Igniting Awe in Learning

Kobi Yamada wrote a fabulous book called What Do You Do With an Idea? In the book, the main character finds an idea. He takes it with him everywhere. When he first shares it with others, they scoff at it. Luckily, the boy does not listen to the naysayers and instead nurtures the idea.  In the end, the idea takes form and ... well ... read it and find out. I read this book yesterday to a 4th grade class. I had not met the students before, but they seemed pretty excited to have me there. At the end of the book read, we discussed the plot, and why people may not have supported the boy and his idea. After the discussion, I led them through an improv activity called "Yes, but." In "Yes, but" one person of a pair shares an idea. In this case, the idea was what the student wanted to do over the weekend. The other person's job is to react to the idea with a "yes, but" statement. For example: Student 1: I think it'd be cool to go to the zoo this wee...

Dr. Nathan Lang, an Ed Leader and Innovator, shared this graphic on his Twitter ( @NALANG1 ) the the other day. In four words, it simplifies much of what we are working to achieve through Design Thinking in my school district.  When I was in school, I completed a lot of projects. I created clothing worn by a Native American tribe; I recreated a topographical map of California with salt dough; and I built a California Mission with sugar cubes. Most of us have similar memories from our school days. However, none of these projects truly prepared me for the challenges of life. Yes, I learned to work nicely with others, and clean up after myself. I even learned that, if I procrastinated long enough, my mom would work on my projects after I went to sleep. But the piece that was missing was that these projects were just projects. They were defined for me by my teacher, and were meant to teach a specific content standard. What each of these projects was missing was the creation of a...