Mark Sonnemann
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read

Great post Matthew. Hope your start-up goes well — I am excited to be back in the school getting things ready for kids and grown-ups. You raise some good points here about having a foot in different worlds and trying to be a bridge for kids — I would challenge you to think about the metaphors you employ — language, as you know, shapes us and can define and limit our thinking in ways we don’t consciously recognize sometimes. Our lives are full of worlds, and as people we create a context that combines them. Context, for me, is key, and what I think about more and more as I teach and learn. Bridging things makes them seem separate and apart from each other. What you so aptly point out however, is that everything influences (or can influence) everything else. Nothing is truly separate, as we have learned in our understanding of curriculum — we don’t silo subjects anymore because they literally ‘speak’ to each other in terms of skills and knowledge.

I try to understand the context of each student and adult and that helps me develop lessons and tasks and questions that can connect me to them in authentic and meaningful ways. My favourite (but flawed, I would admit) metaphor for what I do in a school context is that of a lens. Things flow through me from the world to the student and from the student to the world. Depending on how I position myself, I can magnify or minimize elements. I can darken others and hide them, and I can even skew and distort them if I am not careful and reflect on my own bias. Sometimes, like a prism, I can even break something apart into elements and show students what the rainbow of concepts looks like inside something that looks monolithic.

When I think about my work this way, it reminds me that my context is crucial, and sometimes a limiting factor in my ability to reach students, and this reminds me to rededicate myself to finding the right angle to support my learners.

Thanks for sharing.

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    Mark Sonnemann

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    Dad, Husband, Learner, Catholic Principal. I never stop wondering, questioning, and imagining.