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| Consciousness
The Story of Stuff - a New Video for a New Paradigm
Tonight I went to
the US Premiere of The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard. It’s a
fabulous educational video about stuff. It’s important to
examine where stuff comes from and where it goes and all of the
seen and unseen pieces in-between and this video short does a
great job of outlining the process. The Story of Stuff website
has numerous resources, including some generic educational
materials, drop down menus for the different aspects of the
production-consumption cycle and a well documented source list
for the facts sited. Share the video with your students,
colleagues and friends. We’re watching it tomorrow in my
classroom. I was thinking about also showing the artwork of
Chris Jordan and his collection called Intolerable Beauty. If
you haven’t seen his stuff, I highly recommend it. The project is the result of a collaboration between the Tides Foundation, GAIA, Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption and Free Range Graphics. My dear friend Erica Priggen works for Free Range Graphics and was the Producer of the video. Great work Erica and all of the people who worked to make The Story of Stuff!
Afformations YouTube Video: Ask Better Questions in Your Life Dr. Noah St. John has created a way to help you change your life. It’s called afformations. It’s a method of asking questions that focuses on what you’d like to create. Most people, including teachers and our students, ask lousy questions. Questions such as “Why am I so broke?” and “Why is math so difficult?” are rampant. The problem is that when you ask lousy questions, you get lousy answers, and hence create a less than desirable life circumstance.
I taught my students a little about how to use afformations at school and at home to change their lives and many had incredible shifts. Some of my colleagues also used it in their classrooms with delightful outcomes.
Take a Vacation from Complaining Spring break isn’t quite here yet, but you don’t need to wait to take a vacation. You can start today! Take a vacation from complaining.
When people complain, they actually enforce and unfortunately attract more negative experiences. Taking the simple action of not complaining can shift the energy in your life in dramatic and joyous ways. The Secret is to focus on the things that bring you joy.
I like to do take a vacation from complaining with my students. It can really make teaching and learning a much more pleasant experience when the room isn’t filled with tattling and whining. Of course, students are still encouraged to set healthy boundaries and have them respected, but the finger pointing can be erased with a collective intention.
On Monday, I am going to invite my students to take a vacation from complaining with me. I will have them write “day 1″ in their daily planners marking the beginning of the vacation. We will also determine how long we’re going to take a vacation from complaining. We’ll write the end date in the planner as well. Each week on our warm-ups we’ll take a couple of minutes to write a reflection on how we’re enjoying the vacation.
I usually like to set the vacations for 30 days. 40 days is also a nice amount of time for a vacation, especially if the number 40 has spiritual significance for you. Lent is a great time to give up complaining. Well, by the time this vacation is over, Spring Break will have arrived and I can go on another vacation.
“The Secret” in Education If you haven’t heard about The Secret, it’s a movie that will change your teaching and your life in profound and joyful ways!
The Secret is that our thoughts attract similar thoughts, which then become manifest on the physical plane. This is often referred to as the Law of Attraction. The movie includes interviews with people who have been using the power of positive thought to create their lives. People like Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, as well as quantum physicists, share their wonderful stories. Even Oprah is out promoting it. It’s a must see movie!
Think about all of the people, including perhaps you, who have said, “Teachers are underpaid” (which may be true in this moment), but are we creating more of that in the future? Another one that is commonly repeated is, “Teachers don’t get any respect.” I’d love to have a whole bunch of teachers around the world see this movie and start creating a different reality for our profession and our students on a mass scale. You can start by clicking on the link below and getting a copy at Amazon. Invite over some colleagues and watch it together. Support each other and share the secret.
Cooperative Learning: Engaging All Students I’ve been investigating strategies to improve the quality of the cooperative learning group interactions in my math classroom. I figure that if I really want students to support each other, I need to teach communication skills and clearly state my expectations of the group. This week I decided to have the groups focus on engaging all students in the activity. Here is what I did:
Clearly Stated
the Focus
Brainstormed Ideas Prior to starting the activity, we spent about a minute or two as a class coming up with ideas about how to engage group members. For example,
Self-Assessment After completing the task, each group had an assessment sheet that they filled in together. Lots of websites, such as YouTube and Squidoo, have viewers rate things on a 5 star system. I decided to use a similar model. I had a few questions on the 1/4 sheet of paper. They filled in the number of stars that best represented their group’s behavior for the day.
They also had to provide evidence of how they got everyone engaged by writing things that were said or done.
Wrap Up
Overall, I heard a lot more people actively soliciting answers and input from group members. There is definitely more work that needs to be done though. I may adapt the survey, but I like the general idea and structure of the assessment. Each week I’d like to have a different focus for the groups until the students naturally integrate these ideas into their interactions.
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