Was looking for u in Facebook. Mom and I are in New York April 25th to April 30th. ¿Nos podemos ver?

I hope the conference is going well! As it turns out I decided today to check out my blog *feeds* today (since it’s a snow day) and there was a new hit from Learning Mix.

Speaking of motivation, have you seen/heard about Rick Lavoie’s book Motivation Breakthrough: http://www.ricklavoie.com/motivationbreakthrough.html. It’s more about students than teachers, but he referenced it when he came to Packer last year and I rented the film. Interesting.

Safe travels,
Imani

To me, choices in technology that enable student creativity and agency should always take precedence. Words like “deliver”, “automatic” and “efficient” always make me suspicious.

Cutting edge is not important; the tyranny of the new can be fatal to creative uses of technology that get plowed under because “we’ve done that!”

Platform would depend upon the goals of the program, but certainly exposure to all (both) would be ideal. I imagine Mac would have to be more explicit while PC would be an eventuality.

Yes. Technology is addictive, transformational and instructive.

While it’s important for students to be prepared and aware of the options, I’m not sure it’s important for schools to be cutting edge, but I would certainly be as concerned by schools whose teachers use 10th generation mimeographs lesson plans as a school where progress is not being made in tech.

Just a bit of weighing in. Thanks for provoking thought, engaging in the conversation and inviting response.

It’s interesting that many people see martial arts as fighting; I think I have come to see it more and more as a spiritual discipline. I value the reassurance of hierarchy, the joy of peer teaching, the experience of all of us as learners. I don’t feel the analogy’s a stretch. Perhaps I am showing my non-euro-western colors here. I love the parallels you have drawn. They are clear and push the reader to broaden our mind.

I was confused by this and wondered what you meant:
I’d much rather that my students see me as human, as a person who can’t do anything they’re not capable of doing if they’re willing to train long enough and hard enough to achieve it.

Persistence and mastery are not, I believe, what we currently are training for. I think we tend to teach kids to reach for the next brass ring and once there allow them (and ourselves) to disregard foundation. When you speak of memorization, I would underscore that we do not insist on retention or even help our kids to make connections. Sometimes this may be because we teach things are are irrelevant and not grounded in real life experiences. Sometimes I think it’s because it feels too overwhelming, or no one did this for us.

I have many more thoughts on this subject, but an even greater number of assignments that await grading

Thanks!