Third Day of Conference - On Listening

Third Day at the Conference - On Listening

Today began with a little meditation. I attended Mindfulness in the Digital Age.  I shortened it; the actual title of this workshop is super long (twenty-one words) and I misread it.  I thought it was about students creating media around the concept of mindfulness. The workshop was really about the benefits of meditation for students. I agree. I meditate but I still like the idea of having students create media around the benefits of sitting quietly or moving slowly. A video of people listening to silence with their eyes closed. I think we will do it. I had rushed over to the workshop so when I entered late and immediately had spend a few minutes meditating it was absolutely great, just what I needed. Maybe I should require all my late students to meditate. Before the writing exercise yesterday, we also spent a few minutes with our eyes closed. I think I will start doing this with the AP English classes, as much for me as for them.

Every day seems to have a theme. Foster Dickson who gave an amazing workshop called “Start by Listening;  Ethnographic Experiential Learning within the Local Community” said that he felt like all of the workshops and speeches seemed to be talking to each other. Anyway, today seemed to about the value of listening.

Dickson said that a teacher had talked about how difficult it was to teach, that students didn’t seem to learn the material. Dickson said, “You decide what you teach. They get to decide what to learn.”

In the next workshop, “Bearing Witness Using Multiple Platforms: Lives Mattering,” Mark Williams of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington D.C. said the exact same thing, “Students decide what goes in their heads."

Foster Dickson and Williams and Kelli Anderson, also from Duke Wellington, all began by saying that all teaching begins with listening.  If you want your students engaged,  you need to ask, what do the students want for themselves.  Mark Williams said, “Lean in and listen to what the lesson of the day is.”

Kelli Anderson said, “It’s so important to meet the students where they are.” Teaching this way means the instructor is always learning and teaching in new ways.

Foster Dickson does these great projects where the students investigate lives from their community. They start in the cemetery and use documents from the state’s archives to find out what they can about this person who lived during another time.  Then they use this to write creatively. Dickson compared this writing task to building a wall where facts are the bricks and imagination is the mortar. The idea is that by investigating these lives they learn about themselves as well. “Empathy doesn’t only help you understand others, it helps you to understand yourself,” he said. That is very beautifully put.

Mark Williams and Dickson also said something very similar about researching using the internet.  As great a tool the internet is, "in the old days when you did research you benefitted from “finding what you weren’t looking for," said Foster Dickson.

Williams' speech was pretty amazing. He quoted lots of great writers and said some very interesting things. I tried to take notes but he spoke very quickly. It would be great if he was willing to put his speech online.  The Duke Ellington school showed a video called "Bearing Witness." I may have misunderstood but I think  that the video came out of a project that could be called “Introspection." The students make videos introducing themselves in imaginative way.

One young woman in the video says, “Defining myself rather than having others define me is the hardest thing that I try to do.”  This  thought is one I’m certain my students could relate to.

 I am inspired to try and do two videos. Peggy Cooper spoke about how the Duke Ellington School changed students. She said, “These kids become… and as they become they grow powerful. As they become… they change and they change the culture. These students become … the culture.” Ms. Cooper wields a powerful pause.

 I want to do an “Intro to Introspection” where the students create video about themselves that are quick, visual, and immediate. The other video I would like them to create is about how our  school, East Los Angeles Performing Arts Magnet changes students and the students can create this video collaboratively.  The students often talk about how being at a performing arts school has changed them so I will give my class the task of collecting words and images that document this change and then they can edit it together. Or possibly do a few of these short films in groups.  My new unit called Intro to Introspection will begin tomorrow.