Rush the Iceberg

I am not sure where I came across this on the web, maybe Kotkke, but the idea of a Personal Canon has stayed with me, begging me to write about my own Canon.

The quote below by David Cole is what captured my thoughts:

“These are the pieces that I find myself referencing regularly in my work life, the pieces I wish everyone would read. Big, small, philosophical, practical, and between.”

I think a Personal Canon is a great way to look backwards and forwards, like Janus does.

Cole has his set up within Quora, but I want to create something little easier to navigate and update. Perhaps another Tumblr?

I keep thinking about my grandpa’s old army chest that has random, yet personal and revealing, things waiting to equip me for a better understanding of who I am.

I also keep thinking about what am I leaving for my 50, 60, 70, 80…year old self to remind me of life lived that makes living so great.

Thinking about my kids when I am no longer around…my grandchildren…

I have many fond memories of both sides of my family: parents to third cousins. I know the big things: marriages, children, deaths, war. But I want to know more…I want insights, questions, and understandings from the cumulative lives of my family.

I am thinking about creating yet another Tumblr just for this project. I envision this as an ongoing journey.

What are your thoughts? What areas of one’s life should be included?

P.S. - As a teacher, I often talked about the metaphorical tool box, yet my tools are not in a single place, easily referenced. Maybe I should create a My Teaching Canon, too.

I no longer want to be David fighting Goliath.

Rather, I want to be that little kid on the shore throwing starfish back into the water.

Recently I wrote a reflective post about how Twitter and Blogs Influenced my Lesson Plans this year. I felt that I was unable to fully express myself in that post. My thoughts were just out of reach along with the metaphors to crystallize my thinking.

The metaphors visited me today:

This year I came in with a flame thrower: a Lord Byron approach.

In this model, I am doing most of the work, not the students. It is focused on me controlling the learning, despite my best intentions.

Next year I am going to go in with a box of matches: a Billy Collins approach.

In this model, students are doing the learning, not me. I envision this as me sparking the interest and letting the passion go forth from the student, enhancing my best intentions.

I am wishing more of us, myself included. We need to acknowledge the rich variety of influences on our craft found in our lives.

I am wrestling with whether or not I should only write about education on my blog. In all honesty, I am growing tired of reading many of the teachers’ blogs in my RSS feed because, like #edchat often, they have become an echo chamber.

Teachers lamenting standardized tests, teachers demanding people abolish grading, teachers preaching that technology will cure all ills of students, teachers calling for reform…These seem to be the only things blogging teachers write or tweet about.

Sure, there are exceptions, this will always be the case.

But, I am curious if focusing only on the tiny corner of the internet that teachers occupy is a good thing.

Sometimes I feel like Jonas in The Giver and want to see the world outside the black and whiteness of my personal learning community.

I am now actively reading other blogs in my RSS reader for the last week or two, blogs that are not written by and for teachers.

It has been refreshing.

Credit: Karen M. Romanko

 

I follow an architecture site, MacSparky, this and that music sites, a comedy site, Kevin Kelly’s and Andy Ihnatko‘s site, McSweeney’s, a sports writer for the Kansas City Star, and many others….I’m LOVING Flavorwire, too!

I wonder why I do not write about the ideas encountered on those sites here on this blog. They all have, at least tangentally, an influence on me as a teacher.

After all, don’t we want our students to be well rounded citizens of the world? Are we reflecting that in our own digital and analogue lives? I believe that if we are truly progressive and constructive in our education philosophies, then anything can spark interest.

Do you only follow teachers on Twitter?

Is your RSS reader full of teacher blogs?

While I do believe Godin, Pink, and Kohn have much to offer teachers, there are many more thinkers out there that can influence your pedagogy.

HERE is a link to the shared items from my RSS reader.

Credit: Stephen Davis

I have been thinking much about contentment and to what extent technology, web 2.0, and modernity is adding to or taking this away from our lives.

How many of us teachers are content with what we have in the classroom, even though it may not be the newest, best, technologically advanced item/concept/tool?

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.”  Frederick Keonig

How many of us are using to the full extent the things we already have in our schools?

I know that when I see a new app for the iPhone recommended by a friend or blogger, nine times out of ten I buy it – without researching! I am writing a post on being reactionary…stay tuned….

Why can I not be content with what I already have regarding all things education?

Copyright: Jim Davis

 

John Spencer wrote a post about only listening to only two albums for a month – an exercise in contentment.

Jerrid Kruse recently wrote a post on observations he made of his pre-service teachers prior to class beginning – a need for contentment.

The Japanese concept of Ma (Negative Space) is interesting – an answer to contentment? (I could get religious here, but I will not…)

A while ago I noticed that I was, essentially, trying to lesson plan using on Twitter and following #edchat. The resources many of you share are amazing! I often get excited (err, reactionary) and want to try them out in class the next day.

I was a ship lost at see, rudderless, waiting for the next current to direct me. Maybe I should think more on this metaphor and look at how sail boats tack and jib.

Where is my sense of contentment?

More is not inherently better.

I understand we need to grow personally AND professionally as teachers. However, at what point does the growth become more cancerous than beneficial?

What do you think about contentment and education?