NEUROUNIQUE: the BOOK: September 2023

Take a close look at the human brain in the this photo. I taught my students: “Your brain is neurologically unique.”
As a teacher it became my life’s work to uncover their unique learning styles and open the doors for their optimal learning.

Nelson Mandela once wrote:
"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we lived...
it is what difference we have made to the lives of others
that will determine the significance of the life we lead."

"Sometimes it is the very people
who no one imagines anything of
who can do the things no one imagined."
--Alan Turing

Framed over the entrance to my classroom:
"Forget the struggling world
and every trembling fear.
Here all are kin...
and here the rule of life is love.”

--Irving Stone, 1947. (If students didn't see it overhead on the way in, they would come to feel it on their way out.)

Saturday, September 30, 2023

What I Learned about teaching from a Bloody Lip

Photo credit: Outdoor Adventure River Specialist

The taste of blood is indelible, metallic, and an important epiphany for a well seasoned teacher.

Virginia Morrell was ramping up to write an article about O.A.R.S. (Outdoor Adventure River Specialists) when she invited the photographer in me to document a white water rafting trip customized by OARS just for her article.

They had quite the reputation, the first rafting company to survive the Indus? river at high water. I was eager to see if they could meet my safety standards for a rafting experience with high school students.

Photo courtesy OARS.

They taught me to hold the oars at very specific angle, blade parallel to the surface. So I knew what to do, but had no experience, no practice. I was about to get a mouthful.

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In teaching, let us search for the farthest reaches of human nature. We become what we behold. --tnm

“What a dangerous and happy activity... teaching is.”

“Some people have eyes in their hearts. They see the world through those eyes. They see everything through those eyes.” May you always find these kind-hearted people. --from the movie MucizE.

“Looking back at the map of my life in the classroom.... “like most true adventurers... you will see “moments of joy, glints of gold, and happy chances.”

“All this plastering on of foreign stuff. Why plaster on at all when there’s so much inside already? So much locked in? If only I could get it out and use it as working material... If I had a light enough touch it would just come out under its own volcanic power.” --Silvia Ashton Warner

CLASSROOM QUOTATIONS

Each day began with a QUOTE FOR THE DAY waiting on the chalkboard as classes arrived. Students opened their notebooks to Chapter 1: Class Notes, where the quotation was entered with: "What it means to me."

Following a brief discussion students would record one or two of the best class comments. In a way class note quotes became a sort of diary. One of my former students [now a teacher] continues this Quote For The Day legacy in his classroom. Teachers seldom know what kids take with them as they leave your classroom.

An example or two:

1. "One of the goals of education should be to teach that life is precious." --Abraham Maslow

49. “The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon.

We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is in the teacher’s power as in sculptor’s hands to find the perfect form and features of gods and godesses in shapeless blocks of marble.

Saturday, September 30, 2023

What I Learned about teaching from a Bloody Lip

PREFACE by Charlie Solaris