Note: This post applies to all students in all classes.
Every year, we watch Ken Robinson’s talk on education as an introduction to the Humanities makerspace. That video, in fact, gives us the icon for the most important skill taught and strengthened in here:
Click the image to load the full set of profiles, skills, and traits.
That list of the universal skills and traits of learning includes a similar icon for each pair. For an explanation of the other icons used to signify these universal skills and traits, load this document:
You can also scan a QR code posted on the wall of our classroom to read it. You’ll notice that these are annotations of another handout — one titled “What do I do next?”
“What Do I Do Next?”
As you explore the ramiform links of various instructional posts, you’ll repeatedly encounter the idea that what we do together in person is more important than any other aspect of your education. I’m here to redirect you, but you really need an internalized mechanism for staying productive. That’s where the following handout comes in:
That is a three-step process for filling any spare moments in class with productive work. There is a QR code on some of the printed versions that loads the annotations embedded earlier.
Start with a working definition of the critical verbs: delve, collaborate, create, gather, and analyze. Then use the annotations of this handout — annotations that are embedded earlier, hyperlinked earlier, and now hyperlinked again — to learn about how this handout was constructed, which includes the origins of each term and image.
This reading is absolutely essential to your success in this course. It will give you the tools you need to be productive, and being productive is the key to success. It fuels the development of every skill and trait. Use this:
That handout details the most basic calculus for determining a profile. How you spend your time during class is, therefore, probably the single most critical component in the score you earn three times a quarter. In fact, the Google Form that caps the self-assessment process is built around this idea — that in-class focus and feedback loops determine your success.
There are many other essays, handouts, and posts that explain how this all works, but it will always come back to how you use your time in the space. And that will always be under your control.