Off To the WISE conference!

Time to get back into the Blogging mode as Jason and I are driving up to New York (my beloved homestate) to harvest information from the good people affiliated with WISE. I've got a bunch of questions, mainly about how to keep the teens engaged with journaling what we need to do to take the program to the next level.

Don Hewitt

Don Hewitt, the recently departed creative force behind the way we get our news and 60 minutes, has really gotten into my bones. I woke up at 4:30 this morning thinking about him and his role in the early years of news, not to mention how he created 60 Minutes, a show I've enjoyed for over thirty years. As I watched the segment about on 60 Minutes last night, it hit me that he would have made a brilliant teacher.

Great teachers, like great journalists, have to respond to their audience's desire which can be encapsulated in four words that Don used to advise a cub journalist: "Tell me a story."

Don had contagious enthusiasm for what he did. He worked full time until his mid 70's, never losing his juice.

Don used his firing from directing the CBS nightly news broadcast as inspiration; this was a crucible that helped him form the idea of 60 Minutes.

Hewitt exemplified creativity by merging two disparate entities: then staid, cerebral nightly news and touchy-feely format of Life magazine. He spiked the news with entertainment and birthed 60 Minutes.

Like Don, great teachers need to take risks and sometimes go "off book."

Don realized the importance of having segments last no longer than 15 minutes. Most people get itchy after viewing something longer than this time. Teachers should break their 48 minute time blocks into similar chunks instead of blathering on about the same topic for nearly an hour. Why not make it a ritual of having the students stand up and shake it out after 15 minutes or so, as we can do for commercial breaks?

Don knew the importance of beginning every 60 Minutes show with provocative teasers of the three segments that will follow. Shouldn't teachers excite students' interest in the same way?

A close call with a fallen tree

I enjoyed a weekend camping with my son and his cub scout pack in Northeast Jersey (alright, I'll let it out; I'm a cub master). On Saturday at around 7:30 PM, it started to pour, and then the winds kicked up.

The rain sounded like exploding popcorn kernels pelting the tent. My fitful sleep in the tent was interrupted by a the terrifying sound of a big tree splitting, falling, then crashing. The ground shook. And then it hit me.. Judging by the sound and location of the impact, the tree HAD to have fallen close to the tent inhabited by a man and his two young sounds. I listened for the sound of people in pain, praying that I wouldn't have to lift a tree off gravely wounded or mangled people.

I shined my flashlight out towards the direction of the fallen tree. WHEW. Their orange tent was still standing!

In the morning I surveyed the scene and saw that the dead tree had missed my fellow campers by about 15 feet.

You never know... You never know...

The Avalanche of Rain

Today during seventh period the rain battered the fair town of Lindenwold with a ferocious intensity. This marks what feels like the 76th consecutive day of rain and we just can't get a break.
I noticed how just before the deluge, I seemed to slow down, and my bones felt as if they were filled with concrete; when moisture saturates air, it has that effect on people, and most of us feel like burrowing into bed.
We're all growing impatient with the rain.

TEACHING MYSELF A NEW SKILL

Instead of sitting at my computer and comfortably typing this entry, I decided to do it in front of my students using the somewhat clunky keyboard on the SMART board screen. I'm now thinking of my students who text so effortlessly. If I keep practicing, I'll eventually get better and who knows---- perhaps I'll get just as fast as if I were on a regular keyboard.

BRUUUUUCE!!!!

Are you familiar with Bruce Springsteen's music? Can you identify him in a line up? If you are a high school student these days, the answer is probably "No," but nevertheless, he is an iconic rock n' roll figure, probably one of the top ten to ever live.

As a boy, I remember listening to the stereo for hours, waiting with agony for it to finally give up one of the Boss's songs. When the right song came on, I'd push the "RECORD" switch on my tape deck and let it sponge up the melody on what was then the magnetic cassette tapes (For the young 'uns, that's what we had before the increasingly out-of-date CDs). This is how we got our songs for free back in the late Seventies. No iTunes. No Limewire. No Youtube.

A couple nights ago, I saw the last concert that Bruce Springsteen will ever have at the Spectrum. I swear that this man must bathe in his own personal Fountain of Youth because he commanded that stage as a 30 year-old would, jumping, leaping, straining, sliding, kicking, and rock n' rolling like a man possessed. He sent bolts of musical electricity through the sold out show. Some people worship him as if he were some kind of religious deity. I suppose, for some, music is a kind of religion

Ding Dong

Today we started a public speaking component in Seminar. I thought I'd give the dictionary game a spin. Basically, a person has to open a dictionary to a random page, and without looking, that person has to nail a word with his or her index finger. The speaker then needs to talk extemporaneously about everything that word evokes, and one minute of time (for starters) needs to be filled with speech. It doesn't have to necessarily be meaningful, but it does need to be on topic.

DING DONG turned out to be my word my chooser selected!!!! Ding dong of all things. I thought fast.

I pulled it off, discussing the junk-food cake snack, doorbells, alliteration, and all I alluded to something that can't be discussed. here.

The students had a great time as they acquired valuable public speaking skills.