The Story of Carl: Are You Too Comfortable?

This is Carl.

Carl is a weird bird who has decided that living on our deck (under my chair) is a really good idea. My kids named him Carl after a long discussion. (Don't ask.)

You can tell by the amount of bird droppings in the picture that Carl has lived under my chair for quite a while now. It's odd, he seems perfectly content to hang out there, even when people come out onto the deck. He even kept me company while I was grilling burgers the other night.

Carl prefers to walk than to fly. It's not that he can't fly. One of the first days I saw him there I half-heartedly tried to scare him off, and he flew into a tree in the yard. But he came back as soon as he could. And he tends to just waddle around. It makes me wonder if he's sick, or just too comfortable.

---

I'm thinking about Carl because I think he might be an object lesson for us.

Often, we prefer to hang out where we are comfortable, places we know are safe. It can be scary to fly off into the unknown!

But...if you only stay waddling around in the same area all the time, what opportunities are you missing?

I wonder about teachers who keep doing the same thing, year after year after year. Sure it's comfortable. But do you ever feel like you're missing out on things?

Sure, it might be comfortable for Carl to hang out among his own mess on the deck. But if he was meant to soar...he's missing out by staying too comfortable.

Teacher, you were meant to soar! Get out of your comfort zone! Try something new! Maybe you'll find a new flock heading in a direction you've never considered traveling before.

Hooray for Trivia!

I love trivia. Random facts are just good fun!

If you feel the same way, may I suggest you check out Mental_Floss? I've been getting their magazine for about a year now (it is amazing) and I follow them on Twitter (@mental_floss) for the fun facts, quizzes, and odd lists they share regularly.

But none of this prepared me for the Most Interesting and Amazing Fact Generator! You must go check this out right now. Please.

The Great Language Game

A screengrab from Wictionary.org

I will not pretend to meet the above definition of polyglot in any way. I am effectively monolingual; I only speak English fluently.

After three years of high school Spanish, and opportunities to practice it on service projects and working in a restaurant, I understand most Spanish so long as it's spoken at a slow enough rate, and speak it passably...still thinking in English, translating in my head, speaking haltingly, and certainly making enough errors to cause native speakers to snicker.

I know a smattering of Dutch, mostly because of my cultural heritage. I know how to say the words, but I have no real sense for how to spell them, or grammar, or how to string them together in coherent sentences.

I'm thankful I had a semester of Latin in the 8th grade, because it helps make sense of French and Italian, plus a surprising number of English words with Latin roots.

I had a Korean friend in high school who taught me several phrases in Korean, but I'm afraid to use them, because I don't know what I'm actually saying, and I don't want to wind up accidentally insulting someone's grandmother.

An Admonishment to Teach Social Studies: The West and the Rest

Image by johnantoni CC BY-SA 2.0

In 2004, Meic Pearse published a book entitled Why the Rest Hates the West: Understanding the Roots of Global Rage. I have to confess that I have never read the book (yet), but the title has always stuck with me.


I was reminded of this book somehow when my friend, Sherri, recently shared this video clip with me. It is from the BBC and it shows a historical view of the relationship between health (lifespan) and wealth (per capita income) in 100 nations of the world. Not surprisingly, many Western nations are at the top of the heap, but the gap between the West and the Rest might surprise you. It's worth the 5 minutes to view the clip:



If it's true that most nations of the world aren't as "far behind" the West anymore, why do so many nations have such animosity toward the West?

This has me thinking about the importance of teaching geography, history, economics, languages, international relations, and peacemaking as integral parts of school. If it's true that the "Rest" really do hate the West, we need to do a better job of collectively working towards greater understanding!

Manners Matter! (Even Online...)

The topic of helping students develop good citizenship (especially online) came up in one of the discussions in a class I'm taking. I've thought quite a lot about this--especially when I was teaching middle schoolers how to be safe online, how to conduct research online, etc. Somehow, many students--even well-mannered, well-behaved kids--simply don't act nice when working and playing online. Kids need to learn that manners matter--even online!

In general, I think schools need to do a better job of this, but I also think some of the burden lies with parents. In the same way that parents should influence their children's citizenship habits in face-to-face settings, parents have a responsibility to foster good online citizenship habits as well.

I came across the infographic below the other day. It's from Know the Net, a pretty fantastic group in the UK with lots of resources to support parents and teachers in helping kids learn to conduct themselves well online. I hope you will give them a look, and consider using their resources for your own children or students.

Here's a great summary of what kids should learn about being well-mannered online. What do you think? Are there things they missed? What would you add?

Image from educatorstechnology.com

Connecting with Other Educators

Teaching can be a lonely profession. That sounds odd, doesn't it? We spend all day with other people! But there is often an isolation that can form unless we are deliberate about making connections with other educators.

In my opinion, connecting with others is where the most growth, the most professional development occurs.

So how do you connect with other educators?

Check out this video from my Twitterfriend and fellow graduate student, Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler). She's as much a Twitter geek as I am (and probably more so, if I dare to characterize her that way...)

Beginnings

It's the beginning of the year. This is my 16th year of teaching, and my second year teaching in higher education. From preschool to the present, I've had 33 first days of school. You'd think that the idea of a "new year" wouldn't still bring on anxious feelings, but it does.

I love the rhythm of the school year.

Beginnings--middles--endings--breaks.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

This year, for the first time, I haven't had the nightmares. Usually I have a nightmare a day or two before school starts: I have THE CLASS FROM HELL, the kids scream at me when I try to talk to them, I've forgotten to plan lessons for one class, all of my science lab materials have mysteriously disappeared...you get the idea. If dreams are a window into the subconscious mind, my subconscious mind must be a pretty fearful place, because it dreams up all kinds of scenarios that are very, very unlikely to actually come to life. (Of course, now that I've said it, I'll probably have the nightmare a few days late...)

The thing is, beginnings--for all their joy and wonder--can be stressful.