shelly terrell

i got the privilege to up the rigor of my research before my daily run this morning. 

when that happens - and it often does - my run is so energized - that i swear i'm gifted with more robust hours in the day. 

i get this pleasure of upping the rigor of my actions daily - because of the validity people all over the world give me each hour.

this is what stoked me early this am:

why did i get this privilege?

because of the capability of the web to connect us to people per passion

because of twitter specifically.

my dear friend shelly lives in germany... and while i truly believe we share parts of the same heart.. we've never met face to face.

because we share the same passion... we feed each other..daily.

i wrote to her - that it's so ironic - the people in charge of how we do ed - who rely on the people most steeped in knowledge for validity and analysis of how to keep on doing things in ed- see a pln per passion as a flighty - invalid approach to invigorating our students to a more robust and full life.

and yet.. in my research (that has included many many great scientific minds, feynman, wieman, tobet, robinson, clements, ..), the most valid tie to rigor and success and  pleasure... finding a job that isn't a job...is passion.

i'm getting to spend this week with some incredible people, via national science foundation and avago and some of the best minds and csu, and in surrounding high schools. 

we've joked (as we often do in any circle) about acronyms. 

the program i'm working with is emphasizing relevance and connections for kids... and how when we get so caught up in knowledge/content/intellect - sometimes the hardest thing is to scale that down for anyone to join in the conversation.

so - what i'm seeing is. these great minds, these great people, to a t, when asked... credit their success to a passion for what they do. the most successful aren't waiting for daily directions to get their "job" done.. they are making time and plans on their own.

yet - their lives are like an acronym to that. we don't see that part... often they don't either.

to me - that is why that part.. the most foundational part .. is what should be our new standard in ed. most people will miss it otherwise. and it is the great equalizer.

they are able to do this because of a basic element that we often overlook. they have surrounded themselves with people of the same passion/interest - who drive their daily research/activity. they have surrounded themselves in an environment that optimizes their daily learning and pushing forward.

thing is - this is second nature to them. 

thing is - the masses don't get it.

so when we try to model what they do for success... we believe the algorithm is the current standards... the basic info "everyone needs."

the biggest question i get when i tell people about the innovation lab.. and all the things my kids (and kids all over the world) are experimenting with.. is - well what happens if they change their passion?

so - what happens when someone is steeped in math facts.. and they change their passion....

we need to gird students with a process that works whatever turn they take, as opposed to a content. why do we question a process.. of learning how to learn... and not question a fixed content.. when asking...what happens if they change their mind?

pretend you are any company... would you rather hire someone who knows how to rationalize a denominator - or someone who knows how to find out anything they need to find out? someone who has the process down of developing an optimum pln per passion to learn anything they need to learn. someone who hasn't just learned the content but has learned the lifelong process to keep learning.

we all have encountered the apathetic student. we all have wondered if we've stretched the already rigorous student. i think both ends and all in between are at risk with how we currently do school.
what we do and say at school - is like an acronym to most kids. and we haven't explained to them what the letters mean. the content, any content, are the letters of the acronym, wonderfully brilliant, yet without a connection or basis of understanding. the explanation to the acronym, to any content, is what thought process did you go through to get there. how did you learn that. how do you learn how to learn.

still in the middle of these thoughts.. but have to jet.

also need to come back to the idea of #1 in the new standards.. this can't happen without every student/teacher having access.. on to google when i get back to this.

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