I've just started reading George Couros' The Innovator's Mindset.  The introduction alone is full of richness.  The forward to the book was written by Dave Burgess.  He says: Buzzwords crowd the educational reform movement like buzzards circling a decaying carcass.  Many have become enamored with - and lost to - a culture of clichés and a penchant for platitudes...[A] true spirit of innovation is exactly what our educational system needs to crush complacency, stomp the status quo, and forge a path into the future that is perpetually in flux. Those aren't just platitudes.  There are truths in Burgess' words.  He continues:

If reading this book makes you uncomfortable, fantastic!

If reading it forces you to question long-held and dear beliefs, wonderful!

But, if you read this book and it does nothing to change your practice, we failed.  Inspiration without implementation is a waste...As [the author] so eloquently says, "Change is an opportunity to do something amazing."

Change is an opportunity to do something amazing.

Inspiration is one of the chief needs of today's students.  Kids walk into schools full of wonder and questions, yet we often ask them to hold their questions for later, so we can "get through" the curriculum.  We forget that our responsibility isn't solely to teach memorization or the mechanics of a task but to spark a curiosity that empowers students to learn on their own.

To wonder.

To explore.

To become leaders.

We forget that if students leave school less curious than when they started, we have failed them...

When students graduate, many of them are good at one thing:  school...[A]lthough we say we want kids to think for themselves, what we teach them is compliance...

​Compliance does not foster innovation.  In fact, demanding conformity does quite the opposite.

Twenty-first century education is not about the test; it's about something bigger.

My focus is not on whether can knock it out of the park on some science test in grade three.  What I care about is that kids are inspired to be better people because of their experiences in my school.

These teachers want to be innovative, but, instead of connecting and learning from others around the world, let alone with colleagues in their own schools, they spend their time in staff meetings that often seem irrelevant to the heart of teaching.  They are constantly told that if they want to be innovative, they are going to have to find time to do it.

As leaders, if we ask teachers to use their own time to do anything, what we're really telling them is:  it's not important.  The focus on compliance and implementation of programs in much of today's professional development does not inspire teachers to be creative, nor does it foster a culture of innovation.  Instead, it forces inspired educators to color outside the lines, and even break the rules, to create relevant opportunities for their students...The results surprise us.  Their students remember them as "great teachers," not because of the test scores they received but because their lives were touched.

(LIBERTY) BELL WORK

Sentence Surgery Read the sentence below. ​Do you see any problems? Do not rewrite the sentence.  In fact, don't even fix the sentence.  Instead, on your paper, tell the writer three things that need to be corrected. did george and martha eat turkey and dresing for there thanksgiving meal

Sentence Augmentation* Augment the sentence below to greatly improve it.  Record your improved sentence on your paper. The kid likes to eat. ​*Augment:  make (something) greater ​by adding to it

​Word Work Using today's lesson set, create a list of words ​to fit in the categories below. ​Pay particular attention to spelling patterns. Thanksgiving (words with th-) Thanksgiving ​(compound words) Word Wise Define the ​following words: proclamation thankfulness

On Target ​Write the target number in the "bull's eye". In the 20 other open sections of the target, write equations to equal the target number. Today's number is 18. For example, if the target number is 36, the student may write expressions like the ones here (right): 6 squared 2 x 18 3 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 72/2 3 x 3 x 4

PRIMARY Source:  A PROCLAMATION Click to enlarge. Having trouble reading this? Here is a link to the transcript. ​ ​Be ready to discuss this in class.  We will use some of the questions here to evaluate this primary source. Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789 File Size: 474 kb File Type: pdf Download File Infographic Thanksgiving by the Numbers

A TIMELINE of Thanksgiving From George Washington's Mount Vernon: Americans don’t know it and children aren’t taught it, but George Washington is responsible for our Thanksgiving holiday. It was our first president, not the Pilgrims and not Abraham Lincoln, who led the charge to make this day of thanks a truly national event. Use another Mount Vernon Thanksgiving article to create a timeline of important dates and events. Make it decorative with appropriate illustrations. What can a person learn from your timeline? What did you find out that you didn't know before you read the article? What's on the Menu? Have you ever wondered what it might have been like to share a meal with the Washingtons? What might be on the menu? How would you be served? Where would you be seated? Use the Dining at Mount Vernon article to prepare for a discussion. Then again, here are some of the ingredients we should all add to our own Thanksgiving meal:  (The Real) Thanksgiving Meal. While We're on the Subject Why Is Thanksgiving Always on a Thursday?

Turkey's on the Table

Thank you! You have successfully submitted your online application to The George Washington Teacher Institute Residential Programs. Once again, I aspire to be accepted to the Mount Vernon Summer Residency Program.  Two years ago, I was an alternate to the program, but was not privileged to attend (as participants did not drop out).  If my application is selected I will spend a few days on George Washington's property in Virginia, studying the property and artifacts and contributing to the educational program there - all thanks to scholarship and travel stipends.

By robbing children of relevant historical discussions, we blur our nation’s founding principles.  Yet, tomorrow’s family, community, and nation leaders still enter my classroom deprived of their own history.  While they long for stories of our nation’s founding era, history is often relegated to dusty corners.   While students hanker to presently apply lessons from history, history too often remains hidden.  Education’s shuttering of our founding principles in favor of the three R’s disregards our nation’s future.  History is quickly demoted to an ancillary role:  we might use history as the text for reading classes, but fail to teach it explicitly.

Thankfully, Missouri’s newest standards push historical context back into elementary schools, allowing me to give muscle to founding documents by inviting George Washington and his contemporaries into my classroom.  I must personally meet President Washington, sit with him, and share a meal with him.  We should get to know them, mull over their ideas, and appreciate ongoing debate over freedoms and rights.  We must grasp the significance of Revolutionary War and the sacrifices of patriots their families.  We have a personal, present need to apply such principles in our lives.  It is exciting to think that Washington’s wisdom, courage – even his torments and apprehensions – might return to our classrooms.  I am thrilled with the idea of reviewing Revolutionary maps and studying primary sources from the those great historical visionaries who resisted oppression, forged a free country, and gifted us with unprecedented rights and freedoms.
 
My students hunger for lessons and activities about the 18th Century.  They salivate with anticipation.  As historians, students collaboratively struggle with material and process.  They actively participate in the civilized discussions and disagreements we conduct in class.  They draw conclusions based on physical and inferential evidence.  They are jubilant only when they respectfully dig into difficult topics to successfully unearth innovative solutions.  They gather information, learn from failure, and build systems to serve future generations.  By identifying mistakes and responses from the past, students equip themselves to face genuine issues and influence the future like George Washington did.
​
Washington influenced uneasy times.  Amidst confusion and extraordinary events, Washington’s strength and demeanor exhibited leadership and decision-making abilities.  He weighed risks, led boldly, calmed rooms, and boldly sought civility and decency.  I aspire to be that resolute peacekeeper for stakeholders in our school – for my fourth graders and colleagues.  When my teacher-peers curiously spy into our window, click on my website, or observe my class directly, they don’t see isolated topics, changing every 20 minutes or breaking on a regular schedule.  They find us time traveling – encountering real, stimulating situations and studying artifacts and images.

At day’s end, I enjoy the satisfying fatigue resulting from empowering children with real mettle for success and encouraging educators – through conversations, observations, and formal or electronic presentations – to do likewise.  As a professional developer, I thrive when I openly share my experiences and expertise locally and at the state level (hopefully soon including a rich experience at George Washington’s Mount Vernon).

Talking about thinking after the thinking has taken place is vastly different than producing representations of thinking designed with the specific intention of sharing one's thinking.  Knowing you will have the opportunity to explain your thinking to someone else causes you as a learner to anticipate the articulation of your thinking in a way that will personally connect with other learners.