Doc Z's collection of links

My big topic: reading--book reading
My essential question: how do I convince my students that taking the time to read books is important--actually critically important to their lives as human beings?

Collection of links:

• TED Talk, from knowledgeable to knowledge-able: talks about students in our hyper-media world needing to be more than meaning seekers. They need to be meaning makers. I think that this involves deep thinking, the kind you can practice when you engage in the complexity that books offer you, complexity you can't get anywhere else. 
• News article about the Stuebenville rape case and the youtube video showing a kid laughing about it. This shows a complete lack of empathy and compassion on that kid's part. Books help us to imagine the experiences of others and this gives us practice in empathy and compassion.
• Blog posts about why stories are important:
• What listening to stories does to our brains
• Stories and the Common Core, excerpt: 
• So narrative isn’t just a cool thing to do- it’s life or death. Telling stories well is power. As we see in every election, every bit of advertising, and every six year old lobbying for a later bedtime or to skip bath (you can tell what my life is like). To get really good at narrative, and to understand it, ourselves and our culture (and the culture of others), we study narratives. Fiction, epic poetry, history, great science, mathematics. All learning is most powerful when couched in terms of narrative. It is why our most profound texts are in the form of stories (In the beginning…) not in the form of action memos from God. It is why the major art forms revolve around narrative, not data sets. Just being exposed to narrative is accessing one of the most powerful learning modes we have. It’s why people believe movies that have no basis in fact, and it’s why advertising is effective. But really understanding how narrative works, and having some skill one’s self is life changing. It also vaccinates the individual against bullshit. If you know how stories work, you know how to judge the story you are being told. You know how to ask critical probing questions about what a story really means. You notice what it doesn’t say and wonder why the storyteller left things out. You can tell the difference between an honest story and crap.
• Book Love, book by Penny Kittle (link goes to my blog post about it)
• A youtube video using excerpts of the 1960's movie adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's novel that imagines a world where books are illegal: 

• This photo about books being the inspiration for HBO programming...yes, there is good TV out there, but there's also TV that damages your soul as a human being. Why not just stick with books?

Spring Break fun

As a snowstorm attacked Boulder, we drove into blue skies in Utah.

Eventually we found the Pacific Ocean.

Jane pondered the waves. She saw dolphins and a seal.

There was epic sand castling with my cousins.

We went to Sea World. The orcas were cool. 

But the belugas were totally awesome.

Jane made a new fuzzy friend.

Did you know I love sharks? Not enough to want to swim with them, but they're kinda neat.

See Jane in the bottom left corner? We are bad parents for terrorizing her so.

The sky ride was more her speed.

California sea lion barking for some fish.

We stopped off for a hike in Utah on the way home. The slot canyons were beautiful, like nothing I've ever seen before.

This is Jane on a hoodoo in Goblin Valley.

Goblin Valley behind me.

Husband chasing the kid through Goblin Valley.

Final photo of the trip: snow at the rest area at the top of Vail pass. 

My phobia

What is the name for the phobia of umbrellas?

In: Health › Psychology › Phobia

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The name for the fear of umbrellas is anoraknophobia. Individuals with this phobia fear anoraks and other water stopping garments.

So there it is, but this doesn't totally capture it. My fear is the not water-stopping capabilities. I fear the poky thingies and the possibility of getting my eyes poked out.


(from http://www.chacha.com/question/what-is-the-name-for-the-phobia-of-umbrellas)

Flash Fiction: Your Furniture Arrived this Morning

I kicked off of the ground and headed to the sky. This time, I would go higher. The bright blue sky and the sunshine beckoned me. No clouds in my way.

Below me I saw the trails I hiked on sunny afternoons like this, traveling beneath me in speeds greater than I can traverse them on foot. But the ground was not my focus--up up up I flew.

Today the skies were not empty. I waved to a man flying a collection of furniture through the sky. He waved back as I realized that the chest of drawers he was sitting upon looked a lot like the one I fished my socks out of that morning.

And was that my sofa trailing behind him?

No matter. My focus was the sky. And the warm air gently caressing my skin and fluttering my hair. And how my stomach leapt each time I angled upward and gained yet more altitude.

But was I gaining altitude or losing it?

In the distance I saw the city materialize on the horizon, the skyscrapers and the wide roads that lead to them.

The metal and glass structures pulled my feet to them like a magnet, but I wasn't quite sure why.

I landed softly on the top of a skyscraper and kicked off again to continue my flight. But instead of up, I floated down. I landed on a railing for a balcony and kicked up again to only float slowly down. Down to where I could see people through windows talking and working, down to where the sunlight faded, down to where the noise of the city engulfed the silence of flying through the air.

Down to where the sky was only a small patch at the top of the buildings. I could only see it when I craned my head upward. I could reach for it but my feet still pulled me gently down.

I landed on the sidewalk and took several steps forward as I looked around to determine where I was. I nearly ran into a man, so I twirled around quickly and walked in the other direction.

He followed. I walked. He followed.

I stopped and turned to face him. "Don't touch me!" I yelled, pointing at him angrily to hide the fear that was spreading in me.

"I think this is where you're supposed to be," he said simply.

Silence.

He added, "Your furniture arrived this morning."

The Seven Deadly Sins

Be a glutton.
With love. With friendship. With kind acts and kind words.
Engage in wrath
toward anything that offends your soul.
Be greedy with time: save it, hoard it, plan it out carefully
so you're able to hike through the woods
and get your work done.
Sloth-like behavior
is what lets your body stop
so your mind can wander toward discoveries you might not otherwise find.
Be proud of what you've made,
from cookies to scarves to mistakes.
Lust after your bliss.
And envy only who you would be in another wild, crazy version of you
to challenge your imagination
to develop your superhero characteristics
and to cultivate your appreciation
for you
here
now.

Phoebe Cat

At eleven pm,
when the house is curled up in bed,
she comes alive
yawling at the pom pom she chases
up and down the stairs, through the hall,
kitchen,
living room,
under the dining room table and
sometimes leaving it soaking in her water bowl.
During the day
she's invisible
hiding mostly from the dog
unseen by visitors who are surprised when she does
slink into the room.
She'll appear to block the warm air
coming from a heating vent or
to squawk for her dinner.
But then she is gone
until the house is silent
the dog asleep for the night
and
she purrs and rolls on the bath mat
waiting for someone to scratch her tummy.

I Love Dragons! (Guest post by Jane Strode)

Some are green.

Some are blue.

But some are rainbow color.

Some are BIG and some are small.

Some are fancy and some are messy.

Some breath fire and some breath ice.

Some are fat and some are skinny.

I LOVE DRAGONS!

THEY ARE SO COOL!