Something Special Here

Check out this video created by four elementary-aged children.  Then read the project description from Post Oak mom Katie Orr -- Post Oak kids stand out.  They are creative: incredibly so.  But there is more: "To drive home the point, she grabbed my arm and said, 'Really, please listen. You need to understand that there is something special here and that you need to be very, very proud of your child and these children.'"   Read on:

 

John,

Michelle asked that I answer your question regarding the video that our boys produced. Several Post Oak School boys (Joseph Orr, Andrew and Jonathan Lu and James Redding) participated in Aurora Picture Show's Filmmaking Boot Camp this summer.   (James collaborated on a different, equally amazing film.)  The week-long day camp is part of the education outreach ("Popcorn Kids Series") of the Aurora Picture Show, a Houston based non-profit that supports emerging filmmakers and artists in our area. Please see their website if you are interested:

The children were guided in their first-ever filmmaking endeavor by the organization's Media Arts Instructor, Camilo Gonzales, as well as  a high school art and media teacher from a nearby school district that was working with the organization through a grant (I can't remember her name.)  In addition, a couple of local filmmakers stopped by to offer some consultation during the process.    

 

It was a fantastic hands-on experience for the children, one that fit beautifully with their Montessori experience and the Montessori approach to learning.   In fact, when I was able to finally visit with the instructors at the end of the week (parents were not allowed to interrupt or corrupt the artistic process!) , the instructors were effusive in their compliments of the POS boys' work.  They were thrilled with the artistic outcome, but they seemed most impressed, almost shocked, at the group's strong vision for the film, and how well the group worked together to realize that vision.  They noted that they were worried that our boys' group contained a much younger girl that the boys had never met, and that this young girl might feel left out of the process;  however, again, they were amazed at how quickly the boys integrated her into the process and allowed her talents to shine among this group of friends.  To underscore their pleasure, the teacher pulled me aside again and reiterated that this was an amazing group of children and that this process and their product far exceeded their expectations.   To drive home the point, she grabbed my arm and said, "Really, please listen.  You need to understand that there is something special here and that you need to be very, very proud of your child and these children."   

 

I am answering your question in the long form, because this experience is not atypical of what I see every summer when Bob and I, and other POS families, send our children out into the world of special interest camps and activities in the summer.   I don't write you a note every summer as I easily could, but given your question, I can't ignore the fact that Post Oak helped guide these children in the process of making this film as much as the talented filmmakers and educators at Aurora.  I do believe our children are different and that there is something, actually everything, going on in the school year at POS that makes these children stand out when they go out into the world.  So, yes, the Orrs, the Lus and the Reddings are proud parents when we see our children's work and hear the compliments, but we think POS should be proud as well.

 

Thanks for allowing me to ramble a bit, 

Katie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

despite their schooling--not because of it

How to develop innovators. That's the tag line of Tony Wagner's recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

Samples:
"Learning in most conventional education settings is a passive experience: The students listen. But at the most innovative schools, classes are "hands-on," and students are creators, not mere consumers."

"In most high-school and college classes, failure is penalized. But without trial and error, there is no innovation."

"In conventional schools, students learn so that they can get good grades. My most important research finding is that young innovators are intrinsically motivated. The culture of learning in programs that excel at educating for innovation emphasize what I call the three P's—play, passion and purpose. The play is discovery-based learning that leads young people to find and pursue a passion, which evolves, over time, into a deeper sense of purpose."

The missing voice

Laura Flores Shaw used to be a school psychologist. She became a Montessori school leader because she wanted to dedicate her life to helping children develop the personal strength and resilience that would make therapy unneeded.

Read her article in the Huffington Post.

Does student engagement matter?

Two readings this morning:

first this: "What is college for?" which includes this acknowledgement:
"...university curriculum leaves students disengaged from the material they are supposed to be learning. They see most of their courses as intrinsically 'boring.'"

then this: "Teaching innovation key to propelling economy." Here's a sample:

"While we often think of creativity as the domain of music and art classes, most educators know that it’s what brings students alive in every class. Writing a play about a historical event. Designing and creating a certified Wildlife Habitat on campus. Developing a new application for a concept in math. That’s the kind of learning that really stays with kids—when they create something of their own, drawing upon different disciplines, often in a hands-on project. What doesn’t stick is preparation for standardized tests."

Does student engagement matter?

5 best toys of all time

just in time for Christmas!

LEARN

Great tourist video. Not all tourists are learners, and not all learners are tourists.

But this is fun, maybe even inspiring.

Here's the question at the end of the chapter: What does this video tell us about the nature of learning?

The New Culture of Learning

Learning.
Culture of learning.
The new culture of learning.
An example of the new culture of learning.

Montessori is an example of the new culture of learning.

(Steve Denning's blog "Rethink" in Forbes.)

Student engagement

How do schools measure success?

Or perhaps, that is not exactly the question. A related question is, "What makes a good school?"

US News & World Report ranks colleges and universities. It is the ranking survey against which all others are measured, but it does not include any dimension of student experience. That seems like a glaring omission.

Over the past 10 years data has been collected by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) -- an attempt to focus on the student experience. (Want to read the NSSE survey?)
Does student experience matter?

"Teachers can increase engagement by providing more opportunities for student choice and voice in the classroom, and more hands-on activities that allow students to solve interdisciplinary problems, akin to what they will encounter outside of school." -Denise Pope, Stanford University School of Education

It appears that student engagement is an antidote to the kind of student stress portrayed in the film Race to Nowhere. More from the NYT Blogs...