Control, Let It Go.

Control, the essence of human nature. It is the point in which all problems start. When we try to control an object or situation we all experience the outcome that says, ``It didn`t work out the way we wanted it to. `` Too often this is the case and we feel disappointed.  Really though what we need to do is to let it go, have no expectations, and accept what it brings in a positive light. You will feel better, have less stress and be happier. There is success in everything but you have to see it that way in order for it to happen. Banish the negative and follow the light to happiness.

SOLE and moving forward

We venture forward, encouraging others to join us as we work to help all students become stronger learners. Check out the link for further information.



http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1450245/aroga-technologies-updates-on-vizzeco-lb-systems-research-inc-partnership-and-global-google-reseller-rights

Growth Mindset

I came across this chart about mindset and liked it. It is pretty much how I teach.

Enjoy.

Education Quotes

I came across these quotes and liked them so much I thought I would share them.

# 1, 8, 12, and 35 particularly resonate with me.

What is Education? Answers from 5th Century BC to the 21^st Century

1. The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done. -- Jean Piaget, 1896-1980, Swiss developmental psychologist, philosopher
2. An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't.-- Anatole France, 1844-1924, French poet, novelist
3. Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.  -- Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013, South African President, philanthropist
4. The object of education is to teach us to love beauty. -- Plato, 424 – 348 BC, philosopher mathematician
5. The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education -- Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968, pastor, activist, humanitarian
6. Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, physicist
7. It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -- Aristotle, 384-322 BC, Greek philosopher, scientist
8. Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world’s work, and the power to appreciate life. -- Brigham Young, 1801-1877, religious leader
9. Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer – into a selflessness which links us with all humanity. -- Nancy Astor, 1879-1964, American-born English politician and socialite
10. Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. -- William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939, Irish poet
11. Education is freedom. – Paulo Freire, 1921-1997, Brazilian educator, philosopher
12. Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. -- John Dewey, 1859-1952, philosopher, psychologist, education reformer 
13. Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.-- George Washington Carver, 1864-1943, scientist, botanist, educator 
14. Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. – Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Irish writer, poet
15. The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. -- Sydney J. Harris, 1917-1986, journalist
16. Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. -- Malcolm Forbes, 1919-1990, publisher, politician
17. No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure. – Emma Goldman, 1869 – 1940, political activist, writer
18. Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants. -- John W. Gardner, 1912-2002, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Lyndon Johnson
19. Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.-- Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, English writer, theologian, poet, philosopher
20. Education is the movement from darkness to light. -- Allan Bloom, 1930-1992, philosopher, classicist, and academician
21. Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know. -- Daniel J. Boorstin, 1914-2004, historian, professor, attorney
22. The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values. -- William S. Burroughs, 1914-1997, novelist, essayist, painter
23. The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives. -- Robert M. Hutchins, 1899-1977, educational philosopher
24. Education is all a matter of building bridges. -- Ralph Ellison, 1914-1994, novelist, literary critic, scholar
25. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul. -- Joseph Addison, 1672-1719, English essayist, poet, playwright, politician
26. Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. -- Malcolm X, 1925-1965, minister and human rights activist
27. Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students.  -- Solomon Ortiz, 1937-, former U.S. Representative-TX
28. The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education. -- Plutarch, 46-120AD, Greek historian, biographer, essayist
29. Education is a shared commitment between dedicated teachers, motivated students and enthusiastic parents with high expectations.  Bob Beauprez, 1948-, former member of U.S. House of Representatives-CO
30. The most influential of all educational factors is the conversation in a child’s home. – William Temple, 1881-1944, English bishop, teacher
31. Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them. -- John Ruskin, 1819-1900, English writer, art critic, philanthropist
32. Education levels the playing field, allowing everyone to compete. -- Joyce Meyer, 1943-, Christian author and speaker
33. Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. – B.F. Skinner, 1904-1990, psychologist, behaviorist, social philosopher
34. The great end of education is to discipline rather than to furnish the mind; to train it to the use of its own powers rather than to fill it with the accumulation of others. – Tyron Edwards, 1809-1894, theologian
35. Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength of the nation. -- John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, 35^th President of the United States
36. Education is like a lantern which lights your way in a dark alley. – Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, 1918-2004, President of the United Arab Emirates for 33 years 
37. When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts. -- Dalai Lama, spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism
38. Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence.  -- Robert Frost, 1874-1963, poet
39. The secret in education lies in respecting the student. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, essayist, lecturer, and poet
40. My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance, but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. -- Maya Angelou, 1928-, author, poet

A SOLE Response

Teachers are interesting creatures of habit. They adapt thoughts and ideas to suit the needs of their students but really to test further ideas of their own. They often do so within the safe confines of their school not pushing outside the box very far. They don’t want to be seen as the rebel or the outsider. Conformity is an issue. So it is no surprise that many have used their adaptation of SOLE to their understanding of teaching. Why would they not? It has been a mainstream of education for years in their eyes. It is Project Based Learning turned sideways..

Those who see it and use it view it as a Project Based Learning concept that allows them to take a small step further by allowing the students limited autonomy. They adopt it without all the intentions and benefits it brings because as teachers they need to adapt it to their way of teaching. That is they need to apply it to extend the curriculum rather than expanding the knowledge of children. They do not understand the basic premise of SOLE, to give children the right to pursue their thoughts and interests. Throughout history it is this exploration of these thoughts and interests that has provided some of the greatest inventions. Do you think a wheel would have been invented without this type of exploration? Exploration is an evolutionary process that the brain understands. It cannot be confined to rooms and books with eloquent explanations. It is the use of the mind to explore and develop theories that develops the reasoning and thinking skills. As a teacher I can try to teach it all I want but without the actual experience developed through their interests students cannot learn. They do not own the experience when they are led by the hand through it. Recently I was at the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. I stood for a long time reading and listening to people explain about the trial and error that went into developing their product. These were 18 and 19 year old boys exploring their ideas. It explained how when they reached an issue they could not solve someone would join them or they would ask someone questions to understand it better. There was no Internet so they relied on the experiences of others. That is what the essence of SOLE is about. Encouraging the mind through exploration.

I find it hard to develop some aspects of SOLE as I have to teach curriculum. The growing realization that a combination of asking the right questions and providing some important background knowledge is essential. I put it out there for the students to develop. We discuss the curriculum and what they are expected to know and be able to demonstrate. Then they explore. It is how I see it occurring in a school.

I also allow them to perform SOLE as it was intended, to follow their own ideas and interests, to control their environment and develop the relationships necessary to be successful. In short I give up control and cede freedom for them to learn. Some would assert that I am being negligent in my duties as a teacher. I counter with every child in my class was reading at Grade level to well above Grade level. My behaviour problems became minimal. Their confidence and belief in each other soared. They would pose and rephrase questions even while they asked it to me.

One benefit of all this hard work was evident this year. School hasn't even started yet and it is paying off. I cleared two thirds of the desks out of my portable. I have three long tables that are pushed against the wall. My Principal informed me that the desks had to remain in the portable because it was Board Policy. I countered with I believed in SOLE and was able to prove that it worked and was far more successful than people believed. I read about how students don’t need desks to learn. I want to try it. He conceded because of my success. I am not sure how the French teacher will feel about it but that is small issue. But every little success begets more success.

I know that Sugata Mitra has strong convictions about his work. He wants it to be followed as it is and as he developed it. And it is important that we respect this because at its core SOLE is everything a child needs to grow and mature. But we live in a society whose understanding of education is rigidly entrenched in past practices. SOLE, step by step takes us past these past practices into new ways of learning. It is successful because the students believe in it and the freedom it gives them. The same freedom that developed thousands of years ago and has been whittled down to obedience by well meaning and misguided people. Time to encourage students to be who they are. It is already inside them. Let it grow.

Google Hangout SOLE Presentation Bitcoin

Raven, Alex and Kane researched Bitcoin using the SOLE method. In this video they present their information for you to learn about Bitcoin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj65v9nJAHc

SOLE is starting to take off worldwide. Andrew Greig has been in Costa Rica recently meeting with Education Minister Sonia Marta Mora to discuss plans for SOLE and Google to work with the Ministry and teachers to help raise both the education level of students and their standard of living.  The Government of Costa Rica has been very receptive to the discussions and is looking at beginning a pilot project to see how it works. Andrew has been approached by people outside of The Education Ministry who have private schools or other interests similar to ours that want to be a part of what we are doing. Some of the people are related to Nobel Prize winners. He has been constantly blitzed by the media there about our work. Andrew is the founder of Vizzeco, a Google Apps Reseller.

SOLE stands for Self Organized Learning Environments.  The SOLE Vizzeco is promoting is based on the work of Dr. Sugata Mitra. In a SOLE

1.      The students develop a question about a topic or topics of interest to them.

2.      They gather in groups of four around a question.

3.      With one laptop they research their question for forty minutes

4.      They write up their information in paragraph form.

5.      They decide on a presentation style and present their information to the rest of the group.

Vizzeco envisions many spin offs to working through a SOLE. Among the ideas being considered are Vizzeco would like to:

1. Introduce SOLE in school environments, especially for 10 – 15 year olds. It will work with older students as well. SOLE will improve student reading levels and help maintain a higher standard of work in the class.
2. Have students participating involved in Google School where the students would learn about all the applications that Google has and be able to help others understand these applications and how they work. 
3. Have students learn about providing a self-sustaining healthy diet to improve their daily lives.
4. Encourage students to have the entrepreneurial spirit.

As the project evolves other nations will be brought on board to develop their understanding of SOLE and how their students will benefit from it.

This is indeed an exciting time to be in education.