quote in 500 words or less. What story, book, or person has influenced your thinking about ethical decision making? What has it taught you about how you can participate as a caring, thoughtful citizen in the world around you?

Opens March 1st, closes March 17th.

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thanks RC

Students design the session.

Sitting down to take part two of the MAP test — Reading — I ran circle by remembering times that they read well, closely, and with purpose. Once we’d come up with examples, the students set growth goals for themselves.

Some of the answers:

“I know that if you’re doing a project and you need to do research you will be reading with a purpose, which I have done a lot of.” –SH

*Long, long list of projects done.

* “Every project I’ve done I had to read with a purpose. That purpose was to get more insight on the true nature of the project.” –IJ

* For Gateway, I had to read the directions closely.” –AH

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This was an activity that made me feel good about our place and hopeful for our students. It also helped alleviate the existential dread I feel when I’m charged with delivering a standardized test. They’ve done some amazing things that demonstrate authentic and deep literary practices.

I like rereading this every semester.

I believe that much of present education fails because it neglects this fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. It conceives the school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be learned, or where certain habits are to be formed. The value of these is conceived as lying largely in the remote future; the child must do these things for the sake of something else he is to do; they are mere preparation. As a result they do not become a part of the life experience of the child and so are not truly educative.

Dewey, John. “My Pedagogic Creed.” School Journal 54 (1897): 77–80.

We’re doing the MAP tests on Thursday and Friday morning. This test addresses academic growth. It seemed as good a time as any to address this idea of which is more important, growth or proficiency? It’s a false choice, really, everyone wants both. But if you had to pick one, which would you pick?

Brief summary of the conversation points.

DD: Everybody can’t reach proficient.

TC: Sometimes it’s not good enough for society’s standards. A school or a job might say “if you can’t show proficiency what makes you good enough to be in our place?”

KM: Growth shows that you’re putting in your work, even if it’s not proficient.

VG: It’s more meaningful to show growth. Proficiency is important depending on who is looking at you.

DW: The real world doesn’t really care about how much you grow.

MH: Once you reach a certain level, it has to be about proficiency. Growth is always happening but proficiency feels stagnant.

CB: Even if you don’t succeed (reach proficiency), you’re doing better than you did before.

DW: You can’t be okay with failing.

IK: If you show effort, that’s still something.

SH: If you have growth, you’ll eventually get to proficient.

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I’ll answer this differently depending on the day, but this morning I was feeling proficiency. Yeah, I want you to grow, but I want you to have achieved something, not just have gotten better. Tomorrow I’ll feel differently.

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Tomorrow we’ll talk about growth vs. proficiency as an athlete, a mechanic, a designer, a human being. Does this argument shift depending on the context? In other words, I don’t want a plumber who’s growing into their practice, I want the pipe not to leak. We’re also going to look at how the current Secretary of Ed handled this question…

You sit in classrooms and carefully listen and there’s all manner of comments made by students. When you had an observer, particularly early in your career, you’d learn that you had to stay true to whatever culture you’d built, as the kids would ruthlessly call you out.

“And for homework…”

“Homework? We never have homework!”

But on Friday, we were having a conversation, and as I was facilitating the same old “why are we doing this” discussion, I heard a young man say, mostly under his breath:

“Can’t just do a project for no reason.”

Something is working, I think, if we’ve managed to establish that all project work has a purpose, a clear intention, a reason for doing it beyond a grade.