Playing for Change.

This I believe

If you stand in the cradle of a Sunwapta pass between Banff and Jasper National Parks in the Canadian Rockies, you’ll see the clean cleft of earth rising from the mountain floor below, where the cars look as small as the smallest ants.  The mountain face before you rises up as a solitary rock into the sky as far above as it is below.  Large ridges rise along that clean rock face.  Like scratches across its skin, they declare the path it took as it rose in ancient years past out from mother earth.  It takes your breath away.  Looking past the mountain face before you, you see the mountain face is not alone, that same rock, that same cleft of earth defines the face of the entire mountain range as far as you can see.  In your mind, you see the mountain range traveling down the entire continent into the United States and beyond to the very tip of South America.  The force of that movement boggles the imagination.  All at once, your body feels light, immaterial, insignificant.  Somehow small as you are, you are reassured that you are part of all this, all creation.  You don’t have words for it, but perhaps you know that you are stardust and all is well.

I believe in the power of nature the restore the soul.

I believe the very atoms of our body commune in the most mysterious way with every other atom in the universe.

I believe we are all connected as sentient beings.

I believe in learning and that in every experience in life, a lesson is offered.

I believe that every life has a purpose and that purpose is often revealed in time layer by layer as one ages, matures and comes into one’s own.

I am blessed.

There is so much more I believe, but for now this will suffice.  I know I will return to this again.

As a result of this, I have attempted to give the blog some shape by classifying and tagging my posts. I have also been looking through my interests for a unifying passion. My hope was that by finding it, I would be able to generate enough discipline to stay focused.

Now I know myself well enough to state unequivocally that my interests are stubbornly broad. They span a large range of educational, scientific and global topics. It is a reasonable expectation that these fields will change substantially as educational reform, scientific progress and global change accelerates. That understanding put me in a bit of a quandary trying to come up with an theme that could be sustained over time.

I had begun to realize that I need to define my audience. I asked myself, “Who am I writing for and why am I writing.” It sounds all so simple and obvious doesn’t it? Yet for me, the simple and obvious was obscured by the flood of ideas on the Internet and the pleasure of responding in the moment.

The epiphany came after I was invited to talk to a group of lateral entry teacher-candidates. That invitation stirred my mind into a frenzy of questions and ideas.

1. What do I hope to leave behind for future generations?
   
2. What would I tell these young teachers about my love of teaching?… in the context of the realities posed by working in a public school?
3. How does one find what is essential to the heart and soul of a teacher’s practice? …and how are they preserved in a highly-regulated, regimented and scrutinized environment?

Ahhhh…it is within these questions focused for that particular audience that lies a fountain of ideas for a lifetime of blogging.

And so it is, let the blogging begin!

1. Aint Gonna Hold Us Back (D-I-G-I-T-A-L): Inspiring girls to pursue careers in technology.
Download Video: Posted by interwrite at TeacherTube.com.

2. Water Buffalo Movie: Inspiring all of us to take simple actions that can make a profound difference.

3. Will.I.Am’s Yes We Can: A call to hope and change

4. Global Run: One middle school’s approach to global action.

Stay inspired!