Wabi-sabi Teacher

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic centering on imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness.   I aspire toward attaining wabi-sabi-ness in my teaching practice because I spent waaaay too much time as a newb trying to reach teaching nirvana- that state where all those teachers in the movies got to…the stuff of legend and Hollywood contracts.

Jodie Foster was sure to play my part.

I don’t know when it happened, but at some point the romantic version of teaching gave way to the notion of it being an art and a craft- very boring stuff for feature films, but more worth the effort and more realistic when it came to me being a highly-fallible human being who could mess up and yet always see the lesson there.

As a clay potter, I saw the value of wabi-sabi…the  beauty, really, of imperfection.  To me it was about individuality and being human.   Applied to teaching, it meant I was exactly where I needed to be, somewhere along the journey.  It didn’t matter where and it didn’t matter if I ever reached that mythical peak.  It just mattered that I saw imperfection as my teacher and embraced it as the gift it was.

Sure, at some point, I’ll have to retire and die, but impermanence and the acceptance of it is a part of it, too.  I’m good with that. It’s a beautiful thing.  It makes the here and now worth its weight.

This is a wabi-sabi blog because it will no doubt be a conduit for my reflecting on the imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete state of my teaching practice and my being, too.

Viva la wabi-sabi.

This is the start of what will most likely become an ever-changing framework used to reflect on my understanding of project-based learning using the monomyth (Hero’s Journey) as a metaphorical lens with which to view it.

The idea is to have each topic potentially become its own blog entry with links to resources, tools, people, ideas, and readings that I come across as we (the ragtag bunch of risk-takin’ colleagues, students, and myself) navigate our way through a new wall-to-wall PbL school supported by a 1:1 laptop program, a site designed explicitly for the PbL model, and a program based on small learning communities and positive culture-building.  This is unique to my state so documenting the journey could possible serve others who follow.

Feedback is greatly appreciated.

CALL TO ADVENTURE

Completed Projects
Student Samples

Some time ago, I started this blog when I thought- for half a split second, I’d have a bit of time to be reflective and flex my atrophic writing muscles.  I wrote my first post and by the grace of the blog-gods, some good folks commented.  How they found it amidst the thriving  blog-tropolis, I’ll never know, but afterward, day-to-day school took over (’tis the story of my life) and all I’ve managed to contribute since then are Tweets sharing goodies with my edu-brethren.

Now that the summer’s here, I’m determined to commit (coincidentally, ’tis not the story of my life…) and get into a bloggin’ frame o’ mind.

Blogging habits I wish to develop before school starts up again:

1. #Edchat-  A Twitter hashtag that goes into hyper speed for a couple of hours each Tuesday.

My one-time experience was akin to standing in a crowd of a hundred folks shouting declarations that could not be  heard over the din of a hundred folks shouting declarations.

My hope is that there’s some kind of twittery way to make order of the chaos- something that puts it all into a discussion-like format.  Until then, my guess is it’ll still feel like pullin’ rubber duckies out of a fast-moving carnival stream (which is still more action my life sees on an average Tuesday night).

2. Weekly post

It shouldn’t be too hard to write at least once a week now that summer’s here (that sentence is a little scary to write considering the blog-gods may hold me accountable in some way…they are cruel and petty).  I’m definitely not short on ideas, though- just short on time.

I’m at an interesting point in my career where I’m moving from a traditional setting to a brand spankin’ new school designed specifically for 21st-century learning (PbL, 1:1), so my reflections on the transition may be of interest to others who make the move. The ride, I’m guessing, will be like nothing short of a roller-coaster…albeit, a shiny new, state-of-the-art one.

3. The 30 Goals Challenge

Shelly Terrell’s Teacher Reboot Camp rocks.  It was one of the first education blogs I stumbled across, so I’m going to respond to an ongoing challenge that I read when she first posted it back in January.

The 30 Goals Challenge looks fun and chock full o’ purpose (BIG fan of purpose here), so I’m game.  As it so happens, this blog  fulfills the first of thirty goals.  Yay for multi-tasking!

Thanks for reading my blog.

At the start of a memoir study, I have students fold a piece of paper into 6 squares and choose  from a list of categories to put into the boxes (1 categories for each box).

The categories are:  happiest moments, saddest moments, most embarrassing, scariest, proudest, & angriest.

They then list memories that fall under those categories- at least four to a box, and then afterwards, a star is placed next to the ONE memory in each box they’d most like to write about.

In groups, the writers share the lists and their peers help them decide on a second memory from each box that THEY would like them to write about (keeping the “audience” in mind)  Those are starred, too.

For each day after, students begin the class by taking time to do a “zero draft” (no-risk) using one of the ideas from their list. Students share their zero drafts to elicit questions and comments written on stickies (we call them “writer’s gold”) which are placed on the draft for use later, should it be a piece the student chooses to take through the entire process.

They also place their lists on their blogs for fellow students to see and respond to. Many times a student will comment requesting the blogger write about something they listed on their “List of Moments”.

They LOVE it!!

Here’s an example of a List of Memories (this one’s mine):

Other categories that the kids later came up with were:
*grossest memory
*funniest memory
*most regretful
*clumsiest memory