0ld Ice Dreams

Inspired is a feeling I wish I could tap into more often. We were feeling inspired one day last winter and came up with these great ice sculptur-esque creations. I like how the shapes suggest the boats in the background.  This fall, I'm wonder what initiates that feeling of inspiration?

Maybe it is spending time with ideas or in the company of creative people. Sometime that can seem intimidating too though. I'm often inspired by students as they are struggling to acquire a skill, they are experimenting and open to ideas I can sometimes grab hold of...one thing for sure though, is that you have to make time for it and be open to the having fun.

Maybe we need to re-organize?

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education | Video on TED.com

The Cycle

A Personal Definition of Success

 A bit of a ramble but well worth it. I think this is kinda how I always felt about success in athletics, wished that I felt about success in school and now, about success in life.

Teaching Art to Children

I recently attended a Provincial Intermediate Teachers Association (PITA) conference where one of the members recommended this book as an excellent resource for teaching the fundamentals of art education. It's still too soon for me to have tried it out but I have browsed through it and know that it highlights many important points in a nice, straightforward way. In addition to being excited about finding this resource, I was also really excited when I searched for more information about it and found Using Drawing with Children, which is a chronicle of one parent's experience with the book.

While this site was great to reference, it also had links to other art with children web sites like Art & Learning to Think, -which is a bit more on the philosophical side but sound educational thinking for any subject, Homeschool Printables by Donna Young, -which has Blackline masters for many subjects including art, and Art Projects for Kids, which is wonderfully broken down into age appropriate levels and clear and simple instructions. All these great finds on the web have me wondering if I really need the book after all ... but then again there is something unique about being able to flip through actual pages.

A great source for primary art project ideas is Deep Space Sparkle. Can't wait to try some of these ideas out.

Daily Physical Activity (DPA) Notes from the 60's

How are we supposed to believe exercises are worth 

it if the teachers don't seem to be interested?

-Richard Milington

 Its amazing that the health of youth in school was being addressed as long ago as 1963 and it is still such a problem. This little letter goes a long way in explaining why. It is written by a school boy, Richard Millington, to president Kennedy and complains of the fact that so often teacher leading physical activity initiatives are clearly not parting in any of their own. You'll have to visit over at Letters of Note to read it in full. Simply, spot on.

Andy Goldsworthy's Creativity on the Backburner

Many thanks to my wonderful friend who connected the dots for me this week by sending me a link to Andy Goldsworthy's Art.  I had seen some of his books previous and admired his beautifully inspired natural installations but never paused long enough to investigate. Believe it or not, I'm pretty sure one of his books nudged the idea for my large scale sand mandala's into reality. I just love the idea of creating something with what nature provides. Its free (!) and remains out there for the world to enjoy if they come across it.

 As part of my investigation, I came across a video clip of Andy describing how working on his projects helps him reconnect with himself and awakens a sense of amazement.



Listening to the birds in this clip reminds me why I love spending time in the woods and how important and creative thoughts are able to simmer on the backburner while a person is engaged in this manner. Remembering those feelings leads me to conclude that part of why I'm fascinated by Andy's art has got to somehow be connected with what Richard Louv is witnessing is his book, Last Child in the Woods.

I'd love to hear from any, and everyone of you as to your own experiences of nature and your thoughts on its connection with creativity and connectivity. Cheers!

Indoctrination in School

"...you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new."

- Barack O'Bama on Education

The first week of school has come and gone. As I expected I wasn't working much (at all) but it was kind of nice because it afforded me some time to listen to what people were saying about going back to school. One source was O'bama's Back to School Speech,  which was surprisingly controversial. I thought it was interesting that the President would address the youth of his nation and acknowledge that they play a role in the future, -how they want their world to develop. To be perfectly honest it never crossed my mind that this speech, which I read before reading about the controversy, could be construed as political indoctrination.  What's above is what I thought to be right on the money. 

  Back to the controversial part, whats ironic is that just before reading about it I was reminded of the idea that "What we learn in school isn’t nearly as important as how we learn, because how to learn is the lesson of school,” - basically stating that, messages from the president aside, there is political indoctrination happening by way of the structure and system of wide spread education. Over the weekend I acknowledged to my neighbour that by as early as fourth grade kids in school normally have a pretty good read of the what schools/teachers expect of them and have either decide to power through it or are beginning to disengage.  It seems to come back to question the reasons we are educating... whether it is to train people to obey, listen and produce or to think, problem solve and learn.

Daily Exercise in Endless Patience

"Coaching is hard because it’s a daily exercise in achieving endless patience. Teaching is something altogether different; it involves gathering knowledge that you then give to students like a present, and wait until they return it to you. Teaching involves written judgments handed our in red marks on papers or letters etched across report cards every six weeks. Teaching says, “I gave you the information and you got it, or didn’t get it.” End of story.


Coaching isn’t teaching. There is no way a coach can do the job without getting his own hands on the ball and demonstrating, pass after pass. Coaching actually requires that students begin imperfectly, and then pass after awkward pass, fumble after fumble, the student learns the feel of the ball, the arc of the run, the timing of the turn to complete the pass. Coaching allows the student proficience that appears to come out of themselves, because that is the ultimate goal of coaching – to hand over the delight of something successfully learned and see the student bloom in their own knowledge. The judging will always come from the students’ own hit or miss experience and is forever changeable because there is always one more game, one more opportunity to get it right. The glorious thing about coaching is letting go of the student, watching them become more than themselves and many times more than the coach. There is poetry in that moment when the student surpasses themselves and you. A true coach never feels less because he understood the whole time that surpassing was the point to begin with, that watching your students find inner and outer greatness is the entire reward."

-No Telling

This is taken from a blog that I'm following and I love the sentiment that it expresses. Something to think about for all us coaches and teachers out there.