Collaboration | Mr J Block

Creation, Collaboration, and Dance

It is my honor to collaborate with the Leah Stein Dance Company. Over many years of working together, we have developed practices and pedagogy that allow students to explore movement, creativity, and performance. This year, LSDC dancers are teaching a year-long dance elective at SLA. The process has been challenging and rewarding. The course introduces students […]Read Post ›

Transformative Teacher Profile

Thanks to Kira Baker-Doyle for publishing this very sweet profile on her blog and for creating this wonderful project. I am honored. Transformative Teacher Profile #6: Joshua Block

Nurturing Collaboration: 5 Strateges

[Cross-posted on Edutopia] When collaboration goes wrong, it can be toxic for learning and classroom culture. We are all familiar with the scene: a group of students that is supposed to be completing a collaborative project has splintered off into dysfunctional factions. Maybe it’s one student who has sullenly separated her- or himself from the […]Read Post ›

Collaboration Matters

[Cross-posted on Edutopia] Sharing my rough writing with others is a miserable experience. I know that outside input is a crucial part of revision, yet I squirm uncomfortably as those I trust make comments and probe with questions. Inevitably I begin to feel resentment grow as I am forced to reevaluate passages that I thought were […]Read Post ›

On Collaboration

[Cross-posted on Edutopia] For the past five years I have collaborated with a playwright who works with my students as they write original plays. Each year, on the first day that she has been in the room with us, Kate and I stage a conflict about what should come next in the lesson. As students squirm uncomfortably […]Read Post ›