“It’s just a piece of paper. I don’t care about the paper. I care about the conversation. So, as you set to work today, concern yourselves less with completing the paper and concern yourselves more with digging into the discussion. That’s what matters.”

This is what I shared with my kiddos two days ago as they worked together to find themes in the movie Freedom Writers. In the 180 classroom this, the idea of digging into discussion and capitalizing on collaboration, is particularly important for there will be no extrinsic reward for completing the paper. I use paper–as a tool, as a guide for driving and recording thinking, but I don’t use it as currency. That is, I don’t give points for completing a paper, which I believe cannot possibly catch all and therefore not be the definitive measure of the learning experience. Oh, I am not suggesting that it cannot catch any of the learning, but I am suggesting that when it only becomes about the paper–as it often does, the learning it captures is somewhat suspect as the event becomes a transaction with the content rather than a connection to the content, a connection to the other learners in the room. I don’t want kids to do to get done–a consequence of transactional learning; I want kids to do to advance their learning. I want them to think, “I experienced what you wanted me to experience,” instead of, “I got done what you wanted me to get done.”

Think of it like this. I don’t want kids building a bunch of little houses over the course of the year, scattered about as a development. I want them building an edifice, a soaring tower of floor upon floor connected by stairs and elevators so they may go up and down, hallways of rooms so they may go in and out and back and forth, with fire escapes so they may find outlets on those riskier days, with a helipad so they may go even higher if they too soon find the top, with windows everywhere so they may see in and out at once, themselves and the world. That is what I want. Paper is an efficient, temporary tool. But it is an insufficient material for such dreams. So, we live not in paper houses in room 206; no, we dwell in the tower of our experience. And though we are only twelve days in, this tower, this monument, this spire is casting its shadow, it’s breaking the horizon as kids climb what they build, one experience at a time.

Today’s Trail

Along today’s trail we will…

…begin with Smiles and Frowns.

…hear our Mindset Mantra.

…present our Bridges and Barriers projects.

…reflect in our Journey Journals.

…end with a Sappy Sy Rhyme.

Happy Friday, all. Have a great weekend.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.