Meryl Streep, Barnard Commencement Address

This is 28 minutes long, so watch it when you have time. Meryl Streep really is quite entertaining. She makes you feel like you are her best friend and she is just talking to you personally.  She is charming, witty, entertaining, funny, and serious, too.

I know that her talk is not really the type of thing I normally post about here on the site, but I still think it is education related. She explains how her life has developed and how one learns about life, living, and happiness. Those are all things that we all want and need. Those are all reasons that we continue in the field of education and the field of life.

Enjoy your 28 minutes… Share Meryl’s thoughts with those you love and care about. And remember, make your parents proud… And Parents, be proud of your children.

This, too, was presented to me via my blogger friend, Pat H.from Successful Teaching. She really has a good eye for finding the important things in life. Thanks.

Take time to enjoy your life, appreciate your life, and appreciate those around you, those special people.

Technorati Tags: commencement,Barnard,Meryl Streep,Pat H.,Successful Teaching,life

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR TEACHERS

Over at A Difference by Darren Kuropatwa there was discussion that was similar to my recent post of Learning Now. At least it reminded me of that post.  
Darren talks about reading George Polya’s 10 Commandments for Teachers and how that has affected his teaching. 

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR TEACHERS

In chapter 14 of Mathematical Discovery Polya lists his Ten Commandments For Teachers. They have been a guiding light for me as a teacher since I first read them.

1. Be interested in your subject.
2. Know your subject.
3. Know about the ways of learning: The best way to learn anything is to discover it by yourself.
4. Try to read the faces of your students, try to see their expectations and difficulties, put yourself in their place.
5. Give them not only information, but "know-how," attitudes of mind, the habit of methodical work.
6. Let them learn guessing.
7. Let them learn proving.
8. Look out for such features of the problem at hand as may be useful in solving the problems to come — try to disclose the general pattern that lies behind the present concrete situation.
9. Do not give away your whole secret at once — let the students guess before you tell it — let them find out by themselves as much as is feasible.
10. Suggest it, do not force it down their throats.

Darren continues

Polya identifies the single most powerful and infallible teaching method: "If the teacher is bored by what he is teaching it is a certainty that all his students will be too." I believe the inverse is also true: If a teacher is interested in what they are teaching their students will be too. Actually, "interest" by itself may not be enough; passion is a virus. There is a contagion in passion that can be passed on. I would rewrite Polya's first commandment as: "Be passionate about your subject." If you can't do that then I guess interest will have to do but if you don't have even that, do something else.

Passion for teaching is very important. Passion for learning is very important. Teachers must show a passion for what they are teaching. 

When students see that teachers are passionate about their subject, passionate about learning, then the students will see a reason to learn.

Teachers who are passionate about learning do not always get every page of the curriculum finished, but their students can carry on the learning on their own, for the rest of their lives.

Rather than making good marks on a true-false/multiple choice test at the end of each grade, students progress should be measured by how well they know how to learn, how well they can compete for the job that they have a passion for, how well they can convey that passion to their customers when they have that job.  These are true measures of learning and value.  We are not trying to prepare our students of the 21st century to be able to spout facts verbatim when asked.  We are preparing them for their futures, their lives, their livelihoods. 

If we, as teachers, can ignite a passion in our students to learn, to know how to learn, to know when it is necessary to learn more, we have succeeded as teachers, no matter what the test scores say.

How do you show

your passion for life,

for learning, and for teaching

so that your students know

its importance

in their own lives?

[As always, in my author quotes, the underlines, color changes, and bold type is mine, not the author’s!]

Technorati Tags: learning,passions,life,education,Darren Kuropatwa,George Polya

Beauty and Joshua Bell

I had to share this...

I wrote this to my kids and important friends....

but it is important for everyone to read...

Several years ago on an annual vacation trip back and forth to Nantucket, MA,(I think we must have been coming from Indianapolis to Boston) ... Paul's (my husband's) airline seat was next to an elderly gentleman who was carrying a violin case as his carry on baggage.

Somehow, Paul talked with the man and found out that he was Joshua Bell's father and he was carrying a violin bow to his son. The value of that bow was over $100,000...

Actually I can't remember the price he told Paul, but it was a lot for one part of a violin ensemble, I thought!

At that time, I really did not know Joshua Bell as a violinist either. Paul, who walked every day with his friend, John, had heard of Joshsua Bell because John's son is a gifted violinist. Somehow at least one of their conversations in the early morning hours, walking, had been about what a great violinist Joshua Bell was.

Amazingly, after moving to North Carolina recently, there was a concert at the Brevard School of Music, which is about 8 miles down the road from our house. Brevard is a small town in North Carolina, but has a wonderful School of Music. There was a concert advertised with violinist, Joshua Bell.

I really had seriously considered going, but it was at the time when I was alone in North Carolina with all my animals, and my husband, Paul, was in Illinois finishing up - driving the bus. We owned 2 houses and money was tight. I really only knew 5 people in the area and wasn't sure if any of them wanted to spend such a large amount of money for a violin concert. I really didn't know these new neighbors well at all.

I can't even remember how much the ticket cost, $35 or $65, but it just seemed like so much for one ticket for an hour or two of music, alone, being a stranger, a newcomer, in the area. So I didn't go.

Now I read this article from a blog that I like to read written by Dean Shareski, that shows a video and the accompanying article from the WASHIGNTON POST...

I should have gone to the concert....

At the end of your life, you will not remember all the things you did, but all the things you didn't do... Make sure that list is not long!
ILY
MOM aka Faye


Here is the text of Dean Shareski's BLOG mentioned above.

If you want to see the video, you will need to go to the link above for the Washington Post article.

(hmm. maybe I will try to embed the link to the video... a new try on my blog here!)

Joshua Bell video

Sep 1, 2008 2:25 AM
Do you have time for beauty?
from Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech by shareski@gmail.com (Dean Shareski)

HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L’ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSELF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.

The rest of the story goes on to reveal that world renowned violinist Joshua Bell peformed on a priceless Stradivarius as hundreds passed by barely noticing. While his concerts command prices over $100 a seat, he made $32 in just under an hour. The article details this experiment and offers some interesting ideas into human psychology.
Popout

For me it reminds me that so much of life is hidden in plain sight and we too often we aren’t paying attention.

Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he’s really bad? What if he’s really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn’t you? What’s the moral mathematics of the moment?

School is beginning for many. Fall is often a start up for many organizations. There will be to do’s, deadlines and pressures. But hopefully we’ll have time to notice really great things that happen everyday. If you’re involved in education I’m guessing there are a few Josh Bell’s in your building.

I hope you’ll make time for beauty. I know I need to. That’s my sermon for today. Stay well.