The beauty of the EMDT program is that we have been challenged to move outside the boundaries we usually set up for our own students in creating the projects and completing each month's set of challenges. In an almost subversive way, giving the A is the practice of most of our instructors throughout the ten-plus months we have traveled on this journey. I say subversive because it is only now that the practice has been revealed to us through this excellent book.
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| photo by Mike Colletti |
Now, I have the Art of Possibility, which should be required reading for teachers, both old and new. What a down-to-earth, simple approach to drawing the best out of each of the children we are charged with moving on to the next level in their lives.
Just today, when I was working through my classroom to check on progress on the upcoming projects, I saw many of the same approaches to solving the problems of creating an effective presentation. That seemed ok to me, until I checked on a group that was obviously enjoying what they were doing, almost, it seemed to me, too much. To my pleasant surprise, they were sharing what they had done so far, which was the lyrics to the song they were writing to tell the story of their mythic hero. It was really good, and made me wonder what made them go in that direction, when most of their peers wouldn’t. Their answer was the same thing the Zanders reveal in the practice at the end of chapter one: they looked beyond what was already being done and looked at what they might invent that would be another choice and open up new spaces to work in.
@Mike,
ReplyDeleteI couldn’t agree with you more. This book is very inspiring and very much needed at a time in the year when I often begin to loose steam. This book reminds me of the reason I wanted to teach, that being to create an environment where kids see the best in themselves and define themselves by their passions and strengths not by their weaknesses. I love this book.
I also think you are right on target with what you are saying about this program. This program has allowed me, a person who grew up feeling the opposite of smart, really see value in myself and my way of learning. I love that all types of learners can be successful. This has been a life changing experience, and inspiring people like you have been a huge part of the journey. Thank you.
That is excellent that some of your students are thinking outside of the box for their projects. Instead of doing what is "safe" or created before, your students are showing mastery by inventing something new because they reflected on what you have taught them about mythical heroes but then spun it around in a new direction. Most likely what has happened, because of your journey through this program has inspired not just you, but has rubbed off to your students.
ReplyDeletewhat a wonderful example of what we humans can do when we have the freedom to experiment and ignorance to not know that we're not supposed to. I think of all of the innovators of the early personal computing era in the mid-70s and early 80s and most of them did what they did because they were too young to know that it couldn't be done. Case in point, HP reject Steve Wozniak's original Apple 1 computer design because they couldn't see how there was a market for the thing. It took Steve Jobs to see that there was a world waiting to solder these things together and later that if they sold them as completed computers (Apple ][s) that there was an even bigger market. I'm glad that your students had you to recognize what they were doing and not insist that the go back to "drawing between the lines."
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