(via neil-gaiman)

neil-gaiman:

Childhood is cannibals and psychotics vomiting in your mouth. Yes.

RIP the wonderful Maurice Sendak

blowncovers:

We’ll miss you.

We need more honesty about childhood. Sendak will be missed for that honesty.

Yes.

(via teachingliteracy)

world-shaker:

unlearningschool:

I’m just sayin…

Instead of “Teaching” on the left chart, it should say “Ruining America.” I have no corrections for the right chart.

(via teachingliteracy)

neil-gaiman:

Wally Wood’s 22 Panels that always work.

Because some of you may want to make comics one day…

Saving for Comics lecture next year. 

world-shaker:

How Do We Fall Asleep?

Falling asleep is a routine yet mystifying process. Like trying to see the 3D image in a Magic Eye poster, the more you focus on it, the less likely it is to happen. It shies away from scrutiny and is best approached with an air of detached disinterest; so, though most of us fall asleep every night, we can’t say exactly howwe do it.

Even neuroscientists are still struggling to understand the mechanisms the brain uses to switch from a state of wakefulness to unconscious sleep, but research reveals that the transition is a lot more gradual and tumultuous than the flip of a light switch.

According to recent work by neuroscientists at Washington University in St. Louis, during the pre-sleep stage of the process — the period when you’re in bed with the lights off and your eyes closed, slowly “letting go” of the trials of the tribulations of the day — your brain waves exhibit what’s known as alpha activity, typically associated with quiet wakefulness.

“It is in this period that the brain progressively disengages from the external world,” Linda Larson-Prior and her colleagues wrote in a 2011 paper. “Subjects slowly oscillate between attending to external and internal thoughts, with the majority of internal thoughts being autobiographical or self-referential in nature.”

Then, at some crucial moment, you enter the transitional sleep stage, known as stage 1. Brain waves slow down, shifting to a form known as theta-band activity, but are still punctuated by brief bursts of alpha activity. These hiccups give you the sense that you’re still awake, said Scott Campbell, director of the Laboratory of Human Chronobiology at Weill Cornell Medical College, citing a landmark sleep study performed in the 1960s. “Investigators asked subjects aroused out of various stages of sleep whether they considered themselves asleep. Only about 10 percent of those aroused from stage 1 said that they had been asleep.” [Continue Reading]

Fascinating.

Take away: maybe I’m getting more sleep than I think? This sure makes me feel differently about my pregnancy induced insomnia!

bloomingtogether:

teachersworldwide:

A group of French parents and teachers have called for a two-week boycott of homework in schools, saying it is useless, tiring and reinforces inequalities between children.

They say homework pushes the responsibility for learning on parents and causes rows between themselves and their children. And they conclude children would be better off reading a book. (via French parents to boycott homework | World news | guardian.co.uk)

I conclude that I love the French even more now. 

Worksheets, busy work, and spelling and math drills do not create a home environment  of literacy and learning. Homework that is not engaging and meaningful in a home is does not contribute to lifelong learning. 

Cuddling up with a book before bed. Story time. Nature walks. Trips to the library. Experiences with learning at home outweigh bringing schoolwork home to be completed with an atmosphere of stress in an already stressed culture.

My own experience on an Indian reservation where the nearest library is 60 miles away,  the stability at my students homes changes daily, and homework is very rarely completed has led me to question the value of homework. Earlier in the school year, I felt frustrated every morning when 4 or 5 out of 18 students would return with completed homework. I tried rewarding students who completed homework, but extrinsic motivation simply flopped. The principal’s policy for students who do not finish homework is 10 minutes off of reccess. I still had the same kids losing recess time everyday!

My initial inability to let go of the status quo (teacher gives homework, students complete homework) made me uneasy…And I followed that uneasy feeling to come to accept that the culture here is not conducive to homework folders and backpacks leaving school at 3pm and returning with students at 8am the next day. It wasn’t happening. And if I can’t change people, I can always love them. I needed to embrace what my students value most: Family time and outside time. 

My students go home and are desperate to be outside, riding horses, playing basketball. It is what they value as children. My job in the classroom here is to teach them to make the choice to go home and find time to read and write and do math. All it takes is giving them a fresh picture book to borrow every night. Usually, they love the book so much, they ask to keep it all week. 

I’ve been able to invite parents into their child’s learning by having the expectation that parents will read with their child every night and help him or her complete a writing or math assignment. Recently, my students have been keeping data on the birds they’ve seen outside of their window and using complete sentences with “juicy adjectives” to describe their observations. Little scientists.

If students don’t complete their homework, it doesn’t ruin their learning in class for the day, but when each student has a chance to discuss what book he or she read last night, students who didn’t read sure do wish they did!

Here’s to happy teaching and stress-free home time. 

(via world-shaker)

One of my favorite moments!

(via theresearcher)

symmetrism:

Art’s great nudes have gone skinny

Italian artist Anna Utopia Giordano has created a visual re-imagination of historic nude paintings, had the subjects conformed their bodies to what the 21st century considers an ideal of beauty. The results are revealing—and quite shocking in what they say about the modern attitude toward women’s bodies.

(via theresearcher)

blowncovers:

Harry Bliss submitted this sketch in 1997 in response to Mayor Giuliani’s reluctance to investigate the police who tortured Haitian immigrant Abner Louima — but, unfortunately, this picture stands the test of time and still resonates clearly today. [excerpted from Blown Covers]

(via neil-gaiman)