Da Van-Ci's Journal

"A conglomerate rock: A rock that is made of small rocks fused together such as granules, pebbles, cobbles and gravel."

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Granules:

I have always felt teaching to be a gamble between winding up in a partnership with others that is isolating or collaborative. I am lucky that the cards dealt me the best partner on campus to collaborate with. We have a running joke, "This time you be the brain and I will be the hand." This phrase sums up how we take turns supporting each other's ideas into fruition. The 'brain' is the thinker while the hand assists in building the thinkers vision. Despite our desire to work with others, it is rare that we have the opportunity to observe in person(locally and globally) how other teams construct and plan lessons, as well as observe how lessons are implemented in other classrooms. Today another Vanguard teacher said, "There is no reason why we aren't collaborating across campuses." (I was listening A.R.😊). I have no profound response other than another question, "Why aren't we??"

Luckily, we do have the opportunity to see the pedagogy of others thanks to online platforms such as blogging and social media. In fact, one of my favorite things to do on a late evening coffee binge is read (Eric Jensen), listen (podcasts), creep on Twitter (Catlin Tucker everything) to see what other teachers are doing in their classrooms. On the flip side social media can also be overwhelming. One second you're reading about #SBVanguard and the next you've fallen down the rabbit hole and are scrolling through glazed posts about #DonutFriday. 

Managing mass amounts of information can be daunting.

In fact. If you could peek into my mind you would rarely find one complete thought, but rather many bits of information and ideas floating around. The little bits of information are phrases that I heard or read that were inspirational, though provoking or made me think. These little bits of information either wind up written in a journal that I keep in my bag or they play in my head over and over. They are like little pebbles in my mind sitting as a "save for later" until I am able to mold them into something whole. 

Here are few pieces:

Pebbles:

"There are two kinds of people: consumers and creators. Be a creator."-A teacher who was a mentor to me my first two years of teaching would always preach that students needed to be doing not consuming. 

Cobble:

I went to pick my daughter up from daycare when a child next to her complained to their teacher, "I'M BORED!" To that the teacher replied, "There is no such thing as being bored..." then she turned to me to finish, "...my mother ALWAYS told me that being bored is for unintelligent people~ at any time you can observe, create and make!!"  I'm still processing this, which probably explains why it is still stuck in my head. I'm hung up on the word choice of "unintelligent" due to the shock value, but does she have a point? Are kids trained to be entertained, should some of the burden of creating be put back on them? What's a good balance?

Gravel:

"What amazes you?" This question came from an icebreaker game today. It was one of the rare occasions in my life I actually had a quick, concrete answer. I have always been amazed by the technology and artwork of ancient civilizations. How did they learn to calculate astronomy, build pyramids, cast sculptures, and travel across oceans? The ability of the human mind to use natural resources to build what we take for granted today-- with out a smart device is amazing.

The Conglomerate Rock:

I started writing this post in a room surround by Vanguard Veterans as a newly inducted Cohort III member. It definitely is a day in my career as a teacher that I will not forget. WOW! There are so many things to look forward too: learning, launching and leading!

I am so very humbled to be a small pebble among this fellowship of people and ideas. I cannot wait to see how all of these small stones are glued together.