I hate when I have to start with an apology but I have to apologize. Stephen was to be out of town on Wednesday so we recorded the show on Tuesday afternoon. Or, we thought we had. I’m told that only one of us was recorded. So much for a conversation.
The Transformative Power of Tea in Education: Cultivating Mindfulness and Connection
- Zoe Branigan-Pipe – @zbpipe
- https://www.zoepipedreams.ca/post/the-transformative-power-of-tea-in-education-cultivating-mindfulness-and-connection
We did have a good conversation about tea, inspired by Zoe’s post.
As long as I have known her, she has experimented with this and that – all for the benefit of her students. I’m still not sure about the logistics of the tea kettle but she pulls it off.
She sees opportunity for conversations with her students during the tea moments and managed to work community and the significant of indigenous tea into the conversations.
Her post took me back to university. There was a young lady from India whose father was a professor of Engineering who I used to meet in the Math Lounge to talk with and to do work with together. I was a hard core coffee drinker and she introduced me to a variety of teas that she’d bring with her.
I learned that typically hot water is free so if you bring your own tea, it costs nothing to make a cup and drink it. I also learned that you shouldn’t drink tea the same way that I drink my coffee. Gulping is probably a word that describes me best. I learned that, with tea, there is a slower and relaxed technique to fully enjoy the flavour. And, you learn to converse differently when you slow everything down.
So, I have no doubt that Zoe has the succeess that she is reporting. The blog post also include a whole bunch of resources to further your reading.
Cyber Education in Canada is Broken, Here’s How to Fix It
As long as I’ve known Tim, he’s always been passionate about what he’s doing.
What he’s doing now is working on Cyber Security and its implications. You can’t turn a computer on and read any news these days without something on the topic popping up these days. Around here, the big story was the hack on hospital systems.
You can’t argue with Tim’s assertion that we’re not doing Cyber Education correctly – but we’re not even doing computer education correctly.
I thank Alfred Thompson for sharing this image.
As Tim notes, even Computer Science remains an optional course and can be cancelled if you don’t get enough students to register for it.
This doesn’t even take us to the level of Cyber Security but it seems to me that Computer Science is the logical place for it to appear. In many ways, applications courses and the use of applications everywhere has sidetracked this serious learning.
Back to Tim, I totally agree with him but also recognize that he currently is in a unique position to learn and advocate for this. If he was successful in convincing anyone that this was needed, where would a teacher turn to get up to speed?
A Shared WIN!
- Noa Daniel – @iamnoadaniel
- https://noadaniel7.wixsite.com/bobblog/single-post/a-shared-win
One of the things that I enjoy around following Noa and reading her thinking is that she truly does think about activities in education that go beyond the traditional.
The “What’s in a Name?” project is designed to have students think beyond something that they’ve had all their lives – their name. But, it goes far beyond that – every student in the classroom has a name for consideration as well.
If we truly believe in the notion of cultural literacy, then this is a great place to start.
She provides a link to her WIN outline and some examples of books and videos related to names. She emphasizes the importance of making the project meaningful and relevant to the students.
These days, more than ever, the thinking, understanding, and sensitivity are important concepts for all.
Mentors or Partners? #SOL2023
- Melanie White – @WhiteRoomRadio
- https://reflectingonrecreation.wordpress.com/2023/11/07/mentors-or-partners-sol2023/
My apologies to Melanie. When I read the title, I thought this was going to be another post about some sort of edu-babble.
But, it really wasn’t. It’s about working together and how it works effectively.
She prefers the term “planning partners” over “mentors” because it implies a more collaborative and reciprocal relationship. She shares two examples of her planning partners, Tu Vuong and Tobi, who inspire her with their creativity and dedication.
It seems to me that the phallacy of the “mentor” is the assumption that, with experience, it assumes that this person knows everything. Melanie talks about the importance and insights from everyone around the planning table having a voice and input.
That, to me, is the true mark of professionalism. We should always be open and willing to learn from others.
I supposed that we’ll always have labels and names but it can be different if we just pull back the covers and truly see what’s there.
The Universal Translator
Big Star Trek fan here so this really was a click-bait title.
When you think about it, the universal translator helped those writing the scripts so much. They didn’t have to deal with the challenges of different languages; the universal translator made everything English. So, that hurdle just went out of the way and they could focus on more interesting things like Tribbles, Romulans, Vulcans, etc.
We don’t have that luxury in the classroom – or do we? Diane shares some thoughts about using technology to do translation of documents just by feeding them into a translator? In a perfect world, …
I followed her argument and it sure makes sense to me.
I also wonder about the notion that you can put anything into a translator and have things done, word for word, phrase for phrase, and just assume that what comes back was what the original intent was.
There’s more to it than that and it goes to the essence of being a teacher.
An Interview with Laura Wheeler
- Doug Peterson – @dougpete
- https://dougpete.wordpress.com/2023/11/29/an-interview-with-laura-wheeler/
This week, I had the opportunity to interview Laura Wheeler. If you missed it on Wednesday, here’s a link to it.
Please take a minute to click through and enjoy all these wonderful posts. There’s so much good thinking there.
This is a regular Friday morning post around here. You can read them all at this link.
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.