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AGENDA:
1. Review Course Criteria/Morning Reflection: Suli Breaks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-eVF_G_p-Y
Quickwrite: Your thoughts and post a comment
2. Read Why I Write and Write Your Own Why I Write Letter to Your Self
Date: October 10, 2011
Summary:
Prize-winning international poet, translator, and essayist Jane
Hirshfield's poetry speaks to the central issues of human existence:
desire and loss, impermanence and beauty, and the many dimensions of our
connection with others. She tells NWP why she writes.
JANE HIRSHFIELD
Why do I write?
I
write because to write a new sentence, let alone a new poem, is to
cross the threshold into both a larger existence and a profound mystery.
A thought was not there, then it is. An image, a story, an idea about
what it is to be human, did not exist, then it does. With every new
poem, an emotion new to the heart, to the world, speaks itself into
being. Any new metaphor is a telescope, a canoe in rapids, an MRI
machine. And like that MRI machine, sometimes its looking is accompanied
by an awful banging. To write can be frightening as well as magnetic.
You don't know what will happen when you throw open your windows and
doors.
To write a new sentence, let alone a new poem, is to cross the threshold into both a larger existence and a profound mystery.
Why
write? You might as well ask a fish, why swim, ask an apple tree, why
make apples? The eye wants to look, the ear wants to hear, the heart
wants to feel more than it thought it could bear...
The
writer, when she or he cannot write, is a person outside the gates of
her own being. Not long ago, I stood like that for months, disbarred
from myself. Then, one sentence arrived; another. And I? I was a woman
in love. For that also is what writing is. Every sentence that comes for
a writer when actually writing—however imperfect, however
inadequate—every sentence is a love poem to this world and to our good
luck at being here, alive, in it.
RELATED ARTICLES ON NWP.ORG
- Why I Write: A Celebration of the National Day on Writing
- Poet Laureate Kay Ryan: Poet as Teacher, Teacher as Poet
- Billy Collins: A `Reader's Poet' Reads at NWP's 2009 Annual Meeting
4. Natalie Goldberg's "Test 1"
HW: For Wednesday, read to pg. 48 in MUDBOUND!
The video titled "I will not let test results determine my fate" was a really powerful message. I know that a lot of students will relate to it because sometimes in academic settings things like our weaknesses and low test scores are magnified and focused on and as a result we get discouraged as learners. This video encourages students to not let the test results steer out goals and dreams and I think that's a great message!
ReplyDeleteEvery time I watch this video I get angry at the educational system that I am part of--a system that requires me to give tests and grades, so many of them now standardized. This is inauthentic assessment, and I would much rather find ways to encourage the creativity of my students and assess their work authentically. Fighting the educational system is daunting, though, and discouraging. Suli Breaks speaks from his heart about his love of learning.
ReplyDeleteI wish that could be instilled in every child who enters the public school system. Unfortunately, it is not.
This video is very accurate, many kids do try to explain this to their parents but they don't understand. they speak for a lot of people who wish they could say what he did. I think a lot more parents and people of the School District should watch this video and do something/more about it.
ReplyDeleteI felt that the video had a very positive and intellectual message, he was trying to make everyone realize that school isn't teaching everyone the tools that are mostly need to survive in the real world, just because you fail or pass a test doesn't mean that your less intelligent than the person sitting next to you in you classroom. You can still reach all your goals you just got to learn how to basically think for yourself and use what your being taught but use it in away that would actually have a positive effect on you. No two people are the same as he said how are different individuals being tested by the same means. We comprehend things differently, that same test that you give the hundreds or thousands of students that take that course can only fit a hand of full of the student's way of thinking. So taking test really can not determined how bright you truly are.
ReplyDeleteSince every person is an individual, they each need to learn in an unique environment. For the kids that fail the standardized tests, this might be because of the way they were taught and whether or not it adheres to their learning needs. Suli Breaks talks about this in the video "I will not let test results determine my fate," and the whole topic of distinguishing between school and education. This video has a great message for all of the viewers. and is a topic that needs to be taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteI think that the new trend of teachers, teaching for an exam is incredibly ineffective. Test on their own do have merit and are one good way of measuring someone's skill in a subject, but I really dislike the fact that classes seem to be based on the exams. Furthermore the fact that exams are such a big part of someone's success in life frustrate me too no end. But the problem is that I don't really have any solution to the problem and that is really what's needed. Finally I really didn't agree with his idea that everyone should just focus on what one is interested in. I think that for instance even if you don't like the math the thinking and problem solving skills that it gives you are beneficial. I don't think there is any problem with putting more time in the things your more passionate about, but I also think that everyone should at least have some basic knowledge in all subjects, for your own benefit and societies benefit.
ReplyDelete-Cameron Bennett
I learned from this video that whether your grades that doesn't decide your future. you can still learn and still go to school and learn to decide your future. Whether your age you can still reach your goals you just have to learn and focus. I found this video as a powerful message because it sends a thought to people when they think about school.
ReplyDeleteWhen I watched the video "I will not let test results determine my fate" I felt like I could relate to it a lot because I'm always scared to fail a test because I always think that if I fail in school I won't get anywhere in life. But this video has a message to students that they shouldn't let a test score define them
ReplyDeleteThe video had a powerful message. Suly was talking about how the education system is unfair and how we are judge off of exam grades rather individual talents. I think that this was powerful because today's society shuns students who aren't academically smart but we are judged off a education system that is unfair.
ReplyDeleteI've seen this video more than once and it still amazes me. Not only talking about flaws in education, but in society all together. We're taught to believe that having perfect grades will get you through so much in life. Everyone learns differently, schools should focus on the actual students more than the grades.
ReplyDeleteI think the video was completely correct. In the UK and especially the US, schools are more focused on learning for a test rather than learning for the sake of learning. Students today are pushed into taking classes that they in reality are completely uninterested in and will never use later in life. They have to do this because they need to get a "good degree" or their life won't be a success. How can a school define what success is, when that is something different for every single person? Everyone learns differently and schools either have difficulty and/or make no effort to adapt to this text. Collaboration is seen as cheating, people who aren't visual or auditory learners are seen as slackers or stupid or unmotivated. This pressure on getting a career highlights the idea of weakness and enforces the idea that every person needs a degree. Schools should not expect their students to be the same, and make hypocritical comments about how they care for their students as individuals. It discourages their students, and will result in a less happy and less driven generation if the students allow themselves to believe what schools tell them.
ReplyDeleteSuli Breaks video was an exact representation of why school some systems work insufficiently, for him to pull prime examples of what real kids, I myself say everyday in class. "Why am I learning a subject that wont pertain to life long goals and dreams. Well I took it as because dreams are just blank canvases that can be smeared with paint , of course that's deciding on the path you choose. Even thoe your destiny is 100 time out of 100 impossible to predict.
ReplyDeleteIn the video "I will not let a test result determine my fate" is a really powerful message to everyone especially students. This video makes me realize how unfair the education system is towards students. What really got me when I watched this video is how your test results cannot stop you from reaching your goals and to not think that you're a failure just because you failed the test.
ReplyDeleteWhen I watch this video I can relate to it's message since I was always worry about my future with having low test scores causing people to feel like a total failure. I think the message encourages people to be successful even though you might have low grades.
ReplyDeleteSince every person is an individual, they each need to learn in an unique environment. For the kids that fail the standardized tests, this might be because of the way they were taught and whether or not it adheres to their learning needs. Suli Breaks talks about this in the video "I will not let test results determine my fate," and the whole topic of distinguishing between school and education. This video has a great message for all of the viewers. and is a topic that needs to be taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteI think what Suli breaks was saying was 100% true. As a student I already know how I’m a affected by the system but the more he said about getting a job and the way school actually works makes sense and is even more insightful. It also makes me mad because you start to think about how the school systems really do us shady and look upon our weaknesses and make us feel bad and that we can’t make it far without them. It makes me think more about if I’m being misled and maybe there need to be some changes. I like the video.
ReplyDelete