Originally published 101023

Spring 2015

The kids were milling around while three of us, currently serving as proctors for yet another round of standardized testing, were discussing how to make our students’ school experience more fun and engaging.

We reached no consensus, of course, because there is no single solution for every classroom.

Action is required; agreement is not. The status quo is intolerable and unconscionable.
— Note to Self

The Case of the Curious Graffiti

Just before the break ended, I noticed the compact, neatly depicted graffiti on the concrete at my feet. I laughed aloud, but the humor was lost on my peers.

A student had echoed my oft-heard battle cry.

Heck, that was nothing new. I’d been saying the same thing to my students since shortly after I began teaching.

I didn’t like school when I was a kid, and it didn’t appear that the experience had improved much in the interim.

Many students still feel the same way. School sucks.

What’s a teacher to do?

Accept the premise and declare your willingness to act.
— Note to Self

While the students finished the second half of the day’s standardized testing, I opened my laptop and added my voice to the photo of my kindred spirit’s graffiti.

After all, she did add the smiley face to her commentary. The least I could do was acknowledge her minor act of civil disobedience and reaffirm my intent with a bit of Photoshop magic.

We quixotic souls cannot simply accept and perpetuate the status quo.

You don’t have to know anything to be brilliantly negative. Do you understand that, sir? Anybody who can speak can be brilliantly negative. The only sign of intelligence is to be brilliantly positive.
— R. Buckminster Fuller / High Times Magazine Interview

And that’s what I’m going to do.

Desks fit nicely into rows and columns. Students do not. Find a way to differentiate and personalize knowledge acquisition and assessment.
— Note to Self

---

Context: The Mac Lab was a work in progress. This content was pulled from something first published on our class site shortly after that standardized test was administered.

Fun Fact: School’s not the only thing in life that sucks. Problems need fixing (and little things matter).

Featured Image: Something I designed to reflect our OS. Text in Illustrator, mockup in Photoshop.

---