A Future for Us All (Sir Ken Robinson)
3 MayShortly before he passed away, Sir Ken Robinson called Andrew Park – Founder of We Are Cognitive – to arrange a gift for his beloved community…A new animation, based on what proved to be his last public talk, ‘My Thoughts for The Call to Unite’. Watch this fantastic video from this great teacher, writer, researcher, adviser, speaker, and thinker.
The Ukraine Crisis – Resources
3 MarI paused my lessons on trade in my 9th grade/Year 4 MYP Individuals and Societies (Social Studies) class this week to focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. My colleague, Matt, and I felt it was important to talk about this crisis which has not become a war. Students have been very engaged in the lessons and discussions. We first started with a discussion about why this should matter to us. Being so far from this region often makes students (and adults) think, “Why does this matter to me?” My colleague, Matt, shared some excellent resources from The Choices Program at Brown University that focused on building a historical understanding of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine (text and videos), along with an excellent lesson on analyzing political cartoons, something my students enjoyed doing last year. Students are curating their own resources and creating their own political cartoons. There is no shortage of news stories and video footage on the current events which change every day. There are a lot of real-world events that provide teachable moments and this is one of them.
Life in Zambia: Movember, Mangos, & Coffee
2 DecA few photos from life in Zambia! Our #Movember group raised $1,600.00 to date. Movember is an annual event involving the growing of mustaches and/or choosing a fitness goal during the month of November to raise awareness of men’s health issues, such as anxiety, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men’s suicide. The goal of Movember is to “change the face of men’s health.” The Lusaka League of Extraordinary Moustaches included faculty and parents. Here is my ‘Mo’ Space. To date, I raised $300.00 this year. Many thanks for the support and much appreciation and laughs with my school community team. This year’s Movember, in particular, was an important one for me. Here is an excerpt from my page:
“This year marks the 10th anniversary of my father’s death. My dad, Robert W. Martin (Bob) died on March 27, 2011, at the age of 66 after a long, brave battle with prostate cancer. About 1 man in 8 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. The Movember Foundation is working to halve the number of deaths from prostate cancer by 2030, and I want to help them get there.” – Click HERE to learn more about Movember
It’s mango season in Zambia. I love mangos. We bought all these in this photo for less than $9.00 USD on the road (M9) from Kafue National Park last weekend. The coffee is Zambian is from Bush Brew Coffee. My neighbor and colleague, Trevor, organizes the delivery straight from the roasters. I am grateful for my health, our jobs, our school, and life here in Zambia. My goal is always to try to blog more and to share more about life here, along with teaching and learning. Every time I write a post, I feel bad that I don’t blog more often. Baby steps, small goals.
South Luangwa National Park, Zambia – Part 2 (Oct. 2021)
24 OctTen more photos from our five days in South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. We enjoyed our week there and are thankful for opportunities to see more of this amazing country. We hope friends will come to visit as travel restrictions get easier. The past year and a half has given us many opportunities to do road trips, go camping, and to learn more about Zambia. While my site focuses more on teaching and learning, I also want to share photos and experiences that allows others to learn more about Zambia and other places we visit. There are a lot of perceptions of what Africa is like. First of all, it’s not a country. It’s often referred to as one place or a country in the media and by people I meet when I travel or return home (“How’s Africa?”). It’s a huge continent with 54 diverse countries and cultures.
South Luangwa National Park, Zambia – Part 1 (Oct. 2021)
24 OctTen photos from our October school break trip to South Luangwa National Park in Zambia. This was our second trip to South Luangwa, two years after our first trip. Our family stayed two nights at Time and Tide Nsolo Camp and three nights at Mfuwe Lodge (The Bushcamp Company). Both provided very different experiences, one very remote and rustic and off the grid and the other more comfortable and family-friendly (ex. pool, air-conditioning, etc.). We saw everything we had hoped to see, lots of lions and elephants. My goal was to finally see wild dogs, something I had not seen in my three and half years of safaris in Zambia. I was overjoyed to see packs of wild dogs (sometimes called “painted” dogs). The cherry on top of the sundae was seeing a leopard in a tree that we got to spend about 15 minutes near before it climbed down and ran into the bush. It was a wonderful way to spend our vacation, and we are very grateful for this experience and to live in such a beautiful country.
New York Times 3rd Annual Narrative Writing Contest
12 OctThe New York Times invites middle and high school students ages 11-19 to tell a short story about a meaningful life experience in 600 words or fewer. Contest Dates: Oct. 13 to Nov. 17, 2021. For this contest, they invite you to write a personal narrative of your own about a meaningful life experience. Please click on this LINK to read more about this contest and the rules.
Works Cited:
Josie, Melinda. “The Winners of Our 2nd Annual Personal Narrative Contest.” The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2021, http://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/learning/the-winners-of-our-personal-narrative-contest.html. Accessed 12 Oct. 2021.
Readicide (Book Review)
26 SepRead-i-cide (noun): The systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools.
Readicide – How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It by Kelly Gallagher is a fantastic book that I should have read many years ago. It was published in 2009, and while some of the references to the the state of educational initiatives and politics seem a bit dated, the information and approaches are spot on. This year, I have returned to teaching Language and Literature. This book would make any Humanities, Language Arts, or Middle School/High School English teacher reflect on his/her practices. It is centered more on the teaching practices in the U.S. but I also think the anecdotes fit a lot of what I have observed in American international schools during my career. Parts of the book that resonated with me, include:
- The over-analysis of books creates instruction that values the trivial at the expense of the meaningful. This “chop-chop” curriculum or step-by-step approach that we often see in novel studies bombards students with ‘goals’ and ‘habits of thinking’ is a recipe for readicide.
- The over-teaching of literature prevents students from experiencing the place where all serious readers want to be – the reading flow.
- The need for authentic reading, sustained silent reading or DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read), and the 50/50 goal of having students read for pleasure 50% of the time, while the remaining 50% is focused on classes reading a novel that focuses on the skills needed to unpack that novel.
- The need to build classroom libraries, in addition to amazing school libraries. The middle school language arts classrooms at the American International School Chennai (India), my former school, has incredible classroom libraries and spaces to read. I felt like I was walking into a independent book store.
- “Young readers are drowning in a sea of sticky notes, marginalia, and double-entry journals, and as a result, their love of reading is being killed in the one place where the nourishment of a reading habit should be occurring – in school” (Gallagher 59).
- The importance of finding the balance between over-teaching and under-teaching a novel or text and what this looks like.
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