Tuesday I have out a sheet with block in the middle. Each hour of the week got a block. The goal was to try and identify, as much as possible, how each of us was using our time.
Quotes while everyone was writing:
“I need to come up with a new life.”
“Damn, why do I have so much free time?”
“We would have so much more time if…”
“I don’t know where the rest of my time goes.”
“I just upped my me time.”
“I just deleted my youtube app. Again.”
Act one: We agreed to make some kitchen caddies for the Culinary Center at the Free Library of Philadelphia. We have some preliminary specifications and have some initial designs. The director there lets us know that we should probably not build out of wood for cleaning/sanitary reasons — hard to clean and keep germ free.
Everything stops. Kids worry. I worry
Act two: We’re reading William Kamkwanba’s The Boy who Harnessed the Wind. It’s going reasonably well. His ingenious methods of solving problems — using hot metal as a drill — and re-using all materials — melted PVC can be formed into anything — are part of the reason why we picked this book. And I hope the book serves as inspiration for the students.
Act three: KH bursts out with idea: why don’t we build caddy out of PVC?
I should retire today. Just grow vegetables or something.
I know the kids have spent time thinking about time management. My primary thing is making sure that they’ve begun to consider how they’re using their time and where the breakdowns are occurring. Sometimes people say they don’t have any work to do when they do. Broken record: sometimes people grossly underestimate how much time things will take.
And while all human beings waste time, are they aware of when and how they are wasting time?
First step: Collect all the things that people say about time
Time is money.
It’s about damn time.
The clock is ticking.
Was that really worth you time?
You can do better next time?
I think you should ____ with your time.
Put time aside to do your work.
Once upon a time.
Time waits for no one.
The end of time is near.
You’re wasting my time and energy.
It’s time to fight.
I don’t got time for you.
Time’s up.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
If you continue to waste time, you won’t get anything done (ascribed to me but I don’t think I say this)
You either waste time or make it?
Be hear on-time.
If you don’t have time for yourself, don’t make if for anyone else undeserving.
To be on-time is to be late.
Time flies.
I lost track of time.
It’s crunch time.
You grow over time.
Work on time management.
When I was a kid,
Timing is everything.
Time is of the essence.
You can’t run from the past.
The clock is ticking.
You think that time revolves around you. –Grandma
Eastern Standard Time.
Time is against you.
Time is an illusion.
Why you always wait for the last minute?
You just starting that? You gonna get it finished?
Time is the only thing you can’t change.
Best thing: “These projects are easy with unlimited time.” –VG
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.
Going to slowly fill with plants, mostly succulents.
Sitting, watching students take the SATs, and I brainstormed this list of questions I ask myself as I’m thinking about the norms in my room.
(Thanks to “The Sure Thing”)
Sailor take warning.
The assessment problem — how do you help kids understand makes outstanding work throughout a project, from beginning — do they have something to aim for — to the end — do they honestly evaluate their work and understand how their work compares to the standards set at the beginning as well as the real-world goals that should be guiding their work. (That’s a lot, isn’t it…)
With one opening project, I had a few ideas about what would make it outstanding. We then wrote together around four questions:
Top left: what will you struggle with in order to get your work to outstanding?
Top right: what are you worried about in terms of getting this done?
Bottom left: how will you help the other people in the class get to outstanding?
Bottom right: what’s going to the be the easiest part of creating outstanding work?
We then talked about the definition, line by line, and the picture below has my notes.
One of the things I want kids to think about as they’re telling the story of a project is how it changes as you move towards completion. For design stuff, you see it in the changes in the drawings or in the reality of working with certain materials. With the pallets, there was one set of wood you might have had when before you started taking it apart; there’s another set of wood when the wood is apart. And splintered. And full of nails.
But I really wanted them to think about the good reasons why a project changes. After two years at the Workshop School and even more years as a human being, they know the language of excuses. What I hoped for with this activity was a deeper understanding of the important ways that projects can change in helpful or productive ways. In other words, can they discuss how the materials changed their design or how what seemed reasonable as a drawing was impossible in the shop.
