Such a Simple Question: What Action Will I Take?

Denise Krebs7 Comments
Image tweeted by Angela Maiers

Last night during our Genius Hour Twitter chat and book study of Angela Maiers and Amy Sanvold‘s The Passion-Driven Classroom, I was inspired by passionate educators who inspire passion in their students. I wondered how to help young teens harness their energetic spirit and begin to use it to make the world a better place.

How do I inspire them to act? Could they ever be ready for Angela’s Quest2Matter?

Well, little did I know that I would come to school today, and they would be thinking the same thing I was. How did that happen?

I do have an idea about what inspired them, and it’s very simple. And unrelated to my pep talks.

In science, they were working on a researcher’s workshop project on something related to genetics, DNA or heredity. After watching a recent video interview with Paul Solarz, I had decided to try the KWHLAQ he had learned about from Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano on her Langwitches.com site. (Awesome resources coming from these great connections!)

Well, when they got to the “A” column – “What action will I take?” – they took the chart seriously. That’s when they started brainstorming. Five of them had chosen to study some aspect of Down syndrome, and they were working on the same Google Document. I started hearing things like, “Let’s go on a Buddy Walk.” “Let’s have a car wash and raise money for GiGi’s Playhouse.” “Let’s play games with the residents at Hope Haven.”

They didn’t stop with Down syndrome. They continued their conversation the next period in study hall and came up with this list. (They said we can do some of the list next year. 🙂 Thank goodness! Since school is out for summer in three weeks!)

Screenshot of their Google Doc with their “ACTION” ideas.

When I met up with them again, they had shared the above Google Doc with me, talked to our principal, emailed a principal at a sister school to see if their 7th graders could join in, emailed the manager at a grocery store to see if we can have a car wash, contacted GiGi’s Playhouse, and…who knows what else!

I loved the conversation I heard: “Can we keep working on this sixth period?” “How about tomorrow? We can work on it in Genius Hour, right?”

Here, I would have thought I was trying to inspire this kind of action all year. If I would have known, I would have tried the upgraded KWL chart months ago!

I love my genius students! And my genius PLN! And, yes, I think they will be ready!

Vincent Van Gogh Persevering

Denise Krebs5 Comments

It constantly remains a source of disappointment to me that my drawings are not yet what I want them to be. The difficulties are indeed numerous and great, and cannot be overcome at once. To make progress is a kind of miner’s work; it doesn’t advance as quickly as one would like, and as others also expect, but as one stands before such a task, the basic necessities are patience and faithfulness. In fact, I do not think much about the difficulties, because if one thought of them too much one would get stunned or disturbed.

Mr. Vincent Van Gogh, one of the world’s most famous artists, wrote these words in a letter to his brother.

He speaks of perseverance, grit and stick-to-it-iveness — qualities that I hope and believe my students and I learn during genius hour.

Why School? The Movie

Denise Krebs2 Comments
Quotes from Will Richardson’s blog post about Why School? The Movie

Thanks to a tweet from Nancy Carroll, I learned about Will Richardson’s huge project.

It will be a movie inspired by his TED book Why School?

He wrote about the project on Friday here: “‘Why School?’ The Movie (?)”

Regarding the movie and the students and educators Will is hoping to recruit to help, he writes:

…we want it to be “our” project as in the global community of connected educators that care deeply about what schools must become for our kids to flourish in their futures. Those who believe in some semblance of that third narrative I wrote about recently and that we need desperately to bring to scale a new conversation about schools and classrooms and learning in the modern world.

I am all in for that third narrative he wrote about earlier this month in the post “The Three Narratives.”

The way forward is to change the emphasis on student learning from “what” to learn to, instead, “how” to learn.

I’m attempting this in my classroom. I lean every day on my PLN to help me find the way. And now, I’m excited to help make this movie happen!

Do you want to be part of this ground-breaking movie? I signed up to do “grunt work,” maybe you’ll want to join me. 🙂

Read Will’s post to find out how you can be involved.

Fellowship of Open Spokes Week 1

Denise Krebs

What will education be like in five years? I know it will be different because I looked back to see what it was like five years ago when my students and I had no blogging, no YouTube, no Twitter, and no Skype. Worst of all, my students had a teacher who thought she was in charge of dispensing knowledge. Yikes!

A lot has changed in five years. Here are some of the things I’m looking forward to in five more years.

See more videos from the Fellowship of Open Spokes.

Vlogging?

Denise Krebs9 Comments

I never thought I’d say I was a vlogger. And I won’t say it just yet, but I did join the Fellowship of Open Spokes. The Fellowship “meets” in a connected YouTube channel where educators are sharing and discussing their reflections, questions, and learnings in video format.

You can subscribe to the channel and join in the conversation, even if you don’t want to vlog.

Should you be interested in trying your hand at vlogging, check out this Google Doc with more information. You can also learn more on the Google+ Community called “Reflective Practice Vlogging.”

Before and After Research

Denise Krebs

Because we were going to see him speak, seventh graders researched Philip Gans, Holocaust and concentration camp survivor.

These two pictures tell the story of my small group of seventh graders. I tease them sometimes and tell them they are one organism. They are a collaborative, learn-together group. And when an “organism” is studying the Holocaust, sometimes it’s better to do it together.

Being in a connected world of collaborative learning together is a good thing.