While listening to a SAVAE concert in December 2009, I began scribbling on the back of the program random ideas for a blog.  Among all the jottings and doodles, here are some of the more semi-lucid thoughts:

It’s not about the Kitchenaid…but what I can DO with it. 

21st Century Learning–NOT about tech–about being human, realizing these traits [?]; in a way, kinda like real-life service learning & how we deal with being on this planet together.

Pretty Cake–but does it TASTE good? Need to have an awareness–purpose of learning…

Be curious; wonderment of discovery

These random thoughts are the basis of why I finally began this blog:  Underneath all of the layers of new approaches, technology, and standards–it’s really about learning how to learn, remaining curious along the way.  Stepping even deeper inside of this process is to teach thinking, and from there all else follows, or is actually a subset inside the “thinking egg”–problem solving, troubleshooting, collaborating, communicating, creating, innovating.  It’s actually not a novel concept–stripping learning down to developing one’s ability to think, and therefore teaching kids how to think, is the root of making them really 21st-Century literate.  You don’t need a KitchenAid. But hopefully the pretty cake you make not only tastes good but actually feeds your mind along with your taste buds.