Due to Technical Difficulties, Part 1,357,002…

…tonight’s Homework Sheet™ is posted here:

Seen and Heard Lists: at least one item to each list, every day.  This is part of our training in Clarity: noticing the world around us.  What is actually going on?

Campaign for Mini-Brain: at least 30 minutes on your speech this evening.

Continue to consider:

  • What can you incorporate from the Brené Brown/Obama podcast?
  • Meaningful details—what helps paint the pictures you want us to see in your stories?
  • Transitions from idea to idea – what is the through-line of your speech? What is the Big Idea?  How does that idea thread its way through the speech?
  • Introduction—how are you drawing us in?

Say your speech out loud at least twice in the privacy of your room.

The first time through, listen for and make notes to yourself about:

  • Flow—when do you feel a sense of flow, and when do you hear the flow come to a halt?
  • Opportunities for precise word choice—what verb is the right verb? What adjective is the right adjective? Consider what we are learning from Ursula K. Le Guin

The second time through, try the whole thing as we started today (before everyone reverted to being kindergarteners…): eXaGeRaTiNG eVeRy SiNG-GLe CoN-So-NaNT.

Please have an up-to-date printed copy of your speech with you EVERY DAY from now until you deliver your speech to the class during Election Week.

Goals: for tomorrow, please consider class agreement #7: “Practice kindness with yourself and others.”  Create a goal for yourself for tomorrow.  Write it down in your comp book.  Ask yourself, “Is this S.M.A.R.T.?”

Due to Further Technical Difficulties…

…tonight’s Homework Sheet™ is posted here:

Seen and Heard Lists: at least one item to each list, every day.  This is part of our training in Clarity: noticing the world around us.  What is actually going on?

Campaign for Mini-Brain: 30 minutes tonight on your speech (more if you are behind).

Continue with the work we began exploring today.

  • What can you incorporate from the Brené Brown/Obama podcast? Look through your notes or reread the transcript.
  • What can you incorporate from our discussion about the Clinton DNC speech?
    • Personable, folksy storytelling, as if you are talking to a group of friends
    • Meaningful details
    • Sometimes subtly slipping in your key points and sometimes highlighting them and making them very clear
  • Remember that these stories do not have to be about THE MOST EPIC TIME I DID THIS AND IT CHANGED THE WORLD AND EVERYONE IN IT; they can be stories of tiny moments; they can be stories of times when you did the opposite of the quality you are showcasing and it had a negative impact and your learned why that quality is so important as a result; they can be stories about times you wished you had demonstrated that quality; they can be stories about you witnessing someone else doing that thing and learning from it and now trying to do that yourself—there is no one way of persuading us.
  • At the same time, don’t shy away from owning these qualities—it is 100% okay to have pride in embodying these traits

Socratic Circle tomorrow: please make sure you have your notes ready and your copy of U.C. with you.

  • What do you think was interesting about chapter 9? What questions do you have about it?
  • What techniques do we need to have a good understanding of for our graphic novel?
  • How might be apply certain techniques in specific moments in the story?

Goals: for tomorrow, please reconsider a goal in relation to Division 7: something specific you can do tomorrow to help increase friendly relations between our classes.  Write it down in your comp book.  Ask yourself, “Is this S.M.A.R.T.?”

Late Work: what is your plan?

Due to Technical Difficulties…

…your friendly neighborhood Homeweek Sheet™ is posted here:

Seen and Heard Lists: at least one item to each list, every day.  This is part of our training in Clarity: noticing the world around us.  What is actually going on?

Class Agreement: What kinds of things do you think our class needs to agree to do?  Think do rather than don’t.  Dare to do it for reals – we need this. Spend about 30 minutes on this tonight.

Understanding Comics: our next Socratic Circle, on chapters 3 and 4, will be held Wednesday.  Use the handout to help guide your prep.  Be an active reader and an active note-taker.

Use what you learned last week to help you take a forward step this week, in terms of prep.  Tip: thorough prep can increase confidence in sharing ideas.

Socials: how do you play Civilization V?  Continue with your on-line exploration.

Job Posting

NEW JOB POSTING: The MACC Mini-Brain!

There is a new position opening up in the Capitol Hill MACC 6/7 program: the MACC Mini-Brain.

The Mini-Brain is a job similar to “class president.”  The role of the Mini-Brain is to be the teacher when Prof. Pai Mei isn’t in the room or when he doesn’t feel like being the teacher.  The Mini-Brain is to Prof. Pai Mei as Robin is to Batman.  The Mini-Brain is a natural leader, fair and kind, and helps shape policies that affect the lives of the students of Division 3.

MACC Mini-Brain Job Description

Duties:

  • Forms government of choice
  • Helps individuals and the class as a whole honor the Class Agreement
  • Holds bi-weekly Town Hall meetings to share policy decisions and hear the concerns of constituents
  • Serves as Prof. Pai Mei’s Butler
  • At the end of each day, writes tomorrow’s date on the board in English, French, and Chinese
  • Helps Prof. Pai Mei make decisions, such as:
    • what activities to do for D.P.A.
    • when to take breaks
    • what movie to watch for the end of term celebration
    • things he doesn’t want to think about
  • Creatively diverts people’s attention when they notice how messy Prof. Pai Mei’s desks are getting
  • Controls the class jobs basket
  • Helps classmates solve minor conflicts
  • Holds the tie-breaking vote in the case of a tie in class votes
  • Reminds people to do their jobs
  • Welcomes guests to the room and helps make TOCs’ lives bearable
  • Politely corrects Prof. Pai Mei’s spelling errors
  • Sighs wearily at the P.A. system when there are too many announcements
  • Other duties as they arise

Term: One month

Mandatory Skills/Assets – some combination of the following:

  • Inspiring
  • Honest
  • Hard-working
  • Organized
  • Inclusive
  • Fair
  • Respectful
  • Anti-racist
  • Responsible
  • Trustworthy
  • Sense of humor
  • Knowledgeable
  • Kind
  • Patient
  • Positive
  • Authoritative
  • Selfless
  • Strong-willed
  • Confident
  • Level-headed
  • Open-minded
  • Charismatic
  • Likable
  • Trusting
  • Optimistic
  • Calm
  • Caring
  • Energetic
  • Unbiased
  • Safe
  • Wise
  • Polite
  • Creative
  • Open awareness
  • Peaceful
  • Encouraging
  • Sees the Big Picture
  • Persuasive
  • Respectable
  • Good intentions
  • Eco-friendly
  • Understanding
  • Brave
  • Bold
  • Ambitious
  • Smart
  • Reasonable

Hello, Leaders of Tomorrow.  Welcome to your first campaign.

For a combination of Social Studies, Career Education, Writing, Math, ADST, and Art, you will each create a project to determine the first MACC Mini-Brain!

Remember that letter and package from President Obama that we explored? For the Campaign for Mini-Brain project, you will each create your own version of that document.  It will contain:

  1. A persuasive essay, explaining why you should be the first MACC Mini-Brain. In this essay, you will try to win our votes by explaining how and why you best fit the Mini-Brain job description.  On Campaign Day, you will deliver this speech to the class.
  2. A campaign poster, done on 8.5 x 11 paper or cardstock. This can be a self-portrait, like the photo of President Obama that was in the package we explored, or an eye-catching and meaningful visual, or some combination of those two representations, with a catchy and persuasive slogan.
  3. Creative choice: remember the bios of the two Obama dogs? What would you use on this third page to humanize yourself, grab our hearts, and tell us more about your values?
  4. A written interview, in which you answer the same questions that President Obama answered, with the idea of being truthful and showing your personality, but also trying to win our votes.

Big Idea: Clarity of Communication—what am I doing, visually and textually, to make my values clear and persuade my public?

First steps:

  1. Choose the three leadership qualities from our class-generated list that you think you most naturally inhabit.
  2. Decide upon your vision: what do you stand for? What is your version of the ideal Room 105?  How will you lead us there?

Remember: all aspects of a political campaign have been extremely well thought out—everything is there for a reason, working to shape the public’s opinion. Even the most casual-seeming of choices have been tested and planned.  With each choice you make, ask, Why? How does this contribute to my message?

Also remember: there is no one way of being an effective leader, and there are not leaders and non-leaders; leadership potential exists inside us all, and there are an infinite variety of ways of expressing it—what’s yours?

Good luck!

 

 

Let’s Get Quirks and Quarks-y!

As advertised on your Homework Sheet™, the link to the Quirks and Quarks podcast can be found be clicking here.

1.  Before you begin, prepare the space around you:

  • remove all external distractions (phone, toys, little sisters, etc.)
  • close all open tabs on your computer except this one
  • remind yourself that Discord will still exist when you are done: you don’t need to check it every five seconds
  • let your family know you are engaging in an activity that requires focus

2.  Then prepare your materials:

  • get out your paper and sharpen your pencil
  • clear off your workspace
  • prepare the paper with your containers:

Big Idea (big text and big container): Scientific Advancements

Sub-Topics (medium-sized text and medium-sized containers):

  • Climate Change
  • Human Evolution
  • Expansion of Universe
  • Space Exploration
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Questions

3.  Draw lines to connect your Sub-Topics to your Big Idea (you can choose to connect the Questions container to the Big Idea, or have it on its own in a corner of the page).

4.  Press play.

A reminder that the first few minutes of the podcast is an introduction–please do listen to it, but no need to take notes.  Listen for when they start to discuss the first Sub-Topic, Climate Change.

Be an active note taker.  Use the Pause and Rewind (back 15 seconds) buttons liberally (a lot).

No full sentences–try to use as few words as possible for each Detail.

You don’t have to write down everything – listen for the key information.

Use “chains” to break down long ideas.

Cluster the Important Details around the Sub-Topic they relate to; connect them to the Sub-Topic with lines.

There will be some complex information in here that you may not understand–how much can you get a rough sense of by context (the words and ideas that surround the tricky idea), and when do you need to press Pause and look something up in order to understand and move on?

Write down questions that occur to you around the Questions container and connect them to the container with lines.

Criteria:

  • Hierarchy of Size: Big Ideas are BIG, Sub-Topics are Medium, Details are small
  • Organization: details are clustered around the Sub-Topic they are related to
  • Use of Key Words: no full sentences, break down long ideas into a chain of related details, if needed
  • Attempt at Thoroughness: do not write down everything they say; do write down enough so that you could use the web to recall the information and explain it to someone else

Good luck!

 

 

So Long Summer, We Barely Knew Ye…

First day of school already? How did that happen??

(from Down the Street, by Lynda Barry, Harper and Row Publishers, 1988)

Angry tree assessment on Wednesday.  If you are extending yourself in this area, you might be growing a layer of bark over your skin, or perhaps you have developed the ability to photosynthesize,

See you tomorrow – I’m off to buy some chalk.

Prof. TBA…

The Deceptively Simple but Mind-Blowing Power of… THE DOODLE!

As if we needed any more reasons to love, respect, and trust the so-incredible-it-hurts Lynda Barry; she is a certified genius after all.  But she threw another one at us with the introduction of her doodling-as-a-way-of-staying-present technique.

(images from Picture This, by Lynda Barry; published by Drawn and Quarterly;
copyright 2010 by Lynda Barry)

This seemed to mesh perfectly with what we discovered by following the advice of Lynda Barry to look into the work of psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist during our big Brain Research project in Term One, specifically how by giving the left side of the brain the narrow focus it craves, the right hemisphere is freed up into a larger open awareness–a kind of non-thinking thinking place that we’re practicing applying to everything we do in class, whether it’s solving a complex math problem or making a great shot or strong defensive in PE.

Keeping the hand in motion: in other parts of her work, Lynda Barry equates this with how going for a walk when you’re stuck with a problem seems to loosen things up and present a solution.

“Movement is key,” she says. “I wonder why?”  And what’s interesting is that this movement seems to lead to a kind of inner stillness, from which unexpected ideas emerge.

With our sense of curiosity piqued, we tried out the technique while looking at the short story that runs through the pages of Lynda Barry’s image exploration activity book about “writing the unthinkable,” What It Is:

 

Then we tried it again while listening to an episode from Brené Brown’s Unlocking Us podcast that seemed to tie exquisitely to our Conscious Explorers Club meditation work: “Brené on Strong Backs, Soft Fronts, and Wild Hearts“:

 

A few brave souls even tried “doodling as meditation” during a guided meditation by Dr. James Maskalyk (meditation starts at around the 30:00 mark):

And then finally (for now!), we applied the technique to our big work in Social Studies–following and understanding the 2020 U.S. Election–and doodled to capture the details of a PBS NewsHour podcast in which the inestimable Judy Woodruff (the honorary Godmother of Div. 3, although she doesn’t know it) and her top-notch crew of Capitol Hill reporters, Yamiche Alcindor, Lisa Desjardins, and Amna Nawaz share their on-the-ground experiences of the insurrection at the Capitol building on January 6:

 

Move over, boring bullet points.  Hello, doodle.  Where have you been all our lives?  Oh, yah… you were with us from the very beginning.  We just needed a genius to point that out.

 

 

Exploding Philip Pullman – Duck!

Talent borrows; genius steals.  This reading technique, “Exploding Sentences,” was stolen from the much missed Ms. Wilson (late of Cap Hill; lately of lucky, lucky University Heights), who learned it, I believe, from Faye Brownlie, from whom most/all great ideas about language instruction come.

Take a sentence (or in our case, a paragraph – it is MACC after all) (whatever that means) (ahem *Mental Asylum for Corrupted Children” ahem), then use your red pen/pencil crayon to explore the author’s use of language: what you you notice about word choice?  Sentence structure?  Paragraph structure?  Use of figurative language?  Use of punctuation?  Why do you think the author made those choices?  What impact do you think they wanted to have on the reader?

Then get out your blue pen: what questions can you ask of the text?  What do you want to know more about?

Finally green: can you use known information to try to answer some of the your questions?  Can you make predictions?

In December we finished reading Book One, The Golden Compass, of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series (fasten your seat belts for Book Two, The Subtle Knife!).  This is my third time reading this book out loud with a class, and each time I appreciate it more and more.  It doesn’t get any better.  The energy in the room is on fire. 100% engagement.

Before reading each chapter, we would “explode” one of that chapter’s paragraphs, first privately/individually, then going hive-mind to collect our ideas on the board and deepen our understanding by teaching each other.

Two things I’ve noticed:

  1. Take a look at how deeper our thinking got over the course of only two months.
  2. A funny coincidence (or not) is that at the same time we were doing this work, focused on reading, everyone’s writing has been growing by leaps and bounds too.  Funny how that works…

 

 

 

 

 

Equanimity in Action (or is it Equanimity in Inaction??)

Our Word of the Year for this annus horribilus (although, to tell you the truth, in Room 105 it has been kind of an annus mirabilus so far) has been equanimity.

Starting around a thousand years ago, way back in September, we looked at some dictionary definitions of the word (Dictionary Wars!) and the Latin roots, and then set about exploring its meaning in many different contexts: Bruce Lee, Wu Mei and Wing Chun, the Hubble Telescope, the incredible Lynda Barry, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal, Brené Brown, Leon Fleisher, and, with greater and greater frequency, Jeff Warren, Dr. James Maskalyk, and the Consciousness Explorers Club (we’re even made our own CEC, Jr.!).

In October (or was it November? who knows–with the combo of Daylight Saving Time and the current health restrictions, every day is kind of like the last, and it’s not just due to the number of times we play Giant 6-Square each week…) we made webs of the learning–or of the learning so far.

Criteria:

  • Hierarchy of size
  • Use of special features to increase clarity of communication
  • Personalization of content
  • Thoroughness in content
  • Using the fewest possible words to capture the essence of ideas
  • Finding connections across the web

Here are the results!

Full-size:

 

Close-ups:

 

Now stop looking at this and go do nothing.