Anyway…the end.

Posted on April 18, 2012 at 10:03 am in

How does one end a conversation or talk? Are there any clues that the end is coming?

In high school I was taught that good speakers should just conclude naturally and not need a pronouncement. Stating that you are about to conclude is superfluous. However that is not always the case. In some formal situations such as presentations and speeches I’ve noticed that there are a number of catch phrases and words that creep in to talks as a signal to the listener that the end is near. Some of these are very straight forward, as in: “In conclusion…” or “Let me finish by saying…” These ending clues though informative to the listener are unnecessary. I must admit that they are sometimes welcome and needed. If I’m totally bored with what you are saying and you’ve been droning on for a while, announcing that the end is coming gives me something to look forward to – immediate relief.

But how about informal conversations. Listen to yourself and others when talking and see if there are key words that pop up when you are interacting either in person, on the phone, or through another audio/video device (Skype comes to mind).

In my family the word is “anyway.” If you are in a conversation and there is a lull in the talk and the word “anyway” comes up, you know there is nothing left to say and “Goodbye” is coming soon. I don’t think we intentionally do it, but at this point it is a habit and will always comes up before we end our conversations.

I’m sure we say other things, but “anyway” stands out like a tune you can’t get out of your head. Once you’ve noticed it, it’s hard to miss. Sort of like the arrow in the Fed Ex sign.

Anyway, that’s about all I can think of to write about today. If you have any different words/phrases that you use, I’d be interested in hearing them.

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To feed or not to feed?

Posted on March 6, 2012 at 5:51 pm in

I am convinced that I live in a neighborhood where the local wildlife have engineering degrees, do weight lifting, and roam at night with tool belts loaded with enough equipment that they can dismantle anything.

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Small victories – final chapter (for now)

Posted on February 2, 2012 at 12:56 pm in

The last two victories don’t really fall into the same categories as the other four. One might have been a small victory had I been able to complete it; the other wasn’t so much of a creative solution to a problem, but a willingness to make a sacrifice to reward a successful outcome.
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Small Victories Part 2

Posted on January 24, 2012 at 3:17 pm in

There’s no manual to follow when you become a teacher. I should be more specific. There are lots of manuals for different curriculum that you choose to teach, and nowadays there are even more manuals for curriculum that you have to teach. But there are no manuals that tell what to do when you get students with personality quirks and handicaps that prevent them from learning. There is a lot of theory with philosophical stands on what to do with different kinds of kids, but rarely do you get the specific issue you have to deal with spelled out for you. It’s like wanting to buy a new appliance and you check out Consumer Reports ratings of all the possible ones you might consider, only to find that when you go to the store, none of the models listed in CR are there. You have to take your best shot with what is available and hope it’s the right one.
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Small Victories

Posted on January 20, 2012 at 4:42 pm in

“A lot of kids won’t tell you, this is the day that you can reach me.” I heard this at a conference I attended many years ago. Over my 33+ years as an educator I have found this to be true. There were challenges that I faced with students that required me to try all sorts of creative and different strategies to help guide them to be successful learners. Each challenge made me think about each individual that needed to be addressed to conquer their fears, to overcome their handicaps, to feel proud of their achievements.

As a collector of quotes, two more come to mind when I think of those years. “Challenges can be stepping stones or stumbling blocks. It’s just a matter of how you view them.” – author unknown and “What really matters is what you do with what you have.” – H. G. Wells.

I was successful for the most part as a teacher in guiding my students to be independent thinkers. But through all of those years I recall a handful of students that presented me with personalities, handicaps, and backgrounds that put me to the test of being an educator.

Here are some of those small victories. Note that the names of the students will be changed to maintain privacy.
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From farmer to hunter

Posted on December 13, 2011 at 2:58 pm in

I spent 33 years of my life as an educator on Long Island. Most of those years were spent in the same school district. During my tenure as an educator I would begin each year with an unknown group of children that I was to work with. I had a planned curriculum and a design on how I wanted to approach that class or classes. The first few days were always a learning curve as I assessed the students needs and personalities and adapted what I had planned to do to the climate of the group. As the school year progressed I continued to adapt to the needs of the group, doing more open ended projects with the more independent classes and more structured assignments with the more difficult ones. Each day I went to school I knew what I was getting into or what might happen since I had been with the same group over time. One could consider me a farmer of sorts. As I cultivated the field of learning, I could work the soil, pull out the weeds, and fertilize and support each plant when needed to allow them to grow. Granted there were obstacles along the way, but I was usually in control.

Then I retired. Though I’m still an educator, it is interesting that the two career paths that I am following now has changed my persona from a farmer to more of a hunter.
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College memories

Posted on October 14, 2011 at 3:06 pm in

As my son starts college I am reminiscent of my days long ago when I left home to embark on my first year to be on my own at college. I was the only one in my family to leave my parents’ home when it came time to move on from high school. My two older sisters both went to a local college, Hunter College. They lived at home and commuted to school using the NY City subway system. I had a choice. I had applied and made it into a local college, City University, and applied and made into the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Stony Brook was on Long Island, over an hour and a half drive from my parents’ house.
When I was of college age, my sisters had already moved out of my parents’ house. It was my sisters that convinced, or rather told me that I had to move out of the house. Stony Brook would be the choice I made and in September of 1968 my brother-in-law, sister and my parents drove me and my belongings away to college. Continue reading College memories…

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Laughter

Posted on June 11, 2011 at 1:53 pm in

This piece of writing was done in a writing workshop. We were given 20 minutes to write. The topic I chose was Hearing – the sound of laughter.

It’s been said by many that laughter is a form of healing. It takes less muscles to smile than to frown, so you shouldn’t waste your energy on frowning. At least that’s how the saying goes. In reality I’m not sure if that is true, based on some Internet research. Growing up I found that I smile a lot more than I frown. Maybe that is why people say I look younger than I really am – Positive energy.

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Homework again?

Posted on May 31, 2011 at 9:43 am in

A recent Board of Education meeting brought up the subject of homework again. This rears its head every 5 to 10 years. Usually there is discussion for a while, mostly complaints: There’s too much homework. Why does my child have to do school work at home when they have finished 6 hours of work in school? There’s not enough homework. Vacations are for families, not for schoolwork. My child spends 4-5 hours a night on homework. Homework looks just like busy work. Does the teacher even look at what they are assigning?

 

Occasionally after discussions, surveys are taken, sometimes decisions and policies are made and then we wait another 5 to 10 years until the topic comes up again with a new set of parents.

 

As a teacher I always had a different take on homework. I must note that I’ve always taught elementary students through 6th grade; I was the sole provider of academic work and homework, which is different from the concerns of Middle and High School parents, where teachers from different classes all assign homework with little knowledge of what other teachers have assigned. For me the expectation was that I had to give homework. Homework was supposed to be an extension of the class work that we were doing. Early in my teaching it was difficult to come up with homework since I felt that most of the things I taught worked better when I was there to mediate. There were other subjects that I didn’t feel was as prioritized to focus on which I was mandated to teach and give as homework. One principal said to me if I give homework in certain areas, even though I didn’t want to, it would appease the parents and thus allow me to do other things that I wanted to do that might have more resistance.  This actually worked out to be a good philosophy; only I didn’t use it as a way to appease parents as much as I did to appease my administrator. I had the range of parent complaints of there is too much to there is too little homework (on the same assignments).

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Steering the Craft – Sentence/Paragraph exercise

Posted on May 3, 2011 at 9:53 am in

This is a continuation of the exercises from the Ursula K. Le Guin’s book, Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator or the Mutinous Crew

Part one of this assignment was to write a paragraph of narrative, 100-150 words, in sentences of seven or fewer words. Each sentence must have a subject and a verb.

Sitting at my writer’s desk and looking out my window this is what I saw:

A woodpecker sits on the feeder. It is outside my balcony window. It has a red head. It is searching for bits of food. There is not much food left for it. A squirrel pauses on the ground. It looks up at the woodpecker. It must decide soon. Should I try or not? Though tempting, there is a cage. The cage protects the food. The woodpecker leaves. The squirrel advances. Cage or not it will eat. As it climbs it surveys obstacles. Poking through the cage it tries. It does not get much seed. The woodpecker was not a neat eater. It was very picky. Much of the food was tossed aside. “Aside” means it landed on the ground. Looking down the squirrel notices something. There is more food on the ground. It would be much easier to get. Squirrels appear to have little brains. They also perseverate. It continues to try the cage.

 

Part two was a lot harder. Write a half-page of narrative, up to 350 words, which is all one sentence.

Continue reading Steering the Craft – Sentence/Paragraph exercise…

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