Quote

I found this quote when I was looking for cartoons and I thought I would share it.

The following quotes are from Daisaku Ikeda,
a Buddhist philosopher, educator, writer and poet:

Education must be based on the fundamental rhythm of life itself - the wish to grow, to extend oneself, to break out of one's shell. It cannot be authoritarian; it must seek to enhance a person's progress with his agreement and to his satisfaction.

The genuine goal of education must be the life-long happiness of those who learn. Education should never be subordinated to the demands of national ego, or of corporations searching for profit-generating employees. Human beings, human happiness, must always be the goal and objective.

Knowledge itself is a neutral tool that can be used for good or evil. Wisdom, in contrast, always directs us toward happiness. The task of education must be to stimulate and unleash the wisdom that lies dormant in the lives of all young people. This is not a forced process, like pressing something into a preformed mold, but rather drawing out the potential which exists within.

Education should not be based on or limited by a nationalist agenda. Education must cultivate the wisdom to reject and resist violence in all its forms. It must foster people who intuitively understand and know-in their mind, in their heart, with their entire being-the irreplaceable value of human beings and the natural world. I believe such education embodies the timeless struggle of human civilization to create an unerring path to peace.

The task of education must be fundamentally to ensure that knowledge serves to further the cause of human happiness and peace

I needed a little laugh!

Comment on Handwritting

I found the handwritting without tears to be intriguing. I am in a Kindergarten classroom for my dyad and am finding handwritting to be a strong focal point for the students. The teacher is extremely particular about what she will accept. Sometimes she even takes the pencil out of the child's hand and erases their work. It has been interesting to watch how the children respond to this type of instruction. Some students hate writing, while others are thriving and do perfect letters. I would be interested to observe a class that is using HWT and how the children are responding to it in comparison to what I have observed in my dyad. Thanks for the links - it has been fun to explore the HWT website!

Handwriting Without Tears

I just saw this on NWCN (channel 2 news) about a program being used at some Seattle schools to improve the handwriting of students. It seems a little less "stringent" than the program that we saw at the other kindergarten class we were in.

Handwriting Without Tears feature

This is the actual site for the curriculum itself:

Handwriting Without Tears

Check out this blog...

Creating Lifelong Learners

This fits in perfectly with some of our literacy classes....how to get children to write well and enjoy it. I think a lot of these ideas may work in our main placements.

Thinking Tech

Technology is everywhere we look. I think back on my first years of college and how every assignment was on paper. Now, only 6 years later, the majority of our assignment can be turned in electronically, are more technological in content and require us to have a comfortability with the use of technology. It is truly amazing how technology has grown in such a short time span and how it continues to grow every second.

This picture made me think about some past teachers I have had. Their reluctance to give technology a try was very clear. They didn't know how to use it, didn't want to learn and didn't care what others thought about their stance. I believe this stubborness to technology is due to fear. Using this stuff can sometimes be like swimming through quicksand. It can be scary, but I don't think that this is a reason to shy away from it. In fact, I don't know that teachers now really have an option to say no to technology. Our students are so in tuned with this resource and we must use this engagement to benefit their learning. Technology can be frightening, but it doesn't have to be impossible. It is all based on the perspective we as teachers choose to take.

Rap To Teach Math

This is a cool math video of a middle school math teacher rapping to teach his students how to change fractions to percents. It also teaches improper fractions.

The Need for Tech in our CLassrooms

Do you ever feel like you've been gagged?

The one thing that I took away from last week's "Communities" class is how many thing we can't talk about. It seemed like, no matter what it was, someone was going to be offended. A part of me screams out that this is a democratic society where the majority rules....why should 1 or 2 families be allowed to curtail the activities of the other 25+ children in a classroom? I was a bit shocked about the story Mary told us concerning the father who didn't want his son to have to give valentines to children who weren't his friends. On the other hand, I don't want to see a child sitting off by themselves because they can't/won't/aren't allowed to join in. Children can be mean and I can see that putting a huge target on that child.

Probably the biggest issue for me to understand is that our religious holidays (Christmas, All Souls (All Hallows), Easter, Valentines) have become so secularized that we don't see them as purely religious celebrations. We forget that others do still focus on the religious aspects or how these celebrations may not fit in with their religious/cultural beliefs.

I sometimes fell that the classroom is nothing more than a cultural minefield; one false move and KABOOM!!! and we won't even see it coming.