Nope, certainly not a foodie post here, though I did read an interesting article in The Atlantic about foodies, but that’s for someone else’s blog! 🙂

No, for me, I look this organic as just naturally coming together to create something new and wonderful. This last weekend, my wife and I snuck out of town and spent the weekend in a little place on the Root River in Southeastern Minnesota called Lansbouro.  This town is the self-proclaimed “B&B Capital of Minnesota”, with good reason because there are tons of places to stay.  This town has grown and flurished because of a great bike trail called “The Root River Trail“, a group of trails linked together along the Root River.  All and all, it’s an awesome place to visit, stay a couple of nights, and just explore the countryside that is SE Minnesota.

Anyway, we stayed in our bed and breakfast, did a couple of rides, and attended a play at the Commonwealth Theater. We also heard of some sort of fiddle/banjo/blue grass event that was taking place, so as we were walking back from the theater, we came across this group of 14 musicians, just playing.  One person would put down some kind of melody, and eventually  all of them: fiddles, banjos, guitars, ukuleles, whatever, would come in until you had this mash of sound and music with an overriding melody, but the unique characteristics of each player coming through.  We listened to this, then continue towards a dance, that we sadly missed, but as we were leaving, some of the people talked about a jam session to take place down stairs.  Well, why not?? So we headed down and stood off to the side to listen to as many as 21 different musicians play together, no music, no conductor, no real leader, just play.  Someone would call out a tune, they’d start in, and soon, all instruments were involved in their own way.  Now, neither my wife nor myself would consider ourselves real fans of blue grass, but this was awesome to listen to! 🙂  The music produced was organic in nature, just real, full, and without any kind of fillers as well.

As I walked away from there humming, I couldn’t help but think about my classroom and education as a whole (lame I know).  How much “organic” learning is allowed? How much do we give the students time for? How much do we give ourselves time for?  I look at my EdCamp experience as a prime example of organic learning. Learning that wasn’t preset but what I wanted or needed at that moment.  How can we get our students to that point where we are covering the Core, but yet, allowing for the organic time where they can be learning in a way that is best for them?

It amazes me where inspiration can come from.  Who knew that watching a group of musicians just enjoying themselves, just playing, would lead to something in education? Just need to pay attention and you never know what may show up!

Smile, and enjoy your day! 🙂