Linking cont.

Continue building a bridge between your practice, your action research and what you are learning.  Muse about anything that inspires you, observations, reflections, experiences, connections, dilemmas....what’s innovative about what you’re planning to do this semester?  How are you thinking “outside the box”?

Connection with learning: The greatest and most immediate connection between my action research, practice and what I am learning is the Why How Ladder. I tend to gravitate towards structures that are simple in form, yet complex enough to solicit valuable information. During my first go round with an MA, which I dropped 3 chapters into my thesis, I was applying Peters' and Waterman's 8 core principles from In Search of Excellence to a my educational setting. What attracted me were the ideas of "simple form, lean staff," "stick to the knitting," etc. These ideas were not rigid or predetermined, but grounded in an idea that could be applied regardless of a context. The Why How Ladder reminds me of just that, a structure aimed at arriving at a solution that is not bound by the mechanism's context. This is probably not making much sense, but it does to me....kind of. Anyway

Innovative?: I cannot claim innovation given that much of what I am doing has been done before in different form. Furthermore, I was advised by Dr. Hawley Miller last semester to do one thing so that I can know if that one thing is having an impact. To that end I am reminded of my one on one session with her when she cited a book titled Tinkering with Utopia which essentially chastises educators and education for doing too much at any given time and thus failing to know the true impact of a single change - this is what was communicated to me and not based on my reading. I will get to it though........maybe. Although skeptical at first, I see this happening on a daily basis and am even guilty of it myself. I think it is the desire to do good and better by children and thus the intrinsic need to do more given they are not lab rats.

Outside the Box?: Here is where I may be able to claim some minor unconventionality. Intervention is not new, Math Mindset is not new, balanced grading is not new, nor is professional collaboration; however, the combination of these factors to elicit greater academic benefit just might be. I do feel guilty however, as I have already said and blogged about this before. Am I running out of things to say? Am I not thinking deep enough our beyond what I currently see? Probably.