Day 1

Fund for Teachers 2010 Fellows: Ricci Mercado and Didi Dolandolan
Harvard Graduate School of Education

Day 1 of the Project Zero Classroom was everything we expected and more. We started the day early with registration and getting acquainted with the program materials. The first formal session was a 'Plenary Session' at the American Repertory Theater (ART).  To welcome us all was Steve Seidel, Director of Project Zero (2000-08), who talked about how Project Zero started and also introduced us to how the program is going to run with the study groups and mini courses.

Next was Howard Gardner, proponent of the Multiple Intelligences Theory, who talked about his "Reflections on Project Zero: In the Past, the Present, and the Future."  Tomorrow he will talk about the challenges for education in the post modern, digital era.

Finally, David Perkins, who was also one of the founding members of Project Zero talked about Teaching for Understanding in the 21st Century.  He made an analogy about education in terms of "How to tame the wild?" and "How to wild the tame?" with regards to educational topics and contents.  He pointed out the importance of making content 'operative' for the students.  

One thing that really stuck to us is how he defined understanding.  He said that "understanding is performative... How we think with what we know."  Now when we think of activities for our students, we will keep David Perkins' 'wild-o-meter' in mind, by gauging how 'wild' or 'tame' our activity is and using wilding and taming tactics to enrich them :)

John Harvard statue, Harvard Yard