Presented By: Mr. Carmel
Summary
Notes
Transcript
Welcome everybody. My name is Mr. Carmel. You can call me Bill. That's for the children, Mr. Carmel. I just have a very, very brief introduction to what it will feel like for your children in the studio, in the Lyons studio. Absolutely. Just get close to the door. Well, you're here to hear them? Yes, here they are. One thing you can be comfortable with is that I do not expect the Lions to know everything.
What I expect is, after a very short time of getting used to who I am as an educator, is that they will ask better questions that lead them to answers that lead them to better questions. Habits are that everyone listens closely, looks closely, we explain what we mean, we use evidence in our explanations of what we mean. right to disagree and we do that respectfully and There is a language that I will teach them So that they can disagree with prompts that I will provide for them They will have a page prompts so that when they want to ask a question There are several different ways for them to ask And when they're used to it, they won't need the paper anymore
The most important part about learning, I believe, is being able to change your mind when the evidence tells you that your way of thinking isn't complete. There's always more. One answer doesn't provide a way to understand the question. Maybe only partially gets you to the point of being able to ask a question that leads you to a better answer. Better questions, better answers. We start at 9 o'clock.
That hasn't changed. So please, if you are going to be late, just give us a text. I want to be able to start at 9 o'clock every day. And I understand traffic. It is miserable at that time in the morning for reasons we don't understand. into a new way of structuring the programs and that is the trimester basis each theme is built around a 12-week course of study and as we go into each subject we will dive deeper and deeper into problems and their resolutions
We may not find all of the answers to problems that work, but that won't stop us from asking questions. It won't stop us from investigating. One showcase happens every trimester and around week two, oh excuse me, around week ten there would be a showcase and after the showcase there would be two weeks of reflection and transfer. One of the most difficult concepts I have found existing in public schools
Is this idea of transfer. I will emphasize the fact that one way of knowing can be used by another way of knowing. In other words, you use math for science. You use science for English. You use all of the subjects to have an understanding that works for all of them. So you go from one subject to another and you carry your understanding with you because we find a way to make it relate. We make connections, we create relationships, and that leads to understanding.
Business is a year-long topic and it has intentional reflection built into after we have our marketplace. You are all familiar with the marketplace. I am not.
I'm just seeing pictures.
But nevertheless, it's really exciting because this is where students get to take all of their understanding, all of their knowledge and apply it. And it doesn't matter whether they succeed or fail at their particular business. Because guess what? Business is huge. There are many ways to employ a way of thinking into several different kinds of businesses. because it doesn't have to earn a profit in the normal way that you expect merchandise to be sold and create profit.
You can also have a service. You can have both. And somebody is going to come up with something new. Exciting when you see that new idea and then The child is exploring it, not understanding that it's new. They just know that it's a good idea and they've got it. That's what I encourage. So we will have a renewed focus on handwriting. I noticed that right away. Some students just have an ability for clear writing that is beautiful.
why the teacher made me make all of the original letters that went around the room. You wouldn't know it now.
That's what's become of my writing. But it is legible.
And that's the important part. Do you know how many doctors cannot be deciphered? Most. And it's only because they train their nurses that the prescriptions get filled the correct way.
I want to stop that practice.
So whether your children become doctors or lawyers, they will at least be understood visually without explanation. And that goes for the content of what they write beautifully. Work will be sent home weekly. It will either be in a binder or a folder or maybe both. I will make sure that it goes home. Please add your signature to it and send it back on Monday. That tells me that you are involved and your children
will be able to speak with you about what's going on here. When children transfer their knowledge from their brain to your brain, you know that understanding happens. But, you've got to let me know, too. There are progress reports at the end of every trimester, so there are three progress reports every year. Trimester one is session one and two. Trimester two is session four and five. December is the stand-alone.
It is three weeks. And then, session six and seven are trimester three. Do you have any questions so far? These are the session themes. People and places. We're engaged in people and places now. The built world is the second, and the third is entrepreneurship and experience. There is one thread that travels throughout everything we will do this year. It is discover, build, and share. That's the transfer.
That's our schedule. We have copies of the schedule for you all. This is our poster. And, it will be up in the front to greet you when you come in. And, it's about our peoples and places project. This is about asking questions such as, how do...how... how does where people live shape how they live? So we're going to be studying Pleasanton and where your child actually lives. So if you live in Tracy, it's Pleasanton and Tracy.
That creates a dialogue between places. And that is how education really makes sense to children. Because when you can make comparisons between what they know already The knowledge is incomplete, but that doesn't matter. They know the place. And with some place that is unfamiliar, but local. And, this is an idea of how people and places can relate to So we start around the world, then Pleasanton, then home.
You let me know what your cultural heritage is. I can bring that into the lesson plans. Enrichment is not art, it's not music, it's not all of those things like physical education. It is what's happening with our family and having the parts of it come together in their lesson plans. That's the enrichment. Children get to know what's going on with other families and their history. That's when they really understand better what a human being is.
We are many things. We are one. So there are many questions that will drive our exploration for this trimester. We'll ask questions like why is the road there? And we're not going to just ask them of each other. We're not going to ask them when we investigate on our computers. We're going to go to city council and ask them questions like What makes a neighborhood home? Who decides what gets built? We'll go to the planning commission.
I want answers to questions like this to come from the source, not from somebody's idea of the source. Although they need to learn that too, because both represent the bigger picture of what the truth is. Where does our water go? We have sinks, we constantly put water in and fill it. Where does it go? Well, there are special systems in Pleasanton, and San Ramon, that recycle that water. And, I want them to see recycling.
. Volunteering for that field trip? Oh, come on!
This is exciting stuff because the kids get to see what normally is invisible to them. They do. They see the water collected, and what the treatment actually looks like. They don't forget.
And what it smells like.
So, the big question is, how could all of these things that exist in our asking each other those questions only. We'll go out in a community. So we get outside, we observe, we interview, we investigate some more, we test. Thank you. So, the experiential learning on Wednesdays will include projects like the Lions Garden Beautification Project.
One of the things...I love to garden, personally. I've had gardens most of my adult life. And, my wife also gardens. What we have now is a balcony. And, that's got birds. because we have a northern exposure and sunlight just doesn't get there. In any event, that's what we grow. And this is a representation of what the garden that is in the state it's in now will become. So we'll be building chairs and tables and planter boxes
And the build out should take us into the winter. Now hopefully they're going to continue this garden and build everything outside so we can move the plants into what we build rather than let the plants go. A huge garden project at UC Santa Cruz that I participated in from the beginning. And that garden project changed my life. And I know that seeing and participating in growing living things makes a difference to children.
I had a teacher who took me aside for an hour after school every day as soon as she found out that I couldn't read, because I did it. Not only did I learn how to read, I learned how to read fast. So I will teach the children techniques for increasing their reading speed once they get into the part of reading where they are doing it. Speak to yourself in your head for a while and then you won't need to speak to yourself at all because information will be a word that is just there.
And each student will have an opportunity to build a business under a tent and have people be attentive.
So before we build, we ask, what do people need? What frustrates them? I always ask, what's the problem? What's the problem really? Because it's usually not what people say. It's usually something related to it, but different. And what could work better? And that is something that will happen all the way through this year in all the subjects. How can we do it better? And I'm going to depend on you to give me feedback and ideas.
I'm not just interested in you telling me I'm doing a great job or a really poor job. I'm interested in what ideas you have. And that will help. I'll incorporate them if they fit. Maybe even if they don't fit. So that leaves the subjects: science, math, Socratic practice, reading, art, communication, business, and physical education. We investigate, solve, question, understand other lives, observe and make, reach an audience, test value, and persist
Cooperate and network. And twice a week we have physical education. On Tuesdays, Jamin will provide all kinds of physical activity. He's so good at finding ways to get children to move. And what you're going to notice is that every 20 minutes I require students to get up and move. And I will teach A little technique that I know works for me and has worked for a whole lot of people and that hopefully they will teach it to you.
Just more of a comment, I'm so excited about the depth and changes of the program this year. The reflection and the transfer is such a huge thing that I think has just been missing, that has been overlooked. And we've noticed that void, particularly at the end of Kidpreneur. Yes, of course it's not the end. Yeah, it's the end, but we never really revisited how did it go. And so, the way that this is set up now will be so much more powerful for these kids, and carrying this theme of reflection and transfer in all these subjects is powerful.
I've looked at public education for a long time. And those two ideas collection and transfer aren't happening. And I've always considered them to be the most important. And I see that you are too. So, yes. If you want, we can have a little Socratic session.
Suddenly everyone was interested. And so I did that. I became whatever artist I was talking about. I won't dress up as different artists. I will keep the shirts. The best. Whatever it takes to get their attention. You're going to notice a big difference in your children because I believe art is just another kind of communication. It's visual communication as opposed to verbal communication. Of course you can incorporate words into visual art, but basically it's images.
how to use those images and arrange them into a larger image that communicates an idea. So they're going to be multicultural. I'll bring in art from all over the world. It will be appropriate art, but it will be from all over the world. So that they get a sense that what they see in a museum 50 years ago isn't what there is now. Museums, I am happy to say, in the San Francisco Bay Area are different than any other place in the United States.
What's that? The Socratic method. Okay. What is it about math that you're doing in science? What is it about English that you're doing in business? What is it about business that you're doing in government? Everything can relate to everything if we only allow it. People would open their minds to the possibility that there are other answers than just the ones we've had since the beginning. Maybe some problems we can solve.
I'm on the third edit. But it's about how creativity needs to be the foundation of learning. I used to say art was the foundation, but it's not true. Every subject, every academic subject has creativity,