If you want to serve me...

Today while talking with a teacher candidate who hasn't spent much time working directly with children or teens, I blended an old friend of an aphorism with a truism.

Original Aphorism (from the wall of the camp Edenwood of ARC fame): 

"If you want to serve me, get to know who I am."

Original Truism (from everyone I've ever known, it seems):

"The first step is to take your own inventory."

New Aphorism:

If you want to serve me, get to know who I am.

If you want to serve me, get to know who you are.

Alternate phrasing:

If you want to serve me, first get to know who you are.  Then get to know who I am.

Contemplating Montessori

Where have I been...

Here's an interesting blog I stumbled across today.  Little pearls, I think.  Feel free to share!

A couple entries:

Theory of Loose Parts in Action: Free play at school has been becoming more and more creative and inventive of late. What’s more, we have noticed increased co-operation and fewer fights between the children. (Many captioned photos included.)

Materialized Abstractions: He came to me saying, “I think I’m doing this without material … just with my mind”, so I suggested that he put the material away and check....  He did two precise subtraction problems. The strips of paper he had used, inspired him to make a flag out of them.  He went outside and found a stick and stuck his subtraction problems, front and back to make a ‘subtraction’ flag. (!!)

Looking at the paper on which he did the subtraction problems, I was struck by the neatness. There were no strokes and loops showing the borrowing and changing of quantities,...And I remembered my school days.  If I had shown up with subtraction problems completed like the one above, the teacher would have assumed only one thing – that I had copied it from a friend. If it had been on a test, I would have been knee deep in trouble! 

Five years ago today...iPhone unveiled.

From the Writer's Almanac...


It was five years ago today that Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to an audience at Apple's annual Macworld expo. Taking the stage in his trademark jeans and black turtleneck, Apple chairman Jobs said that it was a day he'd been looking forward to for two and a half years, because he had three revolutionary products to introduce. A widescreen iPod with touch control and a "breakthrough Internet communications device" and a "revolutionary mobile phone," all in one device.

The iPhone was the first "smartphone" to use touch-screen technology, and was the first to access the Internet with full Web-browsing capabilities. Jobs demonstrated the device's capabilities by calling up Google Maps to find a nearby Starbucks, then prank called it to order 4,000 lattes to go.

The iPhone wasn't for sale until June, when it was available in two versions of differing memory for $499 and $599. But on this day of its unveiling, Apple's shares skyrocketed from $7 to over $92.

What teachers have learned from what our country has learned from 9/11

Find some weaker people.  Tell them they're not doing what you want.  Hurt them.  Second choice: Humiliate them.

The Elements

Everyone loves Tom Leher, right?!

Defensive Omnivore Bingo

This I like.  Thanks, Not Wendy.

I'm certain the world is coming to an end this week

The end times are upon us.  There's no question.

Sign #1:

A 10-year-old student "threatened other students" with a slice of pizza that had bites out of it in a way that made it look like a gun.

RESULT: Six days eating alone at the 'silent table' and WAIT FOR IT... he has to meet with a school resource officer to learn about gun safety.  I hope they cover both cover both sausage pizza guns as well as pepperoni pizza guns.  Better safe than sorry, I always say.

Sign #2:

A 9-year-old student was suspended for sexual harassment for calling a teacher "cute" last month.

RESULT: Suspended for two days.  Let's double check...yep, he's 9.


Sign #3: 

7th grade student Je'Terra Bowie was suspended for allegedly touching her teacher with a pencil by accident as she reached back to stretch.

"I didn't know she stopped behind me," Bowie told WDIV. "She stopped, and I stretched back. I turned back and said, 'Sorry. I didn't mean to.'"

RESULT: In case you missed it: SUSPENDED.

All of these are in one article here.