Comments (7)

By Lorraine Kasyan, July 4, 2013 9:21 am

The orientation for my upcoming trip to India held many nuggets of wisdom. Dr. Tim Flood, professor at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, was our first guest lecturer and his honest and intuitive assessments of culture wove their way through all of our time in Raleigh. Do you harbor stereotypes? ‘Of course not! Well at least not prejudicial ones,’ I thought to myself. Dr. Flood quickly demonstrated that yes, we do and for most of us it is a necessity. With over 7 billion people in the world how else would you even begin to get to know and understand each other?

“Culture is behavior. The way we know culture is through behavior. The way we understand culture is through introspection.” Our behavior and the behavior of others combines and from my assessment that combination can be gentle or combustive. Our communication does not belong to us once we put it out there – others interpret, assess, and yes, judge what we do and say, receiving our words and actions as they are able. This entire concept helped put me into a new place of observer. This trip to India has untapped power. A transformative estuary of sorts that is sure to discomfort, delight, and at times disagree with me.

What are my goals? To be open and fluid to the people, places, and circumstances I encounter. To release my expectations, misconceptions, and stereotypes to allow this sojourn to mellow my soul and strengthen my connection to the citizens of this earth. To give. Yes, we are heading as delegates to learn from India in order to teach our students in NC how to be global partners with this burgeoning society, but what do I have to give in return? Delegates have been partnered to visit and teach in schools where there will be little English spoken. How will I, a teacher of literature, be able to instruct a 10^th grader at The Bishops School in anything of value?  What can I share with the students at Nimgaon Bhogi Village High School that will give them the experience of learning something from an American teacher? Something that our contact there, Armene Modi, founder and chairperson of Ashta No Kai organization has stressed. Her words of advice: “…it might be best to plan on using body language, gestures etc., and avoid as far as possible translations so that the students’ self-confidence will also be boosted that they were able to actually communicate/understand American teachers.” American teachers. Wow, this value for educators before we even prove our worth humbles.

Suspending my disbelief I shore myself with the thought that by opening my mind and heart to the universal language of love, dignity and respect, I will have something to give. I know I have much to learn. Would you like to share that learning with me? We leave tomorrow.

Now as I ready

To travel to India

I open my arms

Thanks to Dr. Tim Flood for the inspirational quotes, title, and jumping off point. Thank you to the BBC news and Ghetty images for the young newspaper vendor from Bangalore. Thank you, Armene Modi. We haven’t even met yet but the stories of milk and bicycles for the women of Pune make you a hero in my eyes. To wings of possibility!

Comments (0)

By Lorraine Kasyan, March 20, 2013 1:46 pm

Powerful Learning is personalized, rigorous, and relevant.

Working on primary documents.

Formal research papers are never a favorite activity in high school. I have assigned them for years and each time I realize that my students cannot see the value in the process unless the topic is important and of interest to them. With Graduation Project, the research paper is directly linked to the student’s choice but this component remains the biggest hurdle and cause for discontent. However, there are students who dive in and relish their new learning. Nadiya is one of those students and I just have to share a recent breakthrough for her. Nadiya is studying the slaves of Western North Carolina, specifically those who served at the Smith-McDowell house. She has been using primary documents to uncover the conditions endured by the slaves there as compared to the slaves in other parts of the country. She happened upon George Avery, a slave who gained emancipation and land from his owners. Her research focus narrowed down to focus on the conditions of Mr. Avery’s life and his progress as a free man.  Her research uncovered a learning gem for her. She happened upon a current article discussing his life that in her words “was inaccurate and held many assumptions that could not be proven through the primary documents she had been studying.” I asked her if she shared her discovery with her mentor, a professor of history at UNCA. She had not done so and proceeded to send him the link and her assessment.  How delightful!

Much of our class is stored online in a Moodle platform. She posted this update, “I don’t want to brag myself but this is what my mentor said when I sent him a link to an article that made a whole lot terrible assumptions. This is something you cannot do unless you can back it up. You cannot make things up unless you can prove them.”

His reply was, “Thank you for forwarding this article to me. I would certainly like to see his sources. Unless there are documents to back this up, there is a great deal of speculation and assumptions about George Avery and W.W. McDowell. I am going to see if some friends with WNC and McDowell history can substantiate any of this. There are a lot of assumptions about McDowell’s intent expressed. Good research and great questions!”

Nadiya immersed herself in her topic and became an expert. Her careful exploration of primary documents found in the archives of the Smith-McDowell House Museum prepared her to question another source for accuracy and substance. This spark of independent learning validated her hard work and added fuel to the fire of her inquiry. She is amazed and aware that the research process has rewards that go beyond the typical student’s need to just get it over with.

The system works when it is personalized, rigorous, and relevant.

Good reminder.

Comments (0)

By Lorraine Kasyan, January 30, 2013 8:53 pm

Blogging once a year is not acceptable if what you want is community. This blog has served as sounding board, reflection journal, celebration, and witness since 2006. Moves, new teaching assignments, elections, and of course the Common Core have kept me busy, yes. I have penned many entries in my head. (I am sure I have written that before.) There are stories of students, parents, supervisors, and teaching strategies stewing together. The new semester has me once again embarking on the adventure of individual study for my graduation project charges. It has been an exciting three weeks and I am filled with hope, expectation and pride as I guide this group towards their project choices and research topics.  It is going to be a powerful collection of topics.

Today was a great day. I decided to show the Drive trailer from 2010. Daniel Pink’s Vimeo preview has served me well in multiple settings. I am always surprised when I find adults who have not seen it. Most students do not have the occasion or opportunity to view it, however, and I have found it to be powerful every time I share it. Today I wanted to allow the students to view the trailer and then participate in a digital synchronous free write. I call them wordspills but we usually complete them on paper. Today I posted the prompt in a discussion board on Moodle. I played the trailer, started a timer, and had them begin writing.  The serious tip tapping of the keys was delightful. They did not have to come up with their sentence, but many tried.  Once the timer buzzed at three minutes they stopped writing and hit submit. Refreshing their browsers uncovered a chorus of responses that were all time stamped at the same minute. They enjoyed the display and immediately started smiling and laughing as they read the words on the screen. I decided to assign the method for commenting so that every student would get at least one comment. Find the student to your left’s response – read – and respond. Everyone was engaged, every student was acknowledged.

I am going to share a few examples with you. Enjoy!

One wordspill read, “My response to this video is honestly kind of muddled, seeing as I have to keep typing and not really filtering, but in all honesty it’s a nice thought, “how can I improve myself,” or “what’s my question,” but in actuality these are things I ask myself everyday already, well, not the sentence, that’s new, but as for improving myself, I already work hard at trying to be a better person, and I feel limiting myself to one sentence isn’t really fair. Granted, it makes the task at hand simple, but then what. I accomplished my sentence. Do I write a new one? Then I have two sentences and will end up with a paragraph like Kennedy’s. Do I stop trying? Do I make the sentence vague? Strange how a subject and a verb can bring so many questions to the front of my thoughts.

His student comment was: “Maybe I should try and consider what the video has to say.” That from a student who started their response with, “I personally don’t like videos like that because I think you should be motivated enough to make your life worth something.” The shift in acceptance was powerful.

Another response was more of a list: “values, reflection, motivation, moving forward, personal growth, overcoming challenges, taking one step at a time, creating, building. I want to become the person who created a successful organization that helps orphans in third world countries. Realizing big dreams, visualizing.”

Her student comment was. “I have to admit, I quite like the word spill and thought combination you have here is nice. You have lovely thought connections, big ideas, and I greatly enjoy reading about your want to help in the Third World.” Again, peer feedback that is serious and specific, flowing quickly in response.

Can you see why I am inspired? Can I help it if today my enthusiasm soared amidst the usual shenanigans and flooding at the end of the day. This activity gleaned precious gems. Irreverent, off-topic discussions, and genuine introspective stretches. They were all valued by the group, and all considered equally.

Maybe I should invite Daniel H. Pink to join the discussion?

Comments (2)

By Lorraine Kasyan, December 3, 2011 10:16 pm

I had the pleasure of meeting Peter H. Reynolds a few years ago at a November Learning Conference in Boston.  I believe that NCTE also afforded me that opportunity, but it was last year in Boston, that I got to witness the creative cave that is FableVision and chat with Peter for longer and in person.  The space is humming with energy. His team members are vivacious and personable, engaging and present. I loved it.  To assert that this inspiration applies to teaching is really a no-brainer, but right now I want to explain how his book, The Dot, is stretching my teacher’s soul.

Celebrating the energy that is FableVision

The teacher in Peter’s beloved tale encourages her young charge to “Make your mark, and see where it takes you.” She gently expects an attempt to be made and then allows it to spread dreams just as it is. From a single mark, the size of a freckle or a piece of sand, an artist blossomed.  Powerful stuff.

I have the book on my desk at school right now. I plan to read it to my students. The problem is that it somehow makes me feel like a sham. I am not spreading dream dust – I am trying my best to hone and prune, guide and push. I teach twelfth graders. Our task is college writing and British Literature. We have eighteen weeks to get it all in and I try to fill the gaps they come to me with. Common Core Essential Standards, Outcomes Based Assessment, the Standard Course of Study, and Accuplacer/SAT’s looming in their immediate future, keep me focused on the skills. How do we inspire and create without ignoring the rigor and standard required for these young adults to move on successfully. Why is combining those elements so very difficult? How are you the teacher who says, “Just make your mark, and see where it takes you,” while also filling their toolkits to bursting? Please share, I really want to know.