Working in Education through the Language Lens

Individualized Learning Plans: that term is being pushed around lately - in fact it's part of our new District Improvement Plan - and for good reason. Every student is different and has very unique needs: how they learn how they produce that know what peaks their interest what engages them  how they manage their own ' intellectual safety ' - thanks to Dr. Robert Zeitlin for explaining that new term to me (as "can I raise my hand？"can I take pride being passionate about learning?" "Can I flex my 'smarts'?") and so on..... As a parent of 3 canines and 3 humans (all male mind you) - I'm fascinated by their uniqueness but  more specifically how their individuality is is masked by the pack. I explained to my counselor last week that adopting our fourth boy (no, we're not getting a fourth dog) is more like joining a member into a pack. Edward is already 12 - and our little family has been together since 2010. Our pack is al...

We talk a lot in education about moving forward - bouncing forward - being resilient and learning from our mistakes/errors. At the same time we also talk about Understanding by Design (which allows us to start with the end in mind and work backwards in our planning and preparation to get to that end). I'll be honest, in my experience - it's a lot easier to keep looking forward. We've heard that message longer and perhaps that's the difficult part (the reteaching and re-framing until it's more habitual and less effort?). Is it going to take longer to embrace and embed (become natural) over time.....? Have you ever noticed.... that no matter how many times you see the same sign (billboard/poster/framed picture of sayings) - you keep reading it? I even find myself half way through saying - "dang it! you clever marketing company you!" Why else do you think we hang sayings around our house - we WILL read them - and eventually they become part of ou...

I've blogged about being 'busy' before - but this post is different. I'm juggling, spinning plates, prioritizing and re-prioritizing. Food prepping for the week so that I can spend less time in the kitchen nightly -  which I means I just end up on the computer working instead of cooking. One day last week I found myself triple booked! What?  (And yet this is how I function ~ and to be honest..... thrive!) It's a constant struggle to make finding balance and peace a priority, but I've come to find out I feel a little less whole when detached from life. I need it every now and then yes, and I've learned to respond to those signals of 'slow down' or 'take a break' much better than years past. I can choose music over voxer, an hour more of sleep versus an early morning twitter chat, shutting down the laptop and cuddling with my spouse instead of trying to cram one more hour of work into my long day. Yesterday I was without my...

Photo taken by friend: Maureen McDonald at the Cincinnati Zoo and used with permission       I attended a training the other day about the brain. NeuroScience of Education is a field of study that is only 3 years old. I took copious notes, and even contemplated going back to school to get another doctorate in said field - until I learned there are no local universities that offer it - and yes, my husband would question my sanity......but I digress.... It led me to some reflection, okay a lot of reflection about change. Specifically, can people really change? Can we teach an old dog new tricks?   We were told that "education literally changes the brain" - it creates fiber tracks and with exercise (for example homework, or reflection journals, or blogging on our learning) they become faster and thicker. We are building brain highways - yet if not exercised, they can get dumped during our sleep as the brain decides what's worthy to keep.  Ha...

We went exploring today, just my youngest two boys and myself. This doesn't  happen very often - just the three of us, and I was thankful for the 'mom' time, while dad was away in Iowa, flying his combat RC planes. We all need some time doing things that restore and renew us.  With construction surrounding the parking garage, and the Cincinnati football game taking up prime parking, we had quite the detour in walking to our destination to view the replica ships (Nina and Pinta) docked on the Ohio River. I didn't mind it, it was a moderate 71 degrees outside with partially cloudy skies and plenty of sunshine. (I add that meteorological detail for the benefit of my PLN, as we span 10 time zones and love to fill each other in on the weather - and gas prices). My youngest had been rowdy to the point of obnoxious all  morning. Oh, please - I say that with all the motherly love in the world. In fact we almost didn't make it out of the driveway without ye...

It was about 3 miles into our 20 mile bike ride today along the Great Allegheny Passage, that I thought of a single falling  leaf. We were riding on the crushed gravel and limestone path where the coal trains ran, part of history that not many get to see outside of text books.  We were taking turns taking the lead and our 13 year old songster behind me said rather randomly "catch a falling leaf". I'm not sure why those words in particular stuck with me, but I looked up and within seconds saw a brown leaf taking it's final, side to side free fall to the ground. It felt almost as magical as seeing a shooting star, until only with an intentional gaze I saw several more fall. Then, I tried to catch one, and I became fixated. My hands left the bars once to reach up, only to be outside of reach. The leaf now felt elusive, instead of common. And then to add 'insult to injury', one floated down right onto my face. Out of instinct (mastered from the bugs that had a ma...

My transition into administration was like the honeymoon period of marriage - bringing a baby/child/dog into your home (yes I just did lump them all together)- and why? Well, because I officially started in my position as EL coordinator (first of it's kind) for our district on July 1st; when, kids - were out! Email inbox zero: no problem. Finishing tasks on my list - daily: no problem. A false sense of control - absolutely: problem. Fast forward (actually rewind) to August 13th, when school officially began with students. Procedural questions, first time registration weird scenario questions, emails and meetings and deadlines that seem to overlap -  AND remember we're talking "change" - that dirty 6 letter word. So why was the honeymoon period over so fast: and why was 'problem' creeping back into my brain- After a summer of learning about leadership resilience and then carrying on that work in house with our district building leader...