obrienk

Sunday, October 10, 2021

Helen Vendler: On Teaching Poetry

 



"How does a master teacher introduce students to poetry? What are the critical choices that she makes to help students experience literature with greater pleasure and understanding? As part of the Bok Center series Reflections on Teaching, poetry critic and scholar Hellen Vendler of Harvard University suggests answers as she guides students through a reading of William Butler Yeats's masterpiece "Among Schoolchildren (1928)" -- Container. Teaching poetry: Helen Vendler/ Harvard University. Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning


I

I walk through the long schoolroom questioning;
A kind old nun in a white hood replies;
The children learn to cipher and to sing,
To study reading-books and history,
To cut and sew, be neat in everything
In the best modern way—the children's eyes
In momentary wonder stare upon
A sixty-year-old smiling public man.


II

I dream of a Ledaean body, bent
Above a sinking fire, a tale that she
Told of a harsh reproof, or trivial event
That changed some childish day to tragedy—
Told, and it seemed that our two natures blent
Into a sphere from youthful sympathy,
Or else, to alter Plato's parable,
Into the yolk and white of the one shell.


III

And thinking of that fit of grief or rage
I look upon one child or t'other there
And wonder if she stood so at that age—
For even daughters of the swan can share
Something of every paddler's heritage—
And had that colour upon cheek or hair,
And thereupon my heart is driven wild:
She stands before me as a living child.


IV

Her present image floats into the mind—
Did Quattrocento finger fashion it
Hollow of cheek as though it drank the wind
And took a mess of shadows for its meat?
And I though never of Ledaean kind
Had pretty plumage once—enough of that,
Better to smile on all that smile, and show
There is a comfortable kind of old scarecrow.


V

What youthful mother, a shape upon her lap
Honey of generation had betrayed,
And that must sleep, shriek, struggle to escape
As recollection or the drug decide,
Would think her son, did she but see that shape
With sixty or more winters on its head,
A compensation for the pang of his birth,
Or the uncertainty of his setting forth?


VI

Plato thought nature but a spume that plays
Upon a ghostly paradigm of things;
Solider Aristotle played the taws
Upon the bottom of a king of kings;
World-famous golden-thighed Pythagoras
Fingered upon a fiddle-stick or strings
What a star sang and careless Muses heard:
Old clothes upon old sticks to scare a bird.


VII

Both nuns and mothers worship images,
But those the candles light are not as those
That animate a mother's reveries,
But keep a marble or a bronze repose.
And yet they too break hearts—O Presences
That passion, piety or affection knows,
And that all heavenly glory symbolise—
O self-born mockers of man's enterprise;


VIII

Labour is blossoming or dancing where
The body is not bruised to pleasure soul,
Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
O chestnut tree, great rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?

W. B. Yeats, “Among School Children” from The Poems of W. B. Yeats: A New Edition, edited by Richard J. Finneran. Copyright 1933 by Macmillan Publishing Company, renewed © 1961 by Georgie Yeats. Reprinted with the permission of A. P. Watt, Ltd. on behalf of Michael Yeats.
Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)

See annotations on genius.com



Shame: How does it affect writing?

 Read this excellent article:

WORD COUNT

WRITERS TALK ABOUT WRITING

How to Reduce Writing Shame

​​​​Are you proud of your ability to write? Or do you secretly feel embarrassed, worried or even ashamed about it?

I ask these questions because shame is something that sets you up for repeated failure and self-disappointment. It's undermining rather than helpful. 

Read the rest of the article here

Reminded me of the work of Brené Brown and a previous post...

No Shame - Step Inside the Circle




Friday, December 4, 2020

Motivation: Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose and Hacking Zoom School

 


From YouTube - posted June 24, 2015:

"This lively RSA Animate, adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.
The full, non-animated RSA talk can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mG-h...


12.4.2020 Friday

Journal TGIF: What are you grateful for this week? 


What did you learn independently this week? 
What article or YouTube video or podcast did you find interesting? 
Please share a specific link - share with your classmates in the chat.
What are you intellectually curious to learn more about? 

After watching the EdPuzzle video on Hacking Education, how might that shift the paradigm of learning and teaching for you? 

What is your mindset towards learning? Are you hacking your education? 

What is your motivation? Do you have a sense of autonomy - choice? 

Do you have a sense of purpose for learning? 

How are you striving for mastery?

How might we collaborate and share our learning in this global pandemic that's forcing us to rethink and reimagine school with technology? 

I believe you have stories to share. I believe you are creative. I believe you have an opportunity to learn and rediscover the joy of learning and sharing your intellectual curiosity? 

So, what is your story?

I sense that so many have been checkout of traditional school for many years. 

I forget who said it first, and I have heard it many times: "I hate school, but I love learning."

I agree. 

School to me has become almost a sad and tragic chore - a manipulation of grades and scores to punish some and reward others that can jump through the hoops. 

In a global pandemic, mental health - from isolation to depression - and zoom fatigue are real - and I fear we as teachers have a choice to exacerbating learned helplessness: an attitude of who cares? and why try if I am only going to get _____ (insert grade that will check the box). 

We are going through an historic time. Unprecedented. These are cliche at this point. 
Said over and over again. And it's cliche to say this - again and again. 

There's the Covid virus that pushes us deeper into devices and echo chambers and possible misinformation that plagues the world like a virus. 

We need to understand the FB problem and social media impact on our hearts and minds - our society and our time - and our friends and our families. We have never been more connected yet paradoxically disconnected. 

And time is ticking on our environment as we digitally distract ourselves with Netflix next episodes and likes and follows and tweets and streaks and snaps and stories. 

So, what is your story? 

Are you too tired to care?

Not surprising with sleep deprivation from notifications and blue light devices that decimate our deep sleep with the digital deluge of information. Insomnia wreaks havoc on kids who scroll while anxious for likes while fearing trolls with wicked finsta comments. 

I wonder... 

How do we make the most of this time? 

How do we reimagine what is possible?

How might we rediscover our creativity in the midst of the confinement and constraints?

How might we be more grateful and share our gratitude? 


Thursday, December 3, 2020

Listen to this Conversation: Brené Brown with Dr. Sarah Lewis on The Rise, the Creative Process and the Difference Between Mastery and Success

 The power of art...

I have been thinking about this idea a lot this year. 


How might art save us in this dark year?

How might art offer a new imagination to representation for social justice? 



How might creativity move us from despair? 

In our solitude, we might feel less alone. Less isolated. If there were greater sense of purpose, we could read whatever we always wanted to read. 

Seeking mastery, we might learn how to learn new hobbies - from cooking to scrapbooking.

So much to learn and now we have this time this year, but we wish it away to get back to normal. The business of traveling and jetting around the world. Now we zoom. 

Wherever we go there we are. 

How do we chase success? 

How do we fear failure? 

How do we strive for mastery? 

To learn, to grow, to live. I wonder...

Listen to this:


Brené Brown: Hi everyone, I’m Brené Brown, and welcome to the Dare to Lead Podcast. This is such a great conversation. Grab your journal, grab a pen and a piece of paper, you’re going to want to take notes on this one. It is somewhere between a full-on, geek out kind of nerdriffic conversation and just wholeheartedness. And for me, personally, moving conversation with Dr. Sarah Lewis. So it’s a two-part series. This is Part One. We talk about her book, The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery. And Sarah and I talk about why the word failure doesn’t quite capture the often transformative experience of falling and beginning again. We also talk about the difference between success and mastery. And for me, this is so important because mastery is very important to me and not something we talk about enough. And we also talk about the power of setting audacious goals that are right outside our grasp. I cannot wait to bring you this conversation. I think you are going to love it. Dr. Sarah Lewis, it’s moving, it’s a moving conversation.


Thursday, August 13, 2020

Michael Gazzaniga: Early Split-Brain Research

 
From late 1950s Michael Gazzaniga


2012 Nature article by David Wolman

Since the 1960s, researchers have been scrutinizing a handful of patients who underwent a radical kind of brain surgery. The cohort has been a boon to neuroscience — but soon it will be gone.



 

Friday, July 3, 2020

TGIF Home Again: Learning and Listening from Vincent Harding to Jason Reynolds - Both Citing James Baldwin

This morning I started listening to recent podcast On Being with Krista Tippet interview with Vincent Harding (previously aired and recorded February 24, 2011).

"Vincent Harding was wise about how the vision of the civil rights movement might speak to 21st-century realities. He reminded us that the movement of the ’50s and ’60s was spiritually as well as politically vigorous; it aspired to a “beloved community,” not merely a tolerant integrated society. He pursued this through patient-yet-passionate cross-cultural, cross-generational relationships. And he posed and lived a question that is freshly in our midst: Is America possible?"

Excerpt:

Tippett:When you say that we, as human beings, have a built-in need for stories, what your work shows is that we human beings also know what to do with stories, right? So that, as you say, the young people you work with know to take those stories as tools and pieces of empowerment in this day, this year.
Harding:For their own best work. Because now, it’s a powerful time in this country for young people and others to be asking the question, “And what are we for?” Do we exist for some reason other than competing with China or finding the best possible technological advances? Are there some things that are even deeper that we are meant for, meant to be, meant to do, meant to achieve? Jimmy Baldwin used to like to talk about us achieving ourselves, finding who we are, what we’re for, and making that possible for each other.
So you’re right about — the story — just as you were speaking, what I was thinking about, Krista, was when the mother with the baby at her bosom starts telling stories is clearly not just to pass on information. What I find is that, even in some of the strangest situations, most often where I go, where I speak, where I share, I start out by asking people to tell a little of their stories. And it is amazing what people discover of themselves, of their connections, of their community. It’s wonderful.
Tippett:You know, I’ve learned that too. To ask someone even to tell a little of their story is to give them a gift because we don’t get asked that question. And we do learn as much as we tell. You wrote a very important book, Hope and History



Listen to June 25th, 2020 Interview with Jason Reynolds:

"James Baldwin, my famous Baldwin quote, and he has a gazillion, obviously. But my favorite Baldwin quote is, “The interior life is the real life.” The interior life is the real life. “And the intangible dreams of a person may have a tangible effect on the world.” It’s basically saying, what one can imagine, internally, what one can think about when nobody knows, when nobody’s around, one’s secrets, could shift human life. What an amazing thing to think about.
And my role, even with Stamped and remixing — and the reason we called it a remix is because it’s not a YA adaptation, because I actually rewrote the entire book.
I wanted — we, he and I both — wanted to figure out how we could tap into the imagination of young people. And when it comes to books around race, or when it comes to history books, usually they are presented to students, not humans." 



Which lead me to listening to James Baldwin on YouTube.com



"Mavis Nicholson speaks exclusively to American Civil rights activist and renowned Playwright novelist, essayist, poet, and social critic James Baldwin. First shown: 02/12/1987"



From YouTube.com:

Author James Baldwin taped a candid and fascinating studio interview at WCKT - Miami in 1963. Featured in this edition of the long-running program, "Florida Forum": questions by an in-studio audience and a panel of local journalists. 

bio: James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 -- December 1, 1987) was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. 

Baldwin's essays, for instance, "Notes of a Native Son" (1955), explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America, vis-à-vis their inevitable if unnameable tensions with personal identity, assumptions, uncertainties, yearning, and questing.[1] 

Some Baldwin essays are book-length, for instance, The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). 

His novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration of not only blacks yet also of male homosexuals—depicting as well some internalized impediments to such individuals' quest for acceptance—namely in his second novel, Giovanni's Room (1956), written well before the equality of homosexuals was widely espoused in America.[2] 
Baldwin's best-known novel is his first, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953).






James Baldwin Speaks! "America, it is not the Negro problem, it is your problem!" Speech to the Los Angeles The Non-Violent Action Committee December, 1964. NVAC was formed by militant dissenters from the Congress of Racial Equality. The talk includes a question and answer session.