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Albert Einstein, a Bucket, and Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

1/1/2019

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Map by photogrammetry expert Kevin Reinhardt.

​You already have everything you need to become an amazing leader

Isaac Newton believed a lot could be learned from spinning a bucket filled with water.

Of course, Newton believed something could be learned from anything. Everything. A piece of glass in sunlight taught him about light frequencies. Marbles taught him about thermodynamics. An apple taught him about gravity.
PictureLong before Pink Floyd, Newton rocked the rainbow. NEWTON, Sir Isaac (1642–1727, knighted 1705). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica. PHOTO BY APIC/GETTY IMAGES
Newton’s experiments grew out his curiosity about the world around him. Centuries later, scientists and science-haters alike still use his work to explain big ideas in simple ways. His willingness to try new things helped him invent calculus and physics, which you shouldn’t hold against him.

And while we all know Isaac Newton, many of us have never heard of his experiment that inspired a young Albert Einstein to create a theory that would change the world. In fact, it was another thinker named Ernst Mach (after whom the speed of sound is named) who put Newton’s experiment in Einstein’s lap to help him erect E=mc2. Don’t know what that most famous formula in the world even means? Don’t worry. Almost nobody knows what the hell it means. But this might help. Have fun with that later.
​
For now, all you have to think about is Newton’s bucket of water — and how it can help you unlock the secrets of the greatest influencers, teachers, and leaders in human history.

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​You never feel the world spinning.

It’s an essential understanding that leaders must have: there are always important things going on that we are not seeing, hearing, or feeling. ​

Newton's bucket

Isaac Newton did it like this, and you can try it at home: find a bucket with a handle. Attach a rope to the middle of the handle and fill the bucket with water. Now, hold the rope in one hand and rotate the bucket with the other hand, and watch what the water does. As the bucket spins, the water slowly begins to spin, too. The water near the edges begins to move more and more rapidly, slowly beginning to creep up the walls of the bucket while the water in the middle moves more slowly. It’s good to do this alone and not drunk, if possible.
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Newton, like you, recognized that the water moved because the bucket moved. While this observation takes little imagination, Newton’s further thoughts about it do. Pretend you live inside the bucket and have no reference but the bucket (let’s imagine that the bucket is your whole world, kind of like how American football fans act during Super Bowl week). You would have no understanding of why the water started to climb up the walls of the of bucket, any more than you can “feel” the world spinning under your feet right now.

The water would just start moving up the wall and you’d be like “what the f@#$ is happening to the water?!” You wouldn’t be able to explain it — unless you understood that there was a whole world outside the bucket. You wouldn’t even know that you were spinning unless you were aware of some relative point outside your world.
Newton recognized this but didn’t do much with it aside from talk about motion and inertia. Ernst Mach, centuries later, used Newton’s experiment to do an even crazier experiment. You don’t even need a bucket for this one.

everything is connected

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Go out into a field some clear night, somewhere you can actually see the stars. Look straight up into the sky and start to spin around, as if you were a bucket in the 17th century. Notice two things: the stars appear to be “circling around you” with the ones over top your head going slower than the stars closer to the horizon. Also notice that your arms begin to pull away from your body.

Notice too that you are alone, spinning in a field in the middle of the night. This is what has become of your life. Maybe this is a good thing?

​Mach theorized your arms floating upward were somehow related to the stars spinning, in the same way that Newton thought the water spun because the bucket spun. Put simply, your arms lifting from your body as a result of centrifugal force are directly connected to your understanding that the stars are spinning. You can’t see the stars spin like that unless you also experience centrifugal force. Einstein, thrilled by this notion, explained it by saying that “a particle’s inertia is due to some interaction of that particle with all the other masses in the universe.” The big point: everything ever is somehow connected to everything else.

You might already be interested in this idea. You might be a fan of the Butterfly Effect, in which a butterfly flapping its wings in Beijing causes a tornado in Wichita. You might be a Moneyball baseball fan who sees every piece of meaningless-looking data as a yet-to-be-understood number that could help you predict the next World Series winner. Maybe you are political and believe this is why globalism is inevitable and that all humans are of the same family. You might find spiritual comfort in this insight as well, seeing it as proof that there is a reason for randomness, tragedy, and the inexplicable.
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You might also be a believer in the idea that Kevin Bacon really is only six degrees away from every actor in every film ever.

Stop explaining, start contexting

Me? I see it as the framework for how to influence how people think. People don’t understand new ideas because they are forced to. They don’t start a new habit because someone explains something to them. As a public school teacher for 20 years, I’ve learned that people don’t learn because they are taught.

People begin to think differently when someone or something finds a way to make an idea relevant to them. People don’t just accept new ideas.

We can’t learn anything new unless we can connect it to what we already know. This is a fundamental law of learning. There is no conventional teaching anywhere. There is only assisted learning. It’s a subtle but powerful distinction.

When someone helps us connect new dots, we’ll try just about anything. We will buy new products, join new churches, change careers, fight a war we were against, vote for candidates we think are clowns, have sex with people we used to ignore, and/or learn the basics of physics.

When you know how to use the context of people’s worlds to help them understand things on their own terms, you can get people to understand nearly anything. Whatever a person knows, it can be used to help him begin to think about what he doesn’t know. Every person’s life is an un-completed map with roads leading to new ideas. Understand how to build context for those you hope to influence, and you can expand anyone’s thinking. If you believe that everything is connected, then finding the right context becomes inevitable.
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PEOPLE DON’T JUST ACCEPT NEW IDEAS.

​People begin to think differently when someone or something finds a way to make an idea relevant to them. 

When you study the great thought leaders in the history of the world, you find that they aren’t explainers, they aren’t coercers, they aren’t even leaders.
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They are the ones who are relentlessly concerned with how other people see and understand the world. They know that connections are waiting to be unearthed; they believe that every single person’s point of view is an opportunity.

They are Contexters.
​

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Mike Kleba has been teaching high school English and Theatre for nearly 20 years. Co-founder of Teachernomics.com, Kleba has spoken on stages around the world about the importance and power of teachers in leadership. He believes that humanity’s most important asset is the imagination.

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3 Reasons To Take Down Your Mission Statement

3/20/2018

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Great leadership is the  single greatest force in human history.

There are a few simple things I’ve come to believe to about leadership. For example, most leaders suck. Many of them prefer people who agree with them. Most are hard to persuade because of their ego, confidence, or simple need for confirmation bias. Most would rather see you fail than see themselves fail.

In these ways, leaders are like most of us. Isn’t my criticism in the first paragraph applicable to almost everyone you know? Even you? Definitely me.

Now, gentle readers, do not be dismayed. I like people. I like leaders. I even like NY Giants fans. (I mean, not all of them. But some of them.) Humans suck for lots of reasons I simply don’t have time for in this 4 minute read.

But just because we all suck doesn’t mean that we can’t get a little better. And nothing in our human experiment is more important than improving leadership. 

Great leadership is the single greatest force in human history. There’s nothing more valuable nor influential. In a world of families, villages, towns, states, countries, corporations, religions, schools… great leaders drive culture. ​

This is because leadership is the business of people.
At the heart of great leadership is great teaching. Why? Because great teaching, at it’s most fundamental, is about uncovering and developing greatness in others. 

And so this one is for you leaders out there who really want to make a difference. 
So what’s my problem with Mission Statements?
I’ve been a critic of Mission Statements Written On Walls* for a long time. (*NOTE: I’m not a critic of Mission Statements themselves. Especially the act of writing them — it can be a remarkably useful way to bring a team together and focus on shared values, visions, etc.)

My problem is with posting them up on your wall at your workplace or website. Yeah, I know it seems like a good idea to put the Mission Statement on the wall. It's easy to imagine that seeing it on the wall inspires your own people and attracts new partners and clients.

I actually think it does the opposite. Here's why.


Three Reasons To Take That Mission Statement Down

1. It provides cover to a**holes. 
When you put a Mission Statement on the wall, no one has to change anything. No one has to act out the Mission Statement because, well, everyone is already doing it. The default IS the Mission Statement. The work is already done. Any of the weak members of your company/team/whatever can just point to the wall and say “that’s what I’m doing” no matter what they are actually doing. Don’t make it easy for those folks — they’re the last people you want to help on your team. They're why we can't have nice things.

2. It’s inefficient and unconfident.
None of you customers or clients will believe your mission statement unless your organization/company actually proves the mission through action. Writing it on the wall says "we're worried you might not know what we believe unless we write it up on the wall." Believe in your culture. Trust your people. Empower your people to BE the Mission Statement. 

3. It turns your mission into a compliance order. 
Every time you or your organization doesn’t measure up to your Mission Statement, your employees/members look at it and see the moral hypocrisy of your leadership. Every leader is a hypocrite at some point or another. You simply cannot be aspirational without falling short from time to time. Posting your Mission Statement can incentivize you and your people to care more about complying with the Mission Statement rather than embodying it. It makes people into lawyers on behalf of the Mission Statement (“well, you can see how we were really trying find a good solution during that colossal f**k up”) or to be harsh critics on the attack (“yeah, we believe in equality so much that so-and-so has been a jerk to every sales team member”).
This is not a new idea
As revolutionary as it might sound, ripping down that Mission Statement isn’t even a new idea. We have tons of aphorisms in our culture that speak to how it doesn't matter what you say-- it's what you do:

“If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and eats like a duck…”
“You know a fruit by it’s tree”
“
You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you”

When I was a kid, we used to sing this song at Bible school: “They’ll know that we are Christians by our love.” Look, I wasn’t the best kid at Bible school. But I liked the singing part. And I liked that song.
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People will know your Mission Statement by how you walk, talk, and eat. No matter what you have written on your wall, they are watching and judging you. Everyone else already knows what you believe. They read it on you every time they interact with you.


​Everyone you 
interact
​with already knows your Mission Statement

​But, look, maybe you can't give up posting that Mission Statement. You love your stencils or fonts or whatever. You paid a lot of money for it, maybe. I get it. If you simply can’t help but put a Mission Statement on the wall of your office or website or whatever, here’s what I suggest:

​
Our Mission Statement:
​
​We ASPIRE to be judged by how we act. Let us know how we’re doing
.


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Mike Kleba has been teaching high school English and Theatre for nearly 20 years. Co-founder of Teachernomics.com, Kleba has spoken on stages around the world about the importance and power of teachers in leadership. He believes that humanity’s most important asset is the imagination.

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mikey's mixtapes: sxswedu 2018

2/4/2018

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I’ve always loved a good mixtape.

In the movie “High Fidelity,” the character Rob (played by John Cusack) explains “the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do’s and don’ts. First of all, you’re using someone else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.”
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As anyone who’s ever received a killer mixtape knows: a mixtape can not only introduce you to new music, it can change how you hear the songs you already know.

So… I've made you a few mixtapes. I know, I know. We barely know each other. But check it out: instead of songs, I’ve curated a list of SXSW EDU 2018 conference sessions. My goal? To introduce you to some of the hottest innovators in education right now: Teacher Leaders.

I’ll be featuring working preK-12 teachers who are running companies, leading policies, innovating products, and sparking movements, all while they’re holding down a teaching gig. These Teacher Leaders are coming to Austin from every corner of the country– including of course, Texas. Heck, we’ve even got a Canadian teacher bringing some.

The making of a good mixtape is a very subtle art. many do's and don'ts.

Every Tuesday this February, the folks at SXSW EDU will be dropping one of my mixtapes. Each mixtape will focus on an educational trend or movement that’s popping on the national stage at SXSW EDU. Our mixtapes will include a blog post and a curated list of teacher-led sessions, as well as when and where to catch those sessions.
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Collect all four!
Mikey’s Mixtapes for SXSW EDU 2018

Mixtape #1: Justice League Teachers
Sessions on equity, race, justice, and inclusion


Including the timely “Let’s Teach About Race,” a panel that will feature elementary school teachers Akiea Gross and Yvonne Tackie mixing it up with a professor and edtech product specialist.

02/13 Mixtape #2: Let the Teacher Drive
Sessions about teacher leadership/partnership in schools, industry, and policy


With featured session “Human Skills for Digital Natives,” presented by middle & high school science teacher JP Connolly and WNYC podcast host & writer Manoush Zomorodi.

02/20 Mixtape #3: Teacher Toy Story
Sessions featuring gaming, design learning, and the maker movement

Including “Toy Hacking, Robotics for the Rest of Us,” led by creative elementary school teachers Sara Boucher and Cicely Day.

02/27 Mixtape #4: The First Ones In
Sessions about teachers as edtech champions & the most important power users in the game

Including the visionary panel “Students Can Build the VR/AR Worlds of the Future,” featuring high school teachers Jordan Budisantoso and Mark Suter.

This article originally appeared on the SXSWedu blog.
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Mike Kleba has been teaching high school English and Theatre for nearly 20 years. He’s taken a year sabbatical from the classroom to help lead DegreeCast, a startup that is building a tool designed to make higher ed search more practical and delightful. Co-founder of Teachernomics.com, Kleba has spoken on stages around the world about the importance and power of teachers in leadership. He believes that humanity’s most important asset is the imagination.

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Taking Kids To Spain

1/8/2018

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Spilling in reds, oranges, and blues, the Spanish sun splashes graffiti on the medieval flagstones. They stand there, the children, in their Nikes and Adidas, Uggs and slip-ons. Looking up, their eyes try to adjust to the unforgiving contrasts of light and dark.

“These vaults, the crotch vaulting- look at it, amazing- are the work of unknown craftsman from the 14 and 1500's...” The voice of our guide, Salome, echoes into nothingness, quickly replaced by the muffled chatter of the students. “You are standing in a place that represented the place between heaven and earth for the people of this town. Hundreds of years ago, if you'd been a peasant, you would have been in awe.”

The high school kids appear split into groups on this, in classic adolescent fashion. Some are bored and tired, barely aware of where they are. Others are fighting the ennui, trying to make sense of any of it. And then others: transfixed, mouth agape, eyes filled with wonder.

how do you think they got up there, dude?


              ---


​and I ask myself:
how did nick get to this moment of wonder?

I make eye contact with one of them, a boy named Nick. It's been a long trip from NY to Spain and we've been here for days. I raise my eyebrows with a “what do you think?” expression. He looks at me and says, “Wow, Mr. Kleba, I had no idea. It's incredible. How did they do all this?” 

The right response to him is, of course, "How do YOU think they got those stones up there, dude?" The ensuing conversation would be lovely and productive.  But I pause.

I look back up to the towering heights of the stone arches, questions of my own echoing in my head. Nick's reaction is the holy grail in education, the sublime moment. Normally at school, he's distracted and out of it, watching the clock. I've had him in class. But right now, he is wide open, ready to learn, thrilled by the idea of understanding more. He's prime meat.  In the cool dark of this cathedral, he is so bloody teachable. At this moment, he could learn just about anything.

And I ask myself: how did he get to this moment of wonder? What series of events led to this kid's specific experience? Why is he in the zone while others are not?
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​Getting a person to the place where she is willing to learn is the single most important job of a teacher. Sure, we've got to keep the buggers in their seats, patrol them for petty crimes, and drag them through mazes of mandated tests, forms, and procedures. But, mostly, it's about getting them into the zone.

The best teacher you ever had-- think about him or her for a moment-- was a master at getting you in the zone. You never liked math until you had Ms. Murphy. Social studies made no sense until Mr. Psota breathed life into it. Chemistry was an inscrutable cloud until Mr. Ferris helped you pilot it.

In the zone, you found yourself more interested in learning. You let your wonder free. You forgot about the burdens of everything and became engaged in the matter at hand. You suddenly cared about how or why something worked.

Nick got in the zone because a bunch of teachers, working outside of the typical parameters, did a lot of stuff to help get him there.

  1. TRAVEL. He had to leave the world of comfort and stability back home. Getting out of the unfamiliar was required. Strange language, strange food, strange bed-- all of it had an impact.
  2. INVESTMENT. He needed to be invested in the trouble of it all-- paying a lot money to travel helped with that, but so did the work of packing and traveling he put in.  
  3. GREAT MATERIAL. He had to be confronted with something worth learning, something bigger than himself. Something with undeniable value and meaning in of itself.
  4. CREATIVE TEACHERS.  He needed teachers who could create and facilitate zone moments.
We only went to Spain so that Nick, and others like him, could get into the zone. The best thing we did was carefully pluck the kid out of the routine of his life and give him a way to appreciate something.
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​​We are having the wrong conversations about education.  We want a more perfect education system-- and it's crazy.  We are spending too much money and time keeping kids in systems. Our education culture is stilted in its repetitive, construct-based model. We don't need better curricula-- we need better teachers. Frankly, we don't even need better testing-- we need better opportunities for the kids.  
We can't address what's not working in education by taking all the kids on field trips- that's not the point.  But creating conditions for kids to experience beautiful, inspiring, and challenging moments should be our prime focus.  And, culturally, politically, and economically, we aren't even talking about how to do it.  

Can we afford to take kids to Spain?  No, definitely not in this economy.  But can we afford not to?

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Mike Kleba has been teaching high school English and Theatre for nearly 20 years. He’s taken a year sabbatical from the classroom to help lead DegreeCast. Co-founder of Teachernomics.com, Kleba has spoken on stages around the world about the importance and power of teachers in leadership. He believes that humanity’s most important asset is the imagination.

This piece originally appeared on iBlogAmerica hosted by blogspot.
All photos are mine, collected on a student tour in Spain, 2012.

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4 Reasons Why Leaders Who Act Like Teachers Win

10/4/2017

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Everyone can remember her favorite teacher. For some, it was a fifth grade teacher who read books aloud to the class. For others it was a softball coach, a mentor at a new job, or professor at university.

This teacher changed you — made you rethink the world and your place in it. The best teachers don’t just improve a person’s understanding — they change a person from the inside out.

We live in a world where everyone is trying to get a leadership edge. Your company wants to get more attention and convert people into followers/customers/clients. No profession has more experience in capturing and converting followers than teachers.
My nearly 20 years working in schools has allowed me expert access to what makes great teachers such leadership rockstars. You want to be a leader that your team/clients believe in? Engage like a teacher.

the secret to  great leadership?
Engage like a teacher.

1. Be a Contexter.
Every message has context. Simon Sinek told you to know your “Why.” I’m telling you to know your “Who, When, and Where.” I call it Contexting.

You need to be a communication monster when you are a leader. Build your messaging around who you are talking to, their background knowledge, what they care about/are afraid of, where they are, and when they are. It’s not about you. It’s about them.

People aren’t empty vessels waiting to be the recipients of your genius. Have respect for the fact that everyone hears/sees things in a different way. If they don’t understand you, they won’t pay attention to you.

2. Take full responsibility for miscommunication.
People get so caught up in what broke down in a miscommunication. “Whose fault was it?” people ask. Who cares? Even if it isn’t your fault when you were misunderstood, it’s your job to fix it.

Miscommunication is one of the greatest creators of problems in human history. This is true in markets, too. Be the adult in the room. Deal with it.

3. Listen because you mean it.
​Respect and loyalty are plants in a garden. They take time to develop and are easy to kill. If you act like you give a shit but you actually don’t, your listeners will figure it out. And then they’ll not only bail, they won’t want to come back.

You want to build an audience/employee team without loyalty? Fine. Watch them leave when the next shiny object floats by. Pay attention to them — their needs, their worries, their dreams — and they’ll resist leaving you.

4. Your greatest success is achieved through others.
Teachers know: you can’t do anything TO your students. You can only achieve things THROUGH your students.

Your clients need to believe that their success is of critical importance to you — not simply a collateral consequence after you get them to sign a contract. Same with your employees: when the people who work for you believe that you actually care about their success, they’ll work harder and longer for you and with you.

Remember: your people are the ones who “graduate” — not you.

Great teachers aren’t selfless. They are “otherfull.” Make your work about building greatness in others.

Isn’t that what great leadership is all about?
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A Tambourine Might Be the Best Design Teacher I Ever Had

7/28/2017

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I wanted to research an instrument’s history for my students. Instead, I found the ancient design secret of great tools.
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Bob Dylan had just spent a few music-filled nights on the wet the purple, glittered, and littered streets of New Orleans when he wrote one of the greatest songs of the 20th Century.

It was the spring of 1964 and Dylan had been on a cross country road trip with a few friends, seeing America and writing songs, including one that would become his enduring hit “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Critics would speculate that the song was inspired by the cajun and jazz music of the Mardi Gras krewes that Dylan would have undoubtedly heard in NOLA. 

A year and a half later after Dylan recorded it, the genre of Folk Rock was born when The Byrds exploded at the top of the US and UK pop charts with their cover of Dylan’s selfsame “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Music historians contend that The Byrd’s version impacted music for decades, including work by The Beatles, The Animals, Tom Petty, The Smiths, Fleetwood Mac, the Black Keys,
and that damn-him-for-being-good Harry Styles. The song has literally shaped music history.

What Instrument Turns Anyone Into a Musician?

When I began researching the tambourine, my goal was to find the definitive roots of this amazing instrument. It was sparked by a typically random classroom tangent in my IB theatre class.

​Somebody was musing about how some instruments take years of practice to sound good (violin, accordion) while others make a decent sound even when played by someone who sucks at music (triangle, bongo). Another kid brought up the tambourine and said it was actually “like, an ancient instrument.” She added that there was a Bible story about a prophet who played the tambourine.
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Listen to Bessie Griffin. You will not be sorry.
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I have always loved the tambourine — I love it in everything from Motown to rock to gospel to folk — I even like synth tam. It’s the secret sauce that brings in the soul, taking songs to new emotional levels. I love that anyone can play it. And, I loved the idea that it had ancient roots. I wanted to know more.
The internet, being what it is, took me right to Bob Dylan’s song and the story I tell at the start of this article. It then funneled me to tambourine sales and how-to books on playing the tam, then images of ancient Macedonian statues and Medieval tapestries featuring tambourines. I stumbled upon Armenian thumb rolling techniques and a Simpson’s supervillain. I learned that Mozart was one of the first European classical composers to shake it in his works. And the intertubes reminded me of a character from a book I taught years ago in 10th grade Honors English: Jonathan Safran Foer’s all-clad-in-white Oskar in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. 

I began to realize something remarkable: the tambourine is f*cking everywhere. In the history of the world, it’s as common as religion and prostitution.

Shake Your Moneymaker: A Brief History of the Tam

Nefertari, wife of Ramesses IIKnown by dozens of names, the tambourine cannot be claimed by any one culture. Pharaoh Queen Nefartari can be seen shimmying with a tambourine-like sistrum in hieroglyphics dating from at least 1250 BCE. The tambourine also appears multiple times in the Bible, played by angels and mortals — and, yes, in the hands of prophet Miriam as she dances it up in the book of Exodus. The ancient Greeks used the tambourine to celebrate and honor the gods. The ancient Chinese Eastern Zhou dynasty had tambourine players, dating tambourine origins in East Asia to more than 2000 years ago. 

Since its invention, the tambourine has spread around the world. It‘s been featured in music from cultures in Azerbaijan to Argentina, from the Islamic Javanese of Indonesia to the Maori of New Zealand, from African American slaves to Russian gypsies. An instrument of celebration and misery, of community and loneliness, the tambourine belongs to the globe.
It’s as if the tambourine was a musical tool that demanded to be invented. 
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Nefertari, wife of Ramesses II

Great Design Releases the Imagination

​As a high school English and Theatre teacher, one of the things I explore with students is the machinery of beauty and economy. It is the through line of the construction of the poetry of Pablo Neruda and the plays of Harold Pinter, as well as the function of tools like the clothespin and bicycle wheel. By blurring the line between “art” and “tools,” I invite my students to think about how great design isn’t just about things looking good. It’s about use, agency, flow, and feel.

Any great tool — the wheel, the knife, the lever — reveals its greatness in its capacity to channel curiosity and new ideas. A great tool is useful to everyone because it meets you exactly at your proficiency level, even if at first you suck at using it. It becomes more useful as you learn to use it.


The tambourine is a brilliant example of this.
A tambourine demands you pick it up and shake it. Put it in front of a three year old and she will not just make sounds. She will explore sounds. This is because a great tool teaches you about yourself and the world.

My research of this jangly drum with cymbals clarified some things I’ve been trying to put into words for years. What has made the tambourine so universal — and so playable — reveals the essential elements of great tool design. I’ve made a short list of design fundamentals that I’ve learned from the tam. Maybe it will be useful to you.


a great tool teaches you about yourself and the world.

I call it “The Tambourine Principle.” ​

It has four parts. Great tools:
  1. Need no instructions. They teach the user how to use them through play and use.
  2. Develop the user’s skill by being adaptable to his/her will and use.
  3. Reward curiosity with delight, satisfaction, and/or understanding.
  4. Grow in value as the user’s imagination grows, the more the tool is used.

Tools like the tambourine give flight to one’s imagination. They are powered by the user’s capacity to try new ideas. These tools (or toys or instruments — call them what you like) don’t just accomplish a job that the user desires.

A great tool changes the person who uses it. Put another way: the greatest tools shape the human mind, not the other way around.

​It’s also why the internet is probably the greatest tool ever invented. Yet.​​​

And, as for Dylan

…once again, his genius has the last laugh. His original “Mr. Tambourine Man” has exactly zero tambourines in it — which kind of sucks for my article. But on second glance, the lyrics are about wonder, curiosity, and the inventive human spirit.
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I don’t know if you buy it, but here’s what I think: “Mr. Tambourine Man” is a tribute to the imaginative power released by a beautifully designed tool.
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Chief Teachers

3/27/2017

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Mike Kleba speaking about teacher leadership at SXSWedu 2017.
Teachers are one of our culture's greatest undervalued assets.

The fact that teachers are overwhelmingly absent from leadership in companies, policy think tanks, edu organizations, and politics isn't merely sad-- it's foolish. Specifically, companies that work in education are wasting money and time, bereft of the rich and dynamic input that working teachers could offer.


there is a surging energy out there 

a teacher leadership movement waiting to happen

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A few weeks ago, the amazing team at SXSWedu invited me to come to Austin to tell my story. SXSWedu offers a week of tacos, good beer, and in one of the live music capitals of the world-- along with the chance to mix it up with leaders of the state of the art in education. Who would pass that up?

Not this guy.

I've been fortunate in connecting with SXSWedu. I've gotten to work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, started relationships with and consulted for various companies, got scouted to speak at the National Charter Schools Convention in Nashville, and traveled to London to speak at EdTechX Europe. 

And it's been fun. I've learned a lot, heard tons of stories, and met people who are truly passionate about improving education in this country and around the world.

More than anything, I've gotten the chance to see just how much people want to talk about the paucity of teachers in leadership. There is a growing energy out there-- a movement waiting to happen. It's a movement that I know will change schools, change companies, and impact how people are learning.

Put teachers on your leadership team. Hire teachers-in-residence. Invite a working teacher to sit on your Board of Directors or Advisors. Hire a Chief Teacher Officer. 

You want to improve schools? You want to make money doing it? Get some working teachers in your bullpen.
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Farm to Table, Education Style

2/23/2017

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​Alice Waters wasn’t trying to convince all of us to start eating organic eggs.
 
She just wanted to open a restaurant that served what she called “real food.” She wanted greens from local garden, beef from a farm near town, and eggs from chickens close to her restaurant-- not from an industry a thousand miles away. In a world of packaged and industrial food, she was an outlier—but Waters was on to something. Her restaurant became a sensation, inspiring chefs around the country helping to spark what came to be known as the Farm-to-Table movement.

​Everyone has always known that our food comes from farms. The farm to table movement hasn’t changed WHAT we think about food—it’s changed HOW we think about food.
 
That revelation has sparked a revolution—and now you can get organic eggs everywhere.
 
What the hell does this have to do with education?

what the hell does this have to do with education?

​We’re on the verge of a similar movement, people. Yes, education is overrun with movements. We’re awash in ‘em, from Artificial Intelligence to Flipped Classrooms to 21st Century Skills Instruction.
 
But I think there’s an Alice Waters-level insight, something simple and familiar, that could change education across the country.
 
Study after study says that a student’s success in a school are dominated by two factors: her family’s income level and the quality of her teacher. It’s not the school buildings, advances in Ed Tech (sorry), or even (gasp) the students. 


​A school's quality
​ingredients are its 
​teachers.

It’s time for a Farm-to-Table Movement for Education. The quality, locally sourced ingredients are the teachers. And the “farms” are the richness of their experiences, the broadness of their lives.
 
Whether hiking a trail in the Andes, taking a welding class, training for a marathon, talking shop over a coffee with a fellow teacher, raising a daughter who loves to code, or finishing a masters in biochemistry, teachers become better teachers living full lives outside of the classroom.

​​Want to help improve our schools? Don’t just care about WHAT teachers are doing. Care about HOW they are living and learning outside of school.
 
It’s a revelation that might just spark a revolution.
 
Speaking of a trying to live a rich teacher life, I'm headed to SXSWedu 2017. See you at a session or keynote or maybe at the taco stand. I’ll be with a crowd of teachers, talking about life.
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SOURCES:

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/great-teachers-great-leaders.pdf
http://www.rand.org/education/projects/measuring-teacher-effectiveness/teachers-matter.html
http://www.edudemic.com/guides/flipped-classrooms-guide/
https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/10-hallmarks-21st-century-teaching-and-learning
https://lettuceeatkale.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/cultivating-controversy-in-defense-of-an-edible-education/
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/22/travel/alice-waters-culinary-journey/


PHOTO CREDITS:
taco/beer photo credit: http://www.martinresortstravellog.com/
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Teachersplaining

11/25/2016

3 Comments

 
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I’m an English teacher and, obviously, people expect me to be the Tom Brady of punctuation. I'm not, of course-- I'm much more the Bill Murray of metaphor-- but people have expectations. At Thanksgiving dinner this past week, my brother asked me about the lyrics for Bill Withers song “Just the Two of Us” and whether it should be “you and I” or “you and me.”  
​
​“Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us, you and I”
I know the answer to this, luckily—“you and I” is correct. My brother didn’t agree. He wanted me to explain it to him and I, using one of my best teaching techniques, refused. I asked him if he understood the concept of “Nominative Case.” He loved that response so much he stopped talking to me.
 
By the way, that’s a way to end any conversation you don’t want to have. Feel free to borrow it. By the way, sorry about that, Paul.

​Was my intent to shut him down? Hell no. My brother was shut down already. He didn’t want to understand anything—he just wanted a fast answer. And teaching has little to do with fast answers.
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You don't already own this record? What?


he didn't want to

understand anything-
he just wanted a
fast answer.


​

​
...and teaching has
little to do with

fast answers.

I f@#$ing love grammar. I should also say that I know that “none in the accident was hurt” is correct and that “he handed me a beer” is, literally, insane. I also know that my usage of “literally” in the last sentence is inappropriate and overblown—but, let’s be honest, people think that it would be “inappropriate” for a teacher to have a glass of wine in the teachers' lunchroom. I would call it “civilized.”
 
While we’re on it, the word “lunchroom” is a crime against humanity.
 
Teachers aren’t walking Wikipedias and yet, stupidly, that’s the way we are widely seen. In fact, we often see ourselves that way. Good teachers should know stuff and explain it to everyone. We teachers like this role, I think.
 
But that’s jacked up—and it reveals an enormous problem in how we see what great teachers actually do.
Picture
​Teachers Explain Things To Me
 
This past summer, I stumbled upon Rebecca Solnit’s brilliant and bestselling book Men Explain Things To Me.  I liked the text so much I’m reading it with my senior communications students this year. Solnit nails the issue of “mansplaining,” a term she used in the Los Angeles Times in 2008 to describe how some men cluelessly tell women “how things are.” We so obviously live in a man’s world—a place where men are encouraged to be successful and confident much more than women. Mansplaining reveals how certain men rarely recognize this fundamental reality and explain things entirely from their own privileged and oblivious point of view.
 
But I don’t believe Solnit’s message is necessarily just about gender. It’s about how a culture of explaining is, inherently, self-deluding. Power creates a sort of blindness in communication. “Explaining” itself is the problem.
As a culture, we misunderstand the purpose of teaching, learning, and school. Most of us believe that school is where we go to acquire content and skill mastery. Anything we can’t learn on our own must be “taught” to us, we believe.  And the way we learn is through explanation.
 
Here’s where teachers come in. Good teachers are good explainers, we think.


​

​"Explaining"
itself
is the problem.

New teachers are evaluated on their “lesson plans” which are, at their most fundamental, “activity and explanation plans.” We evaluate teachers based on their students’ test scores—based on the presupposition that a student’s results on a test will show how well the teachers explained curriculum.
 
But great teachers don’t explain much of anything.
 
The greats ask questions. They patiently advise students through moments of frustration. They pay attention to students, crafting responses that direct inquiry. They shine the light on a different part of a problem and say “what about that?” A great teacher sees a student’s ignorance not as a problem to be stamped out, punished, or conquered. Ignorance is an opportunity to spark curiosity. Learners don't want answers. They want to learn.
When we explain things, we diminish curiosity and discovery. We disable and we marginalize. We say, “good thing I’m here or you’d never figure this out.” Sure, sometimes a question needs a simple, fast answer. But, most of the time, questions should lead to more questions, searches, and analysis. Is it annoying? Sometimes. Is it transformative? Often.
 
Feed a person a fish and she eats for a day.
Teach her to fish and she eats for a lifetime.

​Explain fishing to her and she’ll be really f@#$ing bored.
 
And she’ll probably hate fishing.

When we
explain things, we diminish curiosity
.

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Sources:
-"Chalkboard Math" Forbes  http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2013/02/26/to-end-the-gender-skill-gap-in-stem-add-competition-to-the-equation/
-Rothman, Lily. "A Cultural History of Mansplaining." http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/11/a-cultural-history-of-mansplaining/264380/
-Zakanova Natalia, 'Fishing Girl"  
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3 Comments

Boredom is learned

9/26/2016

0 Comments

 
There are no bored three year olds.

​They don't exist. Three year olds want to know everything:  they explore the worlds through their eyes, hands, and mouths. Have you ever been around a child in the presence of a strong odor, like fresh cookies or dog poo, or a loud sound, like fireworks or bird chatter? They go off like alarm clocks set for "NOW!"  The five senses are a party. 

​The world is a whirling carousel of interesting things to a child, shimmering with possibility and purpose. Three year olds NEED to know everything.
 
So why don't thirteen year olds?  Or thirty or forty or fifty year olds, for that matter?
 
I don't know. I suspect it has to do with the hidden cost of experience.
Picture

We celebrate our ability to see patterns in things; we reward those with the most correct answers.

 As we grow and learn, we get energized by what is fresh and novel. Things happen that we don't expect.  It's a ride. We experience something, we are thrilled/horrified/seduced/shocked by it, then expect to experience it again. By the very nature of learning, we use past experience to shape our present experiences.

​We know the world through the comparison between what happened yesterday and today. We feel wise when we recognize what's about to happen. We celebrate our ability to see the patterns in things; we reward those with the most correct answers.

Our lives become safer and more stable as we become more steeped in the “causes and effects” of the world.


Picture
​But something happens:  as we grow, these expectations begin to erode our ability to experience something on its own terms. We experience fewer things that surprise us. We are constantly predicting what's going to happen-- and, often, we are right.

Life is scary. Predicting what's going to happen makes it bearable. Sometimes, it's the only difference between safety and danger, anxiety and relaxation.
The cost is that we often don't see everything that's there. We begin see ONLY the patterns that we've seen before; we focus on what's predictable and then miss the things that we don't expect.
 
As Sherlock Holmes as told us, we see what we expect to see.
 
And then we learn to stop learning. 
 
Here’s my definition of “boredom:” the result of when we displace the wildness of curiosity with the stability of predictability.
 
Let’s return to the three year old. Driven by curiosity, a child has no room for boredom.  She wants to learn everything. As she grows, the preponderance of experience wears down her interest in the world, like the ocean lapping at an enormous stone on the beach.  The sharp edges of curiosity, through predictability and experience, become the smooth contours of boredom.
 
How do we stop this erosion? In a world of accountability and liability, a world of safety and repetition, do we even want to?

We begin to see only the patterns we've seen before.

Picture


we learn to stop learning.

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