Powerful Invitation to Learning

I heard the dearest thing today. A young mom, a teacher, who had been struggling with the concept of expanding her approach, began to notice her child’s play. A scientist herself, she noticed that the process in which the baby explored his world was the same process replicated by scientists. A profound discovery, this knowledge of how we learn by exploration, observation, trial and error, changed the teacher deeply. She decided to apply what she learned about scientific inquiry to her approach with her students.

Christine Chaille and Lory Britain are working on the third edition of The Young Child as Scientist. The first edition was published in 2002, and while an easy read, is a highly regarded textbook in early childhood education.

The book clearly illustrated the concept of “constructivism,” and provided activities and materials to encourage the innate curiosity of children. It demonstrated the process of developing a theory by repeated testing. The tenets of the book are applicable to children of all ages; indeed, teachers use the same process as they collect data from student learning to design instruction. Constructivism is a theory, but also a fundamental strategy in all learning. Thoughtful teachers provide materials for exploration, encourage theory building and testing, and see the process evident in their own learning.

I wonder: how can we better support students and teachers to expand the constructivist approach in all classrooms and professional development to ensure that students are learning from the inside out?

Slow Living in LA…continued

One of the blessings of living in LA is the access to so much popular diversity. I love working with and having friends of different cultural backgrounds. I feel expanded as I look at life from different vantage points.

I am reading a book, given to me by a dear colleague in education, about the Chabad movement. As I struggle with a commitment to lose 35 pounds to amend a genetically instigated cholesterol reality, I was struck by the author’s description about the food regulations about which she writes. She described the kashrut laws as enabling a person to slow down as they contemplate what they are choosing to eat. The idea resonated so strongly with me as I shift into new life patterns of eating guided by what foods will contribute to my health. Rather than feeling restricted, I feel liberated by giving myself the time and opportunity to consider my choices.

As a young, working mother in Los Angeles, my life was on super-drive. I lived in the San Fernando Valley and found a wonderful job in Santa Monica, so I commuted even though I had a job two blocks from my house. I gave a baby shower for my brother- and sister-in-law, and thought nothing of collecting kewpie dolls in all sizes from Pasadena to Torrance for the decorations (in pre-internet search times!). I was blessed with three amazing kids, and their activities kept me in my car. Perhaps that is a function of youth, to be fast, thorough, and cover lots of turf?

I am doing something that I wanted to do earlier in my life, building a career as a consultant. It’s brave to step out in a new phase, and financially tougher in some ways. But my choices allow me to shape my reality. I choose to cut costs rather than working hard to pay for things I don’t really need. I iron my clothes rather than sending everything to the cleaners. I eat less, eat out less, and clean my own house. I enjoy being home, really home, not just stopping for a short respite from my next activity. I notice that I spend more time connecting with friends, so I don’t feel the need to plan large, expensive parties each year at the holidays to “catch up,” which one can never do en masse anyway.

People ask me how I like LA, and I answer differently than I would have 20 years ago. I love life in LA. I have cut my life down to manageable bites, literally and figuratively. I spend most of my time within a small radius of my home, share a car with my husband so I walk for many of my errands, and keep trips to far corners of the city to a minimum.

Life is simpler, more meaningful, now. Perhaps it is a function of growing older. If so, I embrace it. I have more energy and happiness than I had 20 years ago and I embrace that, too. I have time and space to ask myself: What do you want?

I am answering that question day by day, moment by moment.

Are we losing our students to technology?

The New York Times (November 1, 2012) reported the views of teachers and Common Sense Media that technology is reshaping the attention spans of children.  Teachers report that they are seeing less depth of work and less focused attention from students.  One teacher reported that she felt she had to be “an entertainer” to maintain the attention of her students.

Two things are clear: technology is here to stay, and our children need to be able to sustain focus on difficult tasks.  The ability to succeed in life anchors on one’s ability to persevere through challenges. Are the teachers correct?  Are our children’s abilities being diluted due to a steady diet of short-term, immediate gratification and entertainment?  If the answer is “Yes,” then we adults must use that feedback to adjust the lives of children.  What are some things we can do to enhance children’s attention, focus, and perseverance?

1.  Mindfulness practice.  The practice of stepping out from a racing mind to pay attention to quiet, compelling sensory experiences reframes attention.  Young children are purposefully mindful as they explore their world, repeating tasks until mastery.  They are fascinated by such simple actions as blowing on a bubble wand to see the resulting flock of shimmering orbs floating through the air.  We can, as adults, provide activities for children of all ages that extend require them to find that God-given fascination rather than caving in to the idea of becoming a song-and-dance.

2.  Engage children in learning.  Teacher “on the stage” is an old paradigm.  Today’s understanding of the brain reveals that people need to move about every half our for maximum brain output.  We know that as teachers when we facilitate “doing” rather than passively sitting helps the brain construct meaning.  We s teacher need to re-examine our practice, and administration of schools need to provide professional development opportunities for teachers to develop 21st century skills that match current knowledge of how the brain works.

As with everything in our modern world of opulence, less is sometimes more.  We need to cultivate wise use of technology.  Young children need time to learn about the physical world.  Some schools are on the right track when they leave technology out of the classroom until second grade.  Our digital native students will not be hampered by later integration of technology in learning;  on the contrary, giving young children a chance to fully explore their world with the physical body lays the foundation for significant and deep learning in many forms in later life.

4.  Parents may find their daily lives  so hectic that resulting to “media babysitting” enhances their own sanity.  Sane parents are effective parents.  As a boomer, I suggest that grandparents offer a safe haven from technology.  Let’s make our homes “technology free”homes.  When the grans visit, let’s provide the kinds of activities we experienced as children: baking, gardening, simple chores, knitting, walking, writing, building–things we do with our hands and bodies.

What other ways can you think of that can provide children with the opportunity to build inner resources that develop perseverance for learning in our modern world?

(Photo courtesy of : ?http://www.flickr.com/photos/71982440@N08/6497172303/)

Life is Grand!

If you don’t recognize the photo, it’s a sunrise on Lake Michigan taken from a hotel in Chicago.  Chicago, it seems, is a part of my heart, as someone dear to me lives there.  I’m not in Chicago and did not take the photo; my husband did, and emailed it to me in DC.  He went there when I left for a long-needed vacation with a dear friend.  It seems a part of my heart lives in DC as well.  And in Oregon, and in Las Vegas.  In fact, if I tally it all  up, parts of my heart are in Alaska, Texas, Canada, San Francisco, St. Louis, San Luis Obispo, Ukraine, Minnesota, North County San Diego, Mexico, and all over nooks and crannies of the Los Angeles area.

Our hearts are amazingly expandable.  I can sit here looking out into the forest and feel my heart in all those places, seeing the faces of loved ones and friends and flashes of memories.  When I choose to spend time and money to see them, I’m recharged; but when I’m focused on other things, I can tune into my love-line, visualizing the beautiful faces and locales. Like pearls on a necklace, they shine brightly.

Vacations give us a change of perspective if we are willing to move with the energy of newness. The energy of newness is slow energy. Being here in DC, along with the reddening trees, my pace is slow, even slower  than my newly crafted, self-employed life has offered me the chance to be.  Slow energy is something I experienced as a dancer. Slow energy is not lazy energy;  as a dancer I moved all day, first in modern, then in folk, then swimming for a change of pace, and lastly in the studio for choreography or a master class.  Slow energy is being fully alive and at the same time present to mind, body, and spirit. Slow energy crawls up our bodies from the center of the earth, grounding us with intention.   Slow energy is different from LA, fast-paced energy, the kind that makes us believe that we must get so many things done in a day.  On vacation I set aside more of my “shoulds” and move more akin  with my dancing self, with more intention and less restriction.  Although my home provides me with the beach and beautiful weather,  I seem to allow daily life to  intrude on my real appreciation of the kind of presence provided by slow energy.

Today is day six of my vacation.  It’s been a long time since I have been away from home without a work agenda for an extended length of time, and three more days are to come!  I’m able to make this time available to myself firstly because I ask for it, secondly because I have a wonderfully understanding husband, and thirdly because I have a kind and generous friend who shares her home with me for as long as I like.  It’s easy to step into slow energy surrounded by the greenery, the freedom to plan my days minute by minute, and the patience and ease of a truly open hostess.

As I sit here, my fantasy becomes one in which all of my special people, all over the world, can know one another and see each other as I see them.  Next, the locus of the fantasy as me, becomes a many faceted matrix composed of each of them as the center of their own wonderful, heart-opening lives.  I imagine the world, criss-crossed by the fabric of human compassion, lit by one face and one snapshot at a time the movement of loving energy all over the planet.   I wonder if I can bring home awareness of the peace and love I feel as I sit here alone, filled with the slow, purposeful, and intentional energy that follows us everywhere we go!

Something New in Los Angeles-ME!

Los Angeles.  What do you think of when you think of when you think of LA?  Carmageddon, smog, driving around to find a parking place?  I think of my home near the La Ballona Wetlands after living in San Francisco for two years.  Viewing LA as a quiet and peaceful place is new for me.  Instead of seeing a many-tentacled metropolis, I see a peaceful place, filled with people who walk, people who take yoga and meditate, and who talk about mindfulness. How did the city transform?  It’s taken me many years to come to this side of Los Angeles.

My first glimpse of peace in LA was during my college years at UCLA.  I was a dance major and as I honed my body into an artistic instrument, my mind was the part of me that really took off.  Murray Louis, an iconic modern dancer, told us:  People walk every day.  Some people are walking; some are dancing.  The difference between walking and dancing is awareness:  are you aware of the energy of your body, the shape of your arms as they swing through the air, the negative space that surrounds you, and the intention you carry as you move toward your destination?  If you are aware and moving, you are dancing.”

It has taken me almost 30 years to catch up to the wisdom of Louis, as I step into a new phase of life as a consultant, but more importantly, as someone who is choosing to dance through my life.  I am fortunate: my kids are all grown and self-sustaining.  I am grateful for the jobs that have come to me  that allowed our wonderful life as a family of five,  and celebrated that time of life, working hard and supporting three growing beings.

I now reconnect with that young dancer at UCLA.  The body is no long the honed instrument, but I carry the same intention and awareness as I dance my way through this next phase of my life.  Intention and Awareness carry with them transformative powers, the kind that can morph a congested city into a space of hope and peace.

I think, as they say, “Peace is an inside job.”