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Today is the 10th Anniversary of 9-11. Watching television of the 9-11 Memorial service and then all the repeats of the original events off and on, almost all day long has often felt like, and made as much sense as, sitting around hitting a big bruise, just to have something to do, but we seem to come back again and again to keep watching. Somehow it seems disloyal to the memories of all who died to do anything else, though I did sit outside for awhile on the swing after we got home from Church. There was a lovely breeze, the sky was blue, and it was a cooler outside than it has been. It seemed odd that the weather was so very similar to the gorgeous weather we had on 9-11-01, only today’s sky wasn’t as intensely blue.
Before I go to bed, I’m listening again to “Fanfare for the Common Man” by Aaron Copeland, just like I do every year. It wasn’t written for 9-11, but the whole story is right there in the music.
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Posted by Jan Duffy in blogging, business, business-networking, Common-Good, Education, engagement, ethics, excellence, gifted, good-work, k-3danceeducation, productivity, professionaldevelopment, psychology, Research, resources, social studies, social-networking, Uncategorized, Web 2.0, web2.0, webtools, Wiki, world cultures, tags: Best practice, Common-Good, empirical-research, Facebook, good-work, GoodPlay, GoodWork, GoodWorkToolkit, harvard, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Howard Gardner, Project Zero, Research, Social network, Theory of multiple intelligences, United States, William Damon
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As the debate about school reform continues, it’s good to stop and think-what is the end result we want to to see in our children and others after 12-18 consecutive years of school-or more?
To my mind, the whole point of education is to help children develop into ethical workers and honest citizens who respect and consider different points of view, but who think for themselves, and do so not only for their own benefit, but also for the Greater Good!
How do we know Good Work when we see it? And how can we insure that our children embrace it? One way to start is by using The Good Work Tool Kit!
GoodWorkTookkit is a part of the The Good Work Project at Harvard University’s Project Zero, where a dynamic team of researchers studies Good Work-work that is “excellent, ethical and engaging”, along with many other related topics. Their research findings benefit individuals, students, schools, businesses, and non-profit organizations.
GWTk is the part of The Good Work Project that’s charged with reaching out to the world via their website, blog, Twitter and Facebook page to help people think more deeply about the work they’re doing, and why they’re doing it the way they do. At GoodWorkToolkit, there’s an interactive card sort activity that you can use to help you see what values are most important to you, so that you can think more clearly about whether or not your work supports those values- and if not- get expert help in figuring out the best way to go about improving that situation.
The Good Work Project is directed by Howard Gardner, a cognitive psychologist who is one of the world’s foremost authorities on education; he holds 24 honorary doctorates from colleges and universities around the world! Gardner is responsible for leading many influential research projects at Harvard’s Project Zero, and is most widely recognized his revolutionary “Theory of Multiple Intelligences”, which has had a major impact on the way many educators view IQ.
If you aren’t familiar with MI Theory, you might enjoy reading Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which has been updated since it first came out in 1983, and continues to have a major influence on all kinds of educators, administrators, schools and school systems around the world.
The Good Work Project began as a collaboration between Howard Gardner, William Damon of Stanford, and Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi, who conducted thousands of interviews with professionals over a period of many years to determine exactly what it is that constitutes Good Work, furthers it, or impedes it. Research into what constitutes Good Work here in the USA and around the world continues to this day, and but it most often focused these days on related topics, among them, Trust and Trustworthiness, Good Play (with digital media), and Collaboration, among many others.
Not only is GoodWorkToolkit a Blog, and a Website, a Facebook page and a Twitter account, it’s named for an actual Good Work Tool Kit-a special set of cards designed to be used for reflection. The Toolkit, which is sold on their site, was designed by GW researchers to help individuals and groups identify the values that are the most important to them, think about them, discuss them, and compare and contrast them with others, all so that people can eventually come up with ways to work that will honor, support and reinforce their most important values, and help them to promote their ideals through their work in ways that are excellent, ethical and engaging.
GoodWorkToolkit Facebook page is one I’ve enjoyed reading almost every day over the past few months. Interesting News articles that the researchers find are posted there, on a wide variety of interesting topics, and the GWTk team invites anyone and everyone who looks at GWTk Facebook page to read, reflect and comment-which may not sound all that novel, Except that a Good Work researcher Really Does read Every Word of your Comments-as long as you speak appropriately to the topic at hand.
These truly altruistic people take communication seriously-if you take the time to share your thoughts in ways that extend whatever the different articles are talking about, the GW research teams not only publish your comment, they get together and discuss the comment too, as a way of furthering their research-because that’s what actually happens out in the real world-and what real people actually think and do in real life situations is what matters to the most to empirical researchers.
What I think is cool is that just by reading a bit of news on the GWTk Facebook page, and then commenting on it, I’ve actually been able to help the GW team with their research-they’ve actually taken the time to email me to tell me so! And that, to me, means that, by extension, I’m also helping in my own little way to make the world a better place in which to live and work in this changing world of ours every time I read and comment on their FB page!
Can there be an easier way to do Community Service every day? After all-don’t you read something on Facebook and comment on it almost every day anyway? I do, and so does almost everyone else I know! That’s why I’m saying, why not take two minutes to read an article on GoodWorkToolkit’s Facebook page and comment thoughtfully once in a while-and tell your friends to do the same thing- since just doing that one simple thing really Can help improve the way the world works! (Don’t believe that? Then read the book, Good Work, and browse all the GWToolkit web pages, and those of Harvard’s Project Zero too)!
If you comment thoughtfully often enough, you might even be asked to contribute to the GWToolkitblog. That’s what happened to me! My feet didn’t touch the ground for weeks! I was asked to contribute a blogpost, but I got so excited writing all about the wonderful experience my students and I had last year collaboratively choreographing together, that the GW team didn’t want to cut anything- they got as excited as I am and turned everything I wrote into a 3 part blog series!
And as Dance Teacher who works alone with her students most of the time, teaching a subject that most people don’t know much of anything about, in corner of a big school building where most of the academic teachers don’t just happen to “stop by”-it was a really heady feeling having knowledgeable professionals read about my work and instantly “get it’!
How many major research teams whose opinions are read and revered around the world do you know who care deeply enough about the opinions of every day people-even little old dance teachers like me? Enough that the researchers go out of their way to communicate with “real people” and take the time to understand and validate their work? Or ask them to make a contribution of any kind, (other than money)? I can tell you one thing-it’s been such an exhilarating feeling to finally be treated like I’m intelligent by people who actually know what that means! Having what I’ve been doing labeled Good Work on top of that has been, to date, one of the biggest highlights of my entire teaching career.
Please go online and check out GoodWorkToolkit.org-and while you’re there, check out my blog posts and leave me a Comment too!
Thanks!
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Posted by Jan Duffy in business, Education, productivity, psychology, tags: business, Closed-circuit television, Employment, Howard Gardner, Jealousy, Management, Mental disorder, Non-profit organization, Property, Sabotage, Security, United States
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What can you do when your most important work begins to disappear from your desk, and your computer at school, or from your business or company office, even when you lock your doors, and shut down your computer before going home? What if you reported the thefts promptly but nothing at all was done to secure the space you work in for more than a year, while the “incidents” escalated? What if it is in your supervisor’s power to have a security camera installed, and he asks for one, but it’s never installed and never followed up on, even after you ask repeatedly. What would you think? How would you feel? What would you do next if you need the job and are good at it, and enjoy it -at least when you aren’t subjected to constant attempts to make you appear incompetent by an anonymous, but overly competitive, jealous, and/or mentally ill co-worker?
Is it a violation of your Civil Rights if your boss your Principal or Department Head knows you’re being sabotaged and does nothing about it? Can you file insurance claims to replace your personal property when it’s stolen at work? What if your boss won’t allow you to call the police?
Is there anything you can do to fight back against someone anonymous, who knows enough about you to make your working life inconvenient, and stressful in numerous ways, who may even be instigating slanderous attacks against you, and carrying out undercover acts of professional sabotage ?
Who can you go to when your Boss waits a Year to change your locks- and then gives one of the few “extra” keys to someone who is careless with their keys, and to someone else you’re not sure you can trust? Do you have any rights as an employee in this kind of situation? Who do you report these things to if your supervisor is unavailable, or her efforts are half-hearted or ineffective at best?
If Nothing that is happening to you is deserved, and no one seems to truly appreciate that except you and your closest friends and co-workers, does that matter? Should you quit? Can you force your employer to safeguard you and your reputation from those who are trying to make you appear incompetent? What can you do, if your boss does nothing, and you can’t afford a Nanny-cam or other security camera? Can you call the local police, rather than your boss, when your property or credit cards are stolen, if you have reason to believe your boss will do nothing? Can doing that get you fired?
Do people “borrow” your equipment constantly without saying anything to you about it, and then when you need it, and it’s not there-and you send out an email asking for your borrowed property to be returned ASAP, and/or put up signs about it, do your co-workers pretend not to see your email, and signs, or do they only return your property when you aren’t around to see they were the ones who took it in the first place? Do you get your property returned-but broken, or “used-looking” or dirty, with pieces missing?
What’s that all about? Would you stay in a job like that if your family needed that income, and you were good what you do? What if Security told you they believed you’re being sabotaged? What is you had good reason to believe the sabotage is coming from you Department Head or someone in Management or your Administration?
What if you believe that the sabotage is being done to make you quit because you are, in fact, a truly excellent employee, and there is no valid reason to fire you, except that the non-profit organization you work for believes it cannot afford your salary anymore, and doesn’t want to have to admit that to major donors?
Does anyone know if Howard Gardner and goodworktoolkit.org offer professional development seminars on the topic of professional ethics and the best ways to overcome sabotage at work? Would it be ethical to strongly suggest to major donors or Board members that such a seminar is needed?
If you have the answers to any of these questions, please reply ASAP!
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Posted by Jan Duffy in History, social studies, Uncategorized, world cultures, tags: harvard, Harvard University, Howard Gardner, Japan, Japanese people, Project Zero, Rosary, United States
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ARE YOU OKAY??? I’m praying a Rosary for you every day! And have no idea where I put the list of email addresses we got from Project Zero last summer so that we could all find each other and keep in touch-I wish our Study Group Leader had emailed us all our Group’s addresses, like he said he would, that we all took time to write out for him on that big piece of paper on the last morning! If I had one of those things, I might be able to find out what has happened to you and your families, and what, if anything I can do to help you!
I’m laughing and crying remembering the day last summer when we were all about to arrive last-and Late- for Study Group. Do you remember that day? Roberta and I, and you guys, Ken, and Jerry, (and that lovely young teacher who accompanied you to America and to Harvard, whose name I have suddenly forgotten)-for a few minutes, we were all Japanese-together! I learned so much about your culture in those funny minutes together-and if you are ok, I know it’s because you probably acted exactly as you did we were about to get in trouble last summer…do you remember?
Forced by our good manners to tiptoe out of Howard Gardner‘s Lunch and Learn session that had begun running into overtime, (well before any of us really wanted to leave, since Howard was still taking questions)-we stepped out into the sunshine, and just for a moment, turned towards each other in wordless misery. The mutual dread of Being Late and having Negative Attention focused on us was plainly written on across each of our faces.
Tall, serious, Ken immediately and assertively took charge: “Ok! We do Japanese way now- is best!” And without another word, we were One Group- and were Off and Flying-as fast as we could without slipping and falling down, or losing our shoes! Straight ahead, across the lawn, we ran-right behind Jerry-(politely decorous Jerry-?)
Who knew that Jerry could move so fast—directly through the busy sprinklers! Surprising us with a single shout of laughter, (and the widest smile seen on a Japanese face all week), Jerry had fairly leaped to the head of our “Japanese” line -and with his coat and tie whipping out behind him like maniacal angel wings, he flew us the smallest distance between two points-a straight line that led directly to our Study Group.. Out of breath from running and laughing, we could hardly pull the doors open when we arrived! But serious, responsible, gasping Ken, seized that moment to focus our group: “Now All Together!! Late together! Face Pain– Together!”
Oh, Jerry-I’m remembering you drew an Angel to represent yourself in Study Group-I hope you’re not really an Angel now! Unless that was the only way God could spare you any more suffering. The silliest things pop into my head now-like what in the world are you doing without power to run that laptop of yours, Ken? i don;t even know what town you lived and worked in, and I could have!
If only we could go back and be together again, running through the sprinklers across the wide, green Harvard lawn-just one more time-! We’re pretty serious people when we’re “on time”, but we certainly acted like carefree kids for that short little time-why didn’t we do more of that? WE should have-we were safe, and we had some free time! The ground shook only from the sound of our own feet as they pounded the pavement on that wild run to Study Group, and the only water that could make us run and scream was the sprinkler’s sudden blast of icy cold drops!
If we could go back in time, or meet at Harvard again some day, I promise I’ll laugh and talk with you more, I’ll trade more ideas, I’ll exchange email addresses with you all by myself, and invite you to see my school in Atlanta. I could have been a much better friend than the one who’s sitting up alone, in the middle of the night, wondering where you are, wishing she knew how to find out, and praying that you and everyone you love survived the earthquake, the tsunami, and the radiation, as well as the food and water shortages, and all the other disastrous misfortunes we’re hearing about that are happening in Japan.
I may never know how you’re doing, but I want you to know I’ll keep praying for your safety every single day anyway-! I’m so sad thinking that you might never know how much I loved being Japanese with all of you for those few minutes, that one day-but maybe someone will see this and tell you about it, and you’ll know that it’s thanks to those few funny moments on that one day that I can now be hopeful that you were saved, and were able to save the students at your school too-just by being “All Together!”
If ANYONE who works at PROJECT ZERO sees this and knows how I can find Jerry and Ken (Watonabi?)-they were with me in in the PZ Study Group that Sandi Dawes helped lead.
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Posted by Jan Duffy in business, home decorating, Shopping, social studies, tags: ABC News, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, China, Costume, Diane Sawyer, United States, Wall Street Journal
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Did anyone see the ABC News with Diane Sawyer tonight, where the reporter brought a moving van, and with the permission of the family, went through his friend’s home and removed every single item that wasn’t made in the USA? The most striking visual image for me was the lonely glass vase with the single flower in it that was the Only Item left in the family’s once fully furnished living room!
These days, less than 50% of the goods in our homes are made here in the USA, and it’s not helping our own citizens who need jobs to have these items made outside our country-things made in other countries aren’t that much cheaper for us now that shipping costs so much more-especially since foreign countries have been hard hit by the down economy too, and have been raising the price of everything we order from them-as well as the cost of shipping too.
Last year, I couldn’t get half the dance recital costumes I’d ordered for our school because they were, for all practical purposes, being held hostage in a Chinese port. The costume company here in America, paid bribes to Chinese officials to no effect. Not knowing when I’d ever see the costumes I’d ordered-or even IF I would ever see them- I had to cancel those 6 classes worth of costumes and start all over to choose something else for each of those classes-and that was a Nightmare!
Believe me, when you are notified in mid-February that half your total costume order most likely Won’t be coming-on the very day you were promised by the Owner of the business that your order would definitely be shipped, it’s a shock. Thanks Heavens, they gave me a full refund-but I can tell you, when you start looking for recital costumes in mid-February-there’s not much else out there to choose from-not unless you are willing to pay upwards of $50 per costume-and even then, there isn’t much out there to choose from-not that you can count on receiving before the end of May!
If your recitals have to take place the first weekend in May, like mine do-that means you can’t even try to use 75% of the dance recital costume companies in the USA, not unless you get “lucky” and manage to find a place that allows what they consider to be “last minute-rush orders”; if you do find such a place, you’ll easily have to pay $65-$80 per costume, plus extra for expedited shipping! I’d like to tell you that the costumes’ quality is twice as good-to match the price, but that’s not the case at all. Two complete sets of “replacement” ballet costumes were so ugly “in person” last year, that I had to scramble to replace them a Second time-and couldn’t even return the ugly costumes for credit either!
It’s not just apparel and costume makers that have us over the barrel here in the USA. My husband and I ordered a bedroom suite from a nationally top ranked chain store, and only received the nightstands-they couldn’t get the other pieces out of China- all of which they had advertised and promised us were “in stock/ready to ship”! After 5 months of waiting for the rest of our bedroom furniture that seemed to be on permanent “back order”, the company finally gave us a refund, because they still didn’t know when- or if- we would ever get the rest of our bedroom furniture. we had to keep the night stands however, because we’d had them 5 moths-Ridiculous! Even more ridiculous was finding out that our government has been involved, trying to get the container ships that are bound for America out of Chinese ports on time, but finally had to admit defeat!
We somehow, as a nation, missed a loophole in the free trade agreement- or something like that-because after government lawyers poured over the agreement, they discovered that the “Chinese port official of the day ” is Not legally forbidden to set the “extra fee” that all container ships must pay only if they are bound for America, (or Australia and other ports sympathetic to the US)! According to a government spokesperson, the lawyers said the policy is not fair but isn’t illegal either-! That’s all I know, but I bet it’s more than most people in the USA.
And I only know because my costume experience was so expensive and so horrific last year, that I have radar for articles on the topic-and I read an article about it in the Wall Street Journal last summer that said our government was finally getting involved because so many small businesses were going bankrupt from not being able to meet their orders as advertised. (But to keep people from panicking, the article was buried at the bottom of Page 4 of so. But I never saw anything mentioned about the problem at all in our local newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
And it’s not just furniture either-it’s Almost Everything! What Isn’t made in China anymore? Or India or Pakistan-or somewhere far away?
My husband works for a very large public school system that built it’s own prefab factory in China to manufacture desk parts. China was not going to let the ship carrying parts for 8,000 desks that his school system needed, out of port on time, so after several months of useless bribery, his school system gave up-they dismantled their entire factory and carried it to Vietnam, where they reassembled it and cranked out another $8,000 parts, which were shipped out “just in time”-a week before school started last August. Was this the best and most cost-effective solution-no, it was the fastest solution-which was all they had left by the time China was finished jerking them around
The continuing story about the family that had all its imported belonging removed from their home continues tomorrow-tune in! Or go to ABC News and look it up-You might have your eyes opened!
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Posted by Jan Duffy in blogging, History, Parenting, social studies, Uncategorized, world cultures, tags: 9/11, Brad Fetchet, God, Greg Atlas, History, New York City, Prayer, Rick Lescorla, September 11 2001, September 11 attack, Terrorism, United States, War on Terrorism, Warfare and Conflict, Washington DC
It’s the 9th anniversary of the the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA, and as I usually do on this sad day, I’m watching the History Channel, “The Day the Towers Fell”. It just feels like the very least I can do-honoring the souls of the departed by praying, watching and remembering.
For those of you who don’t get the History Channel, you can watch first person accounts here at Awesome Stories, which has links to more 9/11 news stories and news accounts, as well as newer 9/11 photos, released according to the Freedom of Information Act. And here is a link to the Library of Congress Exhibit on 9/11.
Because I’m only human, I can’t help praying even harder today for everyone who lost anyone dear to them on 9/11, because my own oldest daughter just moved to NYC. What if such a thing happened to her? I know I couldn’t endure it, and as I look at all the photographers and filmmakers talking about the photos they took, or could not bring themselves to take on that day, my own child’s face rises before me. That could be My child speaking. My own firstborn is a beautiful, personable young adult and a talented photographer with her whole life ahead of her, and I love her every bit as much as the mothers and fathers loved the children they lost on 9/11; how can they stand their terrible pain?
I can’t imaging losing any of my children in a terrorist attack, or any other way! 2,749 innocent people died at Ground Zero on 9/11! When you think of all the people they each left behind, and all of that collective pain, how can anyone not spend every 9/11 on their knees in prayer?
Every year, I watch some of the very same documentaries and learn something I didn’t know before-it’s like my mind can’t ever take it all in. Today I heard comments from firefighters who survived who don’t remember how they got to the site, and others who don’t remember how they got home. But they went back to work the next day. Did you know there was a class of brand new firefighters whose very first day on the job was on 9/11? And not only did they not die, they showed back up for work the very next day-every one of them. And so I’m praying to thank God for them, for all those heroes we hear about, like Dean Witter‘s Rick Lescorla, and all those people we may never know about, who helped people escape from those towering infernos and never said a word about it-some who may have never lived to tell the tales. Brad Fetchet, Greg Atlas, I learned your names today, and pray for your souls, and for your families.
I’m praying too, for all those everyday people still alive who were anywhere near Ground Zero, or in Washington, or Pennsylvania on 9/11, who witnessed sights, and heard sounds, no human should ever have to endure, who will wrestle with their memories of 9/11 for the rest of their lives. I feel like I’m watching in solidarity with those people who stood on the streets in NYC with their eyes on the Towers, and didn’t turn their heads away while people jumped to their deaths, because it was their only way to say, “We’re here with you, and it’s okay, we understand-we won’t let you die alone-and we’ll never forget you.”
With every year that passes, it seems even more important to let the families of the departed know, we have not forgotten. And so my blogpost today is just one big prayer-for the souls of the departed, may they rest in peace, and for the 9/11 families and friends left behind, for the responders, for the witnesses, for you and your loved ones too-and for my family and myself-for all of us who’re still alive, and trying to stay that way in this crazy, mixed-up world.
God, please heal us all, and help us model patience and tolerance. Help all of us in this world to accept and help each other, even if we don’t understand each other, so that we can finally live together peacefully, in this beautiful world You made for us. Amen.
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Posted by Jan Duffy in Arts, blogging, books, brain science, dance, drama, Education, flatclassroom, gifted, Health, History, k-3danceeducation, k-3math, professionaldevelopment, Reading-Process, resources, social studies, Uncategorized, web2.0, world cultures, tags: harvard, Project Zero
Interested in 21st Century Educational Theory & Best Practices?
I’ve got a bunch of links for you today, but before you go there, check out the proof I just posted here online that’s it’s never too late to go back to school! That’s me with Howard Gardner at Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero Classroom in July.
Now I’m back to being the teacher again, and trying to put what I’ve learned into practice. I just wish I could go back to Project Zero right now and start all over again!
I’m sure I’d know all the right questions to ask now!
Here’s a link to a little test to see if you’re an effective teacher-it’s not from Harvard!
Here are Useful Web Links to Check Out for Further Study, Discussion & Possible Implementation of Relevant Ideas and Examples- all from Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero (PZ)-
A) Making Learning Visible (MLV) Project of PZ
There is too much that’s useful here to share it all in a blog-post, but if you are interested in using documentation to support Group Learning, then look and see!
Definition and Features of a Learning Group and Documentation
Documentation Features in Practice –several links on this topic can be found here. This section is particularly important to read, I think.
What is the difference between documentation in the MLV sense and teacher action research? Read this-even if you think you already know all about documentation!
How can we help teachers to see Documentation as more than Data Collection?
MLV Resources and Tools-2 Important Links can be found here-
Those 2 Links Are:
1) Group Resources: 2 activities and other documents to use or adapt when working with children or adult learners
2) Tools for Documenting and Making Learning Visible:
Which includes 3 separate parts: “Documentation Tools”, “Protocols” and “Technical Help”-each with its own clickable link at
B) Interdisciplinary Studies Project of PZ
“Faculty Growth through Collaborative Assessment of Students’ Interdisciplinary Work “ by Veronica Boix Mansilla
Veronica currently directs ongoing research into Teaching for Interdisciplinary Understanding in the 21st Century; she co-researched and field-tested the TIU framework for 10 years with Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Education–(and she was my mini-course teacher this summer at Project Zero Classroom)!
For two years, several different faculty teams on different campuses-with different student populations and school cultures-agreed to field-test an unfamiliar, empirical student assessment protocol (like those used in other Harvard research projects). This article describes the varied individual and group changes in conceptual thinking that occurred as a result of using this particular protocol, and makes a strong case for schools establishing a public, research-based protocol for reasoned inquiry into what constitutes an authentic 21st Century education. .
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Posted by Jan Duffy in blogging, books, brain science, business, dance, drama, ecology, Education, flatclassroom, gifted, Health, History, k-3danceeducation, k-3math, music, musical, professionaldevelopment, Reading-Process, resources, social studies, Uncategorized, Web 2.0, webinar, webtools, world cultures, tags: Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Howard Gardner, K through 12, Massachusetts, professional-development, Project Zero, Research, Teacher, United States
Ever heard of Harvard’s Project Zero? If you’re a teacher or parent of a school age student, you need to know about this! It’s simply the best professional development opportunity for educators and administrators that exists-anywhere!
I’ve been back a week from Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero, but I’ve still haven’t managed to get through all the information in the notebook, book and hand-outs they gave us at PZ-or all the books I bought at the Project Zero bookstore either. No one could possibly do all that in one week even if we didn’t have to get our classrooms ready for school to start!
I came home from Harvard with probably two years worth of professional development materials at the minimum. I just wish there was an easier way for me to share it all with the other teachers in my school! As much as I enjoy communicating on this blog, I’m not always able to articulate my thoughts as well as I would like in person to other members of the faculty and administration here-especially people I don’t know very well. I feel like I always have too much to say, and not enough time to say it in! How can you condense an experience as intense as Project Zero into a -like 140 characters?
I wish I could have attended this Project Zero earlier in the summer; I would have had more time to read through things, to let the most pertinent ideas percolate to the top. My principal wants the two of us who went to PZ to share the ten top things about it, sometime in the next few weeks, but I hardly know where to start!
But I must say I’m excited about school starting anyway, and hopeful that now that I’ve been to Project Zero, I’ll be able to keep myself and others dreaming big though starting small! I want to work on Making Learning Visible in my own classroom by getting my students involved in documenting and sharing their learning process (and mine) as we dance through this year together. Actions speak louder than words, so maybe if we document our process, people more will “get it”, without me having to explain so much!
I’d love to see the idea of authentic, interdisciplinary education becoming accepted as “the” 21st Century educational model among the majority of the teachers in my own school, but I’d probably be just as happy if my school would just learn about any or all of Project Zero’s educational frameworks, and advocate their use! There are certainly enough different frameworks to choose from that any teacher or school anywhere in the world should be able to transform some important aspects of their teaching so that all of their students actually understand what they’re learning well enough to create something new with their knowledge-and use their force for Good in the world, not the world’s destruction!
Everything about Project zero was memorable and useful-just so much to talk about! While in Veronica Boix Mansilla’s mini-course “The Future of Learning in the 21st Century”, I realized that I’ve been teaching according to the 21st Century framework they’re researching right now since at least 1986 – when I started adding Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences to the Piaget I had already applied to my dance curriculum. (By the way-If you think you know all about MI, and are using it to label your students. you missed the whole point!)
Anyway, it was glorious to see a Harvard researcher laying out the actual 4 step educational framework I use-that I didn’t even know I was using! It was all right there in Veronica’s power point lecture-and even more exciting to me because she with Howard-my inspiration too, even more today than when I began my own version of PZ “field research“way back before I even knew there was a PZ . So you can bet that my “research” will continue this year, as it always does, right in my dance studio, but this year it has a “real” PZ framework, with empirical research to back it up-with the idea of Making Learning Visible outside the walls of my classroom too! Just to name a couple of the PZ ideas I plan to work with right off the bat!
Discovering the FofL framework is the same as my own ways of doing things was and is tremendously affirming for me! I also found it very confidence boosting knowing that the very same framework that I use also resonates with my PZ Study Group leader too, who took that same mini-course with Veronica when I did, because he teaches an academic subject, not Dance! Which means there is hope I can be seen as a resource for other educators at my own school, outside of Fine and Performing Arts. Still, coming home and trying to advocate the use of that framework by other teachers is not going to be easy for me! I’m just the Dance teacher to most of the academic faculty and to most of the upper administration at my school, but Harvard has convinced me that if I want that to change it’s up to me to let them See what I am doing in my classroom-I have to make the process visible and accessible-not just for the kids, but for their parents, and everyone else at my school too.
It’s hard not to think about how wonderful it would be if a PZ research team could come here, observe all the grades in our school, in every subject area and give us their recommendations. We’d make a great place for PZ researchers to visit, since our school is the largest K-12, non-denominational, coed, private day school in the USA; we’re an urban school with a diverse student body and a long established tradition of involving our students in what Howard Gardner calls “Good Work“, work that is ethical and benefits not only ourselves, but also our planet, and those who live on it who are less fortunate than we are-both here and abroad.
The good news is that Project Zero wants to reach out to more teachers and is trying to figure out the best way to do that using Distance Learning. etc. They’re hoping to create a way for teacher and researchers to reach other more easily, and I’m all for that!
The only other thing I have to say for now is:
Thank you Howard Gardner, David Perkins and Steve Seidel-you guys are the Holy Trinity of Education to me, and I’m so glad I got to learn from all of you, and your wonderful staff at HGSE‘s Project Zero-especially Veronica, Jim, and my Study Group leaders, Sande, Josh and Rita-and all the people in my Study Group too-especially Andrew and Becky!
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Posted by Jan Duffy in books, brain science, Education, gifted, resources, Uncategorized, tags: Education, Educators, Elementary school, K through 12, Learning styles, Learning Theories, Methods and Theories, Research, School, Student, Teacher, Website
All Kinds of Minds Writing Help -this is a great website for parents and teachers, even if your student just needs occasional help. What works for kids with learning challenges usually works equally well with kids who have no difficulty learning.
Getting Thoughts on Paper -some ideas you might not have thought about that are worth considering.
Reflecting on Writing for students who need help revising papers!
All Kinds of Minds Blog if you want to find out more tips for helping your student/s, all the blog posts here are extremely useful AND backed up by considerable research.
Test yourself! Interactiv e Spatial Ordering Activity
Here’s a great place to let your students enjoy some fun after working so hard on developing their skills:
Spark Top What elementary school student wouldn’t find something fun to do on this colorful and engaging site that celebrates different learning styles?
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Posted by Jan Duffy in Arts, ballet, dance, drama, Education, gifted, k-3danceeducation, resources, Uncategorized, tags: Abraham Lincoln, American Ballet Theatre, Art, Arts, ballet, Companies, dance, Performing Arts, Regional or Civic, School, United States
Dance Web-Links to Share- Summer 2010 :
GREAT PERFORMANCES: for artistic performances to watch, and learn from watching too!
Art of Ballet Lessons Ballet Lessons online-no excuse not to get back in shape now before school starts!
Cyber Dance Lists dance studios, dance schools, dance summer camps and college dance programs, plus dance apparel makers, and more-you name it! It’s not always updated but if you find a link that doesn’t work and report it, they’re pretty good about removing them!
LEARN DANCE STEPS Learn new steps and moves here!
5 Ballet Positions Where Ballet begins!
Make a Ballet Bun (includes how to make a ponytail)
Online Dance Game I’d love to know about any other online dance games that kids in Gr 1-8 would like! Please share any links you have!
Article- Attention Deficit Onstage The eternal argument continues.. to medicate ADHD or not? Does medication kill creativity or not? Does lack of medication cause accidents on stage, and forgetfulness in rehearsals?
Other Fine/Performing Arts Links:
Twelfth Night-Act 1 Scene 3, Lesson Plan: Just what it says. Loads more to look at on this site too!
American Ballet Theatre Online Video Dictionary of Ballet Terms and Steps: http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/index.html
See individual ballet steps and barre exercises, etc. performed by dance professionals; practice along with them while you learn Ballet Vocabulary too!
Dance Quotes I didn’t see one of my favorites here-”What if the Hokey-Pokey is really what it’s all about?” But maybe that’s because it wasn’t said by anyone famous. It’s interesting that one of the best dance quotes-at the very top of the page- is from Abraham Lincoln. Did you know he liked to dance? Neither did I!
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