Twitter, Tweeting, Twits: What's the Story?

If you're not a fan of Twitter, this post is for you.  
If you don't get it, you have to watch the TED Talk below.  

Or not, but odds are high that your friends or your students are already on Twitter.

In this 2009 TED TALK, Evan Williams, Twitter founder, speaks of the unexpected uses of Twitter.  It seems like ancient history now, but if you're already on Twitter and tired of mundane updates - you may want to consider the friends you follow...on Twitter.  

Consider the possibilities of real-time mass communication via Twitter, watch this TED Talk.  Maybe then you'll understand last year's historic revolution in Egypt.

Williams is not the most exciting speaker; however, when I watched this talk last year, it made me rethink how one could use Twitter for multiple audiences.  

If you want to follow a social media maven on Twitter, follow former WRA faculty member and graduate, Brendan Schneider @schneiderb.  His blog schneiderb.com offers priceless advice on using social media in independent schools.  He writes, "I use Twitter for three [reasons]: to share information, to connect, and to communicate." 

After "listening" to Brendan's wisdom for a few months on Twitter, we started using Twitter last spring for WRA's lacrosse program, sharing real-time information with players, parents, and alumni @WRALacrosse.  This year, I am sharing information with my English classes @KOBsENGWRA, for student life at WRA, a boarding school @clubsactivities, and as a head coach @CoachOBrienk.  Each has a specific audience that I wish to share, connect, and communicate with in an effective manner.  

On Twitter, like life, it's all about who you follow. For each account, I follow Twitter users that are relevant to each audience and retweet pertinent information. For example for my English classes, I follow @advicetowriters, @newyorker, @grammargirl, @quotes4writers, @oedonline, @poetryfound, @parisreview, @theatlantic - the list goes on.  I have embedded Twitter feeds on each of my blogs (that's another post).  Easily switching accounts on my cell phone, I only read Twitter a couple minutes a day, but I find much to share. (Now, it may seem like I am an ego maniac.  No, I have no aspirations to be a Twitter celeb like Ashton Kutcher.)

But I teach 10th and 11th grade English, serve as a class dean, and lead the boys lacrosse program. When considering the different hats that one wears at a boarding school, it's all about communication.  There's so much information out there...I like to channel information with a discerning eye, and tweet, "Hey, you may find this interesting - or inspiring."  Yes, some information tweeted is even essential.  

Like any technology, it can be abused; however, Twitter is not going away. Students are using it, and more are going to be using it.  My two cents: meet them where they are and teach students how to use Twitter responsibly and effectively.  

My message to students: tweet wisely as you "Share, Connect, Communicate." If your tweets would embarrass you, your parents, or your school, please think again.  Or at the very least, make them private.  Public tweeting means literally anyone in the world can see those tweets.  

Final thought: perhaps, begin by simply "listening" on Twitter. 
Follow your interests and people that inspire you - and learn more. 

Thanks, Brendan.

Read more: http://www.SchneiderB.com/how-i-use-twitter-to-share-information/#ixzz1kFJPpUW4 
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

Kate and Frederic Chopin

For this post, please click this video and listen as you read. 

Make no mistake: They are no relation, Kate and Frederic, yet they are inextricably linked in my mind.  Although we were three obstreperous boys, my two brothers and I would calm down like Pavlovian dogs whenever my mother listened to Chopin on the stereo, which was often in my memory.  Much older now, I, too, have fallen in love with his nocturnes and sonatas, calming meditations through music.  I now associate Chopin with the brilliant performance of Albert Wang.

In college, however,  I read The Awakening,  and when I came across this scene where Edna listens to Mademoiselle Reisz play Chopin, I think of listening to Chopin, the composer, as a boy.

Kate Chopin writes:

Edna was what she herself called very fond of music. Musical strains,
well rendered, had a way of evoking pictures in her mind. She sometimes
liked to sit in the room of mornings when Madame Ratignolle played
or practiced. One piece which that lady played Edna had entitled
"Solitude." It was a short, plaintive, minor strain. The name of the
piece was something else, but she called it "Solitude." When she heard
it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside
a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one
of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its
flight away from him.

Another piece called to her mind a dainty young woman clad in an Empire
gown, taking mincing dancing steps as she came down a long avenue
between tall hedges. Again, another reminded her of children at play,
and still another of nothing on earth but a demure lady stroking a cat.

The very first chords which Mademoiselle Reisz struck upon the piano
sent a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier's spinal column. It was not
the first time she had heard an artist at the piano. Perhaps it was the
first time she was ready, perhaps the first time her being was tempered
to take an impress of the abiding truth.

She waited for the material pictures which she thought would gather and
blaze before her imagination. She waited in vain. She saw no pictures
of solitude, of hope, of longing, or of despair. But the very passions
themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the
waves daily beat upon her splendid body. She trembled, she was choking,
and the tears blinded her.

Mademoiselle had finished. She arose, and bowing her stiff, lofty bow,
she went away, stopping for neither, thanks nor applause. As she passed
along the gallery she patted Edna upon the shoulder.

"Well, how did you like my music?" she asked. The young woman was
unable to answer; she pressed the hand of the pianist convulsively.
Mademoiselle Reisz perceived her agitation and even her tears. She
patted her again upon the shoulder as she said:

"You are the only one worth playing for. Those others? Bah!" and she
went shuffling and sidling on down the gallery toward her room.

But she was mistaken about "those others." Her playing had aroused a
fever of enthusiasm. "What passion!" "What an artist!" "I have always
said no one could play Chopin like Mademoiselle Reisz!" "That last
prelude! Bon Dieu! It shakes a man!"

It was growing late, and there was a general disposition to disband. But
some one, perhaps it was Robert, thought of a bath at that mystic hour
and under that mystic moon. (72)

Online book

When Edna is "unable to answer," she enters the liminal en route to her awakening.  Without words, the music has not conjured her imagination, thoughts in her mind, but something more powerful than intellect: "passions themselves were aroused within her soul."  As an artist, Mademoiselle Reisz expresses herself through music, playing for herself, and Edna "the only one worth playing for."

Through art, whether it be music or Edna's painting, creative expression resonates with each of us as human beings.  As unruly boys,  we connected with Chopin.  As a young man in college, I connected with Edna's plight as she searched for her voice.  As I write this, and teach The Awakening again, I find new meaning through writing.

Thank you for reading.

Connection: "The Power of Vulnerability"

In writing this...blog (I am still not a fan of the term), I have found courage and connection.

I humbly share these words, these musing, these stories, and these videos.  Writing makes you vulnerable, sharing your thoughts and your heart.  There is no hiding once your words are in writing.

This blog makes me feel vulnerable as I share, especially as an English teacher; however, as an English teacher, what better way to set an example?

Writers write, right?



Researcher, Story-teller Brene Brown shares her story. "Connection is why we are here."

GO MAD: Be the Change - Be a Friend

It has been said that there is no greater mirror than an old friend - to see how much we have grown.

What makes our boarding school friends so special?

Short answer: From around the world, you come together in a community and bond for life.  And those friendships,  despite time and space,  never end.

They are with you always - and you celebrate their achievements with more joy and pride than you do your own.  Forgive me while I brag share a story about one of my dearest boarding school friends.

I first met Soiya Gecaga in the first few days of our four year experience at Phillips Academy in Andover, MA.  We were both fourteen and far from home; I missed Cleveland, she missed Kenya.  Yet we were all in the same boat at boarding school. As a class, in no time, we became like a family, relying on one another like siblings.  Her outgoing personality and kindness made her an instant friend to me.  As we approach our 20th Andover Reunion this June, I am proud to count her as one of my many life-long boarding school friends.

After we graduated in 1992,  Soiya studied at St. Andrew's in Scotland while I headed to Penn.  We lost touch; however, the summer of 2008, we reconnected in London.  My original plan was to visit my brother Sean while he was studying at Oxford.  Through Facebook, Soiya offered a night's stay before I headed out to see my brother.  After a weekend in Ireland together, Sean had serious work to do for school.

So Soiya offered I stay at her house plus a week's worth of yoga at her local studio, Jivamukti Yoga School in London.  Frankly, if you were to guess, the least likely to practice yoga from the class of PA '92... we might have of been tied.  Yet here we were strolling to classes daily and sharing old stories of what we both remembered - or what we chose to remember in the stories that we each created.  We were more than surprised by our differing stories on the same boarding school experience.

During that week, she also shared with me many books, each profound, but The Four Agreements changed my life.  It had been recommended to me before - but now I had some time to read and discuss it with an old friend.  With perspective, we could see how our memories were filled with assumptions that we had made when we were young.  At the time, we thought we knew one another so well, but in reality, we had no clue of the heavy stories that we carried silently.  We were judging, pretending, and trying - desperately - to be cool, to fit in, to be the best.

In our thirties, we could laugh at how high school drama was riddled with failure to be impeccable with one's word.  We recognized how personally we took every slight or rumor.  With anxiety at a school full of the best and brightest, we struggled with expectations, especially always do your best. We neglected the pronoun "your" and obsessed on being "the best."

Since Andover, our paths shared parallels as all lives do - high and lows, twists and turns as well as loss and redemption. Our conversations, both healing and inspiring, will be cherished forever.

Cut to today: scanning Facebook, I read Soiya's story.  She embodies "act with compassion."  The  action she has taken inspires me to be the change that I wish to see in the world.

In June, I do hope Soiya will be at our reunion, but given her work, I will understand if she does not make it - we're with one another in spirit.  I am grateful to be her friend.

(I am also grateful for social media and technology - that allows me to share her story and bring awareness to her work.  Recently, we discussed the possibility of her visiting my WRA classes, possibly via Skype.  On her next visit to the US, she is considering a stop in CAK or CLE. Now, that's a friend!)

At WRA, as we celebrate Go Make-a-Difference Day, we "acted with compassion" as an entire community in various service projects.  It is also likely you made new friends in a new context outside your classes, sports, and social circles.  Be open to these transformative experiences and the diversity of this community.  You have an opportunity to make friends from around the world - that will be there for you for the rest of your life.

Therefore, in honor of today, and our recent service for MLK, I felt it fitting to share Soiya's story - and how our friendship - and how our boarding school experience has shaped our lives.

(Our school's motto:  Non Sibi - Latin for "Not for Self").

Please read her essay published in today's Huffington Post.

Being the Change That I Wish To See In the World

by Soiya Gecaga

           As I think about the year that has just gone by, I am filled with immense gratitude for all that I experienced in 2011. In many ways, 2011 was a life changing year for me. Most importantly, it was the year that my work with "We the Change" Foundation (in the field of early childhood education and care) started in earnest. Mahatma" Gandhi once said that "we must be the change that we wish to see in the world" and ever since I first heard these words quoted, they have strongly influenced me and the choices that I have made in my life. So much so, that I named the foundation with Gandhi's quote in mind.
             Starting in January, my work really took off. It was the culmination of a long personal voyage of discovery, of transformation and of deep introspection. In the wake of the post-election violence that rocked Kenya in 2007-2008, I quit my job as a lawyer working in London and travelled to Kenya, where I was born. My goal was two-fold. Firstly, to get to know and to reacquaint myself with the country that I called 'home;' secondly, I was determined to find a meaningful way in which to give back to communities in my country that lacked opportunity.
            I had sat at my desk in London, watching the devastation unfold on my computer screen and could not believe what I was witnessing. My fellow countrymen were killing and harming each other in ways that I previously could not have fathomed. Like many other Kenyans at the time, I found myself confused and perplexed at just how something this terrible could have happened. Question after question flooded my mind. Where was the hatred coming from? Why were communities that had previously lived in harmony now killing each other? Why were those in power not doing anything to stop the violence? I found myself looking to those in authority for answers. However, it was ordinary Kenyans who provided inspiration....Continued. 

To Read Soiya's entire essay, Click here.  She shares one of my favorite RFK quotes in her conclusion.

Thank you.

Run or walk in the rain? Check out: Myth Busters

Rainy day here at WRA.  Students are coming in like wet dogs.

"Do you really stay drier if you run (vs. walk) in the rain? See what the MythBusters -- surprisingly -- concluded in 2003."

Check out: Discovery Myth Busters

Or sing in the rain?


Gene Kelly "I am singing in the rain"

Pick up a WRA umbrella in the book store.  And please, don't "borrow" umbrellas.


Here's to singing in the rain!

MLK Day at WRA

Today's Comments by Mr. Morris resonated with me:

Good morning.  On the occasion of this day I would like to share an excerpt from a speech, a poetic meditation that Martin Luther King delivered at nearby Oberlin College upon receiving an honorary degree in 1965.  

In a voice far, far richer than mine, he spoke these words:

All I'm saying is simply this: that all humankind is tied together; all life is interrelated, and we are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.  

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.  

For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be - this is the interrelated structure of reality.  [The English poet] John Donne caught it years ago and placed it in graphic terms: 

No man is an Island, entire of itself; 

every one is a piece of the continent, a part of the main …  

any one's death diminishes me, because I am involved in humankind;  

and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. 

[King followed Donne’s lines with these words:] And by believing this, by living out this fact, we will be able to remain awake through a great revolution.  

MLK's legacy continues if and whenever we act upon it.  


With his --and Donne's-- poetic, prophetic vision, we can see an ultimate community --
we can see each other, and all others, as sharing one fate, one destiny.  


Today, tomorrow, Wednesday, GoMAD day, every day.  
Thank you.




MLK's Last Speech:

A New Genre? The Possibilities of Using Prezi with Poetry

What's Prezi? What are students learning using Prezi with Poetry?

Students were instructed to select a poem and present it using Prezi.
At the end of the week, they were given two classes in the computer lab to play and tinker with the technology; on Monday, the presented their work.  We discussed the presentations and the use of imagery, mood, tone, the selection of key words and phrasing as well as the flow of the presentation and the effectiveness of the technology.

A Student Example:

War Is Kind on Prezi  Click "More" to go to Full Screen

In modeling, the technology, I tinkered with Prezi and a favorite Frost poem.  I never imagined juxtaposing the words with the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, yet the ease of selecting images and videos led to a creative presentation that would never have happened using PowerPoint or other traditional mediums.  I invested about three hours on this presentation - my first - and now feel confident using Prezi with anything I want to share. 

"Acquainted with the Night" by Robert Frost on Prezi
Click "More" to go to Full Screen

Students, what do you think?  Was it fun? What did you learn? What choices did you have to make? Please consider posting your Prezi's to your personal blogs to show case your work.  Thank you! Feel free to comment below.