Rig- or... NOT!

After reading Jeff Delp's recent Molehills Out of Mountains blog entry, Five Skills for 21st Century Learners, I found myself sharing it on Facebook with the following comment about the word "rigor".

"I was so pleased to not see the word "rigor" in this post. After hearing Alfie Kohn tell a story about a parent's desire for rigor, I too looked up the word. Semantics can be temporarily forgiven but not perpetuated with a clear conscience!"

In the classroom, I use a great tool, Visual Thesaurus, that webs words in a fascinating way. Each day I receive emails from them that highlight a word and we take a look at some of the words in our class morning meeting. One day the word was "rigor" and I felt that I had to look out for the misguided adults who might use it around the students. To protect those adults, I explained to students that what I think that teachers, parents, and school leaders usually mean when they say "rigor" is learning that is inspirational, challenging, and stimulating. And yet, I suspect that students continue to have a sense that when we say "rigor" we really mean "RIGOR". Considering many components of school, I am sympathetic to their perception.

Also consider this connection that popped up as I input "rigor" in www.visualthesaurus.com...

Yikes!

Images are screen shots captured 3/20/11 of www.visualthesaurus.com, which I like so much I have subscribed to it for the year.

Heroes

I am at the stage in my online networking of reading blogs more regularly and commenting on them here and there, as I did with Steve Hargadon's recent blog post "Ugh. Classic Politics Now Extends to Social Networking in Education." This post addressed the Dept of Ed's sponsorship of program called Connected Online Communities of Practice. And so, I began to consider the accessibility of thinkers like Steve Hargadon.

I used to have only a handful of education heroes who usually took their place through books; for instance, David Perkins, author of Smart Schools,and co-author of many amazing texts including The Thinking Classroom, and one of my other favorites is Ron Ritchhart, author of Intellectual Character, and then there is Heidi Hayes Jacobs, author of Curriculum 21. These folks are at the top of my Hero "shelf" and I have been blessed to hear from them all in person.

In addition to these are my new educational heroes who do not hang out on the shelf, they walk in my mind's door regularly and authentically through blogs, podcasts, mini-blog posts, connections to other inspirational educators. These are educational thinkers such as Bob Sprankle, Richard Byrne, Rodd Lucier, Maria Knee, Alice Barr, Cheryl Oakes, Dave Cormier, Jeff Lebow, Jennifer Maddrell, John Schinker, David Warlick, Lorna Costantini, Ben Hazzard, Peggy George, Kim Cofino, Lucy Gray, Wesley Fryer, and many others. I am so grateful that these folks share their thinking actively, candidly, and in real time!

In the classroom, we have started an idea I grabbed from... somewhere... A Technology Slapdown (sharing, geek of the week, etc.) Not only is this an opportunity to redefine a phrase in a positive light, it is a great way for students to share their tech discoveries. Here are few of my own from today's online browsing:

•A resource for discussing events in Japan
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/teaching-ideas-the-earthquake-and-tsunami-in-japan/?ref=education

•Supporting Students after school: http://www.onceuponaschool.org/

•Origin of Building Learning Communities: http://nlconnect.novemberlearning.com/

So Many Opportunities, So Little Time...

Recently, while complaining that I need more time with my students, a colleague and friend suggested that perhaps I am getting too excited with all my ed tech exposure and need to be less innovative in the classroom. She, of course, meant this as an advocate for my sanity and, I suspect, with a thought for the sanity of my students as well!

And yet, should I not have given students the opportunity to be part of Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) through which many students discovered they were writers, where they were invited to write, write, write, and keep writing?

Should we have not been part of Rock Our World, where we learned how to make songs with others, talk to students around the world; where we built relationships and skills that continue to enable us to make specific and relevant connections at least once a week?

Should we not do The Stock Market Game which takes a real system that allows them to apply math skills and concepts, that is exciting, and also gives them a way to talk to their parents about issues of economy?

Do I not take the time to stumble around with new (new to me and/or to students) ways to learn and reflect, like Google Apps for Education for digital portfolios, collaborative documents, surveys, blogs, and more; or web-based screen captures like Screen-Cast-O-Matic that are a way for students to voice over geographical journeys on Google Earth?

I want to do it all and more! It is greedy I know, but I will never have these very students in Fifth Grade again and I can't stand the thought of not giving them these opportunities!

Yet, there is great deal of set curriculum that is very important to schooling goals and for which I am responsible. I do not want students to feel stressed by unrealistic goals. What to do? What to do?

Thoughts:
-Set priorities for depth
-Be more thoughtful about integration
-I need to remember that I may be their only Fifth Grade teacher,
but I am not their last teacher by many, many years! :-)

Meanwhile, I will keep being inspired and insane!