Ruminating

ruminate: 1 : to go over in the mind repeatedly and often casually or slowly 2 : to chew repeatedly for an extended period (M-W.com)

Susan Sedro at Adventures in Educational Blogging shares her frustration at having little time for "deep thinking" and asks her readers:

... how do you make space for deeper thinking? Are you able to ponder deeper thoughts in the midst of business or do you need a clear mental space for it? What strategies have been working for you? Frenetic minds want to know!

It's a great question and  this was my response to her:

My sanity (what little remains) demands quiet time to think. I find this by:

• Walking every day for at least an hour (well, almost every day).
• Driving with the radio/CD player off.
• "Scheduling" at least two hours of writing time each Sat and Sun morning.

Not much, but it is what I can eke out. I refuse to get an iPod because I am afraid it would steal even these brief moments of quiet for me. [Doesn't anyone else remember the short story "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut?]

Too often we are so hell-bent on obtaining information, keeping up, we don't take the time to really ponder what we've taken in.

One of my favorite words is "ruminate." I am not sure which meaning came first - chewing on ideas and information metaphorically or chewing grasses and cud literally. But I like the image of bringing something back up and extracting more nutrient from it a second or third time.

Do Web 2.0 tools encourage or discourage rumination, or as Susan terms it, deep thinking? As I write this or anything I know others will be reading, I am forced to take at least minimal care to consider, organize and articulate my experiences and readings. To think a little harder and longer about stuff than I might normally do. On the other hand, RSS feeds, e-mail newsletters, blog posts, Nings, micro-blogging, and other tools are bringing me more information faster than ever. Without the gift of added hours in the day. Can't one say that he is not finished thinking about a thing without being labeled "indecisive" anymore?

I worry that in our haste to know the facts about the new, we refuse to take the time to consider the implications of the new.

And if we as educators don't slow down and reflect, analyse, consider, doubt, challenge, and dissect, who will be the model of these behaviors for our students?

Where do you find the time to ruminate? 

A ruminating cow...

Original image from <http://www.apl385.com/leutasch/index.htm> 

Building 2.0

It was with great delight that I read Jeff Utecht's Thinking Stick post, Tech Plan Part 4 – Implementation, He had taken and IMPROVED upon an old model of tech planning I had written some time ago. Read all his posts on tech planning. They're great.

While I am still unsure about some Web 2.0 tools like Twitter and Facebook and Ning (being a slow-typing, slow-moving, slow-thinking geezer), I am sure the ease with which professional sharing, reaction, and knowledge building has tremendously improved because of a more interactive web.

And it is fun to think that I am able to corrupt a new generation of tech leaders like Jeff. 

From The Thinking Stick blog... 

 

Reading on the job

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/motivator.php

Librarians reading on the job was a hot topic for discussion this week on LM_Net. Tere started it with a posting that included these comments made by other staff as she was reading a children's book during the school day:

Well you would have thought, I was lying down taking a nap. Everybody that walked by my door (my desk is right by the door ) made a comment. "I'm going to give you a job." "If you've got time to read, I've got something for you to do." Etc. Next time, I'm going to go hide behind the stacks to read!

A few responses were similar to Allan's:

I don't give a hoot what people think of me or what I am doing. When I have received a remark about "wouldn't it be nice if....[one could read books all day]?" I have responded. "Yes it is very nice." If I am feeling a little nasty or don't like the tone of the remark, I have responded "I would be more than happy to get you some information about a library school if you are interested."

While many of us have probably wished we could say these sorts of things, we don't. For some good reasons including  job security and our concern over how our profession is viewed by others.

My personal rules about on the job reading have always been to:

1. Read at my desk (no slouching in the bean bag chairs)
2. Read with a pen and paper my hand
3. Read materials related to my job
4. Read when I could be a role model, such as during Sustained Silent Reading time
5. Never, never, never be seen leaving my building without a bag o' work (just like the other teachers)
6. Work with the understanding that perceptions are as important as reality
   

Librarians have one of the few positions in schools with discretionary resources - time, budgets, and tasks - so therefore need to be transparent about how they "spend" all those resources, especially their time.

Mark wrote:

I made it a point to always be busy, to be seen to be doing something.  (It was NEVER of case of having to find something to do, it was a case of which job was most pressing.)  I did this because its the kind of person I am, but also because of the extremely negative comments I heard about a predecessor of mine who was often seen reading the newspaper, or a book, "on the job".  Sadly, the general public or faculty will never understand that keeping up with current events, what's new and valuable in literature, non-fiction, professional journals, etc. is part of the job... their view will always be 'I never have time to take a breath.. how come he can sit and read all day?' or 'We didn't get a raise this year, and were short a math teacher... and we pay him to sit and read?'  Now, imagine those thoughts in an administrator's head.

It's a sad world where reading = slacking, but given the lack of respect schools and society show for professional growth and development of educators, I suppose it isn't surprising.

Sigh... 

How did we manage to look busy before there were computers?