Blog Posts – Page 2

Building Relationships Through Conversation

Conversations are living things that evolve. Things usually start with a provocation to initiate discussion, but it is up to the participants to move the ideas forward. The Skilled.Space conversations on “Empowering Student Changemakers” that I host every other Sunday are a great example of how we can use our collective input to build on each others’ ideas.

Defeating the Algorithm With Conversation

A recent article in The Atlantic titled “How to Put Out Democracy’s Dumpster Fire” is a deep dive into the role of social media and technology in how we exchange ideas in our society. The authors propose some alternatives to our current conversations “ruled by algorithms that are designed to capture attention, harvest data, and sell advertising”.

During my time hosting bi-monthly conversations on Skilled.Space, I am becoming more and more convinced that this platform can play an essential role in defeating these algorithms. I’d like to offer a summary of how I view the value of these “conversations that propel.”

Zooming Into My Lens as a Hawaiʻi Educator

It was 3:30 am when I finally logged off Zoom. I checked the mug on my desk and it remained filled with the lukewarm coffee leftover from at least an hour ago. Still energized from the 3-4 cups I had consumed since 9:30 the previous night, the spectrum of colors scribbled on my iPad looked like a kaleidoscope.

This is what professional development looks like in the year 2021. A potentially unhealthy mix of odd time zones and way too much caffeine. But it is not all poor sleep patterns and poor beverage choices. Video conferencing technology has provided educators the opportunity to connect with others from all around the world that they would have never been able to meet. In the last year alone I’ve collaborated with people from Estonia, Sweden, Finland, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Uganda, and many more. Sometimes all in the course of one night, and always from the comfort of my own home.

Parent-Teacher Collaboration

Can parents help play the role of teacher? Can teachers help play the role of parent? Can both happen at the same time? These are some of the questions that were explored during our third session of the “Empowering Student Changemakers” series on Skilled.Space.

I started our discussion with a quote I heard during a podcast interview with author Julie Lythcott-Haims–“We’ve jettisoned the stuff of life out the window, and we shouldn’t be surprised that we graduate people with high GPAs who cannot do much for themselves”. This prompted some interesting sharing about the role of partnering with parents to ensure that we are raising young people who are well-rounded in the skills they will need to succeed as adults.

Contribution as Creativity

Words are powerful. Words matter. One word that I’ve been reflecting on this past week is compliance. This is a word that we hear a lot about in education, as in “the industrial model of education rewards compliance.”

It was during a conversation in my second session about “Empowering Student Changemakers” on the Skilled.Space platform that got me thinking about compliance in education. We were discussing ways to get students to engage with their learning and one of the participants said, “Creativity is a way to fight compliance”. They added, “If you have a culture of compliance it is working against everything you are trying to do to get them to be creative.”

What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation In Education: Coda

Author’s note: This post is based on the ideas from the book Two Beats Ahead by R. Michael Hendrix and Panos A. Panay.

As this series of blog posts come to an end the final post will not be a summary of what was covered in the chapter. Instead, in honor of the coda of this final chapter I will pause to write my final resolution about this experience.

My first exposure to music as a mindset for innovation came in a podcast hosted by IDEO with R. Michael Hendrix one of the authors of this book. It’s amazing now to look back almost two years later and reflect on this journey. I now have a master’s in Education Entrepreneurship, a new position at my school I could have only dreamed up, and a renewed philosophy on the role of music in my creative life.

Starting a Discussion On Empowering Student Changemakers

After a few weeks of planning with my friend Sara from the Swivl team, I was ready to open my “space”. Not a Twitter space, but my space. No no THAT Myspace, but a Skilled.Space”. What is Skilled.Space? The team at Swivl calls it “Live conversation spaces that propel students and teachers forward”.

Already five minutes into the conversation I could feel ourselves being propelled to the outer reaches of our topic. We were all gathered in our little corner of the internet to discuss empowering students as changemakers. Hawaiʻi (Oʻahu, and Hawaiʻi Island), California, the UK, Canada, and the Mid-Western United States were all gathered together, and everyone was bringing their full self to the conversation.

What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation In Education: Reinventing

Author’s note: This post is based on the ideas from the book Two Beats Ahead by R. Michael Hendrix and Panos A. Panay.

David Bowie and teaching? Really, there’s a connection? Yes, there most certainly is.

This chapter on reinventing starts off with a detailed description of how Bowie used the idea of change throughout his career spanning twenty-six studio albums. This impacted countless musicians most notably Madonna and Lady Gaga who took a similar approach to their artistry.

What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation In Education: Sensing

Author’s note: This post is based on the ideas from the book Two Beats Ahead by R. Michael Hendrix and Panos A. Panay.

Teachers across the country are hard at work getting their classroom spaces set up for another start to the school year. While going through this annual ritual I wonder how many are stopping to consider the impact that sound has on learning in their spaces. Chapter 8 on sensing from the book Two Beats Ahead provides educators with a lot to consider about the role of music can have on learning.

The chapter begins by looking at how sound can impact our experiences in hospitals. Musician Yoko Sen examined this through the lens of the following question–”What is the last sound you want to hear before you die?”. Using this provocation and her own experience in a hospital, she interviewed nurses and medical practitioners. Through this process, she discovered that the typical sounds found in hospitals–machines, beeping, monitor rings, etc… contributed to stress and negative well-being for patients.

What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation In Education: Remixing

Authors note: This post is based on the ideas from the book Two Beats Ahead by R. Michael Hendrix and Panos A. Panay.

In the spirit of this chapter on remixing, this blog post is a remix of Greta Thunberg’s infamous speech at the U.N. Climate Action Summit in 2019. I took the transcript of her speech and remixed it by replacing her ideas on climate change and CO₂ levels with ideas on education and technology. The full transcript of her speech along with the video can be accessed here.

What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation In Education: Connecting

Authors note: This post is based on the ideas from the book Two Beats Ahead by R. Michael Hendrix and Panos A. Panay

Connecting is multi-dimensional so there are many ways in which it can be defined. This post will look at three different lenses taken from Chapter 6 of the book Two Beats Ahead on how to apply connecting to education. These are connecting through performing, connecting through making it personal and connecting through expression.

What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation In Education: Producing

Author’s note: This post is based on the ideas from the book Two Beats Ahead by R. Michael Hendrix and Panos A. Panay.

Lead, Bring Forth, to Draw Out

Coach, facilitator, guide–these are terms that have been proposed as ways to rethink the relationship between teacher and student. We should also consider how the concept of a “producer” is used in films and music. This is the framework that Hendrix and Panay are using in their book.

“Producer” is derived from the Latin producere which means “lead or bring forth, to draw out.” In education, we can think of our roles as producing learning. Teachers “bring forth” or “draw out” the learning that exists within students.

What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation In Education: Demoing

This is the fourth part in a series connecting the ideas from Two Beats Ahead by R. Michael Hendrix and Panos A. Panay to education. To read part 1 on listening, go here, part 2 on experimenting, go here, and part 3 on collaborating, go here.

Connected to experimenting, demoing as a mindset is an invitation to get dirty, reflect, fail, and iterate. And much like experimenting, it is a part of teaching and learning that is not appropriately valued in designing educational experiences.

The authors of Two Beats Ahead provide an in-depth look into the process of demoing. It is a critical part of the musical process and one that offers tremendous value in education. Its application centers around the idea of the educator as a creator, in contrast to the deliverer of knowledge that she has traditionally been limited to.

What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation In Education: Collaborating

This is the third part in a series connecting the ideas from “Two Beats Ahead” by R. Michael Hendrix and Panos A. Panay to education. To read part 1 on listening, go here and part 2 on experimenting, go here.

Collaboration is the musical mindset most severely lacking in education. There are examples of developing yourself as a professional. This could be two teachers writing a lesson plan together or giving each other feedback on their instruction. From the musical perspective, these examples don’t get to the heart of how collaboration functions.

Going All In

I recently delivered a talk as part of the Speak Hawai’i educator storytelling event. My talk was titled “Going All In” and was inspired by the book Two Beats Ahead by R. Michael Hendrix and Panos A. Panay. You can listen to the talk by clicking on the YouTube below. Enjoy!

Learn more about the book at this link https://twobeatsahead.com

Learn more about the event and join the mailing list at this link http://bit.ly/speakhawaiisite

What Musical Minds Teach Us About Innovation In Education: Experimenting

This is the second part in a series connecting the ideas from “Two Beats Ahead” by R. Michael Hendrix and Panos A. Panay to education. To read part 1 on listening, go here.

“Dare to suck.” – Justin Timberlake

Experimenting can be a controversial topic in education. The model of teaching and learning that has dominated our schools for the past 100-500 years is based on the idea of a curriculum, which is essentially a planned sequence of study. In fact, some research suggests that the term “curriculum” was introduced by Calvinists in the 16th century to produce more structure and order to the educational system.¹