EDUC2250 BLOG When Reality is Your Own, When Your First Teacher Dies

Margaret Telfer Connell 7/28/26-2/19/2012

I last spoke with her Feb 13, 2012.  She had been admitted to the hospital with dehydration and a fever about 72 hours earlier and very rapidly lost consciousness due to a right lower lobe pneumonia and sepsis.  Antibiotics, fluids and some assorted pixie dust and two days time roused her to full alertness and she appeared to be on the road to health.  I spoke with her the morning of my birthday and she sounded a little frail, but sharp and in her usual inquisitive manner she asked if I had taught the instructors of my ATL classes anything.

That was my mother's approach to learning; be positive, a little satirical and supportive.

We chatted for about 15 minutes that morning and she mentioned how happy she was that I was moving forward down a different path, quoted a bit of Robert Frost and said she couldn't wait to get back to, "those old women at the residential living center and finish the book she was three quarters of the way through."  We ended with a little reminiscence of the beach house she was determined to visit this summer for a month, a discussion on how she could have a son turning my age since she was 39 and she wished me a happy birthday and that I should call her tomorrow.

That night she slipped back into a semi-comatose state that made the next day call not possible.  Physically she was improving and they sedated her due to pain from her osteoporosis plagued back, again making calls to her not feasible. My brother kept me informed that she was improving slowly, he is an Anesthesiologist, and the funny looking guy in the middle of the picture.  That Friday night there was a distinct change in her condition.  The pneumonia was better, but there was an irregular heart beat (atrial fibrillation) and tests revealed possible cardiac damage.  Saturday morning she was unresponsive and breathing erratically.

Early Sunday morning, 12:30 A.M. MST she passed away, 3 of 4 children by her side and another (myself) completely unaware of the past 48 hours due to cell phone failure.  I heard of her death 12 hours after she passed away when I realized the phone wasn't working and reset the processor.  A flight of emails, voice messages and texts detailed the course.  To read more(http://grokkingforscience.blogspot.com/2012/02/margaret-july-28-1928-feb-19-2012-much.html).

I'm getting a land line.

But this is my blog for the week.  It is longer than normal (some might question that).  Being not as sharp as usual I have asked a friend to finish writing from notes I gave him.

I wonder why every decade or so we have a crisis in education.  I just haven't quite fathomed this as of yet and frankly, I probably never will.  When I was a kid it was different, not perfect, and certainly not equal.  Mr. Frawley was my favorite teacher, that I do remember. He made learning fun and interesting.  He was the High School science teacher (they didn't have special teachers for special areas in my day) and he taught biology, chemistry, physics and something else I can't remember, but it was fun.  My favorite memory was the day that Sue Gross accidentally mixed baking soda and vinegar instead of water, the whole room became this slurry of white foam and they evacuated the school.  That was science.  Nowadays he probably would have been fired, back then it was funny.  We didn't know much about toxic stuff, heck my dad got me a radon wristwatch for my 12th birthday, glowed in the dark.  I feel sorry now for that happiness knowing hundreds of women in Korea or somewhere got cancer from making my watch.  School was different, it was reading, writing and arithmetic with most of my other teachers keeping us in order with the ruler or the dreaded walk to Mr. Facey's office and the belt.  They call that corporal punishment these days, then it was just what to expect for lighting a couple firecrackers under Suzie McCann's desk. I think I still have a small scar from the buckle and used to show it off to the guys as my right of passage.

We didn't have diversity or special needs or no child left behind (except for Rupert Jones when we ran the 440 dash, he liked chocolate way too much).  And many of us learned enough to get to college, but then most people didn't go to college, they went to work.  Seems to me when jobs started getting taken over by machines that colleges got a lot more popular.

My kids time was the new math and the idea that the answer wasn't as important as how you got there.  That always bothered me.  I don't want to go up in a jet that has been made by engineers who did the work the right way and then got the wrong answers.  I like right answers.  So did Mrs. Phillips the math teacher, she taught to the curriculum but made the students do it the "right" way as well.  I'd fly in her kids' planes.  I remember my daughter coming in one night and saying  14 + 10 = 23.  I nearly broke my Princess phone calling her.  Then my daughter said it was Base 5, silly.  You have to understand the process, a little Tom Lehrer:

This was the early 60's. Odd, strange, no wonder so many students dropped out and drop in, hippies, free love and learning was infinitely obscure.

Now we have social workers, psychologists, diagnoses and medications.  We have beautiful schools with no books.  My schooling started in an old tobacco warehouse they turned into a school when it shut down.  We had books and desks and a teacher.  And most of my teachers I hated because they were strict, but looking back they really cared.

I have to admit though, my favorite ritual my dad did each 4th of july was to end the fireworks with a little red school house you could buy that shot screamers, burned and blew up.

So what is the next and best method to school kids. I believe I have the answer,  Educate them and teach them well.  And to do that you need teachers that aren't considered the sole source of a child's learning.  You also need teachers that have experienced something other than teaching.  I am a pretty good writer they say, most of that I learned by reading and because I had a role model.  There was this girl three years ahead of me who got a scholarship for writing an essay on Emily someone's poems.  She was the student assistant for my class and taught me more about format and structure and all that textbook stuff by the red ink method.  I knew I was writing better the less red and the more black on the paper.

So I have put a lot of effort into putting red marks all over John's ideas.  Pluralistic and multicultural teaching was his idea.  Make all students from KG to 12th grade learn half a day in Spanish and half a day in English.  Sounds like Canada and they end up bilingual.  What a thought.

But I like it, with a little difference.  I want a four day school week, all year long with 2 or three 2 week breaks.  I want schools to be less than 300 children and I want them to stay together as a groups from K to 12.  I want leaders and the leaders to mentor the less motivated from the beginning.  I want them to know the basics and to have the capacity to think and not regurgitate.  I want every child to have a fair chance and to be given an equal opportunity.  My mother said that,"Education is the power to think and open doors".  I don' want my child to think Africa is a country and ketchup a vegetable.  I want a 10 year moratoriumon changing anything, because it takes time to see if something works.  And I want teachers who are paid for performance and not a time card. I believe that no lesson should be left behind because one student can't master it.  Get rid of the reams of forests and electrical compillations and teach to the student to the students' strengths.  Let the mentors learn to teach by helping the slower graspers to catch up.  And keep the school boards for honor awards at the end of the year and make them work on funding schools.  Positive images, positive roll models and positive teachers.

As for teachers, there should be no formal classrooms. Mix them throughout the classes through segments of three years.  400 students, makes 32 per year.  And keep them together the entire 12 years.  Diversify them and mix them from the start and keep them as a unit.  Make them a family that is taught by strong ethics.  A kid knows that he or she is going to have to get along with the others. Instead of the posh and highbrow schools and the deprived lower SES schools- lets mix them from stage one and keep them together. Of course people move in and move out, but direct fits from the new to replace the old.

And add competition from an academic standard from school to school.  Sports teams might be a group of four of these small communities.  Call them sister schools or something. Not everyone (and this may be the only line I didn't redden like a steak tartar) has a mother who pushed him to write, read and think by providing books and reading to him every night,  This is a family forming as a school and one which will be purposely diversified, they will read to each other and support each other- eventually.

The world has far too many paper and pencil pushers of the ideals of education.  Fire them all and replace the experts who never taught but have degrees and let the teachers teach to the student needs.

Mr. Johnson was born a couple years after the Civil War.  He got his education from his parents and his work.  He never went to six grade, yet he was the smartest man I ever knew.  He needed to know something, he would read about it and put it in action.  He is now the breeder of bulls that are stronger, better for consumption (sorry my vegetarian friends) and produce strong offspring.

Of course there are a hundered things wrong with this approach, but there might be a thousand right.  Relationships build learning,  Let's look at a model of diversity, bilingualism and students that stay together through school.

Then in 10 years we can start all over again.

Or maybe not.  I'll be watching, and crossing my fingers.  I believe that teacher knows best, and if all teachers continue to teach each other and identify and combine into a smooth unit, good things might happen.

I have to go now, I'm talking with this neat lady who just got here and she's reading me some Hemingway before bed.  Sleep well and if you do want a day off its 2 parts vinegar to one part baking soda.  A little red dye makes it all the funnier.


And a few more








Q.E.D.

John C's 2250 Blog: 2250- The class as it e(a)ffects me-

John C's 2250 Blog: 2250- The class as it e(a)ffects me-: We're here to make it clear There's no Giants Helmet here The three of us agree another ring for the Brady as for points spread t...

John C's 2250 Blog: BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING, OR IS IT NURTURING MENTOR...

John C's 2250 Blog: BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING, OR IS IT NURTURING MENTOR...: Politics is a rather unsteady business. It floats and flies through immense sheaves of laws and additions. We think (well I think) of legi...

John C's 2250 Blog: BIAS- EDUC2250 AS IT AFFECTS ME

John C's 2250 Blog: BIAS- EDUC2250 AS IT AFFECTS ME: The term bias is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as an inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a wa...

BIAS- EDUC2250 AS IT AFFECTS ME

The term bias is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as an inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair.  Reflection on my journey in life to this point reveals that that bias is a rather broad subject, much of which is pre-conscious or unconscious, and has varied in its expression throughout my life.


Bias is inevitable in all of us at one level.  I don't like certain sports teams, certain styles of food and certain forms of music.  At this level of bias, there is a presumed general consensus that this is accepted as a personal choice.

Bias can be thought of as a form of speech and as such I am free to have a bias to rare meat and raw fish. Some bias is positive, I have biases toward my children and family.  Sometimes they can blind reality and at times can enhance one's awareness of reality.  Remember Oxford states for or against a person or group.  If I can understand my biases, I can use them to better myself and take a negative to a positive.

What I must be aware of is bias that is associated with emotions, especially anger and disgust. Here I find that introspection is not only painful but it is associated with denial.  The unfair part of bias are the thoughts and actions I express that show favoritism or immediately associate certain visual or auditory stimuli with a negative impression.  This is extremely important if dealing with students as it certainly clouds the first impression.


For example, I am a white male and see myself as free of any racial or ethnic bias.  I am also well aware that I have a tendency toward a high work ethic and strong belief in self motivation and self sufficiency.  My bias shows itself when I expect the same of others and I have looked on perfectly normal behavior in others as laziness or avoidance simply because they do not share the same voracious desire to excel as I expect of myself. There is a judgment here that I connect with motivation, not intellect.  


I have a bias toward proper use of the English language.  Slang, swearing for the sake of attention, urban dictionary speech and trash talk will draw my attention and half your IQ and worth.  That is one of the familial biases that I grew up with and is internally connected with anger and the disgust I mentioned earlier.  Awareness of it actually helps calm the visceral side of the interaction and I use that gut angst to become aware of unfairness that may be edging into my interaction with that person.


Arrogant little S.O.B. aren't I!


The oddity is that it is not the adolescent that I find problems with when it comes to the trash talk and rap culture, it is the adults that I find myself categorizing.  I expect the young to rebel and to act out, but also to grow up.  Then I read this and there is another bias, we are supposed to grow out of these behaviors. Sigh.


Bias for me is judging unfairly, and looking through some of the journals I did as a youth and in mid-life it is evident that bias has changed over time as I developed more experience with people and different cultural beliefs.


I look at bias as a phenomena that fits with Maslow and his hierarchy of needs.  As I gain more self understanding and can see the world from an empathic standard, bias becomes less needed to reinforce my own self worth.  


I still hate the NY Yankees. That bias I can live with. And the Philadelphia Flyers- we won't go there.

Interesting Teaching Websites

Links of interest

The following is from a sight that I ran into and found very stimulating, Visit The Teaching Channel!, a very interactive and very positive sight with classroom methods and teachers teaching in innovative ways.

I think that this is a fantastic website- www.teachingchannel.org. And it is free.

Also I would refer you to Penzu Journal Anywhere, which is a fascinating place to set up a portable journal, and it is also free.

This is a link to a blog on Penzu Penzu info

The Class as it Affects Me EDUC2250

WELCOME BACK CONNELL, NEW MEXICO TEACHER NAMED 2017 NATIONAL TEACHER OF THE YEAR

AP WIRE:  John Connell, a biology and physics teacher from Rio Rancho High School presented Friday with the National Teacher of the Year Award by President Jack Nicholson in a White House Garden Ceremony.  Nicholson called him a late starter emphasizing that this is proof that a sharp mind and a different perspective are often overlooked in many arenas, comparing Connell to Bill Walton, the Laker's star who is now excelling in areas outside his initial venue.  "Kind of like comparing my own life, obviously teaching was on Connell's Bucket List."

Connell, who entered an alternative licensure program as a second career, was honored for his initiation of an early pre-K pilot project he started in his last year at Central New Mexico College, that has sprung forth multiple replicate programs throughout the country and proposed a different model for education.  The Parent-Child Dyad Experiment has become a national rage that is elevating initial learning as measured by both standardized testing and parental feedback.

"It really isn't that new an idea."Connell stated, "It just hadn't been put forward in the way this program was presented."  Connell recounted how in his previous work with children, there was as much learning required of the parent as the child for the success of the management of behavior disordered children. Connell, although still planning on teaching High School children, altered the traditional student teaching year with a proposal to put both the parent and the child in pre-K as a unit. 

"The idea was to have the parent observe and interact daily in a classroom setting with their four year old, to basically teach the parent how to nurture learning in the child for the life of the child's education", he reported.

What started as a Blog in a first semester class, took on a life of its own when, on a whim (and as Connell stated a prayer or two) he applied for an NEA grant to start a preschool class that's only pre-requisite was the parent or parents be involved 1/2 of the day, each day, in their child's education.  "I hypothesized that parents don't know much about how children learn and believe that the process of education is done solely in the hours at school, so to challenge that a set of parents and their child were solicited for the endeavour."

Maggie is an 8 year old who is excelling in her 3rd grade classroom.  She and her mother were in the initial group. "I got this flier from the elementary school asking for parents to volunteer to help in a new pilot program for pre-K classes.  I work evenings so I thought, why not try something different."  She related that what she expected was that she would be a monitor or teacher's aid, but to her surprise, "that first day Maggie had a name tag and a cubicle, and right next to hers was a cubby with my name tag.  I thought this is odd, but the year has impressed me so much that I am going to go through it with my 3 year old next year.  Maggie's mom has also recently enrolled at the University of New Mexico to finish a bachelor's degree and pursue elementary education. 

"Momma used to read to us at night, and that was it.  Now she is not helping me be a better student because, like Dr. J (their pet name for Connell) says, we both needed to learn the importance of education and how learning can be fun together," said Maggie.  "I would make up word puzzles she would have to solve, and that was fun"

The idea and the method was deemed controversial and one administrator initially called it just wrong to have parents there all the time. 

"We expected that reaction, but when the first group got into their first and second grade classes they were outscoring and more rapidly mastering their tasks than students that went through regular pre-K programs.  This has been consistent across ethnic and social boundaries.  When a Houston teacher called to ask what we were doing and the experience, she took 2 weeks of her vacation time and on her own dollar came to Albuquerque to observe.  She left and started a pilot in Houston and got two of her classmates to start pilots in Boston and in Dothan, Al.  The results are all similar, kids and parents who start school together and learn to be a support system for each other in the process of learning are doing much better than there peers."

One of the CNM faculty, who asked to remain anonymous, thought initially that this would probably help some, but might be lost as years of school continue.  He now feels that there is a greater likelihood that the investment made has truly invested the parent in their child's best learning opportunities.

It was the dramatic and uniform results of the first 3rd grade standard tests that wowed the education community.  Thirteen of the top fourteen scorers in the state came from this program.  Not bad for a group that started with 13 parent-child dyads.

For practical purposes the original idea was to bring in the mothers with the children.  "What a backward principle from people who were trying to be novel and diverse.  We forgot the dads.  The thing is they didn't forget us.  I started getting calls from fathers who had arranged work schedules (as many of the mothers had) who wanted to be part of this program with their children.  One of the dad's was about 6 foot 7 inches and I will never forget the image of him barely balanced on a pre-K chair finger painting with his son."

Connell said in his acceptance speech that this award was a wonderful honor, bit one that he felt was earned not by him, but by the kids and parents and teachers involved.  They made the program work, because they really wanted to be part of their children's learning all along.  One of my dads said it the best, school changed from a place where I saw letter grades and notes from the teacher when something went wrong to a place of learning that I was no longer estranged from, I was and am part of it.

Teachers have also commented that they see the light in the children's eyes that you see when they "get it" much more, but they see it in the parents at the same time.  It's like this big mutual aha, and it is contagious.

When asked what was next on his agenda, Connell simply said, " the joy of tomorrow, I can get out of the limelight and watch one of my ninth graders say gross as we dissect frogs. It's funny, no it's tragic, the way teachers are seen.  They are the motivators and the bellows that flame the fires of learning.  I hope when Maggie, and all the others get to High School they will still be bringing their parent learners with them.  Teachers are invaluable, but not valued.  Bringing this first few parents through has changed a lot of minds about those values."

And for this reporter, the examples of this early dyad method seem hopeful.  Let us hope that the disease of learning and sharing in the learning caught by these first groups becomes contagious.  At last count, 43 programs were running with another 15 to start next fall.

So, Welcome back Connell- looks like your dreams were the ticket into the schools for a group of very thankful parents.  And as Maggie said to me, "I'm going to win that award one day and be the next Teacher of the Year from Albuquerque, unless my mom does first."

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING, OR IS IT NURTURING MENTOR?

Politics is a rather unsteady business.  It floats and flies through immense sheaves of laws and additions.  We think (well I think) of legislators as law makers and tax moderators.  I rarely think of them as standard bearers. 

HB 249 and HB 251 in the current legislature are legislated standards that are there to implicitly measure teacher competency.  What an interesting object of legislative energy.

HB 249

This is the link to HB 249: "Teacher and School Leader Effectiveness Act"
HB 249

The law sets to set up a mandatory standard of examination, rating and ranking of teacher effectiveness with the resultant ranks:

• (a) exemplary, meets competency;
• (b) highly effective, meets competency;
• (c) effective, meets competency;
• (d) minimally effective, does not meet competency;
• (e) ineffective, does not meet competency;

Interestingly HB 249 leaves the actual management and administration of the examination process to the School District, although it will provide a list of competency measures from which the individual districts will select their own measures.  Implementation is to be in place by 2014-2015.  Principals and other administrators will also be rated for effectiveness.  Those not meeting competency have a 90 day period of mentoring and observation to overcome their perceived deficits.

The measures will be 50% based on State of New Mexico standards, 25% on teacher observation through Principal observation and 25% based on measures selected by each district.

My thoughts- might be fair, could be riddled with bias.  One of the factors noted is that the school may use their A-F rating in the evaluation process.  It doesn't speak directly to using that A-F rating randomly or uniformly.  In general this looks like an attempt at measure based learning and standardized outcome of student proficiency that allows for individual districts to tweak their stats based on not the actual end of year knowledge and competency acquisition by the student, but more the rate of change of the student's learning.  It might level the playing field for those districts with traditionally poor learners and make those with higher achievement rates more likely to push harder to keep higher levels of achievement.

It means good teachers will remain good teachers and those that do not continue to progress and advance will not be rehired.  I think?  Interesting idea that does give individualization to districts, but does give the Principal 25% of the score (at minimum).  This could be a subjective piece (although the observational grading is to be done with standard and research based documents).  It still places the teacher in the dilemma of teaching to a standardized test and limits some flexibility of curriculum. 

Isn't it lovely to be aware that you are part of the new observational and evaluator efforts at teacher excellence.  Challenges make for innovation and hopefully will allow for enthusiasm to be encouraged and the rote acquisition of facts put out as important, but not the entire goal.

HB 251

Here is the link to HB 251 a bill, "CREATING A COUNCIL TO MAKE
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A STATE TEACHER EVALUATION FRAMEWORK".


At first glance these appear to be redundant, that is until read and digested.  This is a bill that creates a council of educators, principals, New Mexico Department of Education members and at large members to develop an implementable process to rate teachers and their effectiveness and competency.  It sets time lines and it sets expectations, but gives the council the mandate to create the method of determination.  It does propose a tiered system of teacher rating. There are to be a minimum of four levels:

• (a) distinguished;

• (b) proficient;

• (c) basic;

• (d) unsatisfactory

Much of the document describes the Councils role, makeup and the areas that criteria are to be defined.  It appears to be one that would be universally implemented, but leaves open (by not mentioning it) the Council's ability to allow for variance according to teacher level and school population.  It spends much more time in the process of defining the terms of the outcome of being deemed an unsatisfactory teacher and appears to give teachers with some tenure protection from having one poor evaluation.

Much more eclectic, but also much more based on State direction as opposed to local input.  Of course, that is subject to the recommendations of the Council.

This bill has been deemed GERMANE (acceptable) by the Rules Committee.

DISCUSSION:

HB 249 has the feel of a more democratic and school system centered set of evaluations.  That is on initial reading and on initial overview.  It is suspect in the potential for personalities and conflicts to enter into the equation.  It also is a directive program that is built from more of an individuals' recommendations. 

HB 251 seems a process in action to determine a universal set of criteria and implement them in a universal manner.  It also has protective clauses for teachers who have a poor evaluation after years of at least basic ratings.  It does speak directly of termination of unsatisfactory teachers who are not able to progress through mentoring.

I find the second approach more of a progressive one and appears targeted more to finding ways to improve a teacher and a school system.  It is certainly more a work in progress and if passed would be implemented in a similar time frame as HB 249.  The criteria and the measures are to be research and good practice based, but the actual wording and expectations, as well as the actual flexibility of the evaluative process are yet to be seen.

Neither bill states that there is an expected percentage that will be in any level. 

Worth watching as this will be part of our future. 

Big Brother or Nurturing Mother- time will tell. 


The Eye of God- also known as the Cat's Eye Nebula, a Hubble Telescope observation:

CAT'S EYE NEBULA AS SEEN BY HUBBLE
THE FIERY OBSERVER

A British WWII poster that was proposed but never implemented, felt to be redundant as the British Commonwealth member was inherently thought to have this attitude, therefore to post it might impact the enemy more than the British people.  They might see us as weak and fearful, a trait Winston Churchill proclaimed he had never observed in any subject of His Royal Highness (King George IV).

But it is a mantra for today, that I try to live by:

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL
WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU AND
OUR STUDENTS TO EXCEL

The choice of standards not going to be yours, the outcome confounded by factors that are not in your hands and the outcome of a bad evaluation could be devastating.  But just as teaching students to pass a test is not teaching so is teaching for an evaluation not being an expander of minds  This class, if it represents the majority of educators that will enter NM as teachers, has an enthusiasm and motivation to find ways to teach needed material, excite their students to learn and engage and be their advocate. 


Addenda- also in the House and Senate are Retention Bills that formally address retention:  I suggest reading
 HB 53
This bill speaks to protocol for retention and puts the onus on the teacher to identify these students.  Additional submissions on retention are below and can be viewed by looking up bill number at New Mexico Bill Finder
just click legislation and then click bill finder, you can search by number or by word search.

HB 54 Limit School Retentions Through Intervention (Identical bill to HB 69 and SB 96)
HB 69 Limit School Retentions Through Intervention (Identical bill to HB 54 and SB 96)
SB 50 Limit School Retentions Through Remediation (Identical to HB 53)
SB 96 Limit School Retentions Through Interventions (Identical bill to HB 54 and HB 69)

2250- The class as it e(a)ffects me-

We're here to make it clear

There's no Giants Helmet here

The three of us agree

another ring for the Brady

as for points spread to relate

Me and my posse say by eight

The Blog

I am quite sorry to announce that the original contributor to this blog was unable to be present to address this most important topic due to a series of events that are too numerous to recount.  Rather tragic actually, seems his significant other is a Giants fan and after seeing the above post, has apparently sent him to what you yanks refer to as the dog house.  None the matter, he sent me the comments in a rather extensive e-mail and asked that I post it in this sight. 

What is my purpose in being a teacher?  Let's see what he responded.  I allowed myself to take out all that altruistic and give back to society Erickson's Generativity nonsense and kicked out a few stock lines talking about changing the world and bettering others' lives, and got to the short and sweet answer.

His purpose is to turn full cycle and give back to a new generation what was given to him.  He goes on to talk about energizing students to feel accomplishments and putting the emphasis on seeing each child as a unique vessel that is slowly being filled with new ideas and challenges.  It seems he places himself in the role of facilitator of the presentation of this new found knowledge and (he used this silly line) as a  sort of cheerleader looking for progress in the class as a whole with mindfulness that all students will be different and the child who can go from a D to a C has made progress that should be praised.  He proposes that success as a teacher is preparing a child to have the confidence to adapt to society after the end of his formal education and to instill the notion that learning does not end at that point.  A subtle, but important I must admit, point made is it is not his duty to create a student body that has equal knowledge or will all become doctors or lawyers, it is his duty to challenge the child to progress at his or her level and attain the skills to maximize his or her potential.

He describes his classroom as a theatre with many different programs running.  Philosophically, education is teaching how to learn, how to respect others and how to work collectively in a manner that allows each student to excel.  Praise is given, but not at the expense of others who may have not grasped the concept.  It is given individually and his classroom techniques will emphasize those rewards.  Lectures and presentations will be presented on several levels, those who have mastered a concept will thus get confirmation of their skill and those that have trouble may gain mastery through a different overview of the subject.  Small and hand picked groups of leaders and quick learners mixed with children of other levels will be mixed to allow for mentoring student to student.  This also allows him the time to go from group to group and observe and formulate each child's level of mastery.  A chance to identify those that have need of more one on one learning time.

He believes that there is a strength in each child that can be developed and enhanced, a cognitive or social positive where praise can be given to work on self esteem and to avoid embedding the concept of learned helplessness.  He believes that the shy should be called upon to boost their social growth and that to understand the strengths and weaknesses of a student allows one to not put a child on the spot, but to ask of that student to answer to the class areas of mastery first. 

Foremost he (and this blog puts him in a precarious place to tout this idea) should be a role model of honesty and leadership, punctuality and preparedness and to foster early in the school year a relationship of respect, even to the child who may show no interest in the class at all.

Lastly, he thinks that the first weeks of any school year are the sowing of the seeds of the student-teacher dyad and that the devotion of extra time for evaluation of the characteristics of each student, contact with each parent by phone as introduction, reflection on what techniques each child will benefit from most and self assessment on a daily basis of any personal bias or misinterpretation of the initial portrait of the student is paramount.

Well that was what he wrote.  Idealistic little sot, probably likes Spam and British humor. 

As for my thoughts on his wisdom, and I do think he mentioned it earlier, there will be days when the class is a jolly feast of learning and days when the only sound is that of the hamster running on its wheel.  That is teaching, no attaboys for the good days and when a day just doesn't work, reflect and self assess and hit the next day with the vitality and enthusiasm inherent in the passion to teach.  It's a new day and until proven otherwise will be a good day. 

Like how those Giant football players will find, when the day is done and you did your best but the outcome was less than desired and you fall down- you just get up again no one but yourself can ever keep you down.

Well the kettles boiling, off for some tea- John will be back next week and I am quite sure out of the doghouse (because the Giants are actually going to win).

Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan W-A-T-E-R

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Water Pump

As I was reading the story of Helen Keller, I was as impressed with the story of Anne Sullivan, her teacher and long time mentor.  The story of Teacher is as amazing and heartbreaking as that of Helen.  More than that is the insights and the brilliance of her approach to the child.

We all have heard stories of the water pump and the crisis in Helen's life at that moment that brought about the rapid and dramatic insight that fueled her thirst to move on and learn 30 or so more words that day.  What we hear about less is the brilliance of the Teacher.

This was not the "Miracle" that started the tremendous growth, the miracle was the Teacher's insights early in her approach to Helen. The actual beginning of the story is in Anne Sullivan and her victory over her own blindness.  The foundation     that took a blind girl from a poorhouse and put her in a school for the blind and nurtured her to valedictorian and placed her with Helen at the age of 20.

Anne Sullivan went into the Keller home and defied the authority of the father, in he name of progress.  She took a child who was out of control and first set out to teach obedience and rules.  It was this first step that led to the water incident, the word progression and the eventual resultant Helen Keller, college graduate and hero to the world.

Anne Sullivan is portrayed as the Teacher, and if I could emulate her insights and decisions on her own limitations half as well, I would consider myself a great and fair follower of her moral and intellectual prowess.

She had the insight to take the child out of the chaos of home and set rules, "Obedience" as she called it.  She saw a child of 7 that was developmentally about 2 and so started to treat her as such.

The story is touching, the Teacher is the element that made the pieces fall into place.  Stood up for her student and when it was apparent she could not advance the child any further, sought help and placement.

Helen Keller was a brilliant and amazing person.  Anne Sullivan was the catalyst that brought a chaotic child into a model for overcoming disability.

Anne's key to this was simple observation, self reflection from her past, self awareness of her limitations and the stamina to continue to work with others without jumping ship.  Anne was needed by Helen throughout her life, even when the Teacher was more the support system and the continuity of a presence of positives.

This chapter did not teach me about Helen as much as it exemplified the internal qualities of a true teacher.  Always know your limits, teach to the mental and not the chronicological age and when you have maxed your abilities seek help.  Look at yourself daily and ask- do I really know what to do next and might consultation be the next step?
                                                               Helen Keller on the State Quarter of Alabama.

Helen and Anne (Teacher) 1988

F/U on what blogs can generate

Remember her face.

She was banned in Tuscon.

I blogged it.

111 hits.

15 emails.

10 FB invites.

5 Blogs to follow invites..

And one particular request:

Arizona lawmakers banned schools in the state from teaching "ethnic studies" classes. Unless public schools canceled classes that included racial and ethnic themes, the state could block schools from receiving millions of dollars in critical classroom funding.
But Arizona state officials pushed one school district too far: Tucson Unified School District not only cancelled its vibrant ethnic studies classes, but also banished any book that dealt with "race or oppression."
As a result, students and teachers say dozens of books -- including Shakespeare's The Tempest -- can no longer be taught in class, and some have even been removed from classrooms and locked up in school storage.
Now students and teachers are fighting back in order to draw attention to the ban and keep those valuable books available in schools. Norma Gonzalez is a teacher in the Tucson school district whose class about Mexican American culture was canceled after the state's ban. She started a petition on Change.org asking the Tucson school district to take the banished books out of storage and put them back in school libraries. Click here to sign her petition.
Arizona has been a hotbed of controversy for the nation's immigration debate. But a secondary casualty of what many see as the state's intense anti-immigrant focus has been Arizona's students. For many of these students, ethnic studies courses were proven to close the achievement gap like nothing else had.
Norma sees the ban unfairly hurting her students' education. "Before the ban, I taught my students that, regardless of where you come from, you deserve respect and should love who you are," Norma said. "Now, I can't teach that. My students are angry and confused because they see the ban for what it is: discriminatory."
The literary purgatory of Tucson's school storage facilities now contains dozens of books that have race as a central theme. In addition to the boxed-up books about Chicano and Mexican American history and literature, classics by authors like Thoreau, Shakespeare, and Atwood are seen as too controversial by school officials.
Many are fighting to repeal the ban completely, but the school board fears the state may pull $15 million in funding in response. While several students are fighting a lawsuit to challenge this ban, many books are still stored away. Norma and her fellow teachers want to make sure the banished books are made available in each school's library, so students can read the books that teachers are barred from teaching.
Click here to add your name to Norma's petition asking the Tucson school district to immediately take these books out of boxes and put them back on school shelves:

http://www.change.org/petitions/tucson-school-board-dont-lock-up-knowledge-return-books-to-students-now?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&alert_id=RFJFmASWXc_PoDcfcKYTt&me=aa
People read and notice!

Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar... An Eclectic Thesis

SCIENCE?

The frustrations of the world enter into every aspect of life, and so do the victories.  We spoke about democracy.  Idealism and beauty.  But also the unfortunate creator of freedom that deams certain days and times unavailable to one, 

If only space-time curvature could make my work schedule and the available times for obaining documents and teaching observations coincide.

SCIENCE?

I have this beauiful backround check that is 2 years and 1 week old.  I was supposed to have been done last year when I worked for a high security level project.   Bu they, even though they stated that no person would be excluded from this backround check, because I had one done 2 years and one week ago.  So instead of marching into the ABS office and getting cleared, I must redo it Monday when I get paid and I may be late- and I hate late- for an assignment.

Acceptance and move on.

Above you are images of science.  Apocolyptic, humor, and pollution.  I plan to teach science,  physics or biology.  I spent the week looking at Blogs of various science teachers from elementary to college.  They went from traditional, to experiential, to poliical and to creationist.

I found them to be a mixed breed of my truth, not your truth and real truth.  There were the blogs to prove an extreme viewpoint must be taught.  There were blogs about the tragedy of the child as they are exposed to misconceptions by books that see the world through concrete eyes.

And then there were pragmatists who simply asked why- and gave you (as the student) opportunities to explain.  And hey looked at it from the developemental level of the child.  This excited me and I wanted to know more.  I looked at the blogs he followed- excited more.  These people were prolific thinkers of problems that seem to me to be simplistic.  I want to write one, and I have started.  Some evil scientist stole my byline- Stranger in a strange land, which made it better.

I am starting a journal blog, on blogspot for now and its title- Understanding how to Grok- Student to Teacher. 

The thing is that we are all strangers in a strange land.  We have mastered he Bohr Atom or the trajectory of a canonball.  But like the Stooges stethescopes and doctor garb doesn't give you the ability to go any further until you understand how to Grok- how to see the world from another's eye, one who knows nothing (which is just slightly below you and I) and help them understand.

So I blog and am learning techniques and ideas and being noticed. 

I blogged a week ago about books banned in Arizona.  I got 111 hits, and emails from several organizations.  A link to a petition and invites to several FB and blogging groups.  I'll post later. 

Blog sites are fun-  you tube added can give lectures, ideas and beauty.  This is this weeks blog and I feel like a kid in a candy store.
So I think a little of Ireland. to finish.  Was in this pub, near Tralee, near where my great-great-grandfather was born. (might be one great less great).

The video on the frequency od sound from each intrument and harmonics- in a couple years.

    

2250 EXPERIENCES- The class as it affects me.

The main theme of my first two weeks- Question Reality.

Settling into week two.  I discovered that generational differences in the class are an intriguing asset to my awareness of cycles.  They are also an awareness of the diverse natures of acculturation, this a function of listening to the different educational and environmental settings that fellow students have experienced.  The Dewey Decimal System is replaced by the Web, Wiki and Google.  The factual world is more a dilution of thought into a sea of interpretations.  Newton's Laws, Piaget, Cognitive and neurobiological growth were once the topics of scholarly articles, peer reviewed and revered.  Now a blog that is written well, can be free of scholarly review and may often be opinionated and biased.  This is the brave new world, it is uncomfortable at times.  Never trust a book in its First Edition.

I also am intrigued by the imaginative and energetic populous of this group.  They question and they seem excited as a whole, with a small group uncomfortable with the lack of structure.

In a film of old Up the Down Staircase, there is a portrayal of a new teacher in a school of chaos and lethargic teachers who finds a means to interact, find like thinking teachers and struggle with being inventive in a world of mediocrity.  I am reminded of this in the passion of the class, we will to not allow hindrance of growth of our passions...

And the cycles of learning are expressed easily in the ideas coming from peers that I have seen tried in days of old.  Nothing is truly new, yet the additions and revisions are a sign of a purposeful drive to be the best.  For that I find the class look forward to this class weekly.

My only frustration- Blackboard required 24 hours of tech support to get going.  C'est la vie.

Y'all are awesome.  But then altruism is at the top of Kohlberg's hierarchy of moral values (ladder).

As a teacher I hope to be the visual and experiential instructor.

Oh. the questions.  1. Imparting the lust to learn, 2. Schooling is regimentation and structured to meet a purpose (keep kids off the streets)... pardon the satire. 3. Education seeks to teach the person to fish, schooling provides fish.  4. Fundamental purpose of teaching is to produce thinkers with a basis for questioning reality.  5. Learning is to provide a method and basis to think.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education. Martin Luther King.

NOT THE OFFICIAL FRIDAY BLOG

SOLUTIONS VI\\\\

Define Blogging : the foundation or basics of something.

What is a blog and what is it not?

A blog, to me, is a representation of where I am at a certain time or place.  It is an insight into interpretation of the external events that are either stimulating me, boring me, influencing me or bringing out older ideas or schemes that I have encountered.  I blog a great deal and in several areas.  I find that I am visual and at times uninterpretable.  I find often that when I read something I have written two months ago, it often brings to question why did I write that and what was I thinking.  For example, after reading Dewey, there was a rapid realization that much of his ideas were many years ahead of his time.  That his treatise was very much the model of development that I embraced early in my training.  The inseparable nature of the biological make up, psychological infrastructure and the social environment.  No one area is the true dogma of life and how we grow.  I see things in diagrams and visual-spacial dynamics.  As above a problem may be attacked from two equally valid angles and then analyzed, debated and dissected,  The solution is often a mix of the two initial approaches, hopefully bringing out the best from each.  Scientific method also may see one to be highly superior or may also produce more questions and thus an alternate outcome must be explored.

A blog  is also an experience in other's perspectives.  Reading someones' ideas can stimulate a path or expression that had not been in my psychic repertoire.  Comments on many of my blogs have been seething in their criticism- all the better,  The blog grows from external input, introspective analysis and realistically a blog without comments or reads is a blog that not effective.  I will probably blog 2-5 times a week.  But one comment has stimulated me to get out of information and opinion of a subject, to writing of the personal effect of this experience as a student again.  So there will be many blogs with ideas such as demonstrated here, but Each Tues or Wed I will try to blog about class and the ATL experience.  The byline will be 2250 EXPERIENCES- The class as it affects me.  Feel free to experience, argue and challenge anything.  Others are commentaries on what I see happening, what I feel and how I interpret my other issues will be here as well.

Arguments

And remember philosophy is the stuff on a cereal box..

Shakespeare and Native American Authors Among Those Banned from Tucson Schools

Something is happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear.......

They are banning books in Tuscon Schools. 

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/16/shakespeare-and-native-american-authors-among-those-banned-from-tucson-schools-72749#ixzz1jhMO85Gq

From the article:

As part of its compliance with a state ban on ethnic studies, the Tucson Unified School District has banned its Mexican American Studies program and a number of books including The Tempest by William Shakespeare and Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years, which includes pieces by various Native American authors including Suzan Shown Harjo, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Joseph Bruchac, Leslie Marmon Silko and Winona LaDuke.
“By ordering teachers to remove Rethinking Columbus, the Tucson school district has shown tremendous disrespect for teachers and students,” said the book’s editor Bill Bigelow. “It offers teaching strategies and readings that teachers can use to help students think about the perspectives that are too often silenced in the traditional curriculum.”
Other books banned include Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and Occupied America: A History of Chicanos by Rodolfo Acuña.


With this comes the issue- what is Freedom of Education?  What is the teacher's role and what is censorship?

What is next? Romeo and Juliet because it speaks of teen suicide?  George Orwell because Big Brother and the Ministry of Truth are too close to home?  Anything resembling non-traditional child rearing? 

Rage, rage against the dying of the light- Dylan Thomas

We are apparently not capable of having free thought and the free exchange of ideas. 

Book burnings seemed to me as I grew up completely unthinkable.  This is in effect just that, the smoke is just the fumes of anger.

Age appropriate reading is to me a concept that is in itself vague.  Certainly there are types of books that are socially inappropriate.  But these are few.  I read Mien Kampf in High School- it was read in the context of the Holocaust in an AP History class.

Next will Rig around the Rosie be banned due to its origin- the Plague.

The subtle influence of government on  education is becoming less subtle. 

Reminds me of the line from Animal Farm, "All pigs are equal, just some more than others."

What is freedom of speech- is it now a state based entity.  Hatespeach is one thing, but historical interpretations of indigenous peoples pulled out of the schools under penalty of reduced funding?  Ah, here's the rub.  It is not banning, it is declining to fund.  The notorious manner that the Federal Government has used to get states to enact statutes or lose Federal Highway Funds.

This all surrounds HB 2281:

Hispanic students fill nearly half the seats in Arizona's public school classrooms, but a new law signed by Governor Jan Brewer Tuesday makes it illegal for these students to learn about their heritage in school. HB 2281 prohibits schools from offering courses at any grade level that advocate ethnic solidarity, promote overthrow of the US government, or cater to specific ethnic groups—regulations which will dismantle the state's popular Mexican-American studies programs.

Much like Arizona's new immigration law, this ethnic studies ban is political interest dressed up to look like education reform. The bill was passed largely because of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne's personal distaste for the Tuscon Unified School District's Chicano studies program, in which 3 percent of the district's 55,000 students participate.

The Arizona Department of Education can withhold 10 percent of a district’s state funding if it is found in violation of HB 2281. That provision put $15 million of state funding for TUSD in danger.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne pushed for the passage of HB 2281 and has been criticizing ethnic studies programs in Tucson for years:

“A fundamental role of the public schools is to take students of different backgrounds and teach them to treat each other as individuals and not of the race they were born into. Tucson Unified District does the opposite,” Horne told The Arizona Republic. “They divide (students) by race and teach each group about its own background only.”

So how did the Native American population and Shakespeare get included.

The government is a government- of the people, by the people and for the people.  If Latinos are 50% of the school population, how is this a constitutional act?

History tells us that what we do not understand, we repeat.  Logic tells us that knowledge is the means to bring together populations. The absence of knowledge evokes ignorance and hate, distrust and separation.

Therefore-

1. Ban Civil War Histories.
2. Ban Revolutionary War Histories.
3. Ban anything written about the KKK, Naziism, the Holocaust.
4. Ban Defoe, Huxley, Niven, Orwell, Sylvia Plath, and any other book that suggests change,
5. Ignore Iraq and Afghanistan,
6. Ignore thought, argument, discussion.
7. Promote the one truth, one that is defined by government.
8. And let us not forget Dr. Seuss- He wrote of diversity and color.

This is on the surface madness and an attack on Dewey's thoughts of the teacher as mentor and evaluator of student needs.

Get out you hands and legs, there is a state who is about to place strings all about you and make every move you make directed as the teacher becomes the vehicle of the Puppet master.

Please think about writing legislatures and meeting with your own representatives should this idea spread.

Prejudice and difference is taught, it is unknown to the newborn.

But if the agenda is to eliminate a sector of the population then Ignorance is Strength, and the bans prove it, for knowledge and understanding trump ignorance.

And of course Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Lao Tse, and many more must be silenced,  They had a dream-

We now have a nightmare.

Read more:http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/16/shakespeare-and-native-american-authors-among-those-banned-from-tucson-schools-72749 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/01/16/shakespeare-and-native-american-authors-among-those-banned-from-tucson-schools-72749#ixzz1jhP5V0Wc

Observations on an Article from the 19th Century

There are unexpected and unexplainable events in the lives of each of us as we walk through life's path.  The article by John Dewey (1897) is one of those that, when read in context, is a model of the ideals of a complex interplay of biological, psychological and social interplays that are the core of the child's learning capacity.  His thesis is observational, as was much of the science of that era, but it is astutely accurate in how it sees the elements of the forthcoming biological basis of learning and how this interacts with social and psychological makeup.

He basically outlines the educational system as an extension of the home, an interpretation of values and an awareness that there is a genetic predisposition to learning capabilities.  The child initially is an unconscious learner who is influenced by the social mass that he or she is born into, and develops from motor to intellect through actions and adaptation. He plainly promotes a model of interactions between the biological (individual make-up of the child's cognitive abilities), psychological (the child's perception from conscious and unconscious interactions with the world) and the social (family, peers, history and interactive morality) as challenges for the teacher.  A phenomena that many years later became a prominent psychological school of thought- the biopsychosocial theory of development.

As diagrammed, the developing student is not simply a specimen to regurgitate information, but a dynamic and plastic organism with a multitude of variables that may enhance or deter learning,


The school thus becomes an extension of that which is the home.  Learning should be based on the school as a social process that uses science and literature as explanations of the world.  He is a pragmatist, seeing the school as a practical means to socially nurture while teaching principles rather than facts.  Exams will root out the ones who should go forth into higher or more task laden professions.  There is no stigma to these choices.  There is an implication that the choices are actually moot and that the bright and excelling student is not of any less importance as the one who follows the path of his ancestors. Making judgemental and directional decisions for the student is not the school's job and it is not the teacher's job.

The school and the teacher have a role in pointing out strengths and embellishing these in the student's school experience. The profession of teaching is a highly important and is seen as one of dedication to the formulation of a well functioning, social adult.  A school and its teachers educate students from their own interpretation of what is important for a child's success in life. The formulas of science are not the meat, it is the explanation of real phenomena that is the teacher's job.  Education is as such a practical introduction  of the child into the world through understanding the child's individual qualities, historical and genetic family history and the move from unconscious to conscious acquisition of knowledge.

Reading, writing and arithmetic are seen as a subset of a greater learning experience, the learning of how to be social and functional in society.  The archaic concept of one's race is understood in the context of the writing and is interpreted loosely, yet in many ways it predicts diversity and cultural challenges that the teacher must both respect and accept as part of the collective that is brought to the classroom.

Four Observations:

1. The idea that there is a manifest interaction between the neurochemical makeup of the child, the psychological makeup as learned and imparted and the social interactions and social mass that they are born into is taken into play- it is apparent he is picturing the biopsychosocial concepts of development and learning, a principle that would take years to be formalized.
2. The school is an extension of the home and the child should learn to be practical and social and that the studies should help them enhance those areas.  The school is a social representation of society and that the lessons learned should be practical and realistic and cued to socially fitting in with their world.
3. The material studied should be measured by social adaptation and the student grades only a means to set expectations.  Teach in the now, not in the future.
4. Finally the teacher is a powerful figure to be of great respect who teaches to the level of the child and directs them along the paths of their strengths.  This is not academic per se, science is the science of practical experience and literature is that pertinent to the time.  The future will come, the present is our life.

BRAIN, PSYCHE, SOCIAL
BIRTH AND FAMILY UNCONSCIOUS

INTERACTIVE SOCIAL LEARNING
IN FAMILY FRAMEWORK

SCHOOL IS PLACE OF SOCIAL LEARNING
AND SOCIALIZATION

SCHOOL IS PRACTICAL AND SOCIETY
BASED


                                                                                                                                                         TEACHER

In many ways Dewey is prophetic in his ideas of the process of teaching.  He sees the individual as a maximizing entity that is prodded down a path that is fit for his or her capabilities  In many ways his awareness of the biological, social and psychological uniqueness of the individual, although somewhat archaic and limiting, is what an ideal teacher of today might attempt.  In Dewey's world there was less distraction and less mechanisms of intervention  for the challenged student.  Today's teacher, as depicted above has more distractions, more information, more support and most likely more is expected in terms of measurable outcomes.

The teacher becomes the adaptor of the potential of the child, the needs of the the child and the social, intellectual and moral development of the child.  The teacher is the societal director of the interplay of home, learning and socializing.  These are lofty and somewhat dogmatic ideals.  Yet the foundations he plants are insightful and relevant to today's educational milieu.  The world may be 120 years old, but the basic ideas are still pertinent.  The energy and dedication of the teacher is a mandatory skill whether seen from Dewey's perspective as the maker of minds and the developing director of morality or in a more modern perspective as the stimulator of the lust for knowledge.  After all the world of 1897 was much smaller and was a time of the explosion of the technology that has enveloped us all.  A step back to a more intimate teacher-student dyad might not be a step back, it is indeed food for thought.

"The self-taught man seldom knows anything accurately, and he does not know a tenth as much as he could have known if he had worked under teachers; and, besides, he brags, and is the means of fooling other thoughtless people into going and doing as he himself had done. There are those who imagine that the unlucky accidents of life - life's "experiences" - are in some way useful to us. I wish I could find out how?". Mark Twain

From John Dewey, My Pedagogic Creed, School Journal, vol 57, January 1897, pp 77-80

TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL

Stonehenge

Shakespeare wrote that the world is a stage and we each play our roles.  Today was day one of the next adventure in my life.  The next role.

Education, teaching, passing on knowledge, memorization, interpretation, discussion, truth, hypthethesis, frame of reference, theological backround, family influence, peer influence, pc, not pc, challenged, gifted, ADHD, GED, rating, grading, opinion, disagreement, poverty, elitism, private, public, no child left behind, home school, preschool, night school, adult education, special ed, tardy, Plato, diversity, energized, a,b,c,d,f were the words, phrases and explanations I heard from many people in the classroom today.  Numerous backgrounds and experiences representing divergent thinking and a similar goal- to teach.

So begins day one of the flight from the safe harbor into the roaring sea.  So begins a challenge of questionable outcome, but distinct passion.

So teach me about the picture,  what is it?  To a 4 year old it is a bunch of rocks, to a 10 year old a series of placed rocks, and to a 15 year old it is either an enigma or boring. The geologist sees the type of rock, druid sees a place of worship, an engineer a feat of significant accomplishment, a tourist a great snap for the album and the historian a mysterious collection of explanations all based on conceptualizations that come from their frame of reference.

All are correct, none accurate- absolute truth is not truly ever obtained and sometimes 5 + 7 = 14 (base 8).

What I see from day one is there will be absolutes, basic goals and structure and this will be mixed with countless variables, personalities and frameworks. 

Google Earth TM shows us two other perspectives of the same structure.  Each represents a different image and internal picture of
the traditional representation above.  Frames of reference act in similar ways in all settings.  Close in there is a feeling of order and strength.  Permanence and archaism, yet balance and almost a lightness of the precarious and yet balanced structure.  We see units that are in themselves both autonomous and yet connected.

Then from above the same structure loses some of the order and adds a level of chaos and decay.  We can see the fragility and the randomness of the entropic nature of time.  We have to imagine the structure as it was in the past, have clues to what it might have been
but also see these are ruins of something massive, now returning to
earth and losing form.

The beauty of this simple series of observations is that they mirror the challenge and the teacher's potential to use one example to impart upon the student physical science, history, culture, engineering, imagination, the natural processes of aging and take these concepts anywhere. 

A simple image becomes a tool for the instructor to use their skills to impart a variety of learning experiences.  The possibilities become endless. 

So the world is a stage, a place for growth,  and the role of the instructor is that of the facilitator of a student's growth.  Most wonderfully the student can make his or her own interpretation, in whatever depth that they can master, and be completely right.  It is the instructor's role to formulate the question to allow for students at any cognitive level to achieve a successful outcome. 

We all remember teachers from the past, personally I remember the alphas and the omegas.  I remember the ones who stimulated me the the most and the ones who made class an ordeal. The ones that were just instructors of facts fall into a group that with time has lost identity.  Those that influenced me were excited and positive; they loved their field and wanted to convey that passion.

They were mirrors of the words of Gandhi:

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”  

Our stage is the classroom, it is our world and our student's world- may we each positively inspire the flame of learning in as many as we can- but as Gandhi alludes, positive thoughts and habits in ourselves are the honey that attracts young minds to the sweetness of learning.