Show Me the Possibilities and a Flexible Mindset, and I Shall Learn About the World.

  “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world” –Archimedes

 “Our power to maximize our potential is based on two important things: (1) the length of our lever-how much potential power and possibility we believe we have, and (2) the position of position of our fulcrum- the mindset with which we generate the power to change.” Shawn Achor, The Happiness Advantage.

Over the summer, one of the smartest people I know looked at me and said something like “I guess I am just stupid.” My mom had shown up with an iPhone a friend had given her when her ancient flip phone just couldn’t handle basic functions like texting anymore and she was convinced that a hunk of plastic and circuitry was beyond her considerable intellect. We were working on getting the phone set up and from my perspective, she was doing great, particularly for someone who was born 30 years before the first call was ever placed on a mobile phone!

It was a new frontier, and the load we needed to lift seemed to dwarf the lever we had available. In addition, with no frame of reference, we did not know where to place our fulcrum. We took a break from the phone and over the next few days, we used google maps to navigate, Spotify to play music, the apple store to download backgammon, and Facetimed a family friend.
As we had small successes, Mom’s mindset started to change, she asked to use her phone to look things up, navigated around town, and began to figure out the questions she needed to ask to understand the phone. As she found success, her lever grew; and as she realized all of the things the phone could do, she found the firm ground to place her fulcrum. I recently had a phone call with my mom and among other things, she shared that she had used her phone to find a geocache, and that she was thinking about upgrading when the new iPhone comes out so that she can have more battery life and functionality.

In the end, she just had to decide that this was something she COULD do, something she WANTED to do and then make a CHOICE to learn. Over the coming months, your child is going to struggle. It might be socially or academically, it might be long division, or a five-paragraph essay. It could be that math has always been hard or that they feel they are not good writers. As a team, we have to encourage them to believe that they have the power to learn, the potential to succeed and then help them approach the problem with a positive mindset. This does not mean it will not be hard, for us or for the student, but it will be possible. Together we cannot only help our students succeed; we can help them move the world!

Welcome to the Journey!

  http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/s/1oy5a1

“Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.” –Izaak Walton

Getting into the car to drive somewhere is a mundane task that we do every day.  We commute, run errands, and just want to get to our destination.  However, pack the same car with people you connect with and the mundane becomes special, filled with opportunity and possibilities.  Simply having the presence of friends and family turns a mundane activity into something epic, where the process of getting there is to be enjoyed as much as the destination.  With that in mind, I want to welcome you to another spectacular year where we are all about the journey and all growth, excitement, learning and teaching that happens on the way to the destination.

So let us get this road trip started!  I am not promising a certain schedule for these posts, but my goal is to keep communication open even if I am just sharing with a few friends.  Please comment, here or directly to me, and let me know what you, my road trip companions, need or want to know!  The format will be simple, I will write a bit, then I will give some bullet points for the TL,DR (that is “Too Long, Didn’t Read” for us non digital natives) folks, and then send out the post in hopes of a response from you. 

In the next few weeks your student will meet new friends, get to know not only their own teachers, but also many other staff, and find that they are on an adventure, not a forced march to the end of the year. 

• Throughout this year, we want to have two-way communication so you know what is happening in the school, why it is happening and the best way we can each support your child as they walk this path of discovery.

• Contact teachers, staff and administrators early with issues and questions, before you reach a frustration level, we want solutions just as much as you do!

• Is something missing from what the school is providing or know of a great opportunity?  Just make a call or drop an email and let us know so that we can look into it.

 Please reach out to your child’s teacher and share with them:

• The important details about how to guide your child this year. What do they like and how do they learn. 

• Share with them the best way to communicate with you, including when you would like them to communicate in regards to behavioral or academic issues.  Typically teachers work with the student first, and call only when a pattern arises, but if you want more, just ask!

Remember, in any road trip, you have the opportunity to cling to the mundane and count down the days to the end, or find the special people and moments along the way and make the journey seem shorter.

We are looking forward to a year that will be filled with the experiences that will leave us thinking that our time together was far too short and yet all that we hoped for in a journey.

@Mr_showers1

 

It’s Time to Play!

It has been a difficult road, but I can finally sit here and say… “My name is Travis Showers, and I am a gamer.” Board, card, video or physical – if there is a goal, quest or mission, I am more interested, more motivated, and more likely to return again and again to try to “beat” the game.

At my most avid gaming stage, I played World of Warcraft (yes, I am a nerd and proud of it!) and amassed a total online time of over five months, spread out over the five years I played. I do wonder what I could have accomplished with an extra month each year, but I enjoyed the game and learned that just because it is a game doesn’t mean you can’t learn from it. Kids, pay attention: This could be your chance to squeeze a bit more technology time out of your parents!

Games are not all created equal, and it is up to the parents – and the kids – to find the value in the game. As I mentioned, I was very involved in World of Warcraft, but I have also dabbled with Minecraft, and I will be using Minecraft as my game of choice for this article because my fifth- and sixth-graders are playing it, like, all the time. So without further ado….

“Turn off the computer!” … “But Mom, I am learning!”

Problem solving

Minecraft is about building, crafting and surviving.  This can be as simple as creating a box to live in so the monsters leave you alone at night, or as complicated as building a walled city complete with lights, fountains, crops and shops. The choices are up to the player, but without a plan, players will quickly become stuck and lose interest. How are you going to feed and clothe yourself? What kind of house do you want to live in? How will you protect yourself from danger? Sound familiar? That’s right: They’re the same challenges we face every day!

Research

When I played World of Warcraft, I listened to podcasts, visited blogs, and had a binder of references on quests, creatures, dungeons, equipment and skills. I spent almost as much time learning about the game from sources outside the game as I did playing the game. After stepping into the Minecraft sandbox, I found myself doing the same thing all over again. I researched crafting and where to find materials.  Often, my “research” was talking with my students to find out how to get wool off the sheep or fill a bucket. It isn’t always easy, but the information is out there, and students gain valuable skills researching the game.

Creativity and Spatial Understanding

Go to Google Images (make sure Safe Search is on!) and Google “Amazing Minecraft Creations.” Many of these are created by adults and teens, but my friend’s 8-year-old showed me the castle he built in Minecraft, and it was incredible.  Not only was it big enough to include his fields, workshop, storage buildings and a castle complete with towers, but he explained to me that he had to make a well to water his crops, that he couldn’t put his mine in the castle because monsters kept coming out of it, and that he had identified what was in each storage building by building a section of wall out of the material. I only wish my house was as organized as his castle! 

Time and Purpose

I want to make clear that I am not advocating eight-hour days in front of the computer. In fact, I look at my World of Warcraft days and wonder what I could have accomplished during that time. At the same time, I had fun. I met people online and got to be friends with them without ever seeing past their avatar. We slew dragons and rescued innocent villagers. We defeated monsters and took their riches. And through all of that, I read, researched, typed, solved problems and used math to create the most formidable hero my skills would allow. As an adult I played for fun, but for your students, it is important to have a purpose and a plan if you want the games to be educational.

Play the games with your child. Have them teach you to mine, build, move, and make a plan for what they want to accomplish next in the game. Ask them questions: Why? How? What if we did this? Encourage them to learn about new buildings, and about how people actually harvest wool or mine stone. Go to the library and get ideas for buildings, or take a walk through a city to look at architecture. Education is about purpose. You have the ability to decide if something is just a fun way to pass the time or a fun way to learn.

When am I Ever Going to Use This!?

Welcome to a new school year and my (hopefully) semi-monthly blog about learning.  After a decade in the classroom, if I had a dollar for every time a student looked at me and questioned the value of a lesson, I would be typing this blog from the lap of luxury in my palatial estate on my own private island.  And really, there were days, particularly early in my career, when I had to struggle for an answer to their question.  Sometimes it was easy; keeping a budget, writing a resume, convincing someone to support my plan, figuring out how much (fill in the blank) I needed to (fill in the blank).  Other times it was more difficult and I had to fall back on some less convincing arguments like "You will rule at Trivial Pursuit!" or "It will help you later when you need to learn (fill in the blank)".  In the end, I tried to make sure I had an answer and if I didn't, I then questioned someone else about "When are the students ever going to use this?".  Sometimes I got my answer, and sometimes I got a blank look and a "Because it is what we have to teach.". 
The name of this blog is "Work your Plan" because I think one of the most important things in life and education is to be purposeful in what we do.  If we don't know why we teach something, why it is valuable, then how are we going to be passionate about it.  If parents don't know what is going on in the classroom and support it at home, how will our students succeed?  Each post I will try to focus on a subject area, skill, or way to bring the learning from school into your home in real and meaningful ways.  And hopefully it will give you a chance to extend your child's learning and get a glimpse into the "Why" of education.  Either way, I hope that you will comment, drop me an email or give me a call to share your questions about education, either in general or in regards to your child.