Learning Out Loud

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Posted by James Dittes on January 20, 2016

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Why I haven't posted today...

Thanks @therealbanksy

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Teaching, flavored by Tiempo Libre and Arts Integration

The conductor of my church's choir waved a song to a stop last night.

"Someone is tapping a rhythm on the wood," he growled. "Stop it."

I looked around at the other members. They were seated on the carpeted platform. Innocent.

I looked down at my own feet and saw naked plywood. It was me!

That's when I realized the full impact of the Tiempo Libre concert I had attended with my students that morning. The group's smooth mix of Cuban rhythms, Salsa dances and musical virtuosity was still tip-tapping within me and working its way outside.

I hadn't been taught--I had been infected!

Take it from a teacher whose mantra is "learning out loud." That's quite an impressive feat of teaching.

The concert kicked off with a rhythm symphony. Lead singer, Xavier Mili tapped out a clave rhythm on a Güiro. He was soon joined by three conga drum players, each engaging the beat with a complex rhythm. A final touch came with rhythm from a drum set. So much was g…

Reflections on Testing: TNReady Round 1 for High Schools

It's been a busy break, and I haven't been able to blog.

There has been time for reflection, which I'm hoping will result in many cogent thoughts and account for my month-long break from blogging.

For the record, I have been an advocate for both testing and high standards. I have published views in favor of testing in the past, so I hope these thoughts aren't dismissed as a mere confirmation of opinions I had before Tennessee's first round of TNReady testing.

The GoalsTNReady lauched this year after the Tennessee state legislature elected not to go with PARCC testing as my state had planned to do when it adopted Common Core State Standards in 2009. Like the standards, the goal of testing was meant to ensure that students were college and career ready and an adequate measure of the new standards. (In 2013 and 2014 Tennessee had simply continued on with the previous contract that tested earlier standards.)

I was a TNCore coach this summer, so I felt confident in my k…

Theater Review: Triebwerk's Moby Dick

Moby Dick is both the greatest and the most misunderstood work of American culture. It is a Shakespearian drama, a fish tale, and a major work of philosophy. In other words, Moby Dick is and was everything but a novel!

History shows that the book was a dud, a career-ender for Melville, who spent the rest of his life in obscurity. It wasn't until film and the stage brought the book to life (and after America had recovered from its antebellum obsessions with gold, slavery and Great Awakenings).

My teaching of Moby Dick was enhanced this year by the fact that Theater Triebwerk, a company based in Hamburg, Germany, would visit Nashville on their American tour.

Yesterday my students and I attended the production, which condenses the book in a number of creative ways.

The story of Ishmael is told in a tight, 70-minute running time, which still managed to hit the highlights of the tale while deepening students' understanding of the story with encounters with the prophet, Elias, and a…

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James A Dittes

If You Must Know...

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