Tag: Reading

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Got Imagination?

http://www.amazon.com/How-Be-Explorer-World-Portable/dp/0399534601

 You know me. I like to be creative. Think. Make art. Write. Read. I really appreciate what Keri Smith put together in her book about exploration.

For example, on page 144-145, she writes:

Thought Experiments: Einstein used “thought experiments” (questions that can only be solved using imagination), on a regular basis. He actually formulated the special theory of relativity by asking the question, ‘what would it be like to travel on a beam of light?’ It is interesting to conduct these thought experiments in the midst of everyday life.

Some thought experiment starters:

  • what if all my neighbors had secret lives?
  • what if the newspaper held all the secrets of the universe in some kind of code?
  • what if all leaves had secret messages embedded on them?
  • what if little elves lived on the roof and only came out at night?
  • what if my house were a playgroun? a blank canvas? had secret powers?

 

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How I spend my summer vacation…

I realize most of my students would understandably consider I am in a plastic, encased pod over the summer weeks, being as I must be an alien. No, I am only human, earthlings. Did you ever wonder what teachers did over summer break? Do they just play all summer, crafting new and better ways to harass students during the school year? Well, we spend our time in a variety of ways. Right now I’m in the middle of a writers’ workshop group with other teachers, from fifth grade to college. It’s pretty cool. And, I watch movies, read a lot of books, and, oh, yeah…try to clean up my teacher clutter. I love to plan and create really cool lessons that will be interesting, and it takes a lot of mental work. My books are like my paints, and my computer like my blank canvas, and I’m trying to create a masterpiece or two before school starts again. Oh, and by the way, that will be August 31. See you then!

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40,000,000 words…

Students: Listen up. Your ability to grow, think, move toward adulthood, enjoy your lives, etc. depends largely on your ability to talk, read, and write. When you were little, you didn’t know how important it was to talk, listen to language, etc. If you feel like you didn’t get the experiences you probably should have when you were little, it’s not too late. It’s never too late.

From: http://smartpei.typepad.com/robert_patersons_weblog/2003/11/teaching_versus.html

Research now tells us that kids who are on the high development track have heard 40 million words by 4. Kids who are doomed to the basement of life have heard only 10 million. Kids at the high end have had conversations with their parents. Kids on the low achievement track have received orders.

I don’t believe anyone is “doomed to the basement.” No. Way. No. How. But I do know some of you have to make up for some lost time.

So…when we are having classroom discussions, when we are talking for purposes, such as gaining understanding of new ideas, listening to others’ stories and opinions, and writing for understanding, use that time wisely. Help me help you to get to 40 million words, and more.

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Burning Question #2,679: Who Owns Your Truth?

While researching some links and more information for a book that a student loaned me (thanks, A.N.!), So Far from the Bamboo Grove, by Yoko Kiwashima Watkins, I came across a site that made comments which indicated that what the author wrote wasn’t true. The author wrote the book many years after the events (about forty years later) and it’s her memoir of when she was a young Japanese girl living in Korea during WWII.

What do you think? Who owns your truth? If you remember it slightly wrong, does it matter?

http://www.alisonshomework.com/aalit/watkins/index.html