Connie Weber's Blog (13)

(cross-posted at Fireside Learning)

May look like a hodgepodge, but somehow this is where I've settled in my studies the last three weeks. Taking it in, taking it in, taking it in. A knowledge fest. All of these books I've read and am now rereading my underlines, to sift and sort through the major ideas. Preparing for summer classes... Another big part of my reading lately has been Bridging Differences (Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier… Continue

It's been a few months since my last entry; the entries used to be weekly, as I adjusted to a new kind of teaching. Now, here I am just a bit later and completely on the "other side."



There's no going back.



This year my students and I have experienced a fundamental “shift” in education. We are not only a strong classroom community (in real time, face to face, here and now), we are also a strong networked community online.



Our network is private. It's a ning… Continue

I spent a couple of days with my study-group leader from Project Zero. I went with her Alma College students up north. There we visited Long Lake School in Traverse City Schools (of northern Michigan), a kind of educational utopia. This is a school that applied for and received a grant for educational transformation through the Department of Education Arts Education Model Dissemination.



Students at this school use "thinking routines;" they use them often, and well, and at all ages.… Continue

There’s some strong support out there. Take Ron Ritchhart, for example. This is from Ritchhart’s book, Intellectual Character,



“What if education were less about acquiring skills and knowledge and more about cultivating the dispositions and habits of mind that students will need for a lifetime of learning, problem-solving, and decision-making? What if education were less concerned with the end-of-year exam and more concerned with who students become as a result of their schooling?… Continue

While we’re setting up “thinking classrooms”, and supporting an “active mindset”, we have to keep right in the forefront the importance of joy, and of play. In The Neuroscience of Joyful Education by Judy Willis, we get all sorts of validation for this.



Think of all the schools and classes you know about that are cutting back on play, thinking less play will translate into more academic achievement. It may be that just the opposite is the case.



“Unfortunately, the current… Continue

On the last day of our intergenerational program, we were left with chills , the kind of chills come from encountering a moment of life’s truth, of boundaries crossed that connect all people across time.



I’d been bringing the kids out to the senior home once or twice a month all year. For this particular visit the kids had spent a good while preparing; they knew the stories of their elders “by heart“ and were going to present the stories as a goodbye gift. These kids were experienced… Continue

Just thinking about the last quarter-year or so, I learned so much. I've been learning all sorts of new stuff through collaboration with a colleague

about how to begin a learning center. Got even more into CR2.0, this great

philosophical and techie educational network with the bunch of

idealistic-thinking, forward-moving colleagues. Learned how to build

larger bases in networks, learned to connect networks (such as CR2.0

with Facebook). Learned, learned learned.… Continue

Hi All,

I've added some music to my page. It's by highschoolers. The first is my daughter, singing a song she composed. She's playing guitar.

The other songs are from Chelsea House Orchestra, a fiddling group. Both of my kids are in CHO. The instructor's name is Jed Fritzemeier, and he's one of the most gifted teachers I know. He has this group traveling all over the place, entertaining community groups. You should hear the people exclaim, as they hear these traditional Gaelic songs… Continue

My big thing is to figure out is what's going on with the new "world mind." I just can't stop thinking about it. It's such a new stage for human evolution.



I read a cool article in Discover Magazine called "How Much Does the Internet Weigh," and that got me to thinking that the internet is an entity, rather than not an entity, just something ethereal. Hmmmm.



Then another article, from the next (this month's) Discover Magazine: "Map: Welcome to the Blogosphere" which… Continue

Ha! Wow! I got to watch a master in action. Our music teacher got these kids to learn how to EXPRESS! I had them in a good position for her "launching." They knew all the words to the songs, they knew the songs' contexts in the play...

What they didn't know was HOW TO MOVE.



Have you ever watched a gifted music teacher in action?



Oh, what a pleasure.



Talk about taking the ball and running with it! Passing, running, passing, setting up formations,… Continue

Desperate to get my class to get into their respective characters while practicing their parts for our musical, I hunkered down next to our music teacher, crumpled down onto the chair, spent. We at last had a few moments alone. "I can't go on. I can't get anything more. I don't know what to do."



She stares at me, warmly, a twinkle in her eye revealing that she sees that once again, I've gotten myself into trouble by stretching my limits far beyond what others would think is… Continue

During this phase of learning the new forms of communication and connection with Web 2.0, I find myself expanding and contracting, expanding and contracting. To what degree is it good to reach out? To what degree is it important to stay local?



How large should the web be? Who gets to paint the web? Through what eyes is the web seen? Is it the size of a garden-spider's web, an ocean fisherman's net, a constellation of stars? I can't get the proportions right. They keep… Continue

Thinking about Classroom 2.0, I sometimes feel that jump of excitement that I used to feel as a kid, you know, when your "stomach flips" from being a passenger in a car that goes over a little rise in the road, fast, and lifts you with it--

It's so exciting and satisfying to be part of this group of reflective practitioners. I've learned so much in the past few weeks. When I asked about what tech applications to use for making stories in class out of hand-carved critters, in just a couple… Continue