Creative Tools- Jim Cash’s P3

Jim Cash is currently a Modern Learning Resource Teacher in the Peel District School Board. He holds a master’s degree in educational technology and undergraduate degrees in cognitive psychology and education. In his career, he has taught Grades 1-8 in both Canada and Australia and has held headship and administrative roles. He is a regular presenter at conferences such as ECOO, Connect and BringIT Together and has written articles published by ISTE, OLA and TVO. In July 2018, he presented at the Scratch@MIT conference in Boston.

He recently published a post on Medium about Scratch 3. He spoke about the update but began with saying, “I’ve always been a Scratch enthusiast...I think it's a fantastic tool for students to use to be creative and explore coding in a really meaningful exciting way rather than being taught with lessons.” There are some improvements made for Scratchers including the sounds and sprite editors, new blocks, and the ability to incorporate more things like using the microbit. It is also more fluid, running on any device, which Jim says is great for iPad heavy schools.

Jim and I met at Robert Martellacci’s Mind Share Learning in Erin Mills Town Centre. He had done an Ignite Talk about using coding in a powerful way with students. It reflected a 9 month long inquiry and project based learning experience with students in Brampton at one of the 26 schools Jim supports in Peel. The students were, “…developing a basic competency in coding and Scratch by creating their projects that were meaningful to them. Once they had that, we gave them a design challenge to create a game that helps younger people learn about fraction concepts.” They went through the design cycle, gathering data, ideating and listening to their audience to iterate through an interactive experience. This cross curricular approach brought the whole learner into the learning. Using a tool like Scratch is, according to our guest, a small part of a much larger project. When reflecting on the experience, Jim added a point about a video he watched by Mitch Reznick who said that one of the most important things in a rapidly changing world is the ability to think and act creatively. This mantra helps Jim encourage others to use any curriculum or learning goals as an avenue for creativity.

Jim was speaking about the many different possible playlists that he could have picked at different points in his life, but his P3 is a snapshot of where he is right now. His nostalgic song is one that he heard for the first time when he was a teenager in the 80’s. He spent a lot of time in record/CD shops, and he thinks he was in Encore Records in Kitchener when he heard it for the first time; he bought the album the same day. He loves the music, and it reminds him of a special time in his life when, on his own and with friends, he would explore new music. One of the cool things for Jim about living in our time is that you can go to YouTube to actually see historical footage of these performances. He was recently looking at some of those and thinking about how amazing they were, though he could not find footage of this artist performing this particular selection. He didn't know a lot about Jazz at that time; this song was his entry point to the genre and a catalyst to explore more. Here’s the title track of the 1958 album Blue Train by John Coltrane:

Jim’s identity song was chosen from a time when he was really starting to explore classical music in a serious way. Jim was intrigued by the composers introduced to him by a high school friend who listened to music that was very different than his other friends. He fondly remembers a 1982 CBC broadcast, hosted by Jacob Siskind and pianist Menahem Pressler, exploring Mozart's piano concertos, focusing on two concertos per show. “To me, it was like a revelation. I had never saw or understood the depth before. When I was younger than 14, I hated classical music; I couldn’t stand it. It just sounded like elevator music to me.” Jim loves to listen to different performances of the same piece from different musicians; he enjoys the variety of interpretations, getting a different sense and feeling from each one. Jim chose the Andante movement from the following concerto because he thinks it’s an amazing piece of music and has a deep connection to him as a musician. Jim added an anecdote about the first time Mozart played this concerto in 1785: the audience asked that he repeat the slow movement, the Andante; asking from an immediate encore was a very unusual occurrence. Here is Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 22, K482, II. Andante by performed by Daniel Barenboim and The English Chamber Orchestra:

Jim’s inspirational song comes from an artist and song that he recently discovered. It appeared in one of his YouTube suggested videos in the fall, and the composer used the sounds of his home to inspire music celebrating 10 locations around the island of Ushant, off the coast of Brittany, also known as Eusa in Breton. He would listen to that area and then write a piece of ambient music to capture that location’s essence. Jim notes that, “when I first heard this, it really felt familiar to me. As I listened to more of his album, which I bought immediately on iTunes, it felt really good and it felt really familiar, even though it was brand new music. I have always written music for the piano. I have never written for anyone or any purpose other than myself…” Jim said referring to it as just a hobby. He noticed that this artist uses similar progressions and themes as he does, though admiring a level of accomplishment and technique beyond his own. It’s inspiring to him because it makes him think about how he can push himself to be more creative and try new thing in his own compositions. “It’s like a doorway,” for Jim to find his voice and compel himself in different directions through his music. He immediately went to the piano to try to pick out this piece after first hearing it. Here is French composer Yann Tiersen’s Porz Goret:

Jim was one of the authors of Peel’s Empowering Modern Learners vision, which has become a key component of the board’s Plan for Student Success. He is an active blogger who posts on Medium and makelearn.org. Jim continues to learn about learning from children and share ideas about coding and mathematics on scratchmathland.com. Connect with Jim on Twitter at @cashjim, and come hear him present at Connect2019 in Niagara coming up this Spring.