One of my big questions about Knowledge and Learning is how we transition from a state of not knowing to a state of knowing. This process seems, at first, to be an accumulation of something, like books piling up on the floors of our brains, or deepening of vision, seeing ever wider and more profoundly without losing sight of the simple and superficial.

I find foreign language learning to be one of the most accessible hinges upon which this transition depends. When we challenge our existing knowledge with translation, interpretation, and redefinition in a non-native language, we face the problem of simply “knowing about” something, the ignorant bliss of a vague and safetly-distanced experience. We cannot, for example, talk about photosynthesis in a foreign language if we have only slept through the biology classes in a our native language. This may seem obvious to the world, but we cannot talk about something we don’t know, and we can’t know something having only heard or read about it.

Learning a foreign language means, to a lot of people, acquiring vocabulary by some variety of methods (memorization, mimicking, listening, etc). This mere accumulation of words is obviously insufficient for a society, as it ignores grammar structures, phonetics, psychology, nuance, and, most importantly, the idea that language is a living, evolving expression of human interaction. Nevertheless, “vocabulary building” is a necessary task and, though often marred tedious by endless lists of words, involves memory, the senses, and knowing.

I believe words can be a base of knowing, and foreign languages can be a base of word study. If we penetrate the word in any language, we find ourselves within the body of knowing.

Last week I was a student in Tobias Mayer’s Welfare CSM course. What a great experience!  Almost all of the learning came via interactive games. I loved this, reminded me of Agile Open California in some ways – like no powerpoint, no sitting in rows of chairs facing the speaker… Even though Tobias clearly is a scrum expert, he set up the class so that much of our learning came from experiences like the spaghetti game, the three things game, an unpredictable variation of the ball game, a collaboration improv game, and more.

And we walked away with some new friends. Remembering everyone else’s name … valuing people over process a bit. Turns out that when we are being “me” centered, we just want to explain and tell.  Interestingly, Creativity happens when we are curious, when we are curious about others then we move into a mode of exploring with the other person. Exploration is central to creativity.

In another game we saw that failing fast led to many more ideas and success than too much talk and indecision. I don’t particularly like failing – so this was not a particularly attractive concept. On the other hand, I do have a huge bias for action, so then again this is looking like a winning strategy after all!

The biggest lesson was that scrum is an evolving framework…that as we practice we will iterate our own thinking about what works, and why. Scrum is not something we learn just once… It is a form of continuous improvement … we get to “done” on our sprint stories, but we are never “done” with our learning.

This is a test post for my first wordpress blog

So the story of the past three days tells the roller coaster I ride when it comes to my work right now. I say “right now” because this is a snapshot, an observation of my current state, but one that I know is impermanent and also one that need not continue and is within my power to change. I know it’s time for some work because I am becoming a much better observer of myself and the effects that I feel in my body as a result of certain thinking in response to certain situations. This work right now is intended not to massage my painful story or to provide a “cure” for my highs and lows, but to face all of it with equal compassion, devotion, and kindness.

On Saturday I made a big leap and said some remarks to my clients that showed myself in process. At Real Speaking back in June, I stated that my intention for the program was to be able to show myself, as a leader, in process. I had never felt it was OK or even possible to show my vulnerabilities while in a position of leadership. Since I always found myself in some leadership role, I kept these vulnerabilities either off to the side, to myself, or buried in the pages of my journal. Finally I realized the necessity of “going there”, not only for the sake of those I am purporting to lead, but importantly for myself to come forth. It has been a slow journey to this point, but the transformations are becoming tangible. I stood in front of my clients and said we are dreaming a bigger dream, expanding into new territory, and several elements will change again starting now. I started with that same class on Saturday. I felt free, because I had released myself from the expectation and need to hear anything in response from the clients. I felt alive with what I intended to share, and I needed no one’s approval or permission. It came from my heart and body and soul. Period.

Turns out, I just played for that entire class. I stayed in a perfectly calm place of observing, listening, and encouraging others to do the same. I watched and enjoyed. I voiced my observations and asked others to do the same. Students began to come alive also. Afterwards, I felt like I had never felt after teaching either private lessons or a group session. I felt calm. Like something had passed through me, but there was no residue left behind. I was clear and relaxed and felt so GOOD. Usually after what I used to call a “good” class – when the students performed well, worked hard, fixed things, seemed to “get it” – I would feel an adrenaline rush like after one of my own performances. The contrast taught me a lot. I had viewed my job – each time I stood up to teach – as if it were a performance. I put myself on the line that much. I felt my entire reputation and worth were up for judgment every single time I stepped in front of that group. And no wonder it felt like a “rush” to see “progress” or “results” (as I defined them to myself in my head).

But the place of observing with the calm wisdom within me – that was AWESOME. That place is the place within me that loves to listen, and wants other people to appreciate the beauty in what I hear. I want to share that. In that process, there are plenty of challenges and hurdles to overcome, but when I approach everything from the part of me who LOVES beauty and wants to illuminate it to others (while remaining detached from a need to see others “get it”), I get a totally different sensation.

Today would be the opposite of that sensation. I was feeling generally distracted all day by the fact that I have two pieces of homework due this week – one (a recording) is due tomorrow! – and I also want to get going on implementing some of those changes I announced on Saturday. I am ready to start hammering away at some of the details and planning. Which is a different part of my brain than the free-spirited creative improviser who needs to make the recording. Which is a different part of me than the one who also needs to think outside the box and invent listening exercises for my baby students so they don’t get too robotic in their music. Things started to go south when two of my students showed up an hour early for the class. I was sitting at my piano doing some recording, and one of them was standing outside the door, watching me. I could have continued, but the part of me that didn’t want to be “on display” as I was playing and creating won the battle. I hung out in my office for 45 minutes. Passing the time reading O magazine or listening to music on my iPod for inspiration and writing down all the brilliant things I did on Saturday.

This last list is probably what did me in. I entered the class tonight with thoughts filling my head of how wonderful everything was on Saturday, and how amazingly well everyone responded to the entire class. I was not open to the new possibilities of tonight – this moment, these people, this energy. I forgot to empty my mind. I was wondering how one of my students was going to do today, since on Saturday he refused to participate in class. I wondered if it was because his mother wasn’t there, and if he would perform better today. I should have just stayed neutral on it and reset the clock, so to speak.

There were also the nerves associated with trying a brand new exercise for the first time with clients who have expectations of me already set in the past. I started with a listening/improvisation/matching exercise, which three out of the five kids actually responded very well to. The “troublemaker” from Saturday started recruiting an ally in his neighbor, a normally quite attentive student who tonight began imitating his rebellious classmate. They both refused to try the improvisation exercise. I could see the war between peer influence and respect of the teacher (doing the “right thing”) going on in this four-year-old boy. He wanted to be one of the boys. That overrode his desire to please the teacher and his mother (sitting across the room) by following the rules.

I was shocked by this, rather than simply observing it. I took it personally as a judgment on the quality of the exercise, instantly concluding in my mind that it was too advanced or esoteric for the kids. However, three other children were responding in the same moment quite positively. Nice filter for noticing only the bad things!

There were some other quirky behaviors in another student who has been evolving into a problem over the past several weeks, for reasons mysterious to me. I kept reminding myself that she had just woken up before walking into class, having fallen asleep on the car ride there. More reminders that it is not all me!

The crux of all this is that I now observe how quickly I can take full responsibility for situations or circumstances over which I have no control. I overdefine my responsibilities to include too much of other people’s business. I overattach to certain results because I believe – erroneously – that these results are a reflection of the quality of my work. I need to apply a finer grain of discernment in determining my responsibilities in the world. I am ultimately responsible only for taking care of my own actions, thoughts, and feelings. Byron Katie says there is Your Business, Everyone Else’s Business, and God’s Business. Stay in Your Business.

After the class, I even felt my body lurching toward some of the parents to try to talk to them about how things went. But there was nothing to say. Things went as they were meant to go. And we move on. I had just gotten done saying out loud on Saturday that it is so important to be able to do something badly, because we learn so much from that liberation of spirit. I keep needing to follow my own advice, and learn the lessons I’m trying to teach!

Once I realized that my thoughts about responsibility were creating the roller coaster ride of feelings associated with my teaching, I could release. I could acknowledge that if I continue to do this with any job – no matter how much I love it or think I want to be doing it – I will think myself into unhappiness about it. So it’s time to notice that thinking and let it just fall away every time.

Tomorrow I have the opportunity to speak at the AIPMM Battle of the Bloggers and tell the people why Lead On Purpose is the top product management blog. Given the level of competition among the participating bloggers and the many other great blogs “out there” it’s a daunting task to say the least. In preparing for my brief (~5 minute) speech I’ve come up with a few reasons why Lead On Purpose is important to the product management community:

• Promoting leadership in product management: The blog was started with the intent to promote leadership practices that will help product managers work effectively with people: customers, partners and most especially, their co-workers on whom they depend for success.
• On Purpose: Product managers have to be leaders (in the true sense of the word) because they have the responsibility on their shoulders to get products out the door on time, with high quality and under budget. BUT, they do not manage or have authority over the people they depend on for success. Therefore, they need to be leaders and do it on purpose.
• Features of the blog: The success of Lead on Purpose comes from its focus on the need for strong leadership principles. The Product Management Perspective applies the leadership principles taught (in a given post) to product management. Guest bloggers have added tremendous value. I continue to learn from books I read and share that knowledge in book reviews. In January I started the PM Pulse, a separate blog where I post interviews with the thought leaders in product management and marketing.
• Perl of wisdom: The thing that keeps me writing is a love for learning. My favorite quote on leadership is this from Eric Hoffer: “In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future.  The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.” The effort, time and money we spend on learning and filling our minds with new opportunities will benefit us exponentially.

Blogging can be a lonely proposition; you put yourself “out there” for the world to see and judge, never knowing for sure what people really think. But then you get that comment or link or direct message from a reader who appreciates what you’ve written – then it’s all worth it.

Thank you — readers of Lead On Purpose — you are the reason I write.

Do you ever stop to think about your adult siblings, and compare them with the awkward, pimply teenagers you grew up with? (Note to self: do not alert family members to this post.) It’s really hard to believe that those adults-in-the-making became the professionals that I interact with today. Seriously? You’d hire my brother as your engineer, or let my sister near your baby with a needle? Why, exactly? And when did they become experts in their field, and where was I? Believe me, they’re saying the same thing about me. “That’s my little sister! You’re not going to let her consult on anything, are you?!” What was really happening while we were so busy coping with one another?

My intent in focusing on family is not to define what a family is. As a single, I’ve been adopted into a family or two, and I’ve been incredibly grateful to have the lines re-drawn to include me at the table and, in some years, under the Christmas tree. I know the quiet desperation, at times, of wanting to have my own family, so I do not take any relationship lightly. But families are different from friendships, even the best of friendships. As adults we are in a family paradigm as a result of choices we’ve made. We choose to stay relevent to one another, or we allow our loved ones to be cast aside like a paper boat,  listing and taking on water.

I have had the amazing and wonderful blessing, in these last few years, to connect with my sister’s family now that I live here in the Midwest. As the interactions take place, I see family from a different perspective. There is simply nothing to prepare you for what comes next: a crisis with tears; a question; a deeply profound insight from an unlikely source; two more questions; an argument over an undetermined, yet coveted item interrupted by the bleating of an abandoned toy and the repetition of the first question, only louder. There’s nothing extraordinary about repeated questions, howls of distress or the “Shh, I’m on the phone.” What’s extraordinary is that before we have the chance to ponder it twice, these family members will be conducting teleconferences in the middle of La Guardia and flying stand-by in order to get home for Thanksgiving. They’ll be doing our dishes and reminding us of doctor’s appointments because we’re not as razor sharp as we once were. Oh, believe me. I’m thankful for the moments.

My growing up years were more about relationship than I realized. I learned how to live with my siblings, in spite of their inane, absurd, highly annoying, arrogant or antagonizing ways. And they with me. It’s true that my parents taught a great many life skills, e.g., cooking, and gardening, etc. but maybe those were the superficial lessons after all. Is it possible that conflict resolution, forgiveness, patience, listening-while-frustrated, and peacemaking were the lessons they were modeling but not really discussing? I wonder if there was anything else they were saying?

3214102    ทันตกรรมสังคมเพื่อการเรียนรู้ชุมชน    Socio-dental Approach to Community Learning

บทนำวิชาทันตกรรมชุมชน ปรัชญาของงานทันตกรรมชุมชนและความแตกต่างจากงานทันตกรรมคลินิก บทบาทของทันตแพทย์ในการสร้างเสริมสุขภาพชองปากในชุมชน ความหมายของสุขภาพและสุขภาพช่องปาก การเรียนรู้และเข้าหาชุมชนเชิงบวกเพื่อเข้าใจชุมชน การทำงานเป็นทีม ทักษะการสื่อสาร การสัมภาษณ์ และทักษะการนำเสนอ

(Introduction to community dentistry; philosophy of community dentistry and its difference from clinical dentistry; roles of dentists in promoting community oral health; definitions of health and oral health; positive learning and approach to understand community; team-working; communication skills; interview methods and presentation skills.)

(3214102 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

This was on our news on something called Inside The Box and I wanted to know what everyone thought about it.

“A teacher in Northfield, MN is now changing a method he used to help motivate his students. After a test, he would post the names and grades of students who got As and Bs on a board in front of the class.

It turns out that was against the law — because it violates a student’s privacy.

The teacher was told to stop doing that and he did.

But it creates an interesting question — how much information is too much when it comes to a student’s grade?

Do you think the teacher was wrong to highlight the kids who did well like that?”

Here are a few of the comments from this questions:

• 6:21 PM – cadgma — You could say everything in every situation can be an invasion of privacy. If the teacher did not do it to punish the lower grades then let it be. What about all the High Schools and Colleges that post Honor rolls or Dean’s Lists in newspapers? Like I said if someone wants to find fault they can do that with every circumstance in life. We have turned into a country of whiners and we need to stop.
• 6:17 PM – Nancy — I think the teacher should be allowed to post the scores.  Why are we so afraid to take pride in a job well done?  Many children strive to get on a list like this.  If we did this more often, we might not have so much mediocrity in our educational system.  It is not an invasion of privacy.
• 5:45 PM – Faith — Should we also keep sports stats private? If we publish top scorers in games, does that violate anyone’s rights? What about honor rolls? Should we display great student art work? Should we eliminate 1st chair, 2nd chair, etc. in band? If we learn by imitation and are inspired by excellence, what is wrong with displaying excellent results? Is doing well such a threat to mediocre or poor performers that we need to keep excellence a secret? Scary!
• 5:35 PM – guest — I know people who have had this teacher and it’s not a bad thing at all. People in the class get to see those that understand it and can ask others for help. It’s not like the teacher is posting the names of those who got F’s. The teacher is just rewarding those who worked hard.
• 5:31 PM – Ben — The teacher should receive a fine/punishment as student privacy laws are not new at all.  In fact the school itself should receive fine/punishments as well.  The school should be providing good education as to relevant laws as well as better and approved techniques to  motivate students.  I work in a college and its VERY clear what to share/not.
• 5:18 PM – Andrea — Some students who do well prefer to keep that achievement to themselves to remain humble and maintain relationships. Students will notice the names of those students not listed, which is also not always an accurate reflection on the work put into the class. Some students work very hard to get a “C” in a subject where another student may come by an “A” with very little invested.

What do you think of it?

I’ve watched for a long time, not too long, but long enough.  And I’ve learned {important} like cooking, it is all about honesty.  So I’m going to share what I have watched and what I have learned, mostly because, I’m running out of room to remember it all.

In this Where have all the people gone  in CCK09 Moodle forum, Ulop says:

“It doesn’t matter if people leave the course, and go off and study on their own. That would be their option, and the connections will re-form and the networks will form elsewhere, if the ‘course’ is not serving the needs of the people. Otherwise, are we forcing people to take and remain in the course?”

Would this be of great interests from an educational authority or administration point of view?  What are the roles of educators and learners in a course? What happens if the course is not serving the needs of the people in an education institution?  What happens if the network is not serving the people it is supposed to serve?  Yes, people have a choice.  We can’t force people to remain in a course.  So, what are we going to do?

What should we do as an educator?  How could we improve our support to our learners? How could we ensure the course is run more effectively and efficiently (on a learning and cost basis)?  How could we achieve the institution goals and individual goals?  These are the sort of questions typically asked by educational leaders and educators. 

In a corporate world of education, there are intense competition between different education providers, so which is more important for surviving or thriving?  Teaching? Learning? Education? or Customers (learners) first?

I’ve started this blog to use as an example for my students to follow. I hope that they can become respectable  and safe internet users while learning more about social networking then facebook. Everyone has something to say and I hope that they will look back on this in their senior year and understand how much they have grown. I also want to get parents and teachers involved so that they can become active participants in our new learning environment. A “classroom without walls,” let’s join a journey and see where it goes.

” the summer could be defined as sunrise. nearly everyday we would escape into a world of nicotine and stars. those stars spoke to me. and you’re the one i shared my dream with. it was that sky i needed to sink myself into. for the past year, of orange haziness, i dreamed of feeling small and in awe again. i deeply absorbed the quietness of the early morning, the sound of silence that you grew up with, but i rarely experience. it’s amazing how much noise just one car makes on the road a mile away. and how the wind blowing through the trees sounds just like busy the inner-city highways near my apartment. we saw shooting stars one after another after another after another. i tried to keep up with the wishes. nervous with anticipation; we barely knew each other and now we were sharing sleeping bags from the back of your subaru. i made a dent in the hood of your car. every time i think of that i giggle on the inside; sorry. there is a part of you i haven’t touched yet. but i suppose those feelings take more time than we had. we drove to clear and open roads, to trespassing hidden locations, to parking garage rooftops, to the base of the mountains, to the edge of town by the refuge, to desolate parking lots and barren laundr-o-mats, to hot tubs belonging to expensive resort hotels. it was fun.
it was awkward. it was silent and i was shy. but it was so so beautiful. if anything is certain, we both share that love for the edge of a new day. “
-cg

Posted by Le Love at 9:10 PM Thursday, 12 November 2009.

In this Where have all the people gone  in CCK09 Moodle forum

Ulop says “That said, there is no troll in CCK09 and people have left the forums. For what reason(s), this time?”  I would like to know too!

People have left the forums for various reasons.  Some participants (especially new to CCK09) have already indicated the reasons at the start (introduction): they felt overwhelmed with information, and have since then moved to other media such as cck2009 Ning.  But was that the only reason?   And why didn’t they join back to the forum?

Some (especially the new CCK09 participants) might have expected the instructors (George and Stephen) to facilitate or moderate the forum discussion, as in a typical on-line course.  However, they might have noticed that George and Stephen would more likely meet them in the Elluminate session instead.  Others might have used other media such as twitters, facebook, their own blogs, their own PLE/N to interact, learn and reflect, rather than using the forum.  Many might still like to lurk though. 

Does this fall into a similar pattern to CCK08?  May be in a much smaller scale in the forum, but their involvement or interaction may be spreaded all over with a much wider arrays of networks, media and tools.

This time, a lot of past CCK08 participants rejoining CCK09 might have already experienced “enough” forum discussion, and so they would like to consider other “new” or emergent personalised learning network or media.  This leaves a few CCK08 participants remaining active in the forum.  Roy, Frances, Ailsa, Ulop, Ken, Dolores, Geoff, Roel, Mary, Nicola, Edgar together with other CCK09 (new?) participants – Gus, Luz, Leila, Maijann, Dean, James and Roland, and some others.

Another possible reason is that: Connectivism is about new and emergent learning, not just (online) teaching.  A lot of educators might be expecting to learn “how to teach or moderate” or the teaching or net pedagogy in an online course using forum or virtual learning Environment (i.e. using Moodle etc.).  However, as Stephen (and George) has mentioned in the past forum, connectivism is a theory about learning at this digital age, and so the emphasis is on learning.  For some of the educators/learners who might have used to instructivism, constructivism or social constructivism as a teaching/learning theory or pedagogy, they might have expected a similar approach to be adopted under connectivism in online teaching/learning.  What are their reactions?  Are they convinced of the connectivist approach?  Does connectivism as a learning theory resonate with their teaching practice? 

Are these educators/learners joining the course for their own reasons which we have all assumed?  That they would join the forum to discuss, to interact, to teach or to learn?  Or they would set up their PLN/E?  Or they would just like to lurk? 

In summary, it all comes back to the choice of learning amongst participants (with learners and some educators).  And whether they would resonate with the theory of Connectivism as espoused by Stephen and George.

Again this leaves us with more questions.

1. If you are coming from CCK08, what would you expect from CCK09?  What are you needs?  How are your needs fulfilled? Are these needs fulfilled in the forum?  What sort of “new and emergent concepts, knowledge, connections” would you expect from the forum?

2. If you are new to CCK09, what would you expect from CCK09?  What are you needs?  How are your needs fulfilled? Are these needs fulfilled in the forum?  What sort of “new and emergent concepts, knowledge, connections” would you expect from the forum?

Do the concepts and theory of Connectivism resonate with you?  Why/Why not?

May be the research question is: Why would you like to join/not join the forum?

It is small, but mighty. On a lsland not far from the mainland, Livan-drea occupies a smallish pocket but its heart is larger than many lives I know put together. Some called it a fortress City yet it was more the size of a Village. It was mighty since the River anchored it and drove its industry and trade, animals and peoples. Impossibly large sailing vessels occupied its waterways, small to tiny boats treacherously set sail time after time, only a few to return from the fight to make a living to supply food to the outer regions.

Interestingly enough the Catalin region was a sister city although thousands of miles away, it’s spirit and legend based on its land now also as Livan-drea, in decline. Geography is important and until you are sent into an unknown land you do not realize the necessity and purpose of the geography you inhabit. I was fortunate to inhabit Livan-drea, to live in its fair walls.

I had requested natural resources, waterways and wide open space. I was granted all three. Time travel permitted that I wait at least one season before I go. The preparation required was longer that I imagined. It honed my patience further and whetted my appetite. I knew I was ready to meet her and whether she knew it or not, she was too. I was happy when I was sent to Livan-drea.

I live in the Monastery with a view of the Foundry, 8 minutes from the Foundry to be exact. Most days except one, play out to a rhythm. A pattern well familiar to us for centuries. We go to the pace of the seasons here. There is no other way. Best to submit to the natural world and it’s moods and temperaments. The natural world being the elements and all that it brings or takes away. We have discovered that fighting the rhythm is a waste of our precious time. Since the time we have is limited we cannot afford to squander it on efforts that are misdirected.

Kiera had travelled a long ways for far too long. It was her own choice to do so. She knew very little at the beginning, in fact her path was a moderately difficult one for she had to collect instruments and tools along the way and teach herself to use them without very little instruction. She was described to me as impetuous, full of folly like a child who is untaught. This roused my curiosity and I knew from the beginning that I had a natural affection for her. When I was told she was a Liger, I was honoured. For Liger’s—although half-breeds, were mixed with the blood of the Lion. Their dna long sought after for their imprints. The strands in their dna were a vanishing phenomenon. So it was upon me to receive her and bring her into the period of her journey that would reveal her true nature.

My part was to guide, to walk with her into and beyond Livan-drea. I was eager to meet her and whisper the ancient word to her that would give her the elixir, a preparation that was supposedly able to change metals into gold, sought by alchemists, universally….

I met Mari not too long after I had started working at Mary’s Place in February.  She came to services on Saturday, and dropped by occasionally during the week.   While not currently homeless, she had been in the past and is still extremely low income.  She’s a sweet lady, quiet, thoughtful.  She is proud of her Native-roots and kind to everyone she meets.  People who know Mari, love Mari.

Not long after I met her, Mari found out she was pregnant.  She had a spirit of quiet excitement.  “This is my last one.  I knew how many children I always wanted, and this little one will finish me off.”   Everyone was so excited for her.  Maryanne, another church-goer, made her a baby blanket.  Another lady brought a sweet little outfit and hoodie for the baby.  There were gifts of diapers, hats and love.  At the beginning of the summer, she informed us it was going to be a boy! Everyone had an opinion for naming the baby.  Mari would just smile, “We have his name picked out.”

Three weeks ago, Mari came into church for the first time in a month.  With her, little baby Sage.  He was bundled up in one of the blankets that just a few months before had been a gift.  Everyone ohhed and awwed at the sweet little baby.  A tiny miracle.  There is nothing like an itty bitty baby to reduce a room full of hardened, weary women into a cooing mess.

It is amazing to me that I have been here long enough to see a non-pregnant woman become a mother.  These last ten months have just flown by.  It is sad to think that there is only 6 months left in this program.  It has truly been a life-changing experience.  I have able to travel the world, work in grassroots organizations, learn about issues in migration and homelessness.  I am a different person than I was 2 1/2 years ago.  A better person, I think.  These last ten months, I have become wholly invested in the work of Mary’s Place and the Church of Mary Magdalene.  So much so that I am not leaving Seattle after my Mission Intern program is finished in the Spring.  I am hoping to stay on with Mary’s Place, but even if that is not possible, I want to stay in this community.  I feel at home here.  I feel a sense of peace in staying that I haven’t felt in a long time.  It feels good to be here, invested, learning, stretching.

Today we had a Learning Day at school which when translates means that the students don’t come but the teachers do. And they we all learn together or in smaller teams. I thought it was a good day, a continuation of lots of job-embedded learning we’ve done so far this semester.

But I did learn something very new to me today. It’s called CDX and it’s an automotive online program that Auto/Transportation teachers can use to help students learn the finer points of mechanics.  Better still, it’s Ministry licenced which then saves us a bundle on the dollar side of the ledger. It looks great and our auto teacher would love to have it. Me too!  Now all we have to do is figure out how to get some computers set up.

Grateful for:

• my admin colleagues who are great at planning Learning Days
• our math dept and their newly developed culminating activities which make we want to be back in Gr 9…well, almost.
• SEMS and the addition of new names to the list

Curious about:

• how to get every classroom internet capable…easier said than done
• K and how she likes her new Mac computer

Over the last few days I have been trying to think about what I am going to write for the next term paper.  Oh yes, it has come round again.  The intolerable agony over whether or not I can write the blasted thing, the endless whinging and obvious mental imbalance induced by the mental stress I place myself under when I realise that I need to get going with writing another piece.  And all those joys only materialise once I have completed the task of settling on what I want to write about.  This is possibly more agonising that what comes after, but at least occurs over a more protracted period.

Strangely enough, despite feeling increasingly anxious about trying to fix on the topic for the next paper I find myself more motivated to read and study tonight than usual.  I have had trouble motivating myself to sit and study for long periods this term.  Last year I was quite happily sitting from 5:30pm to 10:00pm (after work) trying to work through the weekly texts and readings.  This year I have, instead, opted more for a tactic of attrition, sitting down for shorter periods more frequently to tackle the reading.  I don’t know which is better, but I was starting to wonder where the motivation to just sit and plough through had gone.  I think it is partly that I haven’t been able to allow myself to get that caught up in the studying. I was suffering too much anxiety relating to my day job and simply couldn’t cope with any more anxiety/nervous engagement in my studying.  However my working life has now calmed down and I find myself with the compelling task of writing another paper.  It is compelling, I really want to do it.  The prospect of choosing a subject that I find interesting, that I want to write about and making it my own in the process of writing about it is so exciting.

Going back to feeling anxious about the paper, I don’t think it is just a feeling of wanting mental peace by getting it out of the way that motivates me.  That would be the obvious answer and it certainly would make some kind of sense.  I have suffered so much anxiety and mental unrest during the process of writing the last two, not least as a result of truely not knowing if I was capable of writing the damned things.  It is, however, more than a need to get back to mental equilibrium that motivates me. If that were all it was then I would have given up the MA by now.  That would be a much better way of relieving the tension.  The tension, however, seems to be caused by a feeling of challenge.  It is the challenge of it that spurs me on. Not just the challenge to fulfil what is asked of me as part of my programme of study though, again that is too simple an explanation for the torture I end up putting myself through.  Again, I am quite capable of deciding enough is enough and leaving it be.  No, the challenge is far more personal than that.  Once I have some inkling of a potential subject for the paper I have to pursue it. I have to know if my intuition that I might just have something intelligible to put down on paper and in some way illuminate the random connections that occur in my mind is in any way reasonably founded.  So far that has been how it starts, I have some vague notion or some connection that I make idly during a seminar or while reading.  It appeals to me for one reason or another, fits in to my existing framework of experience while still posing enough questions and confusions to prevent me from knowing exactly what I am doing immediately.  As I explore the idea further I find out which assumptions were ill founded, compare it to other things I have been reading and discover more connections, gain a deeper insight and realise how naive many of my first thoughts on the topic were and finally (almost as if by magic) end up with a coherent thesis that  seems to sum up something that I didn’t quite know I was thinking, but there it is in front of me.

Undoubtedly my motivations for studying are informed by a not insigificant degree of self absorption.  I concede this without being particularly proud of it, but not ashamed of it either.  I don’t claim to be doing any thing great for humanity, I am just doing something I enjoy because I want to.   I find something extremely satisfying in this process of trying to grasp an idea that seems to spend an awfully long time at the edges of my consciousness.  The process of grasping or groping towards an interesting or useful idea has some kind of hold over me.  It holds me in its grasp long before I get to make any tangible progress myself.  I find it fascinating to be so motivated and compelled towards an aim that I can’t even quite make out.  I also find myself fascinated by contemplation and reflection on the process by which I am learning and manage to somehow put it together to make a coherent argument about something. It still feels surprising that I have come as far as I have through this MA.  I trust more that I can do it now, but I still don’t understand how or why.  I suppose that is why I often describe it in terms of forces or processes that act upon me, (e.g. the idea grasping me, or being subject to ‘the tyranny’ of trying to do something) because I really have difficulty conceiving of it as something that I do.  It feels much more like something that happens to me or that I happen upon.

Anyway, the subject I am trying to organise my thoughts around at the moment is some kind of comparison of Adorno and Lacan.  I am sure there are some similarities there.  The Lacanian notion of the Real that can never be directly accessed and the Adornian notion of the constellation that is organised around some invisible centre that can only be illuminted by the correct configuration of the constellation.  Admittedly it might be a little tenuous, but I am determined to find out why I think they are similar.  Even if I am wrong and I have to conclude they are completely different.  I am trusting my instincts here though and I think there is something interesting or productive in this intuition and I want to find out what it is.

Click here and here for other road trip games that we have recommended in the past!

While the entire family looks forward to celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday and eating delicious food, there is one thing that most people do not look forward to: the long car drive to and from a relative’s home! Boredom is really almost a guarantee.  However, with a few fun car game suggestions, you and your family can enjoy the hours of driving together.

Alphabet Race. The goal of this game is to find each letter of the alphabet, in alphabetical order, on the road signs you see throughout your journey. This game may seem easy, but just wait till you get to letters such as “Q” or “X”! See how fast you can accomplish this feat.

Hug Bug. You might have played this game a little differently when you were growing up, but we are making it much less…painful.  If you see a Volkswagen Beetle or “Bug” you get to give one other person in the car a hug or blow them a kiss!

The Frankie Game. In this game, the word “Frankie”, as in our lovable mascot, is substituted for a verb. To play, one person picks a secret verb like “swim”. Then everyone else asks questions using “Frankie” in place of the verb. “Can you Frankie in the ocean?” “Can you Frankie in the house?” The person who correctly guesses the secret verb gets to choose the next one.

Your Ideal Car. This game requires your family to use their imaginations! Pick a car on the road -even yours- and have each person say one thing that they would want to add onto the car to make it into the car of their dreams. For example, you could say, “I would add on a frozen yogurt machine to the car, so I could have frozen yogurt whenever I wanted!” Keep going until your family thinks they have created their ideal car!

The Teacher’s Dog. We at JumpStart love learning, so this game is perfect if you want to build up your child’s vocabulary on the road! In this game you will go through the alphabet using words to describe the teacher’s dog, the first letter of the descriptive word corresponding to the letter of the alphabet you are on. For example you could say, “The teacher’s dog is an Angry dog.” Then the next person would say, “The teacher’s dog is a Boring dog.” See if your family can find adjectives to describe the teacher’s dog from A-Z!

Question Game. In this game, you are only allowed to speak in questions to everyone in the car. For example one person could ask, “When are we going to get there?”  The next person would ask, “Do you have a watch?” The next person would ask, “Did you take it?” If you do not answer in a question, you are out. The winner of the game is the person who can carry on the conversation in questions the longest!

What are your favorite car games?

Share with some families that are in for a loooong drive.

For most of our lives, people tell us how to learn, or society dictates the how to us. Growing up, we sit in a classroom, listening to a teacher, taking notes and hopefully digesting the lesson. Perhaps the teacher intersperses exercises or group activities. We complete homework and assignments, and maybe even do (relatively simple) group projects.

In college, we usually can read or attend class, or both, or neither. We have more direct control in what we consume educationally, although some structure exists.

In the business world, we lose that flexibility from college. We must attend training; we have a first-day or first-week orientation; we sit in a classroom with peers; we have some group tasks in this training. Of course, in the business world, we are supposed to learn on the job, through trial and error or the received wisdom from those higher on the totem pole than us.

In my experience, this inflexibility results in enormous wastage of resources, time and effort. Managers do their employees an enormous disservice by letting them go through the standard ‘sheep-dip’ training, for example. This wastage exists because no one has bothered to ask the employee, ‘how do you learn?’

An employee may have difficulty answering the question, at first. He likely has never been confronted with that question, but if pressed, no doubt can determine the answer. The answer will come because he already does learn in a way he finds useful.

For example, does he read the morning paper, or watch morning news? Does he converse about the news with his family, or email them about it throughout the day? Does he listen to soft music going home, and think through the actions of the day, or does he listen to a relevant podcast? Does he read books? Does he stop by a colleague’s office – or two – nearly every day to discuss their priorities?

The answers to these questions likely offer him clues about how he learns best. And if he can give his manager insight into how he learns, that can have a significant impact on his learning at work. Sure, there may always be mandatory, in-class or online training. But if sitting in a room with 30 other people does not get the message through to this employee, why waste additional time there? Better efforts might include: coaching; a short reading list; talking through some issues with colleagues; or even teaching colleagues some content.

Great managers ask each employee, ‘how do you learn?’ because the answer better allows them to tailor their support to that individual. For new managers or new employees, this question serves as a great foundation in creating a strong, working, high-performance relationship.