Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.
—Anthony J. D’Angelo
Learning Does Not Belong in Silos
When I was in the thick of my coursework as a biology major, I took a genetics class. The content of the course was designed for premed majors and was rigorous. Notice the root word is rigor, which means “death.” That pretty much sums up where I was in understanding the content of genetic disorders—dead in the water, so to speak.
I often met with the professor, and our conversations centered on instructional practices. He wanted to know how I learned so that he could make it easier for me to access the knowledge. His research centered on tree frogs, and we always visited his lab after he helped me understand the information necessary to pass the course. (Truth be told, I was in it for the frogs.)
We were assigned a group project, and I instantly felt sorry for my group members. They would be doing the heavy lifting on this project, because I was struggling to understand the lectures, let alone the deep research that was expected. I knew I was among people who were going to change the course of history with their understanding. I, on the other hand, had no aspirations to go to med school or map genomes. I simply wanted to survive the course with a grade that would give me credit to graduate and become a teacher. I had already determined that a sophisticated understanding of rare genetic disorders was not going to make me a better teacher.
For the project, our research needed to be presented in the form of a website. To put this in perspective, I was in undergrad before the turn of the millennium. This means there were no drag-and-drop sites. To create websites that were more than a dot-matrix-printed document on a screen, you had to know how to code.
It turns out that biology majors in my group knew a lot about DNA and little about website coding. Since I was pursuing a teaching license with a minor in technology, I knew about website coding. As my group was sorting out their research and debating the implications of it, I played with a website for our group. I didn’t plan to keep it; I was just trying to figure out some code to drop photos and captions into the site.
I must have entered into a state of flow, because I wasn’t aware of the attention I was drawing. My professor broke my concentration when he said, “How in the hell did you do that?”
My head snapped up, and my eyes were wide. I shrugged. He said to the group who had gathered around me, “Don’t worry about making your webpage look like this. You just need to get the information onto the screen for others to access. It doesn’t need to look professional. I don’t even know how to do what she’s doing.”
My group’s website received many accolades (and extra credit). The information wasn’t better than everyone else’s, but the format made it more accessible. We were invited to present in freshman classes, and the professor arranged for me to speak at a department meeting to teach his colleagues how to create a website people wanted to read.
I passed the course (likely because of the generous extra credit given for website design), but what I learned was invaluable. Learning does not belong in silos. What we learn in one area can often be applied elsewhere.
This week we look at the benefits of poetry beyond understanding poems—plus more, as always.
Shine on,
Ruth Ayres
Editor in Chief
Middle schoolers and kindergartners forge friendships at Katherine Sokolowski’s school through a sweet poetry writing and sharing project. This article was first published in 2020.
Mandy Robek finds that quick poetry read alouds are a great way to transition between activities in her second-grade classroom and build a love of poems. This article was first published in 2017.
Don’t miss our NEW live virtual events. Join our contributors in a live virtual series to sustain your professional learning all school year and have access to the recordings (and additional resources) until June 30, 2023. These events will nourish your professional heart and provide practical ideas you can use now.
Writing Poetry with Elementary Writers offers ways to help elementary writers develop the mindset and tools to dip into poetry in their notebooks.
New members-only content is added each week to the Choice Literacy website. If you’re not yet a member, click here to explore membership options.
Gretchen Schroeder encourages teachers to make time for the things that are important. For her, it was poetry, and she outlines how she created a weekly poetry ritual in her high school classroom that enhanced the curriculum.
Tara Barnett and Kate Mills show how to infuse poetic techniques into writing other genres.
Mandy Robek shares procedures for participation in Family Math. Family Math is a lens into the learning during the week and promotes math literacy at home.
In a new QuickTake video, Holly Wenning helps us expand the definition of “text” when considering mentor texts and reading assessments.
In an encore video, Christy Rush-Levine leads her middle school students in a choral reading and analysis of “Old Age Sticks” by E. E. Cummings.
New members-only content is added each week to the Choice Literacy website. If you’re not yet a member, click here to explore membership options.
Brian Sepe encourages instructional coaches to engage in self-reflection to better meet the needs of teachers. Using a simple matrix, Brian leads us to powerful realizations for showing up in meaningful ways.
In an encore article, Ruth Shagoury finds poetry is a creative tool for breakthroughs in classroom observation notes.
Matthew J. Bowerman explains that a whole-child approach to student data can help educators revamp instructional planning and teaching practices.
Quote It:
Change is the end result of all true learning.
—Leo Buscaglia
That’s all for this week!
