Let There Be Light

Yes the holidays are upon us again.  This year is very different for me.  In years past I would not have even considered putting any Christmas lights up before Thanksgivinhg.  As is often the case in my life, when I have strong feelings and reactions at one time in my life, I get to experience the "other side" somewhere down the line.  That would be this year. I kid you not; Halloween had scarcely been gone one week, when I began to pine for colorful lights to shine at night brightening our ever-earlier darkness.  The odd thing is that my whole family felt this way - unheard of for each of us!  We made quick work of hanging lights, checking bulbs and setting the timer.  Now as the twilight approaches, lights magically appear chasing away the darkness.  Why might I write this for my literacy blog you may be asking yourself.  Good question. 

I liken illiteracy to darkness.  Each tiny step we take, or help someone else take toward literacy brings light to our lives; the ability to communicate our needs and our gifts with possibilities for ever-more growth.  As my classmates and I grow our writing skills, and our toolboxes for teaching both reading and writing, we carry the potential for bringing light to others - the very light that helps them grow further into their blossoming.  This may be the most significant thing we get to do.  The big idea for me - Let There be Light - and do everything that I can to support it whenever the spirit moves me!

"Data is Where All Subjects Connect!"

Wow!  What a gift!  Our math teacher showed up this great website this week that I definitely plan to use in my classroom some day.  I highly recommend that you take a moment and explore this page in particular.  Be fair warned that it takes a long moment to load, but it very worth the wait!  It is entitled The Wealth and Health of Nations.  There are 5 variables displayed in that graph. Five! They are the geographic region and specific countries, population size, life expectancy, income per person and a timeline.  Each of these data sets can be replaced by any other data set that they have listed there, or a data set of your own.  What an incredible way for us to look at our own stories through data.  With their desktop application, you can enter and graph your own data. Can you imagine all of the fabulous things that students can come up with to record and graph over the course of your year together? Very cool.

I also appreciated our teacher's take on the value of interpreting data for our future.  We all need to be able to do data analysis; interpret the information we get. We all need to be able to sort through questions.  Is the data qualitative or quantitative?  Does it represent measures of spread or measures of center, and how does that change our perceptions? She went on to talk about how sharing data has dramatically improved research using the Alzheimer's research "collaboratory" as a fabulous example.  My favorite quote of hers is the title of this post: "Data is where all subjects connect.  It is social and interdisciplinary."

Writing, writing, writing

What is the dang deal?!  Writing for me feels like such a labor.  I have really enjoyed reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.  She is emotionally dramatic and deft at writing about it.  It makes me laugh out loud!  My own problem with writing is that I am not sure that what I have to write about is all that interesting and worth the time to put it to paper.  Don't get me wrong.  I love, love, love to learn.  And I get very excited about many of the things I learn.  I really enjoy the interconnectedness of all the things I learn; the metaphors, large and small, that play out in my mind across disciplines.  It is the putting it to paper that feels like pulling teeth for me. I am just not sure that my meanderings are worth the time and effort.  Once in a while I appreciate a well-turned phrase that falls onto the page from my mind, but overall it feels like so much digging, so few pearls.  And all that work when there are so many other fabulous things to put my energies to.  There. I wrote it.  This is really hard for me.  Now I need to get on to writing some other reflections for other assignments.  Perhaps some more coffee, some feeding of the animals, a breath of fresh air, a snuggle and then some more writing . . .