Inspiration from the Grave

Sadly, I received notification from my alma matta of the death of a beloved young professor, Dr. Gustavo Wensjoe, the head of the International Studies Program there.
I didn't know him. Yet in reading the Face Book posts, he was a sublime educator who pushed when students needed to be pushed, consoled when students needed to be consoled, and taught global students global concepts with such depth and passion so as to make the world a better place. One student quoted him as saying, "Live like you'll die tomorrow. Learn like you'll live forever." This is actually a Mahatma Gandhi quote, but so appropriate to the way Professor Wensjoe modeled his brief life - based on the comments of those who knew him. God bless you and your family, Dr. Wensjoe, for what you brought to the world.

Coincidentally this quote makes me feel as if I knew Dr. Wensjoe as I do live my life this way. I thrive on learning. Learning makes me feel alive. I'm a better person within and without because of learning. I bring the passion generated from learning to my every day living and to the people I cherish. God bless you, Dr. Wensjoe, for connecting with me beyond the limits of conciousness we call life as knowledge knows not the boundaries we call life and death.

Blogging Builds Students' Writing Skills

http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el200903_davis.pdf

A good article that specifically outlines a teacher's use of blogging to build writing skills, choice, and relevancy of learning.

Blogging Recommended on the Today Show

This morning's Today show featured out of work writers. It turns out that they are working as unpaid interns at various organizations so they can learn today's technology. It seems the only market currently generating work for writers is the online market. Even though they have more writing experience, they are being mentored by paid writers in their 20's and 30's because these youngsters have the technology skills that they lack. What was the number one way recommended through this piece on the Today Show to begin getting caught up in any field? Blogging? Find blogs in your field of interest and begin by reading them, then posting to them. Start your own blog. Get people interested in your ideas. Become reflective and invigorate that inquiring mind of yours. I wonder how far behind educators are in being left behind by the tech savvy? I wonder what place blogging can play in beginning to close that gap? Valuing the recommendation of Ian Jukes who said start with "Baby Steps" -make one small change in your technology skills - would lead one to begin blogging. Wouldn't you think? Blogging is not just a passing time waster. It's opening a door to the future.

Technology and the Dyslexic Students

I attended an amazing presentation on Tuesday from a group of teens and their dyslexia teacher from a Texarkana school district. What was amazing was the empowerment and academic success these print challenged students achieved by using a computer program (much like Microsoft Reader) that can read selected text to the students. The students can also download books, lessons, essays, etc. to their ipods, iphones, MP3 players, etc. to constantly review their material in preparation for tests and class discussions. In addition, students can create their own essays, have it read to them so they can see where it needs to be revised by listening to it. These wonderfully gifted, right brained dyslexic students are earning scholarships to well respected universities like SMU, are presenting and teaching summer classes to other dyslexic students and their parents at SMU and at Yale Univeristy. These are just kids, like our HISD dyslexic kids, who are maximizing their potential by plugging in to the digital world proving once again, how right Dan Pink's "Whole New Mind" can be.

Socrates and Plato address the Digital Dilemma

In progressing through my current favorite book, "Proust and the Squid...," the author references how Socrates opposed the writing down of stories as he felt it would undermine the depth of the oral culture dominant at that time. Plato on the other hand, rebelled by writing down every word. The author goes on to point out what a contemporary parallel we are witnessing as our students move from a print to a visual world of information. This really intrigues me to realize the relevance of this ancient debate that up to now was unknown to me.

The Networked Student

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4f87f85779e13b83d412

I just watched this Teacher Tube video addressing the teacher's role in advancing 21st Century Literacies for our students. I think this simple video clarifies our role, the students' role, and the excitement that makes learning alive and relevant through digital means.

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

This is a book you going to want to read. The author, Maryanne Wolf, presented at the dyslexia conference Janice and I attended last weekend. The title itself is intriguing: she chose Proust as a metaphor to represent all that we hold most dear -as in reading isn't that the interaction we have with the reader through print and the interaction we have with new ideas? She chose the squid as a metaphor for brain research. It seems the squid has one central neuron running along its entire body. Therefore, the squid's neuron was used to study of how neurons work just as today's cognitive neuroscienctist use reading to study how the brain works. I think this is a pretty clever title. Of course she had to add a subtitle to get folks to understand what the book is really about.

Dr. Wolf fears that with the bombardment of digital technology and online reading we are all becoming reading skimmers. As such, she fears we are missing out on the deeper relationship we can have with authors and ideas and that our students will be even more impacted by this survival method of reading all that's out there in the digital world. She, like the author of i-Brain, realizes that this kind of learning is rewiring the way the brain is mapped with its intricate web of neurons. This researcher, who is the director of the Center for Reading and Language Research in Boston, believes that part of our job as educators will be: to teach our students to slow down; to create images from text; to preserve the moments it takes to make connections between the words on the page and your imagination, your insights, your experiences so that these parts of our brains don't atrophy. She wants us to help develop these skills in digital readers so children can think original thoughts in an automatic way as they skim through the digital world. This sounds like quite the challenge. I know we're not going to stand in the way of technology. In my opinion we just have to continue to get kids to fall in love with ideas so they will explore them more deeply.