Unforgettable

Another prom has come and gone.  This year, it took place in the Egyptian Room at the Old National Centre.  I really enjoyed the location, especially since the room has raised seating along each side, so sponsors could sit and watch the kids from relative comfort.  And believe me, it is fascinating viewing.

After attending more proms than I care to count, I have come to a few conclusions about the dating rituals of high school students.  This is in no way, shape, or form a scientific study, but I have found that our prom-goers seem to fall into distinct categories. I’m sure there are others to add to this list.  If you have contributions, I would love to hear your thoughts.  My list:

• Rock On: Some students arrive early, go right to the front of the dance floor, and gyrate from beginning to end.  They jump, shout, sing along, and generally dance themselves into euphoria or exhaustion—or a combination of both.  These students are fearless, energetic, and often stay to the last note of the final song.
• Groupers: (Not gropers.  That is a different topic altogether.)  These are the kids that dance in packs.  These packs have an ebb and flow and are almost like living bodies themselves.  They form, alter shape, separate briefly, and reform again in a different location.  Think amoeba, and you’ll get the general idea. The movement seems to depend on the song being played and a few key dancers, the nucleus, to extend the metaphor.
• Roamers: Some couples are restless.  They start in one place, stay briefly, but move to another before long.  They are on and off the dance floor constantly, with no discernable reason for coming or going.  They dance for a while, get drinks, have seats, adjust their formal wear, and repeat the cycle.  A subset of this group seems to be the First-Daters.
• Lone Wolves: These are mostly male students who arrived with a group, but they are constantly on the move and tend to spend much of the time outside the pack.  They join the groupers occasionally, but more often than not, stay on the edges.  They spend time talking to adult sponsors or simply sit and watch the dance floor.
• I Only Have Eyes for You: These couples spend the entire night dancing together just outside the main pack.  They seem to be oblivious to other students or even that they are at the prom—with the exception of joining the “Cha Cha Slide.”  They stare longingly into each other’s eyes for much of the evening and provide an interesting contrast to the First-Daters.

This one gets everybody dancing....

The reason I’m writing about this topic is twofold.  First, I want to thank all of you who made the prom a successful and memorable night.  Secondly, I want to make a point about memories and instruction.  Yes, it’s true that I can take even an event like prom and apply it the classroom.  (Is it a gift, or is it a curse?  You be the judge.)

Prom, by its very nature, is unforgettable—hopefully in positive ways, but sometimes not.  It is an interesting thought that all of students, regardless of where they fall on the list above, will have attended the same prom, but they will have taken away very different kinds of experiences and memories. 

The same holds true in your classes.  All of your students attend your same class, but they take away very different kinds of memories and experiences.  We should recognize this truth, and we should be intentional to make sure students have positive memories and retain important content.  True, the experiences in your classroom are difficult to make as memorable as an evening in the Egyptian Room, but the task is not impossible. 

Students may or may not remember all the specific details and content of your course, but they can remember activities and content that is tied to emotion, is personally engaging, and/or involves high levels of learning.  In other words, best-practice instruction builds long term memories.

If you don’t believe me, do a little fact-checking.  First, think back to your own prom or other big social event in high school.  You probably have some memory of this event, either positive or negative.  Now think back to your high school classes.  What assignments and activities and content do you remember most clearly?  What emotions locked those memories in? 

Without even hearing the specifics of your experience, I believe I can rest my case because your own experience likely verifies my argument.  Keeping with the prom theme, I will now do a small victory dance!  

Photo from peanuts.com

I feel fairly confident that I am right because this is the way our minds work.  We remember those things that are special, different, significant, and involve personal commitment and emotion.

If you want your students to really remember the key content of your course, take advantage of brain research: design lessons and experiences that are unforgettable. 

Have a great week, HSE.  See if you can pull some students from the outer ring and out onto the dance floor of your class.  Rock on until the last note of the last song!

Phil

Fishing for Answers

On the Tuesday of spring break, my oldest daughter, her husband, one of my middle sons, and I awoke early, drove down the coastal highway, and took a charter boat out for a day of fishing on the Gulf.  As Captain Mike took us out of the channel and into the open sea, banks of clouds closed in, and we soon lost sight of the coastline in the fog.

The fog didn't stop us from fishing, and we trolled out many miles into the Gulf, stopping occasionally to drop lines and pull up fish.  My experience has been that fishing is always good, but catching is sometimes less so.  That Tuesday, however, both went well.

Proof that this is no mere fishing tale (tail?).

At one point, the captain told us we were out over ten miles.  Surrounded by the fog, I had no clue about our location.  We could have been 500 yards or 500 miles off shore, and I wouldn’t have known the difference.  Just before the winds began to blow away the fog, the mate asked us to point toward land.  We did so but had to laugh because all four of us pointed in different directions.  When the mate pointed in a fifth direction, we realized that none of us had been even close. 

So how did he know where shore was? 

Maybe he didn’t.  He could have been pointing any direction, but my guess is he was much closer to being on target than the rest of us.  Perhaps he looked at the GPS before asking the question, but more likely, he had experienced the fog often enough that he knew exactly what to expect and how to stay oriented.

Cuba, Key West, or Destinations Unknown

I tell you this story partly because I love being on the ocean and fishing with my kids—and I have pictures to verify my catch.  (My usual disclaimer still applies: All my stories are True (with a capital T), but I never let facts get in the way of the story.)  I also tell you this story because those of us in education sometimes have a similar situation.  We cruise along doing our thing, and if we aren't careful, we can become disoriented and wonder where we should go to find dry land.

I have no idea how, but my phone logged our route.

Just consider the fog that surrounds education in our nation and in the state of Indiana right now.  I hardly have time, space, or inclination to list the problems, issues, debates, laws, and polemics.

So how do we in education know where shore is? 

One answer is to make our best guess, point in a direction, and head that way.  In our situation over spring break, had we followed our pointing fingers, we could have ended up anywhere from Cuba, to Brownsville, to the Yucatan Peninsula.  These destinations have tremendous appeal but would, perhaps, be better if the trips were planned in advance.

Deeper Learning

Another option when lost in the educational fog is to use a GPS of sorts by consulting someone with experience.  This spring break, I did exactly that by reading a book that has been on my mind ever since.  Monica Martinez and Dennis McGrath wrote Deeper Learning: How Eight Innovative Public Schools are Transforming Education in the Twenty-First Century. 

Photo from Amazon

I found their book to be very readable, insightful, and incredibly helpful.   These authors verify that we are on course and heading in the right direction as a school and as a district.  They also provide possible solutions to problems we will encounter in the coming months and years as we continue our journey. 

From time to time, I want to share bits and pieces of what I've learned from this book.  As the subtitle suggests, innovative public school educators are on the same path as we are.  They are meeting the needs of their students and preparing them for lives in our ever-changing and often confusing world.  We can learn from their experiences and adapt some of their solutions to meet our specific needs.

We may still be in a bit of educational fog, but Deeper Learning is like a GPS that can provide guidance from experienced educators who are facing similar or even more difficult challenges.

The fog will lift, HSE.  The sun will shine.  We will keep reeling in kids, and we will dive into Deeper Learning in the coming months.

Have a great week.

Phil

One more photo, just because....  I call it "Beauty and the Beast."

Our granddaughter, Amelie, sitting beside our sand sculpture.

Spring Breaking

Since you are officially on Spring Break, I promise this will be short and sweet!  Consider these two statements:

• The Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto reportedly developed his enduring Pareto Principle by observing pea pods in his garden.  His principle states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of causes.
•  “Great teachers know when to make decisions quickly and when to step back and reflect.”  --Lana M. Danielson

Photo from iNotes4You.com

Life in education is often so hectic, so busy, so intense that we almost without knowing get caught up in the daily hustle and bustle.  We don’t know if we are coming or going—and it certainly feels like there is no time to stop and think. 

Pareto likely did not have education in mind, but the Pareto Principle could almost certainly apply to schools.  If 20% of our efforts get 80% of the results, it would behoove us to take the time to reflect and refocus on those key things that are the most important and have the most impact on our students’ learning.

Sometimes the best thinking occurs in the quiet times, in the times when you aren’t really planning to do anything at all, in the times right before falling to sleep or waking completely.  Spring break will, I hope, give you a chance to relax and let your mind wander.  If it does, let it.  It may take you to very good places.

I hope you take time this week to enjoy family and friends.  I hope you find time to rest and relax.  And I hope you take time to reflect on what is really important to you and to your work.

Enjoy!

Phil

“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” --Søren Kierkegaard