Blog Revolution

• Teens now are doing some very interesting things with blogs, and what's interesting is that they've pretty much done it in their own ecosystem - they haven't been told they're a smart mob, or that they're participating in a personal publishing revolution.

The Power of Play . . . Again!

It occurs to me that learning should be joyful. We structure the life out of it. I say smash the structure, liberate the ideas!

Quantum Dots

I just finished reading an article on Quantum Dots. It sparked a number of thoughts, including the idea that this is just one example of the kind of a world for which we are preparing our students. Of particular interest to me was the way that the following concepts were represented:

1) The exchange of capital – What if Bowers hadn't been willing to make THREE separate batches of dots for McBride? What if Associate Professor Sandra Rosenthal got irritated that he was using her lab, her equipment, her resources to make dots for some other student? Notice the fact that all the students were from the same lab . . . so the physical structure of the lab potentially intensified the interactions among the various students because they are all in closer, more bounded proximity. Wonder if, like atoms, as people collide repeatedly and with more frequency, it increases the energy between them, intensifies the momentum of their thinking? I think that could be part of the magic of the NFLRC . . . bounded space, intensified collisions of people and ideas . . . yields increased energy and momentum . . . plus there is always the issue of increased access to resources as a result of the pooling of people.

2) The concept of transference – The student who brings stuff from a completely unrelated context (parents' summer cabin) into the lab, which fertilizes another students' thinking and he begins to consider using the Minwax in a new way. Also, note that each student had different interests, but the lab provided a point of common connection . . . a physical nexus for the convergence of disparate ideas.

3) The concept of extrapolation – "Such a fundamental change could open up a wide range of new possibilities, such as making almost any object into a light source" . . . now consider the importance of light throughout history in a wide range of contexts, then extrapolate from the prediction above . . . if any object could become a light source . . . think about new applications, marketing, ART! Think if you could mix that stuff with your paint! Now, think about problems such applications would create (because every new technology comes with its problems—that law of opposition again) . . . and if you could anticipate them and begin working on solutions now . . . and think what a great exercise it would be for students to think about these concepts . . .

The Mosaic

In a flash of torrential trauma
Words intrude--
Hard, jagged edges
Ripping into her reverie,
Puncturing her peace,
Shattering her soul.

Stunned,
she stumbles,
then stands
sloshing, slogging,
through painful puddles
of gray grief

until sunshine emerges—

Evaporating
the wailing wind
into a weak whisper . . .
"Seek safety . . . in the shadows!"
it sighs,
. . . solace within the shards!"

They sparkle
in the scintillating sunlight
she collects—herself—
Colors connect,
catalyzing
catharsis.

—and energy expands

Filling the void
with multiplicity,
Mixing media
Restores reason
and roundness
to a Still Life.

Cherice Montgomery, October 8, 2005

A Puzzle

Peace
comes in pieces . . .
an edge here,
a corner there . . .
of connection.

But the Meaning?

Still flat--
stuck
somehow
in the spaces
between.

And Life?

Beyond the borders?
Or in the layers
of the jumble
that persists . . .
Within?

Cherice Montgomery, August 15 - September 17, 2005

Of Understanding and Becoming

We are constantly creating our own realities, and what we know is the raw material for this creation. Through the recursive and reciprocal processes involved in drawing on that knowledge, it is transformed, becoming a tool (or a box of tools) that we use to carve out both a space and a place for ourselves in the world. As we take our experiences in those spaces and places back into ourselves, we are expanded, making it possible for us to make both space and place within ourselves to accommodate the world . . . In a very real sense, then, we become what we understand!

Of Needs & Needing

Sometimes it isn't enough just to be needed. Sometimes, it is nice to be needed by someone who wants and needs YOU! It seems that the ability to satisfy someone's need in ways that others cannot somehow validates the value of one's existence . . . and some days, affirms that one DOES really exist! ;-)

Reality

It really doesn't matter how it IS. What matters is how it FEELS!

The Color of Joy

Some impressions are so indelible that no matter how many waves crash against the shores of the soul and no matter how much time passes, they do not disappear. The words, "Joy, like the color purple, is everywhere. You just have to look for it!" were like that for her.

Smiles

A genuine smile is merely a symbol for, or token of something bigger, wider, broader, and deeper--analogous to earnest money on emotions.