TheApple

In the past three years I have had two temporary teaching positions andlast year I substituted.  My AP the year before said I would have no trouble getting a position for the next year.  I am certified in Mathematics and Exceptional Student Education.  I am a good teacher.  I have 14 years of experience.  I know this is a bad economy.  Any suggestions?  I believe I interview well. 

This is in reply to all frustrated job seekers in education: This is an “In the Meantime” proposal:

 I am a pioneer, scientist, and innovator in play-based teaching and communication, Things don’t get much more innovative than this:  I call it the ultimate Houdini. Teachers go into teaching for good reasons and then most feel trapped and stressed after a short or long career in the field. And the economy has presented a stone wall.

Play--at all levels-- is the antidote to the Poisoned Apple, as Madison has so aptly named it. My web site is open and free to teachers who are out of work (as well as in) and want to do a Houdini. Maybe you are substituting. Maybe not. But you can train online and learn the skills and knowhow of play-based communication. This will prove a real resume booster shot and a terrific edge in interviews. Learning these skills also gives you a natural stress-lowering mechanism when and if you do find a job. Exploring this pathway gives you an alternative: you can learn skills that will set you up to present the Puppetools/ Play Language methodology and stay in the field contributing something new and innovative and advance our mission to change the culture---which is something most educators would agree is crucial to any kind of meaningful change. If you have kids, you can make this a family business. Kids keep what money they make selling and exhibiting; families benefit when the selling and exhibiting results in subscriptions. There is a lot to work with here for the long and short term—a unique opportunity to take your teaching knowledge and experience in a new direction. But there is a catch: I need your help, too. I am trying to advance a shift in the culture and I need friends and fans to get the job done. So this is an opportunity for us both to grow and succeed. You can help advance a new idea--an energy force--to education. Explore the concept. Get to know Puppetools. Together we can make some magic.

Leave a message and the best time to reach you:  804 335 1471

 http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=561336146&ref=name#/group.php?gid=97923652021

I would be happy to--give me a little time to share some thoughts and introductory links. Thank you for your reply. I look forward to a dialog.

Jeff Peyton (papertalker)

Hello Jeff "The Paper Talker",

I checked-out your website and enjoyed it very much ~ great presentation!

Since I am no longer a classroom teacher it isn't likely I'll be signing up for a subscription, however, I offer you my encouragement, feedback and support.  

I taught Gifted Ed for most of my teaching career, and I have always approached education from the "let's have fun" stand-point.   Every topic was an investigation and every investigation had a hands-on learning component.   So, when we studied rocketry, we constructed and launched model rockets; when we studied robotics we constructed solar-bots; when we studied Einstein, we examined his concepts and created examples...etc.   I have used masks to demonstrate symbolism : constructing over 3,000 plaster-based masks on children's faces, then they decorated them to represent a variety of self-expression concepts (ie. animals, weather conditions, places, feelings, etc).

Curiosity is a natural, instinctual state-of-being for humans...teachers need only stimulate it slightly to induce full-on enthusiasm from children.   And, to my way of thinking, this is where we fail...(isn't that incredible?)... the secret of our failure is not the lack of creativity, it is the attitude of the teacher.  With 25 to 30 children in the classroom teachers become herders...they feel out of control unless the students are sitting still with eyes on them and mouths closed.   Principals complain when the noise-level rises, or the room gets messy...and teachers feel threatened by "the boss" so they try to comply.   When I hear a nosily interactive room of kids, I think, wow, they are really engaged!   When I see a classroom cluttered with art projects, learning centers, displays of posters and hands-on, touchable, science projects, I tend to feel this teacher knows how to stimulate active learning.   Does it appear to be "out-of-control", perhaps.  But, I've found that teachers of this sort only need to ask the students for their attention,and they get it.   This is because the students expect something of value to be presented to them as their next great trek into the unknown world of 'how things work'.   The children know to expect fun.

I hope you will see that I am an advocate of FUN LEARNING and support your basic concept.

I look forward to your next post!

~debo

On the Puppetools facebook page, there is an interview with Gary Lee Schaefer, a middle school teacher of German. Gary is example of teaching totally out of the ordinary. He came into teaching in his 50s, threw out the textbooks, and soon found himself doing staff development workshops for fellow teachers. How did that happen? In the culture, there is a dark energy force called 'thematterofwhatotherpeoplethink.' Real innovation goes hand in hand with leadership. People under the dark force can never feel free enough to try something reckless or risk mistakes and learn from them. Go toward the light!

Jeff

Your post is a gem in its reflections. Thank you.

The question of puppet media in classrooms provides a window and a lightning rod for the issue of creativity.

Most educators would laugh or dismiss the use of puppet media as silly. Yet, this is the way Einstein thought. And he wrote against Testing children in the GErmany of his youth.

This research paper, just published, .provides a window on how something that appears 'silly' actually engages older students--the paper also provides a subtext for how teachers respond before and after the research activity.

This is why creative teachers are laughed at and at the same time asked, as 'the creative teacher', to do all the creative work around the school. and too many principals perpetuate this wasteful and abusive cutural behavior. (It's also a mindset that helps to perpetuate problems like bullying).

Creativity is the path for transforming the school culture. The challenge: how do you mainstream the feeling that creativity is expected and at the same time make teachers more receptive to creativity and bold enough to see themselves as 'creative'. How do you do that?

Play is the pathway.

It's true that most adults will perceive puppets as expensive, furry things that have no place in a classroom--and in some ways I would agree with that--but puppetry is a form of behavior that uses play. If you turn puppetry into a play language so that all kinds of concepts can take on a physical, interactive form or personna, you begin to see puppetry in a different light. My feeling is that if they can use Origam at MIT for computational model-making and engineering, then a play language based on paper puppets employed as media should be viewed as a major pathway for reaching and engaging classrooms. This is what learning science is all about---I'm not talking abour brain-imaging and colorful maps of the brain--blah, blah. This is something that turns the conventional classroom on its head (no pun intended) in a real life learning habitat.

Again, Play is the Pathway.

Thanks--I'm flattered. What has propelled me along my path of play is partly my own playground--the one in my head. But even more important are the stories, anecdotes, and research by teachers I have worked with. These are the neck-sticker-outers and the silly ones who ran with the tools I helped them make thmselves. Bold, creative-minded educators fed my spirit and I inturn ran with their vision, too.  Now I am going to explode this creative synthesis exponentially. I am a marathon runner, and I don't have time any more for so many conversations. It's time for action. If a runner tries to talk to each person along the route, he won't have a chance to finish.

I need help from friends like you. I need you to take a deeper look at my invention, strategy, premise, writing--and if y ou like it become one of an emerging group that can help me move Play into the learning culture. I know that sounds ambitious and perhaps naive, but I have spent a long time building the fuel needed to light a Big Bang. I have no idea if it will succeed but I will not be surprised if it does.

Besides, it is a truism that ideas and products do a lot better in the marketplace is there are 3rd parties opening doors and building awareness.  I can't sell each and every person--I would go nuts and be weighed down by rejection. What I need to do is to create movement, controversy, and sensation---an attractive force----through Play..

If you would like to take a closer look at the project and the background, I would be happy to provide you with a guest pass into what I believe is a new dimension for education out there on the horizon.

I plan to talk to Madison soon in hopes that we can put some things in motion, too.

Thanks again for your good thoughts.