Blog
How is your summer? In full swing? Hot? Are you jumping in the lake or the ocean? Going to Farmer's Markets? Enjoying outings with family and friends?
We hope you are doing all of it, and relishing summer's bounty and freedom. We are doing our best and loving it, interspersed with preparing for an exciting fall with new work with some wonderful schools and architecture firms. More on that soon.
Savor every summer day.
Louise and Ashley
Ashley and I are sitting in our breezy Vermont house with all the windows and the doors to our new screen porch swung wide open. Soft summer air moves around the apple trees outside and gently tosses the little apples, happy on their newly pruned trees that our son, Alden helped Ashley to shape through the winter months. As we continue to work on this house and land as well as on our good work with schools, we feel profoundly grateful for this place and this time in our lives.
We have just shared some glorious days with grand baby Asher and his parents, Alden and Caroline, marveling at the joy and exuberance of a fourteen-month-old discovering the world, including cows, calves, horses and ponies...real ones in Vermont, not only in books. A laughing, just walking, experimenting with everything in sight, darling boy.
Our son, Chris just visited for a few days. Yesterday, we attended a memorial service for the step-father of one of Chris's Middlebury classmates who died last week suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 52. The service was in Burlington at the University of Vermont in a huge room in the Davis Center. We sat surrounded by the 600 or more people who attended, and listened to sweet music and eloquent, heartfelt words about David. Sitting next to a big, tall son who manifests many of the qualities that everyone spoke about in David flooded me with gratitude for these kinds of people in our lives. Here are a few of those words...
David had keen judgment, a sharp memory, a sense of humor, and boundless energy...His quick mind was matched with a huge heart that glowed with his family, reached out to friends and strangers alike, and spoke aloud every day in a rolling laugh that could be heard for miles. David was a builder, of wooden things and stone walls, of friendships and family, of community... He is survived by all that he built, by the laughter he brought everywhere he went, and by all that he loved.
Attending funerals and watching babies with a whole heart brings all that is precious in life to the forefront. This morning, I drove Chris to Castleton, Vermont to catch the train back to New York City. We could have been in a Norman Rockwell scene...picturesque Vermont town with matching train station, dogs, children, women with white blouses and red, white and blue scarves, train and train whistle, conductor in a red tie standing in the open train door...everyone waves goodbye, and the train rumbles down the track.
Happy Independence Day to all of you. May all of our lives be full of wonder, celebration, joy and gratitude.
I have taught at Butler University for three years with Ena Shelley, Dean of the College of Education. In 2011, we taught a course based on how the teaching and learning in Reggio Emilia, Italy might inspire and influence all sectors of education. For two years, we have co-taught a field study course in elementary and early education during an intensive week at Opal School of the Portland Children's Museum. It has been a thrill for me to teach at the college and graduate level, and especially to co-teach with Ena Shelley who is a close friend and colleague. It has been a dream of mine for some time to find a home at a university where I could offer what I love and know about to others and still do all the other kinds of professional work that takes me far and wide in the world.
Last weekend, I was privileged to participate in the Butler University commencement ceremony as an adjunct professor. I ordered my academic regalia for the very first time, my tam and my hood from Union University, so that I could process with the faculty and join them for the celebration of so many masters and undergraduates at Butler.
One of the joys of the day for me was listening to the commencement address by John Green, who is an Indianapolis native, a New York Times best seller list author of young adult fiction and a very good speaker. He was funny, he was honest, he was eloquent in an accessible way, he was memorable. I keep thinking back on what he said and remembering the gems.
The very first thing that he asked us to do was to take a full minute to remember and appreciate all the people who had "loved us up" to this celebration, this day, this time in our lives...whether we were students, parents, faculty. He captured a moment in time for all of us, and asked us to think of the people that had made this possible for us. A long line up of parents, grandparents, teachers, professors, and others who supported me along the way, made sacrifices for me and believed in me, when I needed it the most, appeared in my mind's eye. The huge, historic Hinkle gymnasium fell silent and every one of us spent that long moment being grateful and humbled by those who had made success in our lives possible.
John Green made us want to be that kind of person. If we had any doubt, he helped us realize that to be the kind of person who other people, maybe people we don't even know yet, think of in moments like these...this is what makes a life successful more than anything else...more than fame or money certainly.
The tam and the tassel and the hood that symbolize my accomplishments are a huge honor to wear. Participating as a faculty member, even a part time one, of such a dedicated and wonderful university as Butler is a privilege. Remembering, honoring and feeling immense gratitude for the people who made this possible for me... that was the highlight of the day. Thank you, John Green, for that.
This is the third in a series of blog posts that we have written connecting sports and education...one on baseball, one on golf and this one on basketball. There are similar themes running through these posts...discipline, teamwork, understanding learning style differences, perseverance, positive attitude, authentic relationships...all aspects of fulfillment and success in sports, in school and in life.
Last week, we read a fascinating short profile of the National Basketball Association coach of the San Antonio Spurs, Gregg Popovich in Sports Illustrated. He is the longest tenured coach in the NBA. He took over the Spurs in 1996. Since then, his team has recorded 16 straight 50+ winning seasons, including 4 NBA championships. During his tenure, the other NBA teams have made 651 coaching changes.
Toward the end of the profile, written by veteran SI scribe, Jack McCullum, Popovich (or, "Pop"), after much equivocation, as is his want with the media, fairly gushes forth with a wonderful summary of his leadership approach. Not incidentally, it's helpful to know that graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy.
The only reason the word "military" is used to describe what goes on around here is because I went to the [Air Force] Academy. But the correct word is "discipline." And there are disciplined people in Google, in IBM, and the McDonald's down the street.
Yes, we're disciplined in what we do. But that's not enough. Relationships with people are what it's all about. You have to make players realize you care about them. And they have to care about each other and be interested in each other. Then they start to feel a sense of responsibility toward each other. The they want to DO for each other.
And I have always thought that it helps if you make it fun, and one of the ways you do that is let them think you're a little crazy, that you're interested in things outside of basketball... You have to give the message that the world is wider than a basketball court.
Precisely my feeling about the classroom and education in general. Discipline. Relationships. Fun.
Good educators are disciplined. They are organized. They know what they expect of their students, and they communicate those expectations clearly and relentlessly. They are intrepid in their work to create environments where those expectations can be achieved. Excellence is the norm.
And, good educators know that the essential sauce in a healthy learning environment is a mix of healthy relationships. Pop says it best...when players (and students) "care about each other and are interested in each other, the they start to feel a sense of responsibility toward each other. The they want to DO for each other."
And, good educators create a healthy learning environment in which FUN permeates the modus operandi. Just google the myriad studies on the learning benefits of "play" to begin to drill down on the profound benefits of embracing this idea. Read our blog post from last week where Louise writes about playful inquiry at the Opal School of the Portland Children's Museum.
And, You have to give the message that the world is wider than a basketball court. Good educators create learning environments without boundaries. In such environments inquiry, invention and life long learning permeate the culture of the school.
Pop begins his three paragraph treatise on the essence of his coaching with discipline, then expands into the realm of relationships, and wraps up in the territory of unbounded fun. I've followed this man and his team for years. Now I know why I've been drawn to him. He is a GREAT educator.
Last week I wrote about the exciting professional development and school design sessions I’ve had with Oregon Episcopal School (OES). Two of the most generative moments of the OES faculty’s brainstorming and design thinking came from the sudden and creative invention of metaphors: OES is like a riverboat...and OES is like a jazz band. With each metaphor, individual and collective imaginations clicked ON.
For instance, with the jazz band metaphor, the idea developed that highly skilled teachers engaged in inquiry based learning are like jazz musicians. Those teachers understand theory and practice in both pedagogy (music theory) and different subjects/disciplines (different instruments). They harness their understanding of learning patterns to the vehicle of inquiry (innovation and invention). They are at once: clear about the overall intentions of the particular investigation (the jazz theme), attuned to each individual student’s response (each member of the jazz ensemble), and skilled at leading all students to learn and to make new connections. As the investigations develop and conclude, great teachers inspire and guide a rich and meaningful expressions of individual and collective learning (a jazz composition).
The jazz band metaphor resonated for me again on February 15 at The College School in Webster Groves (TCS) and The St. Michael School of Clayton (SMS) where Cadwell Collaborative hosted 32 teachers from two different Chicago schools, Union Church of Hinsdale Early Childhood Center and the Winnetka Community Nursery School.
To watch and listen to the teachers from TCS and SMS is very much like listening to a really fine jazz ensemble. The language they use to describe what they are doing could be likened to a jazz players talking about playing jazz. Phrases and words like: listen carefully to all the children to know where to go and what to support; use what you know and then go somewhere new; practice, practice, practice; be grounded and fly; be serious and have fun; wonder and experiment.
In the afternoon workshop the teachers' challenge was to outline a possible investigation using a “mapping” format borrowed from the current practice at SMS (a framework that SMS has developed over a five year period, one that derives from Grant Wiggins' work). Though the task was concrete, the process was organic. The teachers met in groups of four. In three different 20 minute periods, each person met with three different trios. So, with 32 teachers, there were 8 quartets playing at one time. And over the three sessions each player got to play with 9 different partners. The central objective was the same yet the ideas were many and diverse. One teacher reflected, The mapping workshop helped me assemble and consider exciting ideas from other teachers. Another said: It was great to hear other perspectives. I’m leaving with so many inspiring and practical ideas!
To collaborate and compose in this way as educators can open new doors and develop new skills, among the 21st century skills that we wish to instill also in our students.
