I've been inspired lately by the existence of color in nature. This series of photos, some taken on a recent trip through London and Paris and others on a visit to the nearby Brooklyn Botanical Garden, has been inspired by the beautiful color provided by springtime blooms.Pink magnolias in the evening light

White magnolias dance in the wind

Unassuming window plants

Fire flower (or so I'm calling it) - opens to the sun

Tulips and friends sway in the breeze

Nature Rocks

Cherry Blossoms

Luxembourg Gardens - tulips talk

St. James Park - daffodils dance

This project would not have started if I hadn't had access to such a user friendly camera. (This set of pictures was taken on my iPhone 8mp camera). After I got my new phone last fall, I kept taking pictures and found that I really enjoyed it again. In the process of flipping pics of everything from my dinners to interesting PSAs to family/friends, I realized how drawn I was to color. This particular set focuses on images in nature, but I have a whole other set of pictures that is front doors painted in unique colors. I realized that once I started looking at the world in potential photographable moments/objects, more and more things jumped out at me.While I will continue to take photos with my iPhone, this project has actually inspired me to learn how to work a more complicated camera and learn more about aperture, light, shadows, etc.

Good design matters.  It doesn’t matter if you are putting together a spreadsheet for a meeting, creating a process for users to share feedback, or developing a website, good design matters.  The types of design that are ever present in my work are: product design, project design and process design.‍

Product Design

• Have you ever filled out one of those government documents only to realize you were writing your name where the address should go?
• Have you been to a website where you have no idea how to get to the content you know is buried deep somewhere?

Project Design

• Have you been on a project that sets unrealistic goals for when work can be accomplished?
• Have you been on a project where even after weeks, it’s not clear who is supposed to make key decisions?

Process Design

• Have you heard feedback from consumers/users/constituents who complain that they don’t understand what they have to do to make X happen?
• Have you wondered why your doctor's office makes you write the same information on five pieces of paper?

If you've answered yes to any of the questions above, you've been on the other end of a clunky or disorganized design process. This leads to misinformation, frustrated constituents and mixed outcomes. That's why organizations are much better served when they spend the time to:

• Develop a clear vision that includes specific expected outcomes and define meaningful measures of success
• Create a detailed implementation or work plan that is a living document; it should evolve with the project, not collect dust on a shelf
• Communicate and adhere to roles and responsibilities so that work can get done
• Take the time to identify the right resources, both internal and external e.g. vendors, consultants
• Commit enough time and budget to creating a strong system/product so that rework isn't required
• Provide timely feedback from the right stakeholders, versus trying to please people politically
• Incorporate people at the receiving end of your project/program/process, so that they can inform the vision and scope, this will keep them invested

No matter what you're embarking on, it's important to know what it is you want to develop, for whom and work to ensure that your core audience is invested. The second step is not budging on having adequate time and resources to be successful. Good intentions matter, but having a good design process matters more.

Having time to draw and paint has put me on a path to have so many learning journeys. Art is representation of the literal, of the abstract, of the everyday, of the past and the present. Whether I'm creating it or observing it, art in any form makes me think, question and wonder. This became particularly clear to me when I was in Prospect Park a few weeks ago, attempting to capture an old tree using my drawing pad and colored pencils. As I began to draw I found myself scrutinizing every detail of the tree and asking myself - what does this tree really look like? Because so often, I feel like the drawing of a tree is minimized to something like this:

However, because I was interested in capturing it more realistically, I rapidly glanced back and forth between the tree and my drawing pad, struggling withe amount of detail. This included things like:

• the trunk and the heavy branches don’t have any foliage, only the smaller branches do
• the bark is more charcoal than brown and so are all the other trees that my eye can see
• the tree trunk splits off into five major branches and then countless number of lighter branches, which then break off into smaller branches, which is where all the leaves are located
• this might be an oak because of it’s thick and dark bark with deep rivets, reminds me of the trees in our backyard growing up
• there’s a plaque under this tree dedicated to Teddy Roosevelt from the Boy Scouts in 1919

It got me thinking again about what might happen if students were given a chance to use drawing, painting or even qualitative observation as the entry point to new content. What might happen if a student was asked to draw something and then write down any questions or thoughts they might have about the object. Now, what if you were in a park, a historical part of town or in the school courtyard? What questions might this prompt? In what conversations or journeys could a student partake?In my example, it led me to these questions: what kind of tree is this? does it belong to the oak family? what classifies something as an oak tree? why do some branches grow large and others stay lean, or do they all get to that point over time? This particular tree also could prompt a discussion on Teddy Roosevelt and why the local Boy Scout troop commemorated the tree to him. It might lead to a discussion on Teddy's relevance as both a President but as also someone who deeply cared about national parks. A follow-up might be a trip (if one were so lucky as to live this close) to Sagamore Hill, his home that is now a museum. There are many avenues that can be traveled.Ultimately, when we think about the experiences that shaped us, the knowledge that sticks with us, it is usually those that are about engaging and being active in the learning. I doubt that any of us remembers the content that was crammed in before a history final or an AP Calculus exam. However, the more I read and listen to other educators, it seems clear that people do remember trips, or projects or learning journeys that required them to think, gather evidence, apply learning and reflect.No matter how many times I hear educators say words like "authentic", "real world", "problem-based" it ultimately feels like most of kids' time is monopolized by structured learning that isn't connected to their inquiries. I'm not advocating that teachers spend three weeks discussing the latest in the Transformers series. But, I do wonder what could happen if students had the space and time in school to follow their inquiries and if educators were afforded the same to help facilitate their learning.A finished version of my drawing to follow as soon as I get there...Epilogue: My alma mater, Carnegie Mellon, is planning to honor Temple Grandin with an honorary degree at this year's commencement. I had seen and heard of her in passing, but was prompted to do a little more research. She happened to give a TED Talk in 2010, entitled The World Needs All Kinds of Minds, emphasizing the importance of providing learners (in this case students who are diagnosed with all types of autism) with access to learning experiences that aren't grounded in traditional methods like textbooks and writing assignments. She talks about how she excelled in subjects like art and classes that allowed her to be hands-on and that it was these experiences that led her to being successful in her career. It's an excellent talk that I think everyone should watch.

What is the purpose of school? What is the definition of an education? Should the goal of school be to prepare students for a specific trade/career/job? Should it do more than that? Less? I was prompted to ask these questions after catching the tail end of an interview on The Chris Matthews Show, where one of the guests, Joe Klein, a writer for TIME Magazine, described a career and technical education (CTE) program in Arizona. I tracked down the video and have transcribed the exchange here:

Joe Klein: “Chris vocational education has been out of fashion in this country for 30, 40 years. But I was just in Arizona, where they’ve turned things on their head, and the most ambitious kids are trying to get into these classes because they lead directly to jobs and work certificates…”

Chris Matthews: “Give me examples of what they’re teaching”

Joe Klein: “Medical aids, nurses aids, auto shop has 40 cars provided by auto dealers… these kids are more likely to pass diagnostic tests, graduate from high school, get jobs and more likely to go towards higher education.”

Chris Matthews: “And they see the connection between school and money?”

Joe Klein: “Yes.”

As it turned out, Joe Klein, was referencing an article he wrote about a set of CTE programs in Arizona. The article illustrates the value in having students engaged in hands-on learning related to specific industries. Interviews with district and state education leaders also touch on historical tensions between the traditional high school trajectory of taking a course of academic subjects in preparation for college versus CTE programs that prepare students for specific jobs. While there isn’t conclusive data, most people interviewed in the article speak to the profound impacts, including better tests scores and likelihood of students pursuing higher education, as a result of enrollment in CTE programs. Klein ends, touching on how students learn the “soft skills necessary to be good employees” but he stops short of making the more significant connection between hands on experiences and learning. Klein doesn’t explicitly address the fact that students who get opportunities to take part in animal surgeries or fix car engines are engaged in thinking and learning activities that are essential for all students.The takeaways from Joe Klein’s article and Chris Matthews’ remark about school and money put front and center something that I haven’t paid enough attention to– that the education debate in the US is divisive in many ways because we don’t all agree about the purpose or goals of school. The current rhetoric related to education policy and reform includes phrases like:

• The purpose of school is to:

• "to get kids ready for college and careers”
• "to provide a solid education"
• "to help students to develop the skills they need to succeed in the real world"

There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these assertions. But even still, college and career readiness seems murky. Which career? What college? Does a job fit into the career track? And moreover, where and how does learning occur? How can school meaningfully prepare all students for the variety of post-K12 choices they make (assuming they get all the way there)?I'm not yet ready to share a definition, but here are some words I'd like to see as part of the conversation related to the purpose of school:

• thinking
• questioning
• collaborating
• creating
• cooperating
• inquiring
• building
• challenging

If you're an educator or are somehow otherwise plugged into education policy, you're familiar with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The standards have re-energized a national conversation around teaching and learning experiences that demand higher levels of thinking and real world application. Students in 45 states will be assessed against these standards starting with the 2014-2015 school year. In light of this, there is a flurry of activity in school buildings, at district offices and certainly at curriculum companies to create common core aligned assessments and other instructional material to better prepare students and teachers for the new challenges.

A few weeks ago, as I waited for the R train, I got to thinking about creating real world and authentic assessments. I wondered: How can we ensure authenticity in a teaching and learning experience? What makes a learning experience authentic and to whom? What happens when students don’t have context for the content, can they still have a meaningful learning experience? (how?) Should everything begin from the familiar or the unfamiliar? How do educators reconcile authentic learning experiences with the need to deliver specific content and skills?As I continued to wait, I looked around and noticed that there was a pattern on some of the pillars that divide the subway traffic lanes. This led me to some more questions: Are there tiles on the other side of those pillars? Are all the subway stops designed similarly? What materials are used? I wondered what this could look like if I continued along this line of inquiry and tried to create questions that could assess learning and thinking. I broke this up into ideas and questions for younger students versus older students.Here's what I pulled together:

Younger students

Potential avenues for conversation/ problems of practice/ “tasks”:

• Practice counting the total number of white tiles and ceramic color tiles
• Recreate the pattern that was represented with the ceramic tiles using the same or different color tiles, looking closely at what a pattern is and where evidence is of other patterns Related questions: what are patterns? What patterns have you seen at home, at school, on the subway or bus? What patterns aren't visual, but can still be observed?
• Practice multiplication e.g. if there are 5 more pillars like the one in the image, how many white tiles are needed? How many ceramic color tiles are needed? How do you know?
• Have a couple "sample" tiles and give students the chance to practice measurement

Connections to skills/content:

patterns, colors, placement using similar shapes, counting, measurement

Older students

Potential avenues for conversation/ problems of practice/ “tasks”:

• An early proof – state the given information, reasonable assumptions that can be made and explore the implications e.g. The tiles only cover three sides of the pillar
• How many triangular tiles needed for 60 pillars? Or 5 subway stops? (both uptown and downtown?)
• If the color tiles are placed on every other pillar and there are 60 pillars on an average at a subway stop, how many of each tile is needed to complete the project?
• How many metal bands are necessary?
• If you were in the urban planning department at the MTA and your supervisor told you that you were going to create two new subway stations, and the large tiles cost $X and the smaller ceramic tiles cost $Y, what is the estimate of how much it would cost for tiles? What other considerations would need to be made? What happens if they gave you a bulk discount?

Connections to skills/content covered:

patterns, writing mathematical proofs - extrapolating based on given evidence and logical assumptions (in CCSS language “mathematical modeling”), multiplication, linear equationsWhen I finished, I was thrilled because starting with a genuine inquiry resulted in some good questions that had an equal chance of covering content and skills without having to map things backward from the standards. Instead, I can now take what I constructed and reference the standards, which could help me iterate again on this initial thinking or determine what else I need to cover in future lessons/conversations with students. I believe if we could refocus teaching and learning on the experiences and questions that teachers and students have, material can still get covered, but it can be responsive to the interests of the learners in the room. I think it’s also a way for teachers to stay engaged, versus having to deliver content that is prescribed or recommended to them.My hypothesis: If the emphasis in classrooms was working on thinking skills and finding meaningful ways to connect with students on content, that test prep is not necessary, because students can think their way through any situation. Is this true? I didn’t plan it this way, but this post happens to coincide with one of two weeks of NY State testing - an arduous process that freezes all normal activity at a school and wreaks havoc on the psyche of teachers and students, given the high stakes. I can’t help but wonder what state testing week would be like in a world where the emphasis was authentic assessment and not obsessive adherence to standards and standardized tests.Click here for a salient article describing some issues related to the testing industrial complex.