Tag: mindset

Vive la Learning Revolution! Vive la Positive Rhetoric!

Posted on by ColbyClifford

“It isn’t the circumstances that are crucial, it’s what we say about the circumstances that matter.” -Ben Zander

Can we create a vision for education, for our classrooms, that can spark and thrive within our current education system? In a true revolution, there is a death – so what if the death we experience is our downward spiral thinking? If we remove the binary nature of winners and losers, of passing and failing? It will still exist, as that is the reality of where we work, but we choose to view it all as what it is: and abstract! WE put value on the A. 

What if we construct a significant learning environment and do all the things we know are right, regardless of what anyone else is doing? Can we play their game, but on our own terms? Can we go an entire school year never discussing grades with anyone? 

I’m talking about declaring that we’ve already won the the revolution, because I SEE it. If we have a VISION of what true learning looks like, we can make it happen in our classrooms, and regardless of what our students see elsewhere, they thrive with us. 

TED. (2010, May 24). Bring on the learning revolution! Sir Ken Robinson [Video]. YouTube. https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_learning_revolution

TED. (2012, Feb 26). Work (How to give an A) Benjamin Zander [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTKEBygQic0&list=PL9T6s38O7hVLJFO76HAhlINMMRl8z1_Yf

BRAIN Based Universal Design for Learning

Posted on by ColbyClifford

Reading through research on Universal Design for Learning is fascinating – each part is important and evident in a significant learning environment.

But the WHY is the crux for me. My first blog post is a response to Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle, with WHY in the middle. He hammers home his thesis by suggesting that the Circle is a visual for the brain, and effective because it’s what the brain looks like.  

And thinking about what happens in the brain when we have a growth mindset, I keep visuallizing connections happening when we are confronted with challenges, and the connections that WE are all making as we confer and discuss what we are learning with each other.

I was sort of figuring all of this out, feeling like an imposter when I wrote about it on March 2. It’s AMAZING how much we’ve learned since then.

If we keep our WHY at the forefront, we feed our growth mindset!

And what does EDL and personalized learning mean for the learner? EVERYTHING! Personalized learning is COVA – is provides the opportunity for choice, ownership, voice, and authenticity. It’s all connected. 

When disruption is a bad word…

Posted on by ColbyClifford

One of the major hurdles I overcame as I started the DLL Masters program was learning that disruption is GOOD. I have learned that when a disruption is introduced in an environment, it throws everyone off at first. There are early adopters, the “innovators”, then slowly the curve rises while more and more people adopt the new strategy, learn to use the new product, or talk about how to grow.

But the word “disruption” still has a negative connotation for most. Especially in a year of a pandemic. Especially in a month of an historic devastating climate event.

But can we be innovators inside of devastation? Is there a way to see what no one else can see when disruptions first happen? To be early adopters of change, even if the change is “natural”? Can we choose to have a growth mindset when facing trauma?

Even when pushed to our limits, let us still make disruption GOOD.