classroom

The Classroom is Only a Baseline

May 14, 2009 By Sean Platt 45 Comments

This is the 200th post at Writer Dad.

In lieu of balloons or red roses, rainbows or high fives, I’d like to make an announcement.

This is the post I was originally going to run on Monday, before I decided to run Cindy’s birthday card instead. Thank you so much to everyone who sent her such wonderful birthday wishes. We read all your comments and emails out loud together. It is truly touching how magical words can be, even when only in black and white across a brightly lit screen.

As you know, Cindy and I have been gradually piecing our primary project together – a writer’s workshop aimed squarely at the budding future of our civilization. An essential component of our overall framework is Cindy’s online voice. Some of you already know her from her first online home, Namas Daisy, but this is not about that site.

Namas Daisy was started back in October, and has since then been a bit like a toy batted about the kitchen floor by the playful paws of a pet tabby. The site was started as a means for Cindy to dip her toe into an unfamiliar world so she could slowly saturate herself with the sights and sounds of our inevitable future. Today we are parting the curtains on a brand new site. This one’s all business.

CindyPlatt.com is Cindy’s brand new classroom. Cindy is seasoned with over twenty years of experience. Some of those years have been spent in the classroom, some at a furious clip pacing the hallways of change, and the remainder spent molding the young minds ripest for reaching.

Never in my life have I known a single soul with more to say about the current state of education and the teetering lip where it lays against our future. She has plenty to say for all parents and teachers, but her focus (at least for now) is on home schooling parents and those families who feel as though lessons learned in the classroom are merely a baseline.

Today I’ll hold brevity close, as I would like you to check out CindyPlatt.com. It is striking because it was designed by my partner David Wright, and beautiful blogs are the only kind we build over at the Inkwell. But it’s imbued with intelligence because of the well worn wisdom of my one and only wife.

Check it out and sign up for our Children Write the Future newsletter if you haven’t already.

Thanks!

Writer Dad

Filed Under: Home School Tagged With: children, classroom, Home School, teaching, Writing

Skipping Rope

March 31, 2009 By Sean Platt 20 Comments

I love Sean’s Deja Vuesday. They are weekly reminders of moments I might have otherwise forgotten. Today I’m turning back to a post originally on Namas Daisy titled, “Writing With My Least Dominant Hand.”

Children do learn as they live, but so do adults. Mia is in a Dual Immersion Spanish program. She is finishing her first trimester as a first grader or “grader” as she likes to refer to herself now that she is not in kindergarten anymore. Max starts kindergarten next fall and Mia is taking advantage of all the moments of not having to share the playground with her baby brother.

Max is gifted with as much language as she, except he cannot do it in Spanish….yet (though he nailed potty training in about an hour). Neither can Mommy, though I am doing everything I can to keep pace. I tell myself daily “You can do better. Just jump into conversation with the other moms and dads at pick up time, and speak a little social Spanish.”

I am quiet at pick up time. I listen and observe. I am learning. I am in the silent phase of acquiring language.

Stage 1: Listening.

If you enter Mia’s immersion classroom, the vehicle driving instruction is LANGUAGE. No, not conjugating verbs or memorizing prepared meaningless dialogue. Rather, one would see children using Spanish by speaking, reading, writing, adding, discussing fractions, measurement, conducting science experiments, arguing, singing, whispering – every bit in Spanish.

This of course is directed by the guidance of a teacher who follows the same curricula as the district’s English only classrooms, but she gives Mia a gift that I cannot – the mother tongue of Spanish with perfect delivery and high expectations.

We wanted this program for Mia, longed for it and cried when we did not get accepted during the first round of school of choice applications. Mia is able to maintain English and absorb a second tongue while her brain is most receptive to learning language. Her academic and social gains, across cultural, ethnic and linguistic boundaries are some of the most positive public education experiences I have been a part of in 20 years of teaching.

It is also the hardest and most challenging endeavor for me.

For Writer Dad and Mia, speaking Spanish is like taking a breath of fresh air. They skip rope with Spanish like we all skip rope with English. For me, speaking Spanish is like white knuckling the edge of the North rim of the Grand Canyon before dropping into the deep depths of the wild unknown.

This is a recent homework assignment which Mia attacked with enthusiastic speed, proficiently giving it her all, and finishing with the pride and detail that is our family’s trademark.

Estimados Padres,

Por favor ayuden a su hijo/a a escribir un parafo con 5 o mas oraciones acerca de las jirafas. Adentro de su folder encontraran intomacion importante acercad de las jirafas que aprendimos en clase. Nota: Esta tarea los va preparar para el ecamen de escritura del Miercoles.

Gracias,

Senora Alaniz

Translation:

Dear Parents,
Please have your child write a paragraph with 5 or more sentences about giraffes. Inside his/her homework folder you will find some important facts they have learned about giraffes. Note: This homework will prepare them for their writing test on Wednesday.

The light at the end of the tunnel was a note Mia had written to me after our last homework session. I found it written on red paper (my favorite color) and in her best first grade penmanship rolled up like a scroll tied in white ribbon. It said:

Dear Mommy, You are the best Mom. You try so hard and you are smart. Don’t give up, keep on trying because you are the best. I love you so so so sooooooo much. Thank you for helping me. xoxo Mia

If wouldn’t make you weep I don’t know what would. Her words of encouragement made me hold tighter and try harder this weekend when we had to plot out a weather pictograph and write a paragraph about it. I want to be able to skip rope with Mia and Writer Dad in Spanish. Max and I are ready, and guess what?

Max is also left handed.

I can add writing with my left hand to model for my son, so I can both feel and understand the difficulty of writing with my least dominant hand, then add it to my to do list under master Spanish. It takes time, but that is the best gift I have to give my children.

Here is Mia’s exam on Giraffes. She received a score of a “4″ which in Dual Immersion Land means advanced proficient.

Las Jirafas

Las jirafas son mamiferos. Tienen crias cuidan a sus crias las crias toman leche de su mama y tambien tienen cuellos muy largos, manchas cafes, y colas muy largos. Viven en la savana de Africa. Comen hojas verdes de los arbols y palitos. Algo de sus adapsienes son: manchas, cafes para camuflajearse, cuellos my largos para ver cuando sus en emigos van a atakar y duermen a dos horas por dia. Jirafas son amigables.

Can you translate this without running to Google?

Cindy Platt is an educational consultant and home school expert.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: classroom, Dual immersion, language, left handed, second language, spanish, teachers

Stop, Think, Take Action.

March 12, 2009 By Sean Platt 29 Comments

Today’s post was written by Cindy (Daisy), a twenty year veteran teacher who has taught on four continents and many of our continental states. She is discussing Angela Maiers and her new book, Classroom Habitudes, a text articulating the endless possibilities laying in wait for our 21st century learners; pondering the fundamentals of a progressive education: How do we get our children to ask relevant questions rather than simply memorize the same sets of answers (laminated lesson plans anyone)?

Angela understands the world we’re living in, and the world we are fearlessly marching toward. Children today are living in a world where cutting edge technology is as normal for them as peanut butter and jelly. It is in the air we breathe and must be the breath of their thought.

On Monday I posted a video detailing the differences between a tired yesterday and an eager tomorrow. On Tuesday I wanted to look at the dual immersion program our daughter attends, where the majority of her day is spent soaking up the syllables of a second language; a rarity in public education that should be as common as the parking lot. On Wednesday I shared the smudged ink of my own fingerprint.

This is a subject I could expound upon for eons, but for now I’d like to start with a single week. I’ve sprinkled a nutshell with a few of the more obvious problems. Today I’m handing the keyboard to Cindy so she can discuss someone who is offering solutions.

Reading Classroom Habitudes was like watching an epic episode of “Lost.” As with that show, I felt not only gratified by the delivery, but found myself begging the important questions: what if, I wonder who, and is that even possible? Angela’s book has a genuine matter of fact tone that can benefit any learner, from early to confident across any continent.

Angela’s message screams loud, clear and simple – if we do not rethink how we teach our 21st century learners their daily habits and lifetime attitudes, and imbue them with a technologically savvy mind and proper tool set to accompany the most effective learning process, we are headed for a massive train wreck that will take untold time to recover from.

Our nation’s schools may be filled with dedicated teachers, but those teachers do not share equality across the fifty states. The absence of widely available technology, accessible to anyone and at a reasonable cost, or the needed expertise to deliver cutting edge, engaging content seems to me like malpractice when you know the engines of our world are roaring ahead at the speed of broadband.

It’s like we’re trying to merge onto the freeway in a Model T.

Establishing a work ethic that celebrates imagination, curiosity, self awareness, perseverence and adaptability is what makes learning a verb. It is the missing link and essential ingredient absent in today’s curriculum. Angela is authentic, articulate and keeps her message direct. Classroom Habitudes is the kind of book you can open to any page and something inspirational will either grab you, captivate you, or make you stop and contemplate.

Stop, think, take action.

Classroom Habitudes serves as a much needed roadmap to an inevitable tomorrow; a vehicle to drive our new world’s curriculum. At the end of the day we must ask ourselves if we are giving equal weight to our questions and answers.

If we aren’t merging Model T’s onto the freeway, then why do we expect our learners to navigate through an archaic world with antique tools that do little to promote critical thought? If you want to carve a life style from learning, you must acquire the habits needed to absorb information at a new pace the world has only recently come to know. Angela’s Classroom Habitudes is a book that could become the daily bible to keep us mindful of our must do’s and may do’s, while never forgetting its most essential audience: 21st Century Learners.

Writer Mom and Dad

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: 21st century learners, angela maiers, classroom, habitudes, information, technology