Stress Relief

Hey. Me again. Man! Am I busy and feeling stressed. I seem to have too many things in the oven so to speak, and I am not sure if everything will cook correctly. I have, what feels like, a million things to do these days and not even sure where to even start. In addition to planning and running the intensely interesting and life changing lessons I teach you everyday, I am planning a two-day fifteen hour workshop for teachers in April. I agreed to write my first paid piece for these guys (also by April), and I am trying to read more young adult books. I just finished Monster and started Divergent.

I feel I am behind in conferencing with both grade seven and eight and worried that you are not receiving timely and useful feedback. I want to create an automated feedback form, but can't seem to get around to doing it. We are also starting to think about and plan the next units for both grade seven and eight on Shakespeare, while we also documenting the things that worked and didn't quite hit the mark with our current unit in the unit planner.

Oh and when I get home I have two kids to raise, a wife to hang out with and my own thoughts to wrestle with. My point. Life can be busy. It can be stressful. I feel your pain. This post is not about comparing who is busier or throwing ourselves a pity party. I wanted to share some strategies I use when I am feeling overwhelmed.

First thing you might be asking is, "Mr. R, if you are so busy why are you blogging? Why don't you just start that feedback form or keep working on your upcoming workshop?" Well, you might find this hard to believe, but writing actually relieves my stress. When I sit at the screen and hear the sounds of the keys, clickty clack and I watch my thoughts take form on the screen, I feel a sense of calmness descend on whatever freak-stress-show I might be involved in. Writing helps me stay sane. 

Tonight, I will come back to school, walk down to the music studios and play music for two hours. No matter how busy I am, I know that I need this time to re-charge. I crank up the amps and I sing. I play. I sweat. No matter how tired I am it helps me re-group and continue on the rest of the week. Music helps me relax and I enjoy watching myself learn and grow as a singer.

I asked my Facebook friends to send me their home addresses, so I can make the first three who sent me their addresses a hand-made piece of art. I like to always have an art project on the go to keep my mind creative. I have begun to buy the supplies for these pieces, but it is the thinking about them that helps me find balance. Making art brings balance to my life.

Okay, wow. I'm going on and on. You are busy too. I know. I get it. I feel you. But as you can see, how you manage your stress is up to you. It may appear that I am just giving myself more work, and in a way I am, but it is work I care about and love. So to help alleviate stress you must make room to do the things you love.

What kinds of things do you to relieve stress? What helps you find you balance and stay sane. Share your ideas in the comments below!

Time To Rock and Roll

Hey Grade 8's I have some exciting news. We can continue to hang out next year. I have been a bit worried that my little babies would grow up and leave the nest and that I would not see you again until graduation. But I just found out that my idea for a high school activity has been approved. So if you love music keep an eye out for The History of Rock and Roll.

Here are some rough ideas:

The History of Rock and Roll. Open to HS students, it is a chance to get together and study, explore and listen to the most important bands, songs, and albums of rock music from the 1950′-the 2000s. We will explore the historical and social context of the music, while looking at lyrics, musical structure as well as lasting impact on the world and rock music.

• Perhaps we learn to play a song from each decade and perform at the end of a few weeks.
• Perhaps we create a digital story (exploring tech, film, and media) at the end of each decade.
• Perhaps we can share our work and learning on a blog and/or youtube channel
• Perhaps we create an iBook documenting the learning.

Or maybe we blend all three:

We discuss and learn about music from every decade, learn to play a few songs throughout the term, which we perform and document our learning through film, media and digital storytelling. Finally we consolidate all of it in an iBook helping us learn how to use iBook author software. 

Let me know if you have any suggestions below in the comments. Looking forward to seeing some of you next year!  

When I Grow Up

It is 5:36pm Saturday afternoon and I am sitting in the library at school watching the closing ceremony of Techlife 2013.  As per usually my mind, although feeling a bit sluggish and tired is racing: thoughts and ideas, roller coasters and dead-ends clamor about. Each striving for attention.

In front of me a young man, plays an electric piano, whilst whispering some of the most haunting and beautiful lyrics I have recently heard. I am shocked that he is only thirteen years old. As is often the case when I see talent like his stuffed into such an unripened, youthful soul, I am slightly jealous.

How is he able to do that? I couldn't do that when I was thirteen. I cannot do that now! Despite the fact that I would love nothing more than to write beautiful songs.

The sun is setting and the library is still and quiet expect for this voice. My mind drifts to vacant phrases like, "When I grow up I want to....."

I am reminded of Saiyuri's post about her dream job. I start to think about passion and love and art and life and growing up. Why do we allow kids to talk about what they will do when they "grow up?" Why don't we talk to kids about what they can do now? Why don't we find their passion and love and dreams and exploit their present? I think of all the skills that this young man, Chris Jones has learned about music and marketing and online branding and I wonder how many of these skills I am teaching.

Are you getting what we are trying to do? Do you understand that I am here to help you meet the you that is alive now. Can you see that I am trying to help you be relevant and heard today, not at some future time? You can be you now, you don't have to wait till you grow up. You just have to begin the exploration of yourself.

Soon, I start to think about a video I recently watched. Created by an online friend and fellow teacher:


Passionate Teachers from Paul Bogush on Vimeo.

We can all wait until we grow up to think about our lives or we can start fine tuning our talents and exploring our weaknesses so as to turn them into strengths, and start living our lives now.

I have done some research on Chris Jones and have been blown away by his work. This young man is not waiting till he grows up to live his life. He is doing it now.

How can we build schools to help you find where you need to be to be happy? How can I help you? What do we do if w don't know what we love? How do we find out? Would love to hear your thoughts on my thoughts. 

Birth of a Song

This story goes like this:

• On February 25, I shared a poem that Michelle wrote on her blog with my Intro to Guitar class. (I asked her first if it was okay)
• Two days later Bryan took the words, created a google doc, dressed them up in some chords and records this.

listen to ‘Lachrymose and weary’ on Audioboo

• A few days after that Nathan, shuffled the words and created this beautiful melody and recorded his version.

• This past Saturday, I went back to google doc, changed some chords and recorded my verse:

A few days later two more versions: and this one here: Another day? Another version. What do you think? Anything you can add? Give it a go? Play with the words? Get inspired?

make sure

Sunday night here. 11:08 pm. I am nearly blind and my mind is mush. I feel sorry for you, but more importantly I feel sorry for myself. I have been marking papers and writing report card comments for hours, days: all weekend. I am still nowhere close to being done. I am buried under an avalanche of school.

Stop it. Stop smiling. I see you. Shaking your head with glee. "Now he knows how we feel." Yes, I do know how you feel. I have been in your shoes remember, I knew how it felt then, and I know how it feels now! I do know that sometimes the hoops of school become so overbearing and evasive that jumping through them becomes what we do. We call it learning and slough our way through. One assignment, one assessment, one report card, one year at a time.

Sometimes, it is a good idea to just stop and breathe and remember why we are all here. This is not some chore that we are all meant to do for some future reward. This your education! And part mine too I suppose. You see it never ends. I know you are counting down till graduation day, I did too, but here I am again under the weight of school.

You want to know the secret to freeing ourselves? Love of learning. Reminding ourselves that we are all here-- alone and together to feed our minds and souls with knowledge and connections and skills and art and everything else that bring us joy. So your tests and exams and projects and assignments and my report card comments will one day end, and we will be left with something bigger. Better. We will be left with an alert and educated mind ready to take on the world. Or better yet at least one that might be able to understand itself.

Here is another way of saying it:

"If you're breathing you are living
If you're living you are learning
So write and write and keep on writing
Just make sure your life's exciting
Write and write and keep on writing
Just make sure your life's exciting
Write and write and keep on writing
Just make sure your life's exciting
Just make sure your life's exciting
Just make sure your life's exciting....

Talk to me. Commiserate with me.  What do you think? See you in the comments.

Learn to Play Guitar

Attention guitar players, or guitar player wanna-be's like me. My friend Bryan Jackson from Canada is teaching a beginning guitar class for his grade 11's--and being the amazing open educator that he is, he has invited anyone in the world to join their journey.

This class will give you a chance not only to improve your guitar skills, but it will also give you a chance to participate in an open online course. I have decided to give the class a go and see where it takes me. I will be a student too, so if you want to join me, please talk to me, and I will try and help guide you through the process. If you think you can get started on your own, then by all means jump in.

Meet Bryan

Here is what you need to know:

Class blog
Sign Up Form
First Assignment

Let me know if you have any questions. Here is my first assignment:

Not Once Did I Fold

I recently, like very recently-- yesterday, wrote a post about the kind of posts I tend to highlight and showcase in our classroom. You can read it here, if you missed it, but I wanted to use this post to continue to explore and reflect on the themes described there within. That post was aimed to draw out your thoughts on the student work I share with you, but here...now, I want to remind myself why it is I ask you all to write and share and connect.

There are many ways to write, share and connect. Perhaps, I led you to believe that confession or complete openness was the best or only way to use your blogs. I am here to tell you now, that full confessional is not always the best path. Sometimes a hint or an inference can go a long way. Sometimes, we shed light from within in ways that we normally do not. Sometimes we write with humor or music. Sometimes we draw or illustrate. Sometimes we share our love of food or sport or animals or friends or the way the wind bends trees and moves clouds. Sometimes we get silly. Sometimes we ponder and dive deep.

I thought that I would share a beautiful piece of life. Jam packed into sun rays, photography, film and music. Layered in banjo, voice and bass.  I hope you can see that by sharing this song, I am offering you more than a confessional text. I hope you can infer the meaning, significance and beauty of this work of art...

And these lines tell a truth
These city veins answer all we do
So could you keep me in the pulses
Could you keep me in the sound

I got wise and I got old
Not once, not once did I fold
So don't you now

(I recommend full screen and headphones) 

Blind Pilot :: 'New York' via @liveset from Blind Pilot on Vimeo.

Remember the point is expression not confession The point is connection not projection. What moves you? What will connect you to us? Anything you write is a part of you and will move us all one step closer. Would love to continue this conversation in the comments. What do you think about what I have said? The song? Art? Community?

You don't have to bare your soul, but would be nice to hear your thoughts, read your words, hear your voice. 

vedder

I have asked my mentor group to write about a person they admire as a way to begin thinking about the UWCSEA Learner Profile. Always aware that an assignment or task is only as a good as a teacher who is willing to do said assignment, I have decided to write along. Besides I never turn down an opportunity to write about Eddie Vedder.

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by Morgacito

I was a very angry young man you see. Filled with an unnameable rage, I lashed out at most nearly everyone I met. I tried, in my own way, to give voice to my hurt and my shame and my angst and my confusion. Everywhere I looked the world felt fake and contrived and I felt there was no place for me in it. Alone in my head-- I felt at home. Dealing with a bottled up voice-- screaming in the silence of empty rooms, I made my way. 

That is until I stopped screaming long enough to hear Vedder's voice echoing back at me.

He got it. He got me. I got it. I got him. There was a connection. His songs spoke to me in way I had never felt before. This was 1992. I was eighteen years old.

Lots of stories in between paragraphs. Maybe another time...

I grew up. He grew up. We grew up together. Pearl Jam still makes records, they still tour and they are still the voice I go to on the dark when I need a friend. They reason I admire Vedder is that he has not been stuck in the image he created of himself in his youth. He has not only been shaped by the world around him, but he has used his fame and his vocie to shape the world back.

A political dynamo, Vedder is committed to countless causes while staying true to his music. He is adaptable and resilient, and he has stayed true to his principles about art and music and the power they sway.

I admire that he has been self-aware enough to understand his changing role in not only the world of music, but the world as a whole. Never one to simply moan and complain, Vedder is a problem solver who gets things done. I can write for days, but that is a brief intro. Do yourself a favor, do some research, listen to some songs and get to know this man and this band.

Introducing Ben Harper

Now did you want to see me broken,
bowed head and lowered eyes,
shoulders fallen down like teardrops,
weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my confidence upset you?
Don’t you take it awful hard cause I walk,
like I’ve got a diamond mine breakin’ up in my front yard.

So you may shoot me with your words,
you may cut me with your eyes,
and I’ll rise – I’ll rise – I’ll rise – rise – rise.
Out of the shacks of history’s shame,
up from a past rooted in pain,
and I’ll rise – I’ll rise – I’ll rise – rise – rise

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by Iguana Jo 

I remember the day I first heard Ben Harper. It was sometime in the early nineties. I was young and falling in and out of love. I was on a porch in San Francisco, and the day before I had told my girlfriend at the time that I just wanted to be friends. She was due to come and talk. I wasn’t sure about what or why, but I had agreed. The sun was getting ready to set, and the fog waited in the Richmond to be unleashed.

I share this story with you, because as writers I think it is important to remember that all of our writing no matter how structured it may appear is anchored in real life experiences, and connecting to those memories is one of the most important aspects of writing. Back to the story…

She arrived. Broken. Smiling. I offered her something to drink. We sat on the porch. She had been crying. I have some songs to play for you she said. I have a new favorite artist she said. You will love him she said. I hated that she knew me so well. It made it harder to make the break. Before I knew it, I was hearing the basic three-chord progression of the song Walk Away by Ben Harper.

The words floated from the speakers and disappeared over the edge of the porch:

Oh no- here comes that sun again.
And (that) means another day without you my friend.
And it hurts me to look into the mirror at myself.
And it hurts even more to have to be with somebody else.
And it’s so hard to do and so easy to say.
But sometimes – sometimes,
you just have to walk away – walk away.

The connection I made to that song on that late afternoon was so strong that even as I type these words years later, I can feel the same tears welling up in my eyes. We sat listening to the entire album- Welcome To The Cruel World. The girl (Cortney) and I remained friends. I was just invited to her wedding this August. But it was the music that helped solidify that day in my memory.

My admiration and love of Ben Harper was born that day years ago, but his music has been a constant source of inspiration and comfort to me throughout the years.My wife and I  chose his song Forever as our wedding song, and whenever I am in need of honest, truthful, soulful, spiritual music it is to Harper I turn. He is a true artist in the sense that he is more than a musician. He is an activist, a father, and a beautiful human being. These characteristics shine through the words of his song and can be seen in his amazing live performances. I have been lucky enough to see Harper live on several occasions and each show is a carnival of soul, blues, rock and roll, and folk. He blends his political anthems with a tender grace reserved for vespers and lullabies.

cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by Un ragazzo chiamato Bi 

I am sharing Ben Harper with you because I want to show that musicians and artists need not be labeled. Harper is not a political artist; he is simply a human being aware of the state of the world; he is a man in touch with his spiritual need to bring peace to those he touches with his art. Whether through love or protest songs, he is a man of action and style.

He may not be on top forty lists, but Harper is a spokesman for members of a generation looking for something more than blind consumerism and greed. He stands for peace, love, and the assembling of the human family. I encourage you to explore his website and more importantly listen to his music. Watch him on Youtube or at his site see how his work connects with you.

Where to start? His website allows you to stream many of his songs. His album Fight For Your Mind is a also great place to start. As always there is his wikipedia page. Here are some song titles to explore:

Better Way
With My Own Two Hands
Oppression
Excuse Me Mr.

Let me know what you think! Write a post about how his music affects you.

Take your face out of your hands
And clear your eyes
You have a right to your dreams
And don’t be denied
I believe in a better way...