Connected We Are: Do you want to Learn How To Select a College?

This week is going to be busy!  Like that is new, ha ha ha..

I am having an adult focus group tomorrow with a group of wonderful adults who have been in this adventure from the beginning!  One is a documentary filmmaker whose work I need to put up in my list of useful links.  One is a homeschool mentor, who is positive and peaceful.  One has ended a career as an education reporter.  One is a skier and game maker.  One is a journalist.  One is a strong, articulate person who makes me marvel at whatever she does.  Everyone is a parent and someone who helps the world evolve toward a better place for all of us to be.

Our work tomorrow is to play the most recent incarnation of One Scene at a Time, formerly Risk It.  We will learn how to play it, rip it to shreds, talk about it and I will try to find college students to give it a go, as they are the ones who I would want to use this.

Later, I will have a catch up Skype call to learn about my Emergent Media Center team's work on concepts for Enter the Cave.

And, now I am looking for focus group participants for Look Where You Are Going.  It is for high school students who think college would be a good direction.  And, that is where a new idea has been planted!  I got an email from KHAN ACADEMY.  I have been invited to become a Khan Academy AMBASSADOR!!  No matter that this offer has probably been sent out to a few others; the important thing is that it was sent NOW to me.  What a wonderful connection!  So, I have decided to offer a class called LEARNING HOW TO SELECT A COLLEGE through Khan Academy.  The lovely thing about Sal Khan's creation is that anyone with a computer can use it, right?  So, if you know someone who is interested in taking LEARNING HOW TO SELECT A COLLEGE, please open a Khan Academy account and find:

Class code: 78VR3J

It may work more easily if you go onto www.khanacademy/a/genevievegriffin

Oh yes, then I just finished reading TRIBES by Seth Godi.  Are you, dear blog reader, a member of my tribe?  I believe everyone has a right to education that has a good fit.  My thinking is a bit out of the box.  I love listening to people's stories.  I believe we are all connected.  I have little patience in doing something just because we are told to, unless I can unearth the reason why.  I believe we are connected by that reason, why.

Let It Go

I just finished meditation, along with working on LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING.  Today's centering thought:  I manifest desire easily and naturally.  My journey has been gaining momentum.

In the past few weeks,  I went to the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College to attend the kick-off brainstorming session for the EMC's work on ENTER THE CAVE.  It was a stupendous meeting, where I met ENTER THE CAVE's team, both observed and contributed to discussion about the purpose of the game, who it is serving and what form it might take, and generally glowed.  This meeting pushed me to let go of what was only an idea in my mind not that long ago.  Arriving to find posters advertising the meeting and hearing people talk about ENTER THE CAVE was exhilarating and startling, too.

I have turned RISK IT into a card form and am putting together more focus groups to see where that form will take me.

When I was at the EMC I introduced ENTER THE CAVE as the second in a three game series.  Where did that come from??  Well, it makes sense.  And, LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING is the first with RISK IT being the third in that series.

LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING is an opportunity for high school juniors to begin the college search process.  High school juniors must work hard to do well in school and on those pesky standardized tests.  Don't they deserve to play around a bit?  LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING is going to be a game inviting players to group things and answer funky questions, like "what did you want to be when you were little?"

Back to MANIFESTING EASILY AND NATURALLY...

I wish I could say it is time to get this party started, but the party has been going on for awhile.  How about, let me get out of the kitchen and ask someone to dance!  I am getting the manifesting down; it is the believing I have manifested something valuable and getting someone to play that I am stumbling on.  Maybe it is not Let's Dance; maybe it is Let It Go!


Let it go
Let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go
Let it go
Turn my back and slam the door
And here I stand
And here I'll stay
Let it go
Let it go
The cold never bothered me anyway

Uncomfortable Questions, Tough Decisions, and Awkward Discomfort

Today is a good day to tackle the question, why?  I woke up to read an article in The Wall Street Journal about a second nurse possibly being infected with Ebola, on American soil, and the many gaps in the Texas hospital system that is one example of our great, western safeguard against things like that.  WHY did that happen?  It sounds like American policy makers and those who find themselves in charge would rather not ask uncomfortable questions or make tough decisions if it would cause awkward discomfort. (WSJ Push to check spread of Ebola article)

So, let's go with those phrases:  uncomfortable questions, tough decisions, awkward discomfort.  Those phrases kind of sums up some aspects of my almost ten years of homeschooling.  Not running away from the questions, decisions and discomfort gave me a gift earlier today.

I needed to get business cards.  I am tired of trying to put people's information into the already overloaded contacts on my IPhone.  I want something concrete to hand to people, something that represents me.  I have not been able to clearly explain why I blog or design games or care deeply about the education system.  However, I found some of the answer in the business card design I ordered this morning.

Humans know what they need and I believe that children know what they need educationally.  I also recognize that children do not have all of the maturation needed to put the foundation into place to succeed in the world we adult humans have created.  But, ultimately, I choose to trust that children know what they need educationally.  A disconnect happens when this knowing is stymied by the roadblocks set up in the way of "getting it."

My own children's teachers, including me, is a good place to look for roadblocks.  Let's go back to uncomfortable questions, tough decisions and awkward discomfort.  I love options and the chance to delve into areas of interest in all of the ways we have.  So, studying about American political history in the early part of the 20th century included Teddy Roosevelt, the National Parks system,

the stock market,

and yellow fever 

  We used books, websites, videos, wrote papers, visited places.  And, none of this will be on the popup quiz, exam, or standardized tests necessary to gain admittance to a great school.  I cannot give much credible evidence of neatly maintained grades, or that I was always making sure our math was plodding along, or that we studied the right type of science for the right number of hours.  I asked no one to memorize dates or historical figures.  It becomes very uncomfortable when another student can speak in specifics about any part of this grand journey.  But, I know my children will probably never look at a mosquito the same, or that they understand how difficult it is to bring people who have so many different motivations over to the idea that nature must be protected for a future that no one could visualize.  They know about the high of the giddy devil-may-care attitude that eventually led to the devastating down of the stock market crash, and how money outranked humanity.  And, was I a roadblock?  Oh yea.  Do my children know what they need educationally?  I would have to say yes on most days.  They do not easily go along with "that's the way it is" or worse, they are devastatingly realistic about what has to be done to succeed.

Too much professional attitude, expectation and organizational structure separates the teachers from their students and the love of learning and spark that can really help connect all of those interesting things with getting it:  how to use the things we love to learn about.

And so, I proudly post a photo of a compass, below SMALL STEPS GO PLACES. I enjoy the thought of sharing my business cards when they arrive.  It is no fun to keep walking around doing creative things if I do not know where I am headed.  And, when I offer my games or tools to students, it will be with the goal of leading them outside of themselves and then back inside with more of a compass, too.

Let's hear it for uncomfortable questions, tough decisions and awkward discomfort.  Let's hope we all have the guts to employ them when it is necessary.

BONUS:  The Baseball Majors!

Am I bringing anything of value to the table?

It has been way too long since I last posted, but I have been very, very busy and often productive.
I have learned a very important lesson:  STRUCTURE CAN BE YOUR FRIEND.  I have always thought that structure was the bane of creativity, and have fought the lists and priorities that lurk around whatever I am trying to do.  But then, structure slipped in the back door of my creative process.

Well, maybe it wasn't structure, maybe it was the need to stop revolving in the creative process and finally get SOMETHING done!  I have been paralyzed by an overwhelmingly cluttered table, a host of items all needing attention in the rest of my glorious and busy life, and an unhealthy belief that I am bringing nothing of value to the table.  Perhaps I have been in the middle of some kind of pity party extraordinaire.

But, then, my friend Jean got killed.  Jean was the loveliest of people--kind, interested, good people.  She was a dog owner, which is how I originally met her, and had the opportunity to hang out and chat so many times.  Since moving from the neighborhood, the opportunities to run into Jean had dried up to the occasional serendipitous moment.

Then, while giving an architectural Q&A in my building a dog walker who I had known as long as Jean told me the bad news:  she had been killed by a motorist while walking across the street.  She was walking across the same street she had been crossing for years, at probably the same time to do  the same thing.

Was she bringing anything of value to the table?  I do not know; I thought she was valuable, period.  And, in a flash--game over.  So, on some deep cosmic level it occurred to me that I should stop worrying about bringing value to the table, and start bring something to it.  In fact, how about a little decluttering?

And, I realized that I had been doing some things.  I have written a draft manual for Enter the Cave.

In August, I had a preliminary Face Time conversation with someone from the Emergent Media Center at Champlain College.  I unearthed the non-disclosure agreement I had paid a lawyer to write for me.  I had another conversation with the business manager at the EMC, who told me there was some value going on here.  I am working on a board game prototype for Risk It, and have spoken with a peach of a guy who does packaging.  I need some people to check out the game's playability.  What am I afraid of?  Maybe I should call this board game "Bring Some Value to the Table!!"


BONUS NAKED ROOMMATE VIDEO!!!

What Does Success Look Like?

This question stopped me in my tracks.  I have not been able to answer the question.
I love my life but there has always been that little nudging voice saying there was something missing. Well, I wouldn't say missing.  And, I wouldn't say there isn't a load of things I could be doing with my time that would be helpful.  But, I think of those people who needed to find the answer to something or needed to get the painting correct or the note right or the line with just the right amount of feeling.  And, it really didn't have anything to do with someone else.  Yes, it is gratifying to have an audience or promoter or peanut gallery; someone to tell you that you are doing it right.  And, there are days when all I can find is someone to tell me that, "no, you are not doing it correctly!"
But, ultimately, I am the one who makes the determination.

So, what DOES success look like?  I am sitting at a table filled with games, notes, books and cutout magazine articles looking on a room carpeted with very old carpeting.  There are piles of new wood that will be replacing the carpeting very soon.  Out the window is a lake.  The lake is perfect.
  I did not create the lake, and it is so big there is no chance I can control it.  All I can do is look on in awe, and listen to the lapping of the waves, the cries of the loons and the shadows from the passing clouds.  No matter what I do I will never even approach that kind of success.  I can have the floor laid.  Soon, I will be able to use a really awesome shower.

  I walked up and down a driveway that was laid by someone who really cares about dirt and rocks.

  I am deeply touched by all of those things, but they have nothing to do with what my success looks like.

I am designing games.  Boy, I have been doing that for a while.  And, I am making a lot of progress.  One does not announce that she is having a child and then present it.  It takes time and development.  I forgot about that as I leaped into this game designing thing.  But, even though it is taking longer than I thought I am doing it.

I now have two pro types and a good start on two manuals.  I have returned to one of the first chapters in my old game design textbook to once again trip on the question:  What is the objective of the game?  I opened up the Lawsuit game to read about its objective.  I really want to call all of the students I know and ask them what they think.  But, I have to take a stab, and maybe make a mistake.

Objective of the game:  Succeed at Going to College 101?  Increase the Effectiveness of Navigation Skills?  Get the Most Tokens?  Make it to the Top of the Hill?

Breathtaking

The last week and a half has been breathtakingly full for me.

First, I have been to Florida, then back to NYC, now in Connecticut on my way to Lake Champlain.  Travel is one of my pleasures, because it is an opportunity to see different places and talk with people.  I love the water, even if I do not swim very well.  I love to watch thunderstorms gather, erupt and dissipate. I do not mind getting a little wet.  Hot, humid weather in the grind of a big city is no fun until I can come indoors and have a chai in front of the fan.  But, going outside into the park with a coolish breeze is awesome.

Second, I spoke with someone at a boarding school who asked me to write a draft plan for including ENTER THE CAVE and RISK IT in a program for high school seniors.  Then, I went to a forum for after school programs where I heard (once again) that experiential work makes a difference to students who are planning to attend college.  Finally, I went to a college preparatory program directed by an Olympic athlete.  She is helping students from underperforming high schools use their athletic experience to stay focused on academics, get into good colleges and excel.  She and some of her staff had valuable observations, like matching high school students with college students in the later part of ENTER THE CAVE.  Perhaps, I could use my games in a program they use with their students in December!

The best aspect of the forum and presentation for me was inviting my son, who just completed his first year of college, to attend and assist.  Yes, I design, organize and administrate.  But, it is so powerful to have a person qualified to USE.

Let me take you back to my last post:  LEARNING = PARTICIPATING + MASTERING

It makes me ask if traditional education would be more effective if it were more experiential?  I think I have proven this is correct through the years I home schooled.  It makes me ask if college would be a more successful experience if students had a clearer idea of what was required, before they arrived, and had a chance to practice.   It makes me ask if we marginalize students who do not fit the idea of what is a "good student" because the definition is accepted as is, instead of being enlarged.

Let's look at what may improve executive skills

Today has been one of those breathtakingly complicated yet constructive days.  We were on the road looking at a four hour drive to a beautiful spot when the temperature gauge spiked and one of those red lights came on.  A quick look under the hood revealed issues with the radiator.  Several miles later brought us to Jim's Garage in Canaan where I have been hanging out for the last several hours.  The folks at Jim's have been fabulous:  welcoming us and our dogs, chatting about local wildlife, pointing out mini golf and lunch items, providing coffee and smiles.  Rats on the rats who caused the damage underneath our minivan.  But, I posted!!

Next stop, how do I make a board game?

Learning = Participating + Mastering

This morning I went to a "forum" put together by the after school folks (PASE).  It was a two-part affair on a Monday in rainy, rainy New York city.  And, it was sold out.

The presentations were given by a small group of administrators.  Half were from colleges and half from after school or community based organizations.  Those presentations were given with a great deal of conviction and humor,  and were a valuable reason for me to attend.

I took several pages of notes but came away with some hugely significant ideas, some of which I already know and employ, and some reframed.

People, be they teenagers or older adults, look for a place to fit.  Some may jump in and try to make a college or job (in this case) work but ULTIMATELY a good fit leads to SUCCESS.

Asking for help is an important reason for succeeding but that entire question is fraught with downsides which prevent students (in this case) from taking advantage.

These two observations can be linked by the description of a scenario:

A student applies and is admitted to a college.  The students goes to the college, after attending orientation.  The student THRIVES/CRASHES AND BURNS/MAKES IT?

Learning how to take the many small steps which make up life is an experience that continues all of our lives.

Participating in the struggle which leads to the learning is a normal and necessary aspect.

Mastering each step of the multi-faceted road map is why we participate and how we learn.

Plunking down in the midst of a totally foreign context rarely feels like a good fit.
I think the phrase "asking for help" is different from looking at the road map and seeking the pieces that will lead to successfully mastering it.  Plunking down in the midst of a totally foreign context, and realizing it is not as foreign as it first seemed, may be the difference between choosing to participate and mastering it.