Friday, January 15, 2016

Sankalpa 4

I feel like I've done a pretty good job of embracing my identity as a creative risk-taker.  Unfortunately,  I've been too encumbered lately to really act like a creative risk-taker.  It's that time of year when there are a bazillion meetings, grades and narrative comments, yearbook deadlines, new units... To be honest, I've been a bit run down by those serious obligations.

Still, I'm confident in my sankalpa. I don't think I have to prove my creative risk-taking in order to adopt this identity. Just in case, here are some creative risk-taking actions I've embraced:

  • I've been reading a book about the Reggio Emilia approach to teaching young children.  There are a couple of practices I'm excited to try with my middle schoolers.  One is documentation, wherein the teacher writes about and photographs the learning that happens in the classroom.  This can be a good way, the Reggio people say, to get parents on your side.  It works because they see what's happening and buy in and want to be a part of it.
  • I agreed to help my boss think about how to infuse reflection on life skills - things like resilience, curiosity, teamwork, and time management - into our parent-teacher-student conferences.  It actually occurred to me that we could use the Reggio practice of documentation to help us structure productive conferences in which kids can really reflect on life skills, with traditional academics on the side.  I don't really want to talk to sixth grade families and kids about straight As.  Who cares?  Let's talk abut whole people.
  • I'm hitting publish on this entry even though I don't really have a 3rd bullet point.  You're supposed to have 3 to do a bulleted list.  But, today I only have two.  Oh well!  I'm a creative risk-taker.

5 comments:

mm said...

I think taking on the yearbook is a risk...

Anonymous said...

Love the talking about "whole people" instead of A's. Tying the two practices together could facilitate the documentation. Keep warm! Love, mom

LH said...

What's the name of the Reggio book, may I ask?

jdoc said...

I'm curious about the book title, too.

kc said...

The book name is The Hundred Languages of Children. It's SUPER long, but you can read isolated chapters.