Rethinking Learning
conversations about the future of teaching and learning
Barbara Bray
be creative, innovate, take risks, unlearn to learn
Oakland, CA

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Tread Softly on Their Dreams

By Barbara Bray      May 25, 2010 -- 01:10 PM
Sir Ken Robinson talk explains about doing your passion, doing what you are good at and personalizing learning. It's all the things I've been saying for so long. Not everyone is supposed to go to college. How he puts it is that human talent is diverse. It's the diversity that makes us who we are. School, starting in Kindergarten, is focused on getting everyone into college and follows the manufacturing model. That model is broken. He is so right. We are in a revolution and reforming this model will not make it work. I'm curious what you think of his talk. It's under 17 minutes but I highly recommend ...   more...
Comments: 1   Last Comment By Khephra  May 25, 2010 -- 03:25 PM

Are you blocking creativity?

By Barbara Bray      January 29, 2010 -- 08:45 AM
After reading Brian Clark's post "Do you recognize these 10 mental blocks to creative thinking?", I get it why it takes so long to change education. Clark wrote:

People like to call this “thinking outside of the box,” which is the wrong way to look at it. Just like Neo needed to understand that “there is no spoon” in the film The Matrix, you need to realize “there is no box” to step outside of.

You create your own imaginary boxes simply by living life and accepting certain things as “real” when they are just as illusory as the beliefs of a paranoid delusional. The difference is, enough people ...   more...
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A Whole New Mind about Education

By Barbara Bray      January 23, 2010 -- 05:27 PM
My eCoach’s Book Club
book until 2/15/10.
I just finished "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink for our book club. I’ve participated in conferences, read books, and watched TED videos that talk about bringing creativity and innovation back to the classroom. My last post was about how Piaget explains that schools were designed to train our factory workers and where that model isn’t working anymore. From Pink’s book, Piaget’s explanation, and so many other sources that I am learning about, we are in the midst of CHANGE, if we like it or not.

Educators created a system, just like the QWERTY keyboard, ...   more...
Comments: 2   Last Comment By small Barbara Bray  January 25, 2010 -- 05:38 PM

Finding Your Creative Self

By Barbara Bray      August 16, 2009 -- 02:15 PM
I was brought up to think on my own; to color outside the lines; to be creative; and always ask "why" even if there is no answer to the question. I am curious why we are here; why the grass is green and the sky is blue; why being passionate about something makes you feel so good; why there are so many questions. I thank my mom for believing that each person is unique and can do whatever they want to do.
 I believe...
  I don’t believe...
  • everyone is gifted.
  • everyone is smart in different ways.
  • each of us has talents that we may not use.
  • each day is a new day.
  • in loving yourself first.
  • you
...   more...
Comments: 2   Last Comment By Josh  August 18, 2009 -- 06:47 AM

Living your Dream

By Barbara Bray      July 22, 2009 -- 09:21 AM
When you have a passion for something, it makes each morning exciting and new. You cannot wait to see what happens next. Doing something you love makes your life have purpose. With the economy in such a mess, especially for our schools and even worse in California, how do many of our educators like me and many of you reading this post, continue doing what you love?

We became teachers to make a difference - for the kids - not for the money. But now, it’s starting to hurt. States are in the red and taking money from counties; counties are taking money from cities; cities are grabbing what ...   more...
Comments: 3   Last Comment By small Steven Sanchez  August 10, 2009 -- 04:01 PM

Bring Play back into the Classroom

By Barbara Bray      March 19, 2009 -- 11:16 AM
Something really got to me today. I received this report on Play Disappearing from the Kindergarten Classroom. What happened? We ask our children to grow up way too fast and then life comes hurdling toward them full speed. They have to be able to test well. Why? Who’s test?

A good friend of mine who was a Kindergarten teacher quit - retired after 25 years. She couldn’t stand spending hours on hours teaching children how to fill in a bubble on the test sheet. She had to cut down on reading time, cut down on play time, cut down on singing, dancing, art. I even think this is starting to happen ...   more...
Comments: 1   Last Comment By Linda George  March 19, 2009 -- 12:37 PM