Monday Photos ~ The Power of Imagination

IMAGINATION

"Live out of your imagination, not your history." -- Stephen R. Covey

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." -- Albert Einstein

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." -- Mark Twain

"This world is but a canvas to our imaginations." -- Henry David Thoreau

***You all have the ability to add your name to the list of people who change the world for the better. Do you see it like I do? Do you have the Big Dream?

Now......do you have the Big Do.....in order to Do Big?

Be Big my young friends....it all starts in your imagination.

Making History in the Present

History DOES NOT have to be a boring list of facts and dates. MAKE IT COME ALIVE by making it applicable to your life, right now, in the present. I find this especially easy to do with historical people. These are people who lived their lives fully, overcame great obstacles, and made a difference in the world.

And the historical pattern will show, that usually the greater the obstacles a person overcame in their lives, the greater they became by it.


Overcome your obstacles today. Be strong! Seek them out! Attack your problems versus letting them attack you.

LEARN FROM and become INSPIRED BY the past!

1. What does this quote mean to you? (KNOWLEDGE-COMPREHENSION-APPLICATION)
2. How can you apply this meaning to your own life, and MAKE HISTORY - TODAY? (APPLICATION-ANALYSIS-SYNTHESIS)


"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightening."

- Frederick Douglass
(1817-1895)

Happy Labor of Love Day

We are here for a reason, probably many reasons. And the less I think the more I feel, and the more I feel the more I know....

And I know more than ever that we are all here to make our countries and our worlds a better place for our children through our labor....

We ARE NOT here to labor away eeking out a living, to labor away seeking love and approval from others before seeking it first from ourselves, or to labor away pursuing the disappearing power of titles and salaries, all to prove to ourselves we are important and all of our laboring away hasn't been in vain....

That is no way to live, and our egos only serve to wear ourselves away, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.....

And I know our children hold the answers. I can see it in their smiling faces, feel it in their energy, hear it in their laughter, and LOVE it in their love. They unconsciously know the things we've forgotten as we've grown up and grown disenfranchised, often as a result of being taught how to forget this, by those who have forgotten themselves....

We've forgotten how to play. We've forgotten that we best learn in a spirit of fun, curiosity, wonderment and discovery....

We've forgotten that all lasting abundance comes from a deep sense of inner joy....

....And that pursuing this inner joy allows our labors to be labors of love, and our efforts to become effortless as they are driven from within, coming out of us in a flow, and unforced as we freely develop our inner gifts, in a fun and natural way....

And from this deep inner inspiration, we become truly unstoppable, and our labors produces our gifts of creation out onto the world....

Today is Labor Day in America, just one country among many. Let today be a labor of love in this ONE country, connecting with that inner source so much that it spreads out over and among the rest of the countries in our ONE world.

Happy Labor of Love Day. May we all find ourselves laboring in what we love to do, what we would do for free, and perhaps being so good at it that we're repaid in all kinds of abundance.

And THANK YOU to all the children of the world, who remind us of what work should be and could be. You are our angels and warriors. Let us protect you in your childlike innocence, and learn from your natural brilliance.

WOW! Maja's Contest

You have a BIG fan! Maja is so inspired by you guys already that she contacted me about putting her money where your capabilities are. I haven't decided what the conditions are, but from the prizes she's offering it makes sense to tie it to reading.

1st prize ~ A full set of Harry Potter, including the newest book!!! (No small prize)

2nd prize ~ A full set of C.S. Lewis (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, etc.)

3rd prize ~ I haven't decided, but this prize will go the the most improved reader, not the reader with the most books read! I think that is super fair!!!

MATH in NATURE

Are you able to find the line of symmetry in this picture? Math is in nature. Go outside - Be a kid! Take a walk with your family or friends and find as many examples of math in nature as you can.

It's dark outside? Search the internet for pictures like the one I came across while writing a poem on nature. Here are some ideas:

arrays, lines of symmetry, shapes, angles

Work Hard ~ Play Hard

Taylor, Florencia and Katie doing well enough on their in-class reading assignment to take time off and play a little Spanish air guitar to the music of The Gipsy Kings (I got to play just because I'm the teacher - and, well, I need to have fun too).






Shaquan knocking down walls that held him back only one day before.











Chad doing the same.









Katie doing the same.

100% of the class is caught up in their reading!!!!!!!!!




This is proof to me that you CAN change your life in 24 hours. In school all you have to do is go to bed smarter than you were when you woke up. This also applies to being stronger, happier, healthier, wealthier (whatever your goal is).

It IS possible. It IS being done. As children and adults we incorrectly learn this change has to happen in big ways, all at once, and tend to give up when it doesn't.



Big shots are just little shots who kept on firing.

FIRE & FUN,
IT CAN BE DONE!







The heroes of room 208 are doing it in just the first seven days of school. Let's grab hold of their courage and do it too as adults; seven days from now being much more than we are today!


You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
Jack London
(1876-1916)

How Should Knowledge Be Taught?

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.


Plato
(427 BC-347 BC)

Practice Laughter and Love

I came across these pictures while looking for some to include with the "Winners Learn to Like Themselves Through Practice" post I was doing on my students' web page.

All three of these girls are among the best in the nation, and perhaps the world, in at least one area. After seeing the pictures of this "Dream Team", Three Musketeers, Tres Amigos, etc.......three words began to sound off in my head as to how they got this way:

"Practice", "Laughter" and "Love."

While pouring a cup of coffee with this chanting still in my head, I realized this was the reason for their remarkable success. As I drank to this epiphany, the words began changing order. They went from:





PRACTICE











LAUGHTER







LOVE








to






LOVE PRACTICE











PRACTICE LOVE






LOVE LAUGHTER




and when things don't work out




PRACTICE LAUGHTER






LAUGH LOVINGLY








LOVINGLY PRACTICE


*and just rinse and repeat as necessary, UNTIL the desired results are reached. This simple formula works whether you're a child or adult, between children and adults, children, and adults.


And most importantly, it works with ourselves. We are humans "being". This takes practice. Nature has evolved through 4.6 billion years of practice. It must have laughed at some of the things it's created. And it certainly must have loved so many of the beautiful things it's loved and laughed into existence through practice.

We, "(wo)man", are universal babies, barely 3.6 million years old. We owe it to ourselves to never give up on who we are, and who we are capable of becoming.

We are all so much more than we give ourselves credit for. What race, sex, religion, nationality we are and income we have has nothing to do with our capabilities. I've personally seen this (or maybe personally seen to it) happen in every type of classroom among every type of student.

So let's practice laughter and love with each other, and most importantly, with ourselves. Our evolution requires it. We don't evolve through hate or victimization. We grow through practice, or struggle. And there's no better way to do this than with the water of laughter and the sunshine of love.

Impossible growth IS possible, miraculous results ARE achievable, and the human species making the world a better place IS attainable.

WE CAN DO IT!
WE ARE DOING IT!

"...You are here....Life exists...Let the powerful play go on that you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?"
- from Dead Poets Society (you can see Robin Williams' photo in the LAUGHTER and PRACTICE pictures, which he signed, "To Mr. Stuart's class, DREAM BIG!", using a photo from the movie. I'd say he is contributing a GREAT verse to our play. Thank you, Robin!