KAIZEN: ONE SMALL CHANGE

Kaizen is the art making the smallest most subtle, change possible.

It is the notion that  small changes can make monumental differences.

This idea is not new  to us. 

Kaizen is the basis of this adage by the ancient Chinese philosopher LaoTzu:

A journey of thousand miles must begin with the first step.

It is  the comforting wisdom most often  attributed to Helen Hayes:

The expert of anything was once a beginner  

It is the truth in the oft-quoted statement made by Neil Armstrong as he first stepped onto the moon.

That's one small step for man;one giant leap for mankind.

On small step.
One small change.

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I first encountered  this term  in Prevention Magazine (January 2004)  applied to health and personal change.

Then I began to notice it cropping up everywhere.

If we commit to a little the article said, over time the changes are big

If we, for example,  skip one pat of butter per day, we could  lose up to  4 pounds over a year.

If we drink one more glass of water...

If we walk 100 more steps a day...

If we  read 10 more page...

If  ... I make one small change...

Kai means change. Zen means good or for the better.

So in Japanese this term literally means good change or change for the better.

But  for all it generality in its original meaning,  it  has come to be applied and  associated mainly with business in Japan, particularly after World War II, in much the same way that we saw a boom in Quality Control programs in the US.  

There are many business models based on this concept of Kaizen. Click here to view a slide share that presents some of the common basics I found across sites .

If you are like me, change is sometimes a scary prospect, whether in our personal or professional lives.

We resist change.

But one small change--maybe we can do it.

Robert Mauer shares how we can apply kaizen in our personal lives and why  the principle works in  One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way.  He invites us to think smaller --to ask small questions, think small thoughts, bestow small rewards, and solve small problems  We so often want to do BIG things instead.                                                                                                                                           One small change at a time.

Larry and Susan Terkel also advise us in Small Change: It's the Little Things in Life That Make a Big Difference!  to make small changes for big results in our health, our relationships- our lives.

Small changes -big results. 

In Each Kindness by Jaqueline Woodson, Chloe and her friends refuse to play with Maya, the new girl,whom they call "Never New" because of her hand-me-down clothes. Once Maya has moved away, Chloe realizes, with the help of a wise teacher, that she and her friends have missed an opportunity to make a difference with each small act of kindness they could have  performed-- like the ripples from one stone.  

Change can sometimes be funny. 

Small actions can create chains of events that amaze us. 

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie  by Laura Numeroff  demonstrates the hilarity that can result with one small act--giving a mouse a cookie. Numeroff has written several books using this same chain-of-events structure. 

 


 One small act.

How could this be applied in your personal life?

How could this be applied in the classroom?

I think about the many times in my classroom when a small adjustment was needed. 
Five more minutes each day for writing.

One more powerful question asked.

What else?

What do you think?

 How do you know?

One book-the right book- given to one student.

Kaizen.
One small change can make all the difference.

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

Reflect on a time when you made just one small change or committed one small act.

What were the results?

What one small change would is necessary in your life right now?

What one small change would you recommend for you school, your church, your organization?

Write a personal narrative, persuasive essay, or poem about change.

CAWP FALL FORUM 2013: ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS AND CONVERSATIONS

I spent this past Saturday with my favorite kind of people-- writing project folks.

Saturday was the Columbus Area Writing Project Fall Forum.

And what a grand to time we had.  

We renewed friendships and made new ones.

We continued old conversations and asked new questions.

In  most sessions, we also wrote.  That's what writing project folks do.

Our conversations were initiated in the morning by JoBeth Allen.

Her work with family partnerships left us assessing the relationships in our own schools and communities
She highlighted the differences between what we commonly believe or have heard about parent involvement and  the fact that research actually tells us that not all parental involvement is created equal.  It matters what kind of involvement.

She suggested a telling activity for all classrooms or schools to try.

List everything your school is doing in the following three columns.

•  Increases student learning 
•  Builds stronger relationships
•  Neither of the above but we keep doing it anyway 

So what is the best kind of parent involvement?

According to Henderson and Mapp ( 2002) we should be aiming for  family-school partnerships that foster respectful relationships, are linked to student learning, and also support student learning at home.

How can we do that?

JoBeth's answer  and the focus of her work is  sharing and valuing  family funds of knowledge.
One way to accomplish that  is the Family Dialogue Journal.

As this effective strategy has developed, teachers of students of all ages K-12 have created a variety of specific methods of implementation.  But in essence, each student takes home his dialogue
 journal after having worked with a group in the classroom  to address the following:

What have we learned this week to share with our families?

What question will we ask our families? 

The rich sharing and conversations that resulted in the samples she shared with us, from across age groups promoted an incorporation of family funds of  knowledge in the classroom and curriculum that no "curriculum night " could.

For more from JoBeth check out the books she shared with us or see this article.

  


After lunch J. Patrick Lewis shared writing wisdom, school experiences and , of course, read us poems.
Pat's words of wisdom included the following:

• Children will not gravitate to poetry. They must be led to it.
• Surround your students  with all kinds of poetry, not just what you like.
• Children are notoriously bad at reading poetry in public--they need models and time to practice.
• Reading is important. Samuel Johnson said Never trust a writer who does not read twice as much as he writes.
•  Most people have had uniformly bad college poetry experiences in which students were required to analyze poems and scour them for meaning.  Instead we should read poetry for the AHA moment-- that phrase/sentences structure we have never seen before.

He shared some specific writing advice for young writers (and us grown folks, as well.) 

• Imitate great pieces.
• Always read out loud so that your ears have as much fun as your mouth.
• Try not to rhyme.  Children are bad at it. They don't have the time or take the time to do it well and do not have the necessary vocabulary.
• If you catch an adjective, kill it!  

This is the second time this week I have heard anti-adjective talk .Nouns already contain or imply the adjectives you might be tempted to use. Now, of course, I am on the lookout for unnecessary  modifiers in my own writing and that of others..  Pat gave examples -- pesky insect and dark cave.

He shared Jane Yolen's tip for writing and my new favorite piece of advice for myself-- BIC or Butt in Chair.

For more  wonderful words, check out  the books (there are more than 80) and  to one of the poems, to which he treated us, Poetry Is.... 

   
  
 In addition to these fantastic speakers,  and the thought- provoking conversations they both initiated, we were further engaged, as our CAWP Teacher Consultants led concurrent sessions ranging in topics, from flipped classrooms to slam poetry, from  teacher activism to Google tools, from writing in science class to the newest children's books.

My head hurt when I got home.

The good kind of hurt where my brain was expanding to accommodate the new ideas and thinking.
The good kind of hurt where my mind was raising questions I didn't know I had.
The good kind of hurt where I am already thinking about how to use what I heard.

That always happens when I spend the day with my favorite kind of folks- Writing Project people.

It's not too early for you to begin to think about joining us for the CAWP 2014 Summer Writing Institute.
Watch our website for applications beginning in January.

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

When was the last time you engaged in a formal learning activity or professional development event?

Reflect on that experience. 

What were the highlights for you?

How did you use the information you gained?

What questions do you still have related to the new information?

Write about this learning event.  You may want to simply share what you learned or a plan you have developed to incorporate the new learning in your work.

You may want to write an essay responding to the information shared or a poem reflecting on  the experience.

WAR STORIES

 The dead tell no tales.

War dead are no different.

But still we come to know their stories.

Their stories are intertwined with the stories of the still living.

War stories are told by the victors and the conquered, the victims and the survivors.

The events are narrated by the perpetrators, as well as  the observers.

Wars beget stories of heroism, cowardice, cruelty, and  creativity.

In  the aftermath, we learn of decisions and actions that made a difference and surprised even those doing the acting.

In a  previous post, we considered ways to begin conversations about wars--we considered parables and fables about war as one way to get the conversation started.  See Wars and Rumors of War.

Another way to initiate these hard conversations is to consider stories of war-- stories of individuals and small groups living in the context of war, observing war, or ultimately making decisions that have far-reaching effects.

What would you do if...?
This is the question we must ask ourselves as we meet our potential selves in these stories.

 A small Jewish girl whose family has been destroyed except for her sister,  has escaped the Ghetto and must decide if and how she can help as her sister and friends devise a plan to smuggle food to those still behind the Warsaw walls. Her relationship with the many stray cats in the town square provides a brave and perfect answer in The Cats In Krasinkski Square by Karen Hesse.



How do children experience war?
How do children process the events and circumstances they don't understand?

Rose  lived in a small German town and may not have understood the war, but saw enough to know that something terrible was happening around her.German soldiers were hidden in her basement, and grown-ups were not giving answers. She witnessed a boy being taken away.   She followed the truck,  to a fence--coming face to face with children in a concentration camp.  From that point, she begins to eat less and hoard food to take to the fence.  In Rose Blanche by Robert  Innocenti, her story is told in child's language and from her limited perspective, while carefully detailed illustrations tell a bigger more mature story.

How do children make a difference? 

Brundibar is a Czech opera with a libretto by Adolf Hofmeister and score by Hans Krasa.   It was performed  fifty-five times by child prisoners in Terezin, a Nazi concentration camp under the direction Hans Krasa.   The opera performances  were part of a carefully staged display by the Nazis to show that the camp was not as bad as  people thought. .

Tony Kushner has retold the opera  and Maurice Sendak brought the story of Brundibar--- of  the  children defeating the organ grinder and bully  Brundibar-- to life with  his characteristic illustrations.

For more information about Brundibar at Terezin, including how Sendak became involved, music selections and other related resources,  click here.


Prison camps change people.  Those who were constantly busy now sit idle, with no control over their lives. As these conditions made people forget who they are and become despondent, snappy and disrespectful, one father in a Japanese interment camp decided they needed baseball.    In Baseball Saved Us  by Ken Mochizuki, we read how the father and  his son built a diamond and organized a league that lifted spirits and  and united  the camp 

How do we lift our spirits and the spirits of others in times of war?

One of the most frequent ways we have learned about war is through diaries.

Most high school students are familiar with Anne Frank's diary , and more recently Zlata's Diary.  Stolen Voices: Young People's War Diaries, from World War I to Iraq Stolen Voices edited by Zlata Filipovic and Melanie Challenger provide us with true war stories from our most recent wars.

What can children teach us about war? about peace?

And finally, we must remember that war affects not only people, but every living thing.

When  bombs were dropping on Tokyo, the city worried what would happen if the bombs landed on the zoo and cages opened.  Dangerous animals would roam the streets.  The army commanded that  all of the animals be killed.  Faithful Elephants: A True Story of Animals, People, and War by Yukio Tsuchiya recounts the story of three of those animals and their trainer.

During the bombing of Iraq in 2003  a pride of lions did escape  the Baghdad Zoo. In Pride of Baghdad the story of these confused and hungry lions is told.  Through their eyes, graphic novel writers Brian K. Vaughan and Niko Henrichon show us the devastating effects of war on nature.

How far does war reach?

Who tells  the stories of war?

Today's Deeper Writing Possibilities

Think about the wars and conflicts in which our country is currently involved.
How do these wars affect you and your world?

Who is telling the stories of these wars?

Write a reflection, narrative, essay, or poem on war and its far-reaching effects.