[A fun little conversation I'm having with Laura in this comment thread includes her question about differences between Chinese literary types and Western ones. It reminded me of this post I wrote last year on Change.org, and planned to cross-post here eventually anyway. I hope you agree that its quotes are lovely things.] ~ ~ [...]
Archives for the ‘creativity’ Category
William Burroughs’ “Thanksgiving Prayer”
Sunday, 13 June 2010
On Inspiration Gaps and Ecstatic Bridges
Thursday, 10 June 2010
The Inspiration Gap: it’s 0ne of the weirdest things about teaching teens. This Gap yawns between the adult who knows this stuff — history, literature, science, whatever — is endlessly wondrous, and the majority of students who haven’t figured that out yet and, worse still, in so many cases are so educationally poisoned they refuse [...]
On Student Genius, How Not to Grade a Wiki, and Making the World a Stage
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
My Australia Keynote Speech: A Serious Farce, in One Thousand Acts
Saturday, 30 January 2010
If you just want to watch my recent keynote address in Australia — which, as farce would have it, turned into two addresses — just click on the screenshots of each speech below. But I hope you read the little mock-heroic back-story. The Missing Link: Texas Politics Distorts US Textbooks (watch before Speech Part 2. [...]
Students with Eyes, Let Them See: 27-Year-Old Chinese Blogs His Way to Fame
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
An example worth sharing to students of a kid who figured out the power of simple blogging — combined, of course, with quality thinking and writing — and blogged his way to stardom by age 27. In China. From the excellent China Digital Times, with emphasis added: Han Han was named as the ‘Person of [...]
“You Suck at Photoshop”: Paragon of Creative Project-Based Learning
Monday, 4 January 2010
I just discovered the 2008 Webby Award-winning “You Suck at Photoshop” series on YouTube. While it may not succeed at making me a Photoshop ninja, it does succeed at convincing me that this kind of project would make the classroom an awesome place. Here’s why: the series demonstrates a mastery of content knowledge — in [...]
On the Art of Being Boring
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
I’ll have more to say soon about how I’ve been trying to teach the wisdom in this “napkin philosopher” piece in my classroom all year. It’s going to get center stage on my classroom door window first day back to school. Maybe even tattooed on students’ hands. But right now, it’s off to the airport [...]
Videos: Mental Poverty, Collaboration, “Recession Skills 101″
Sunday, 27 December 2009
Watch the two videos below — I even took notes of highlights to prod the attention-deficient — and then show them to your students. 1. Randy Nelson, Dean of Pixar University, on Collaboration and what I’ve been calling Social Intelligence in the Workplace. Key concepts: Making co-workers look good, not bad; “plussing” your partners; wanting [...]
Godin Sees It Too: “Recession Skills 101″?
Sunday, 20 December 2009






