Is the skatepark a Professional Learning Community?

Dr. Tae – Can Skateboarding Save Our Schools?: It’s one of the best presentations on assessment and grading I have seen, and with skateboarding as the metaphor…well, it’s all the more …rad!

Here are the highlights from Dr. Tae!

• “nobody knows ahead of time how long it takes anyone to learn anything”
• “skateboarders find school environments strange”
• “failure is normal…expected”
• “work your ass off till you figure it out”
• “learning is not fun”
• “Flow Experience: Finding your Goldilocks challenges…not too easy…not too hard”
• “no grades…no cheating…when learning is the goal…(and  the reward), there’s no point to cheating”
• “teachers…completely optional”

After watching his TEDx…I started thinking about…

• What would happen if we looked at the local skatepark/bowl as a professional learning community?
• Did he get any descriptive feedback from peers that would have reduced his practise attempts?
• The issue of resiliency and learning?
• How many kids find our school environments strange?
• More on Goldilocks challenges and flow experiences from Daniel Pink’s book…DRiVE
• Seth Godin…”How to Fail”

And…since Spring Break is a few days away…time for me to get out the long board and find some, “flow.”