Curiosity

1

Act  1:  “It  is  a  miracle  that  curiosity  survives  formal  education.”  Be  Explorers.

My  story  today  is  about  blurring  the  lines  between  school  and  real  life,  and  the  story  comes  in  three  acts.  Each  act  starts  with  an  Einstein  quote  and  a  critical  issue  facing  us  as  learners  and  citizens.

Be Explorers

Act  1  of  my  story  really  starts  with  me  just  wanting  to  be  a  good  parent  and  a  fun  dad  –  nurturing  my  sons  to  be  explorers  with  strong  curiosity.

17 years

I  have  two  sons  –  Phillip  is  8  and  Jackson  is  5.    And  I  worry  that  too  much  of  the  next  17  years  of  their  lives  will  be  spent  in  rows  and  columns  of  desks  –  sitting  and  getting.

#FSBLFather-Son-Based Learning

So  we  explore  together,  a  lot,  and  we  call  it  #FSBL  –  Father  Son  Based  Learning.  We  scrap  book  and  share  our  adventures  with  an  email-­‐based  blog  called  Posterous.

Often,  our  adventures  begin  with  MARTA  –  Atlanta’s  public  transit  system.  I  drive  us  to  a  station,  then  my  boys  drive  almost  every  decision  from  that  point  forward.  As  the  adventure  unfolds,  we  send  our  observation  journals  to  Posterous.

“It’s amazing what happens when you

simply ask questions...

Learning becomes more about asking the right questions rather than retaining the ‘correct’

knowledge.”

Two  Aprils  ago,  we  ended  up  spending  a  couple  of  hours  learning  how  to  operate  a  construction  crane  and  how  to  talk  to  strangers  –  in  real  time  and  on  social  media.

ObservingQuestioning

And  it  seems  that  practicing  all  of  this  #FSBL  observing,  discovering,  and  questioning  is  really  helping  us  to  think  like  designers  and  innovators.  Which  brings  us  to  Act  2.

Imagination

2

Act  2:  “Imagination  is  more  important  than  knowledge.”  Engage  Community.

Act  2  is  really  about  imagination.  It’s  about  what  all  of  this  practice  to  be  explorers  caused  to  happen  next.

Do  any  of  you  remember  that  1970s  Tootsie  Roll  jingle?  –  “Whatever  it  is  I  think  I  see  becomes  a  Tootsie  Roll  to  me!”

PBLPBL

Because  of  #FSBL,  my  sons  and  I  have  developed  a  collaborative  imagination  habit  and  a  jingle  of  our  own  –  “Whatever  it  is  I  think  I  see  becomes  a  PBL  to  me!”  We’ve  work  on  a  dog  park  project  and  a  blood  project  thanks  to  Jackson  needing  blood  drawn  at  the  hospital.

Engage Community

#FSBL  helped  train  me  to  see  #PBL  everywhere,  and  it  stretched  my  imagination  about  what  school  could  be.  I  wondered  what  would  happen  if  we  engaged  community  this  way  –  as  school.

Transdisciplinary

Community Issues

Problem-Solving

Synergy

So,  my  teaching  and  learning  partner  Jill  Gough  and  I  developed  Synergy  –  a  transdisciplinary,  community-­‐issues,  problem  solving  course  for  8th  graders.  

As  the  backbone  of  Synergy,  we  taught  our  students  to  observation  journal  with  a  group  Posterous.  Our  team  of  26  people  accumulated  about  100  observation  journals  a  week.  We  created  a  small  army  of  see-­‐ers,  dreamers  and  doers.  

How might we...

From  that  collection  of  observation  journals,  our  team  engaged  in  a  variety  of  projects  –  like  one  about  the  Moore’s  Mill  area  of  Nancy  Creek  that  runs  through  the  school  campus.  Instead  of  hearing  “When  will  I  ever  use  this?,”  we  heard  a  lot  more  “How  might  we…?”

Working to be here

Synergy  used  community  issues  as  curriculum  -­‐  PBL  with  a  capital  P.  It  engaged  a  community  of  learners  with  their  wider  community.  School  was  more  relevant  and  purposeful.  Which  brings  us  to  Act  3.

Humanity

3

Act  3:  “It  has  become  appallingly  obvious  that  our  technology  has  exceeded  our  humanity.”  Empathize  &  Empower

Through  community  engagement,  our  learning  became  relational  and  empathic.  Sure  we  were  using  technology,  but  using  it  to  network,  connect,  and  act  on  things  that  really  matter.

Empathize & EmpowerThere  were  so  many  great  Synergy  projects.  Two  more  quick  examples.  3  girls  focused  on  whether  grafciti  is  art  or  vandalism…or  both.  Four  boys  interested  in  the  food  desert  English  Avenue  hosted  a  job  fair  and  helped  two  unemployed  adults  secure  much-­‐needed  jobs.

By  reimagining  school,  Synergy  connected  us  to  an  even  bigger  tribe  of  empowered  explorers  empathizing  and  engaging  community  –  like  Emily  Pilloton  and  Project  H  in  Bertie,  NC.

1

Be Explorers

2 3

How might we transform school?

Curiosity Imagination Humanity

Engage Community

Empathize & Empower

Conclusion.

I  know  the  tribe  for  formal  education  transformation  can  grow  even  bigger  –  as  more  of  us  practice  curiosity,  imagination,  and  humanity  by  practicing  these  three  acts.

lemme see your tootsie roll - I mean, PBL...

email seepbl@posterous.com

I  hope  you’ll  give  these  acts  a  try.  I’ve  set  up  SeePBL.Posterous.com,  so  you  can  practice.  You  can  email  your  observation  journals  to  seepbl@posterous.com,  and  you  can  experiment  with  a  PBL  research  lab.  Lemme  see  your  Tootsie  Roll  –  I  mean,  PBL.