Today would have been Dr. Seuss's eleventy-first birthday.
Dr. Seuss held a very important place in my childhood--like so many kids!
I even performed a dramatic reading of The Cat in the Hat for speech in one of my high school English classes.
And I can't tell you how many times my own kids asked me to read Hop on Pop, and Green Eggs and Ham, and--our favorite--One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.
Dr. Seuss's wild, whimsical imagination continues to inspire me to this very day. His artwork and lyric prose still bring me great joy.
The quote below came from a list from mental_floss that I saw this morning. I mashed it up with a free-hand drawing by one of my ridiculously talented students.
Here's to a little "nonsense" for your day.
May you embrace a little fantasy and enjoy extra laughter today!
Drawing by Anna Krygsheld, photo by Dave Mulder, with text from the illustrious Dr. Seuss overlaid.
If you were a child of the 80's (and maybe even the 90's), did you have an Apple II (or Apple IIe, or Apple IIgs) in your classroom? If so, here's a bit of nostalgia too good to pass up...
The games load up right in your browser, but you'll have to install a plug-in for them to load. (This is easy, and free--when you try to play a game for the first time, follow the on-screen instructions and you'll be in game-mode in a matter of minutes.)
Yes, the graphics are just as awful as you remember them. Yes, the sounds are midi-generated silliness. Yes, the games are just as awesome today as they were all those years ago.
And even though the graphics are bad and the sound is worse, I think your students could still learn from these games. Okay, sure: some of them are just ridiculous...but you could say the same for some of the schlocky apps you probably have on your classroom set of iPads today!
It might also be worth sharing this site with your students' parents...just the sort of old-school fun for parents and kids alike for the summer doldrums of "Mom...I'm bored!"
(Thanks to my Twitterfriend @sjunkins for sharing this great site!)
There are countless of quotes floated about attributed to Albert Einstein. I'm sure many of them--probably most of them--are authentic. Some are probably not. To his credit, he did have a lot of good stuff to say about a great many topics beyond physics. I think the above is a good example, and a worthy admonishment for all educators.
Of course teachers need to have solid pedagogical knowledge (how to teach.) But they also have to have solid content knowledge (what to teach.) And if teachers can't explain things simply, maybe it's because they don't actually understand it well enough themselves.
The past few Saturday mornings I've been following an education Twitterchat as I have a cup of coffee. If you're an educator and on Twitter, I'd really recommend you follow along. The hashtag is #rechat, and we're talking about "rethinking educational practices." (Kudos to John T. Spencer for starting this one.)
Anyway, this week the topic was the importance of "play" in education. The conversation was fairly wide-ranging. I had several things to share...and I sort of surprised my self with how philosophical I was about things. (To be fair, I had been working on a post about philosophy of education the day before. But still...) We got talking about how important it is for students to play--and not just elementary school recess, but all the way on up, and in class as well as out of class. Really thoughtful stuff people were sharing.
Photo gratuitously pilfered from
http://www.moogk-soulis.com/2012/09/its-all-about-play/
I have this picture hanging on my office door. I love this quote. Mr. Rogers is--as always--right. Play is serious learning. Play is the work of childhood.
I think the opposite should also be true: serious learning should always have an element of playfulness present as well. Playfulness is not the opposite of serious work. Play can be a useful element in the midst of hard work. My "create an album" assignment might be a good example--full of playfulness, but also a valid way for students to clarify their own understanding, as well as allow me to assess their thinking at the moment.
(Here's the really philosophical bit:)
As we chatted, I shared some of my own thinking about how different philosophies of education will probably think about the value of play. Essentialism sees the primary reason for education to ground students in "the essentials," so essentialist teachers will likely have a less playful teaching practice. Constructivism sees education more about students developing their own understandings, so constructivist teachers would likely embrace a lot more play in their teaching: students playing with ideas, playing with materials, etc.
As I'm reflecting on my own teaching experience--and recognizing the role constructivist thinking has in my own classroom practice--maybe it's not surprising that I'm apt to tell stories, assign my students to build weird contraptions, encourage them to share their thinking, experiment with alternative strategies, and...well...play around myself. I believe each teacher's personal philosophy of education shapes his or her classroom practice.
The chat was stimulating. I'm still thinking about it more than 24-hours later. I was challenged to think about (and rethink--ha!) the role of play in my own teaching practice. Fellow teachers, what do you think? How do you incorporate "play" into your classroom? What sorts of playful assignments do you give? And if you can't think of playful ways to engage your students, why is that?
A friend recently shared this video on Facebook. I have to confess, I've watched it at least half a dozen times in the past few days--it totally hooked my attention. If you watched Mr. Rogers at any point in your childhood, it's worth taking a couple minutes to view it...
This video was a fun reminder for me of a show I loved in my childhood, but seeing it also got me thinking about teaching Christianly again.
I watched Mr. Rogers regularly as a child. I loved that show. Somehow, Mr. Rogers came up around our supper table a few weeks ago (before I saw this remix even) and my kids were fascinated to hear how much I remembered about a show I last watched regularly 30 years ago. I loved the Trolley, the Neighborhood of Make-Believe (even Purple Panda, who apparently terrified other kids--who knew?), and how Mr. Rogers went to visit his friends who could tell him more about things he was curious about. There was a time in my life when I tossed the shoes I was putting on from one hand to the other, because that's how Mr. Rogers did it.
This was a good reminder for me about the brilliance of Fred Rogers. As a teacher and a parent, I'm looking back at Mr. Rogers' influence on my life, and thinking with appreciation about how his quirky, kind way left fingerprints on my childhood. Maybe I'm just reminiscing a little fondly, but here are just a few things that I remember from the show that I think I've carried with me throughout my life:
Mr. Rogers always had a song about everything. The show was full of music. Music has always had a key place in my life as well.
Mr. Rogers taught us the importance of taking care of your things and being responsible. He never said so, but he showed it, by feeding the fish, cleaning up the toys he was imagining with, etc.
Mr. Rogers was incredibly polite, always grateful for the help of others.
Mr. Rogers told us over an over again that it's okay to be who you are, that it's okay to have the feelings that you are having, and that it's okay to be proud of yourself when you have achieved big things.
Mr. Rogers was incredibly creative. (Obviously!) Anyone who could play a dozen or more puppets, all with developed characters of their own is a genius.
Mr. Rogers always had a positive outlook on life. Every day was a "beautiful day in the neighborhood."
As I think about this man from an educational standpoint, I admire his thoughtfulness about not just what he was teaching the kids who tuned in every day, but also his thoughtfulness for how he was teaching it. He was both enthusiastic and humble, both curious and polite, and always direct and honest. What a role model for teachers!
I once read that Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian minister before he began working on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood (Wikipedia confirms this for me...), and I wonder how much his faith informed his approach on the show. From what I remember, there was never anything overtly religious in Mr. Rogers' TV personality, but he exhibited much of what I would hope my students might "catch" from me as their teacher about living a faith-infused life: honesty, morality, kindness, concern for others, openness to new ideas, wonder about the world God has made, and a desire to use the gifts God has given me to be a blessing to others, just to name a few. This makes me think a bit of what I wrote in my last post about teaching from a distinctively Christian perspective. Perhaps it's less about spouting Scripture at students...and more about beginning from the perspective at which I hope the students will end up, and being mindful of the way my faith informs my teaching practice, and how I interact with my students, and weaving a Biblically-informed view of the world into every lesson I teach.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Rogers. Thank you for having an influence on my childhood.
