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Showing posts from February, 2009

Time To Play

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This morning, while at the check out stand at a local grocery store, I had an interesting interaction with a checker called Michael. He's Nigerian-American and was commenting on Michelle Obama's beautiful face gracing the cover of one of the pseudo news magazines always surrounding the check stand. "I didn't really know much about her till recently," he said in accented English. Then he added, "It's like this writer in my literature class says, 'the world is a stage and we are the players.'" "Yes, that's Shakespeare," I replied, never having heard The Bard referred to as "this writer." "When it's your time, you'd better play," Michael said, confident that he was enlightening me and anyone else in earshot. "Yes it's her time and she's knows how to play," I remarked. Michael was all smiles now and there was a glint of authenticity in his obligatory "have a grea

Guess What?

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I heard something interesting on the radio the other day. While going about my business and alternately catching bits and pieces of NPR throughout the day, I chanced upon a program about U.S. oil imports and the use of the term "foreign oil." So just where does the U.S. get it's oil these days? The answer might be surprising. After a little fact checking and updating, here are some results. Gives one pause, no?

Will Work For Nothing

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The Madoff scandal deepens. We all seem to be incredulous that an elaborate Ponzi scheme could wipe out so many so fast. Did they really think they were in on something special? They were. While I truly feel for those who have lost most of their life savings, guess I have too. Anyone who dares to look at a retirement account statement these days will find the math pretty simple. 50% =1/2. Half of all those good intentions, those deductions, those brave decisions, and in some cases, half of something passed on down the line. Of course the opportunity here is that we get another chance to ask ourselves what matters most. For those who need to keep up appearances, this must be a tougher time. I can only wonder what that must be like. I can only imagine what it must feel like to people whose values are tied more to their bank statements than the deeds they do. As always, the little guys often get hit the hardest. Maybe retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be, they won

My own Blues

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Yesterday, I gave a presentation on the history of the blues in two of my student teacher's classes. First time in about three years I returned to the front of the classroom. I jokingly told Chip (student teacher) he should critique me. I think he took me seriously, though. I'll have to fix that. He's teaching all his cooperating teacher's classes for the next 3 weeks and there are three sections of a class called Arts and Communication. I think it's a catch-all media literacy type of course. Since they were doing a unit on the history of Rock & Roll, he asked me to present some material on the blues. In planning the unit I suggested some things and let him know I had a fairly strong background in working with blues music. I thought it might also be a good opportunity to model teaching to him. All three of the groups are very different. One group is definitely more talkative. One is at the beginning of the day and one is the last class of the day; b

The Tao of Glory

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It's been one of those weeks when the contradictory patchwork quilt of human existence becomes particularly vivid. We learn that the number of military suicides in January of '09 is greater than the first month's combined deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. For those young men and women the war never ended. They knew and tried to tell us so. While commanding officers debate whether or not PTSD qualifies one for the Purple Heart, they say look, you want blood, we'll shed blood too. Perhaps suicide is violent enough for some. A child loving woman adds 8 more to her single parent family and thinks it'll all be fine when she earns her Master's degree. Her only hope of sanity is a reality TV show. We all know how mentally stable those folks are. A large dose of American brand "messy glory" got spread over everything like salmonella laden peanut butter when Barry Bonds went back to court. He's in deep peanut butter and now can lift a hand to A-R

Blue Monday

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My student teachers are showing some signs of progress. Both feel more comfortable in the classroom, but continue to assume that the reality of a teacher's life is something that it isn't. Fatigue, for example. Both have begun "solo" teaching. This means that they have assumed their Cooperating Teacher's (formerly referred to as Master teacher) full schedule. They weren't prepared for how tiring that can be. I identify with both these young men when it comes to discipline and management issues. I too preferred to avoid confrontation whenever possible, but learned how important it was in building my presence to find a teacher voice. That'll come for them. They will find the tipping point and cross the threshold. For both it will not be easy, but every observation I make reveals boundaries being pushed, missed opportunities, and furrowed brows. Yesterday Chip asked me to do a presentation in 3 of his classes on the history of the blues. He know