Philosophy Without A Home

It is so surreal. The silence.  I've been home during the week before and for the most part it was normal. You could hear people in other houses and yards working. the occasional delivery vehicle or something. This shelter in place feels different. It's quiet. I sit on my computer studying or writing and watch as families walk together down the street. I've seen people walk before, the occasional family, but almost always in the evening and most likely one person walking a dog. Now you'll see an entire family walking, kids up front goofing and the parents together following behind. When they pass another family it's always on the far side of the street.  I'm am not on a cul-de-sac but close enough that there really is no reason to pass my house if you don't live in the neighborhood. I've been out a few times. It's quiet, but not quite as dead as you sometimes see on social media. I not alone on the road. The cops are in th

My first podcast with a friend Joy Kirr. The audio file  Podcast page Joy is a local teacher whom I was following on Twitter. I don't think I even realized she was local when I first started following her. One day she tweeted out an activity she was hosting at the school she worked at the time. I was like, hey that's right down the road I should go. And so I did, with my wife and kids in tow we went. I just really love making these connections.  We haven't talked much in the last few years but when I decided to start this podcast series and I was trying to think of teachers that I would like to chat with I remembered Joy and thought, "Yes, she is a teacher I would like to learn from." So here we are with my first episode.  As I reviewed to the chat I thought I would mark down some of the parts I thought were good. Around minute 3 we talk about low and high points in education and she really embodies a growth mindset. Keep those keepsakes,

Check out the 7th grade e-learning plan from a local school district. Do you notice the nice mix of technology and non-tech work? Do you see the choice? Wouldn't it be great if education was more like this? I'm not saying kindergartners can be expected to work with this level of autonomy. I'm also sure many parents are working their butts off trying to keep their kids motivated and doing something constructive. To this end I'm sure many parents are sacrificing work. I also have to admit, in my own house my kids are not being very productive.  That being said wouldn't it be great if schools transitioned to this model as the standard rather than the exception? Not the work from home model, but the choice and independent work as the rule rather than the exception. What if the expectation was that students would be spending the bulk of their time in a classroom working independently? What if students had projects all the time? Big ones, small one, individual a

The new big thing in education the last few years has been trauma informed education. an interesting take on how children's lives and the trauma they experience effects how they act and react. As  Alex Shevrin Venet says in her article, The How and Why of Trauma Informed Teaching , "...traumatic life experiences can sometimes emerge as behaviors that we might otherwise label as challenging". The insight I would like to point out is how all reactions, both good and bad, are strategies our students learn to succeed in their situations. The student who never turns in work, she's learned that if she just doesn't do work she won't get in trouble for doing a bad job. Or maybe something like that. In any event the point I want to make is that students who experience trauma, when stressed, often respond with actions that can be detrimental to their ultimate good. However these responses work in most other areas of their life so they won't change them for one