Here is another poem by Hafiz, this one also from 2009, translated by Dan Ladinsky: DIVIDING GOD The moon starts singing when everyone is asleep and the planets throw a bright robe around their shoulders and whirl up close to her side. Once I asked the moon, why do you and your sweet friends not […]
Here is another poem written by the Persian master Hafiz. The translation from the Persian is by Dan Ladinsky: DROPPING KEYS The small man builds cages for everyone he knows, while the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low, keeps dropping keys all night long for the beautiful rowdy prisoners.
Here is another Hafiz poem, this one published here in 2009, that I tried to connect to our work: SPICED MANNA Someone will steal you if you don’t stay near, and sell you as a slave in the market. I sing to the nightingales’ hearts, hoping they will learn my verse, so that no one
Here is a post from 2012 on the topic of communicating with parents early on in the year before it’s too late: I was communicating with a teacher about getting the parents of kids who act out in class involved early, actually right away, at the beginning of the year. She said: I have not
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This is from 2009: Block days (90 minutes) are perfect days to teach a song and then build a story or a reading from it. But you can do this in one class period as well. Project a song with its translation and work with it in a more or less traditional way for its meaning. An
A repost from 2010: I sent this to my principal last week: Today Luis came to class for the third straight day, which may be a record. [The social worker] and I are working on how we can help Luis save his year, because as we speak he is facing truancy charges. Luis is lost in all of
A modified (to reflect the current topic of milking) repost from 2009: In one Rolling Stones song Mick Jagger repeats only the words “I’m all right” for the entire song. That’s the message. (Apparently even Mick needs reps on that one, right? I certainly do!) Anyway, that ultra simplistic patterning of meaning made me think that maybe we sometimes try to introduce too much language into our
A repost from 2009: Susan Gross has said about personalization: … the BIG PICTURE is the relationships among those in the classroom. That’s what real teaching is all about. If the relationship is healthy, the kids will learn better. If the relationship is shaky, the learning is shaky. Only the teacher has the power to
Here is a 2009 article by John Bordeaux about personalized learning. The last few paragraphs are particularly powerful: Let’s imagine a conversation at the close of the 19th century. You and a team of designers are considering elements of the internal combustion engine that will, if successful, trigger a revolution in personal transportation and change
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If you are new to all this, before you get too nervous about the changes that you wish to implement next year, I offer one important idea to hold on to – just take an image and work with it and stay with it and don’t go into any other stuff too fast. What does
As I revisit some old posts from years ago, the one below from 2009, I see that my thinking about basic aspects of our work hasn’t changed much. I interpret that as a good thing: I think that, in curriculum design, grammar should be taught only after the lower levels of study (levels one and two) of constant
Poor auditory and kinesthetic kids! They have been like beached dolphins all those years. But when they get into a classroom where there is a lot of CI going on, and their C in other classes is suddenly an A, and the totally visual kids are struggling, then there is at least a bit of
