Post Ode Post

As I was sitting on my thinking throne this morning several thoughts occurred to me.
1. Why do I do my best thinking in the bathroom?
2. Writing the “Ode to Zach Who Fixed My Mac” has taken much longer than I thought, but kept my wandering attention for much longer than most non-mandatory projects do.
3. I also thought of some more ideas for what to do with it once the poem was written as I began to think about some of my favorite poets, and some of the rhymes I was working on. Eminem, can make words rhyme, in ways that baffle my ears. (Yes, he is a foul, blah, blah, blah, but he is a genius with words in MY opinion.)
4. Kapow!!! I was engaged in what I had just learned about in my Universal Design for Learning class. I was involved in a Project Based Learning experience. My Affective networks were engaged. I was using my preferred method of output and surrounded by the tools that helped me to best accomplish a task. I listened to my poem using the speech tool on Word, I didn’t worry about spelling, I used rhyming dictionaries on the Internet. I looked up the proper uses of words. I created!
5. But, was I LEARNING? How many 41-year-old adults (used loosely) do you know of will take most of a holiday weekend to write a poem about the guy who fixed her Mac? Will research words that rhyme, try new vocabulary words, listen to her poem aloud, think about using Garage Band and making a Rap, then a Pod cast, and posting them onto a blog, then realize that it is all a great promo for PBL and UDL? And not even be graded on it? Think about asking our students to do this and throw in some content and currency… Was I learning? Will THEY? You decide, I’m tired, I’m going to take a nap.

eileen