The Edible Schoolyard

After a coffee-filled weekend at the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA, I went to visit my friend Ben who helps run a school garden program at Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkley. This program is so neat and so needed! It was Saturday morning so I didn’t get to see students in the space, but it takes little imagination to see how such a well-run garden provides ample learning opportunities.



It was a volunteer workday and I got to help prepare lunch for the weeders and pruners. Ellen was in charge of the kitchen that day—an efficient woman who left her catering business in NY to fill in for the kitchen head here on sabbatical. “I’m interested in more school-garden programs,” she said while stirring lentils with her right hand and reaching for the salt with her left. “The kids go home after eating here and tell their parents ‘we are supposed to be cooking our own food. We are supposed to eat at the table as a family.’”




The program serves sixth through eighth grades that visit the garden and kitchen four times a month. They learn kitchen skills like using a knife correctly and get to experiment with ingredients; last week they made frittata; next week might be curry.

Ben, who works mainly in the garden, told me the space provides a needed outlet for students from different cultures to share their expertise. MLK middle school receives all of the ESL students from the district and its diverse student body has a wealth of experience related to cooking and gardening. Just last week while they separated barley wheat from its shaft, a quiet boy from Nepal said, “I’ve done this before.” Ben asked for tips on technique and the student taught them all how to toss the grain in the air, allowing the wind to blow the shaft away while the grain lands back in your bowl. If the garden hadn’t been there, this cultural exchange would have been unlikely.

“That’s why we try and plant a lot of grains from other countries with similar climates,” Ben said. The sixth graders start with the grains, seventh graders tend vegetables, and eighth graders focus on kitchen skills. More info at edibleschoolyard.org

Challenge-Based Learning (CBL)

I went to a conference held by Apple computers about challenge-based learning. The concept is simple: creativity and enthusiasm thrive on challenge. Think of the popular tv show Iron Chef: you get an egg, cottage cheese, an ice-cream cone and thirty minutes to produce something amazing--now go! Educationally, this is effective because students feel they are breaking ground and creating something new rather than "discovering" the quadratic equation for the billionth time or writing a research paper that could easily be copy and pasted from the internet.



So often teachers have taken the challenge upon themselves--engage students in my subject and allow their creativity to shine-- by create amazing projects for students to carry out. That is great, seriously, and that is pretty much all I do. (For example, I might assign students to make an imovie about a scene from a Shakespeare play we just read, or memorize a poem of their choice and present it to their peers.) But isn't making up the project the funnest part? Actually carrying out the project is important, but it is like running the football play after the coach drew it on a clipboard--the strategizing and thinking has been done.

Challenge-based learning says don't steal the kids thunder by over-managing. Do less arranging. Create a good challenge and the kids will bite.

Some example challenges might be:
--Increase appreciation of poetry on your school's campus.
--Decrease paper waste in your library's printer.
--Identify discrimination in your life and address it in some way (after we read "The Merchant of Venice" as a class).

It is hard to catch yourself as a teacher when you are over-scaffolding, but it can be done.

Tell them your teen-stories

One of Annie Lamott’s favorite authors once wrote that there are three stories she uses whenever she wants someone to fall in love with her: one around-the-world sailing trip, one cooking fiasco, and one lover’s quarrel that ended well. Somehow that makes sense to me--we tell stories with a purpose. Each personal story emphasizes a flattering side of yourself: the daring, the funny, the bold, the traveler, the voice of reason in a world of chaos.—all the things we wish we were 100% of the time but aren’t.

Last year I tried to tell some personal stories about living in Chile to freshman. Oh look at me, aren’t I the cool teacher taking time out of class to share a little slice of my personal world with you? Isn’t this fun? Aren’t you lucky to get to know me? Oh please Ms. Davis tell us more about lollygagging across the Chilean countryside!

Well. Their eyes glazed over a bit and some started packing up bookbags pre-maturely. Besides feeling the wounding blow to my ego, I was perplexed: over pizza and beer my peers generally enjoy this particular pack of backpacking adventures—why didn’t it resonate for teens?

It is easy to forget that most teens go home every weekend, hang out around their houses or the mall, watch videos on youtube, go to school dances, and sleep. Travel stories of complete freedom and possibility can be difficult to relate to, hence the droopy eyes. Instead, tell them about yourself when you were their age and your plights were more similar to their own.

(This is dorkey, I admit) but I made a brainstorm of stories from when I was a young teen with morals or lessons attached so I can figure out when they might be useful. Some of them can be writing triggers. Some of them illustrate a point. They are not the same stories of bridge jumping and skinny-dipping that pepper so many of your adult stories; it is a different genera altogether. Try lots of stories about pets and trying to look cool but failing, and maybe even a first love if you can make it about acceptance and moving on rather than just smooching.

They listen differently to stories and remember them much longer.

So what was the best little drama of your life when you were 15?

Visit to Wahiawa Elementry

Just before my school started up I visited a public elementary school where my friend Mr. Duffy teaches. The grounds were beautiful and the students goofy and engaged: everyone was ready to sprint to the water fountain and several girls wanted to hold my hand--so welcoming to visitors!

Mr. Duffy and I planned to coordinate letter-writing between his public school and my independent school to encourage literacy in the younger grades. What third grader wouldn't love to receive a letter with a story from a high-school pen pal? However now that he has his schedule handed to him and the realities of prepping for state testing have hit, there is no time for such projects.

I left enthused by the students who wanted to stay after school on a Friday and disenchanted with the system that so limits teacher planning and creativity.

The flow of teacher-speak

I have committed to sitting in on a master teacher’s class for the semester to see if I can steal his moves. This term “master teacher” is obnoxious for many reasons, but I’m going to use it anyway because I don’t know what else to call people that have experience and charisma and student’s respect. In addition to these things, he also has a huge afro (which I find endearing) and a calmness in the classroom that I want to absorb like a sponge. So I go.
Some describe what Tim does as “magic” because he appears to make up things on the spot. However, the more I observe, it appears to be his train of thought and the transition from one concept to another that makes his teaching style so unique.
I know of 3 ways teachers appear to speak in class.

1. Lecture
“This is how you organize a paragraph” point A to B, B to C etc. I can be clear when I do this, but it is difficult to make entertaining and I sometimes bore myself as well as students by thinking I need to cover everything. What does it take to be a strong lecturer? Have personality and know your stuff? I’m not sure.

2. Storytelling
I just started giving myself license to share personal stories with my students. I brainstormed several stories that they would appreciate (stories about me when I was their age are usually the best to relate to) and now I use them as writing prompts and attention-getters; a way to ground the lesson in a tangible moment. Students tend to pay attention.

3. Giving instructions
“Ok, so what I want you to do is________.” I find myself doing this in class A LOT. This is an unwanted bi-product of student-focused, activity-based lesson plans: in order to set up the activity I spend time explaining what I want them to do. Often, while outlining the plan, I feel I am limiting their options and killing creativity rather than stoking the fires.


Tim talks a lot in class. His voice predominates the room 60-75% of the class time. Yet we are all engaged, all thinking, all on the edge of our seats. I feel exhausted from thinking so much by the end of the period. How does he engage us so much when we are just listening?

He interrelates the three ways of speaking in such a way that the listener jumps between hearing a personal story, getting a direction, and hearing snippets of lecture. For example today he put 20 poetry books on the ground and the plan was to ask students to page through them and find a poem that grabbed them. He would give them 30 minutes to do so and then they would come back into large group and share their favorite line found. Had I done it, this instruction would take 3 minutes and students would use 5 minutes to find something and be done with it. Task→assigned→ executed= we move on and wonder about the point of the activity.

Tim does not do this. He gives instructions in such a way that he doesn’t TELL you what to do, but rather makes you feel as though you are invited to participate. What is gained from each activity changes because of how he framed it.

He might say things like:
What I'm hoping to do is…
The kinds of books I have collected here are all poetry: some are more humorous like this one...
You can go outside if you trust you that you won’t get distracted.
Don’t hurt the books, the way I do, see how my pet bird chewed up the corner of this one? If not interested in one poem or one book of poems, pick up another.
If you read for a while and you get bored, try drawing an image that you see.
If you are reading for ten minutes and don’t find any poems you like, try sitting with one because you know how sometimes a song in your car is one you hate the first five times you hear it and then suddenly you’re like “man, that is a great song!” Poetry can grow on you like that too.
Does anyone have any questions?

Giving directions in this way the students appear to understand what it is that is asked of them. They all settle into the activity calmly and with purpose. No one needs to go to the bathroom or ask a question or be told again: small miracles.
Perhaps this post is more for me to process my observations, but in summary this observation raises new questions for me. What is my point and is a direct line actually the best way to say it? It may be clear, but is this the way that students process information? I'm starting to vary my style of speech in class.

Begin Again

A new school year has begun. I like the cyclical nature of it-- the ceremony, the similar faces that grew defined during the summer months. Braces came off. Baby fat was lost. Some of them I have had as students before and still their new stature can be intimidating.

My goals for this year are a bit different than for summer school:

I will strive to make my thinking more transparent to my students. (i.e. verbalize it)
I hope to create assignments that allow students to surprise me.
I hope to utilize class time in such a way that students feel busy and directed most of the time.
I want students to talk more.

The Ultimate Tool to Better Thinking

There is a non-profit called "The Foundation for Critical Thinking" whose purpose is to help people think better. This astounds me. The quantity of interesting and relevant information on this site boggles the mind. It is all free/ very cheap and packed full of examples and activities that allow readers to sharpen their critical thinking skills. The mind is a wily beast and this group believes that with practice and guidance, you can train it to think more rationally, deeply, and critically.

I was a student (like you) for 18 years of my life before I became a teacher and as I read through this site I see flashes of what Dr. Lightfoot and Mr. Dolger were trying to do. Is more extensive than what these teachers were able to do with limited time and therefore completes the task more thoroughly: Digest it in small pieces.

One critical thinking idea from the "How to study and learn" section:

Idea # 12: Seek to find the key concept of the course during the first couple of class meetings. For example, in a Biology course, try explaining what biology is in your own words? Then relate that definition to each segment of what you learn afterward. Fundamental ideas are the basis for all others.

It took me two years of studying the vague major of "Politics" at Whitman College before I discovered what is was exactly we studied. Politics is the study of power: how humans get it, retain it, and wield it over one another. Writing is about the skill of artful and clear communication in written form.

What is English as a subject?

English is about skill and appreciation of beauty of words (reading, writing, listening) which provide a window into human ethics (how we should behave) and psychology (how we think).

Some other subjects summarized by the Critical Thinking folks:

Mathematics as learning to think quantitatively

Economics as the study of “who gets what, when, & how”

Algebra as arithmetic with unknowns

Sociology as the study of human conformity to group norms

Anthropology as the physical and historical study of humans in light of their evolution from non-cultural into cultural animals

Physics as the study of mass and energy and their interaction

Chemistry as the study of elementary substances & the manner in which they react with each other

Philosophy as the study of ultimate questions with a view to living an examined life

Biochemistry as the chemistry of life processes in plants & animals

Science as the attempt to learn through quantifiable observations and controlled experimentation

Theology as the study of theories of spiritual reality

Ethics as the study of principles to be used in contributing to the good of, & avoiding unnecessary harm to, humans and other sentient creatures

Art as the application of skill and judgment to matters of taste and beauty (as in poetry, music, painting, dance, drama, sculpture, or architecture)

Professions as ways of earning a living through the skilled and artful use of knowledge in everyday life

Check out this site! www.criticalthinking.org