My Beauty Best Teacher

Chronicles the adventures and misadventures of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III as he tries to pass the important initiation test of his Viking clan, the Tribe of the Hairy Hooligans, by catching and training a dragon. Now available in paperback!

From Publishers Weekly

Chika Unigwe writing in the Guardian:

Image by dan mogford via Flickr

In a society where the pursuit of money takes precedence over everything, one can expect a decline in culture and in the quality of cultural production.Regrettably, this is going on. People are reading, but it's a different sort of literature: self-help books published mainly by evangelical pastors eager to win souls over to the gospel of prosperity. There is art on the street, but it is splashes of paint on trucks and buses, outsized drawings (usually religious, with a blonde Jesus). There is nothing of the grandeur and quality of Ife art in it...Perhaps this is too pessimistic. I was witness in Nigeria to the collective sense of hope in a people who, like the phoenix, keep rising from the ashes. There is a renaissance in Nigerian literature...

More here

We all have them. But many of us run from controversy. But there are times when people who are leaders are doing the wrong thing. They are hurting people. They are saying things that are untrue. 


Doing the right thing is often not popular. In fact, Mark Twain said,

"In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.- Notebook, 1904"

It is a struggle when there are issues requiring that people take sides. In fact, in most cases, I think it is best to keep a focus on the main thing. In your school, the main thing should be the students and helping them become successful in life both academically, physically, and emotionally. It shouldn't be who is the principal. Unless that person is doing great harm to the main thing... then it is time to do something.


I stay away from people who are always negative and hate anyone in leadership. These negative people don't stand for anything but stand against everything. You rarely hear what this person believes because if he/she made a statement, the person would have to defend it. They spend their time tearing everything down. These demolition doo-dah's are always singing a song of negativity, hatred, and unkindness. I don't have much use for them. It is a dangerous tune that is often in many blogs, 

"Everybody here hates me. No one understands me. No one appreciates me." 

Guess what? Every teacher at your school feels that way. The best way to feel appreciated is to start meting out some appreciation of other people. Life isn't all about you. It should be about your students.


But when I see people I know and have known for a very long time suddenly speak out against someone or something, I listen. When I see longtime supporters of an organization get the attention of others that a great wrong is happening, I take a second look. You should too.


So, as I ponder situations and things, I started writing in the tub on my ipad. I couldn't stop and didn't until the water had gone frigid and the family was hollering at me from the den to watch our new favorite TV show (Terranova.) I thought I'd take today and share you these unrelated kernels of thoughts that came to me from the hot water of life. If you like them, I'll start sharing other ones.


These quotes are all mine.

---

We like to blame victims for their shame. Because if we can convince ourselves that they were the reason for their fate, we can also convince ourselves that we shall never share it. 

The backstabber unleashes a silent, hidden poison that flows back through the miles into his own coffin. 

Unforgiveness is the sewage of the soul. 

Liars emit confusion like a mating bird emit pheromones. Both are looking for someone to sc:%#.

The manipulator silently rips from his hands the very thing he wishes to possess. 

I believe I will look back upon my earthly meanderings and realize that my brightest moments ignited during my darkest journeys. For heroism is not born amidst comfort and ease but pain and tragedy. There is no heroism where there is no trial and heroes are made by the height of their ascent. Climb a hill and you are a human. Climb a mountain and you are brave. Wake up in hell and ascend to glory and you are epic. 

The thing is that when we have a paper cut we whine. How are we ever going to do anything great when we run at the first sign of controversy? We want to be great but we don't want to pay the price. We'd rather be comfortable on a cushion than called to climb a mountain.  

When I teetered upon the ledge of the abyss between safety and suffering is when I found the most solid foothold. For in that precarious moment I was steadied by the Precious Master.  

When the world has schizophrenia and you manage to hold onto your last wit and do the sane thing, history will call you wise. Wisdom is never judged accurately by peers but by posterity.  

 

 We idolize patriots and heroes for their willingness to give up an anonymous life of comfort for a life of torment. Hated by their peers and hunted by their prey, these men only had their praises sung after their ears were deaf with decay. We romanticize their lives, which were, most likely, as close to hell as most humans can be and live to tell about it. Authors are lonely, actors find it hard to find genuine friends, and politicians give up their privacy but patriots and martyrs give up everything. 

 It is easy to romanticize a person living in a hut on a hill 100 years a go when you're sitting in a warm bathtub with a full stomach reading your Ipad worried if you'll drop it in the tub. 

Photo Credits: Big Stock

December 1 marked a new beginning for me as the WTU General Vice President. During the past two years as the writer of this blog, I have enjoyed confronting stormy subjects on public education with readers by my side on a weekly basis. Topics here ranged from former DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, to performance based excessing, unprincipled principals, inside teacher stories, and "holdover" union officials. I have frequently said this blog was never intended to be a permanent dwelling place and first started out with me trying to dispel myths about the red and green teachers contract proposal and later morphed into an online voice for teachers.

I believe you can’t stand still in one place forever or it becomes a comfort zone. Don’t get me wrong, I'm not through with blogging at least not yet but in my new role- more of my time will be spent seeking resolutions to teachers complaints. After all, that’s what I get paid to do. As I work to earn my sea legs in my new position, I'd be interested in hearing your suggestions on how we can improve the quality of union membership services to teachers and school personnel. Feel free to jot me a line or leave a post here.

In keeping with our campaign promise, the Washington Teacher's Union (WTU) will host a December membership meeting and holiday social on Thursday, December 16, 2010 from 4-7:30 pm. Hope you will join us. Here's the invitation:

Please join President Nathan Saunders, Officers, Executive Board Members, Board of Trustees and Staff of the Washington Teachers' Union for a WTU General Membership Meeting and Holiday Party St. Francis Hall 1340 Quincy Street, NE Washington, DC 20017 Music, Food and Fun for All Free on-site Parking Available Thursday, December 16, 2010 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm Refreshments will be served We hope you will join us to meet the new WTU leadership, celebrate the holidays, and receive your WTU holiday token. Raffle Drawings for holiday gifts promises to be a welcome treat. Every teacher that attends our event will be counted towards the WTU's donation of toys for needy children in the district. RSVP Preferred Please RSVP by Tuesday, December 14th, by email at info@wtulocal6.org or by phone at (202) 293-8600

"For any child fortunate enough to have this  generous book...the kings and heroes of ancient  legend will remain forever matter-of-fact; the  pictures interpret the text literally and are full of  detail and witty observation."--Horn  Book.

"The drawings...are excellent  and excitingly evocative."--The New  York Times.


From the Hardcover edition.

 

Click here to buy from Amazon

The latest on the emerging Art Ecosystem in the Economist:

With 250 ethnic groups and around 150m people, Africa’s most populous country has many sources of artistic inspiration. A number of artists from western Nigeria use the bright colours and beadwork of the Yoruba, whereas those from the oil-rich south-east sometimes look to their region’s uli style, with simpler drawings on walls or pots.The collectors say their government cares little about preserving this artistic heritage. They share the cynicism of many Nigerians, who think the politicians are more eager to grab a share of the revenues of sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest oil producer. Instead, the collectors prefer to put their own money into gathering and cataloguing thousands of works of art. “For me, this is a philanthropic act,” says Mr Olagbaju, who notes that Nigeria’s top public galleries struggle with power cuts that leave masterpieces gathering dust in the dark.More recently, these collectors have realised that they have also been canny investors. Their hobby has started to attract foreign attention—and cash.

More here

Yesterday as I as walking through the halls of my school, it suddenly occurred to me what was on the walls. Oh, I know I look for liberal bias in textbooks, in breakroom conversations, and in different educational practices of teachers, but for some reason I never noticed before yesterday that the art work on the walls of the school are liberally-slanted.

Most of the art in our school comes from students, who have been inspired by and whose direction was shaped by some sort of contest for artwork. Of course, everyone is a winner, since in a liberal world everyone is a loser, and each piece of artwork that was made is proudly displayed on the wall. Were the contests based around doing something profitable or demonstrating some sort of school? No- not surprisingly in an institution dominated by the liberal leftist agenda, these contests are ideologically based around the values and beliefs of the liberal left-wing agenda.

In my school, the walls are covered by students who studied and worked long hours trying to bring to life the themes ‘give peace a chance’ and ‘internationalism’.  The goal of these contests is to get young children thinking about and building and strengthening the liberal world-view, in particular the liberal views on foreign policy that I would characterize as global nation-building, weak national security, and puppy-dog and sunshine views of terrorists. On the other hand, students were guided into producing posters and drawings that show 'give peace a chance' and 'internationalism' in a more positive light.  In these posters, the only person who is allowed to use force or think independently is the king, who lords over the peasants, for their benefit, of course. You see, a liberal wants to be the king of everyone, telling them what to do, and therefore willingly supports a super-global king, as long as he is liberal. It's okay for the UN to come in and tell nations what to do (ie, internationalism) and it's okay for Obama to tell nations what to do (peace prize), but everyone else is to be contemned for fighting for life, liberty, and property.

These posters do have an affect on these young kids. Students are learning still, and the ones shaping the minds of our nation’s youths are these warped individuals with leftist liberal leanings. It is wrong when a kid is told that national security isn’t that important and that he should not draw guns and bombs, but instead should draw hearts and flowers to enter in the school wide and supported by taxpayers money ‘give peace a chance’ contest. It is wrong when a kids poster is rejected for showing a people enslaved to the UN because the teacher thinks that internationalism is the correct way to go.

Next time you're in a school, look around, and let me know if you see anything similar on the walls. In an institution dominated by liberalism, it won't be surprising.

"For any child fortunate enough to have this  generous book...the kings and heroes of ancient  legend will remain forever matter-of-fact; the  pictures interpret the text literally and are full of  detail and witty observation."--Horn  Book.

"The drawings...are excellent  and excitingly evocative."--The New  York Times.


From the Hardcover edition.

 

Click here to buy from Amazon

Great Expectations
If you ran a marathon last week, your friends would expect you to take some downtime. Some time to rest and recover. It is expected you would need some rest.

If you just trekked across the desert for a month and struggled for lack of water and lack of food but you made it... people would also expect you to take time to rest and recover. It is expected you would need some rest.

If you just came through a horrible bout of sickness and you were up for days unable to sleep. People would expect you to go off the grid for a while. To rest. To recover.

Why is it when teachers get out of school that everyone (even the teachers themselves) expect that they should immediately be able to conquer the world?

Don't we realize that we have just run a marathon? 
 A 10 month marathon including lack of sleep, in many cases missed lunches, and being pulled a million directions. Don't we realize that we have just trekked across a desert in some ways as we worked hard? Probably without much encouragement. Without much help. Not whining about it -but teaching can be a pretty lonely trek.

Don't we realize that in many ways we have been wounded? 
The struggles we have as teachers when students don't quite do what they need to do to be successful. Or the struggles we have at the end of the year when it is more fun for some kids to frustrate the teacher than to do those last few items?

Why on earth are we so hard on ourselves?
I'm hard on myself too. Here I am - it is Tuesday after I've gotten out of school on Friday. I had worked 12 days straight including Saturday and Sunday - the last four days I worked for around 18 hours a piece finishing up the graduation movie and here I am on Tuesday making a list a mile long and wondering why I'm so tired.

Saturday we fed 150 people at a family reunion and I didn't collapse into the chair until 7 pm Saturday night.

And yet, I'm sitting here telling myself it is summer so I should have my whole house clean, everything should be washed, and my kids should be up and ready to do their work.

Do all teachers push themselves like this? 
I think a lot of us do. We are listmakers by nature. Perfectionists by trade in a profession that pushes us to push others to be perfect.

Perfection is an illusion - if all our students are making a 100% then we aren't teaching anything new because they already know it. I'm looking at a list of 60 things I "need" to do today and want to run away to my bedroom, do a faceplant on my pillow and have a good cry.

I need a break. I need summer. And you do too.

10 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Summer Break
I think right now as those of us in the northern hemisphere begin summer that we need to remember a few things (myself included):

1. Take time to rest. It is OK to sleep if you're tired and are behind. Loss of sleep is cumulative so get back on track.
   
   
2. Take time to remember. Breathe deeply and relish the good memories of the year. Learn from them.
   
   
3. Take time to forget. Time to be a human for a little while and not a teacher.
   
   
4. Have a few days without a list. OK, this is almost impossible for me and I'll have to probably do this in July but sometimes I need to be a human BE-ing not a human DO-ing.
   
   
5. Take time to heal. Every summer as I tube down the stream in the mountains, I can almost see my own heart. It is wounded and bleeding. Not because anyone has "gone after" me but the sort of wounds like a tire feels when it has ridden too many miles without being replaced. The treads are gone. The summer is the time to retread our heart and soul so we can make it.
   
   
6. Take time to learn. Reading is part of rejuvenation. Fiction and non fiction.
   
   
7. Go offline for a while. Unplug. PUt on your vacation autoresponder that you're not answering email. If you have to blog or Tweet because that is what you do - schedule them ahead of time so you can go offline "guilt free." But get away and unplug. I will be doing this very soon.
   
   
8. Set realistic goals. We make "goal posters" for our summer with drawings and markers writing what we'd like to get done this summer. (We mark them off as we go.) Many of those things are places we will go and one or two things are what we'd like to accomplish. For me, I'll pick three goals for the summer. Three is a good number. If I get one done very early, I may add another.
   
   
9. Work on one goal at a time. Start on the first goal and focus until you finish. Work on it every day.
   
   
10. Look at Your Habits - Ninety five per cent of what you accomplish is your habits. By scheduling an appointment with yourself to do something, you take the thought that goes into working towards a goal. I set a time to work towards my goals in the summer. Blogging here is a habit. The thing about habits is you reap what you sow. If you can get one thing accomplished - GIVE YOURSELF A NEW HABIT. Whether it is working out, writing, or consistently pursuing a goal important to you. Your list may shape today but habits shape your destiny. Find good ones.
    

Summer or any break can be a great time. As you guessed, I probably err on the side of working too hard but I would say that when I play that I do that very well. I go offline in a fatal, nonexistent sort of way that some who work with me can get quite angry at. But I've found that when I go offline like that that I come back into things a lot more prepared and productive. My mental knife is sharpened.

I read somewhere that when they examine the super productive that they find that they do go offline and focus on one thing exclusively. They have the ability to focus and for me, that is what I try to bring to my summer. Focus. Focus on what is important. Taking time to unwind and rest.

Remember your noble calling. Give yourself the royal treatment this summer and get some rest. (I'll try too.)

 Related Posts:

• Summer Motto: Whatever You Water Will Grow
• The Books of Summer (2010 Edition) - expect my 2011 edition to be out soon.
• Summer Pursuits: Refill The Empty Pitcher
• Encourage Other Teachers (Even When School is Out for Summer)

In project-based learning, students work over an extended period of time answering a driving question.  The question is so deep that it requires students to create a project to share their findings with others.

1. Question
2. Investigate
3. Share

1. How can we best stop the flu at our school?
2. Is it worth the expense to move to an organic diet?
3. Which element of the periodic table is most important?
4. Should the U.S. use the metric system?
5. Which simple machine is most important to you?
6. Should government bail out businesses?
7. Is it better to buy or lease a car?
8. What if Rosa Parks never gave up her seat?
9. Design a better lunch menu for your school.
10. What if students use their own mobile devices in school?

1. Include the branch of government the position is part of.
2. Include the roles and powers of the position.
3. Explain how someone is elected or appointed to the position.
4. Include information about at least two people who have held the position.
5. Explain the role of the position in Gerald Ford's succession to presidency.
6. Include how the office holder is positioned in the line of succession to the presidency.
7. Include at least one map, chart, or graph.
8. Give the project your personal touch.

1. Where are the standards/content used in the real world?
2. Cannot be answered with copy and paste
3. Will the result create something new?
4. Student voice and choice
5. Personal and/or local
6. What? What if? Which?

1. Shorten as much as possible.
2. Question should appeal to students.
3. Make it personal or local.
4. As much room for student voice and choice as possible.
5. Leads to more questions.

1. Enunciate clearly
2. Speak at a normal volume
3. Talk as if you are speaking to a friend
4. Prepare & practice
5. Record in short portions
6. Reduce background noise
7. Smile!

1. iear.org for educational app reviews by educators
2. Tony Vincent’s list of lists of educational apps
3. Tony Vincent on Twitter often tweets educational apps that are on sale.
4. Twitter users are tagging tweets that mention an educational apps with #edapp.Search Twitter for #edapp to see them.