shamash says...

The Joys of Being an English Teacher

It's Monday, and I took a personal day to correct this pile of high school English papers. You can tell I'm procrastinating because I'm blogging. The pile is not quite as tall as a pen standing on end, but taller than my coffee mug. There are many great things about being a teacher. Taking 12 hours on a personal day to correct papers is not one of them.

Brave, Fearless Drawing Machines

What do a labor arbitrator, a radio personality, a teacher, an epidemiologist, a registered nurse, an education specialist, a bat expert, a physiology professor, and a defense lawyer for the Dept of Justice all have in common?

This past week, I found out. And, in the process, realized that much of that which unites us as human beings has little to do with our professions, and much to do with what we long to do after-hours.

Coaching the Creative Process

  Creating art in any form requires showing up regularly at the dance floor, the easel, the musical instrument, the page. If we wait until inspiration strikes or an enlightening visit from our Muse, we’ll never finish our creative work.

Sometimes, we need friends and coaches to make sure that this happens.

Enter Alexa Mergen.

(photo by shamash, daily schedule by Alexa Mergen)

Bangkok EARCOS ETC 07

  Well, we’re all here at East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools EARCOS 2007 ETC:  the EARCOS teachers' conference where 1,700 of us in Bangkok, Thailand. Teachers at international schools from all over Asia have gathered to be inspired, share our ideas, and network. With keynote speakers such as Ian Jukes, Jean-Francois Rischard, and Dr. Mechai Viravaidya

I’ve truly been inspired!

(That’s me on stage, introducing one of the speakers.)

There are some great teacher blogs out there that are written by international teachers. Check out  Jeff Utecht's The Thinking Stick. He gave a fantastic presentation on how to get started with podcasts, which inspired me to get my kids to use podcasts for their upcoming poetry unit. Another one worth checking out is Doug Johnson's "The Blue Skunk Blog".

In Praise of the Bad Metaphor

Every year, English teachers from across the country can submit their collections of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays. These excerpts are published each year to the amusement of teachers across the country. Here are last year's winners.

Which one is YOUR favorite?

image via TechToons

Plagiarism: A Learned Behavior?

If you've been reading the news lately, you've probably seen the story of Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard sophomore who has admitted to plagiarizing portions of her book.  Terry has a post on it, as does Snarkaholic. I've also read with great interest Steven Sleigh's post about the role of the "book packager" in the publishing industry.

An article published earlier this month sheds light on the life of this teen. In it, she is quoted as saying,

"I was surrounded by the stereotype of high- pressure Asian and Indian families trying to get their children into Ivy League schools."

It is difficult for educators to teach the importance of honesty and integrity when the academic culture supports success at any cost.

How can teachers make a difference, when the All Mighty Grade is more important than originality? Should a teacher encourage the gifted artist to go to art school when the father will accept nothing but an MBA from MIT?

How do we teach our children that being true to themselves is more important than grades and that integrity is so much more important than laurels gathered under false pretenses?

Be the change you wish to see in the world

Photos by Zana and Avijit

Above my classroom whiteboard in colored letters, the quote “Be the change you wish to see in the world” by Gandhi spans the wall. The letters, cut out of construction paper, are six inches high, and laminated. Lately, though, I haven’t been thinking much about changing the world. I’ve been thinking about research papers, grading, my master's thesis, and the end-of-the-school-year wrap-up.

Not until last night, with the oppressive heat keeping so many of us in this country up until the wee hours of the night (and longing for the monsoon rains to begin), was I so deeply touched by a story that proved that living by this motto one can, indeed, make radical change possible. All it takes is a dream, a bit of integrity, compassion, and a deep love for all people. Photographer Zana Briski, director of Born into Brothels and founder of Kids with Cameras is my latest hero.

Daiquiris with David Greenberg

One of David T. Greenberg’s published books has sold over a quarter of a million copies. His father, Jack Greenberg, was one of the attorneys who argued Brown v. Board of Education before the United States Supreme Court. 

Add a few papaya daiquiris, a dollop of green tea leaf salad, and a splash of good advice on writing from someone who’s “been there”, mix together in the Monsoon, and presto! You’ve got the recipe for deliciously inspiring evening, or at the very least to answer to the question What Ever Happened to Humpty Dumpty?

Gratitude for Connections

Remember the birthday? Remember the 6,000th hit? Well, sometime last night, Shamash Says got its 20,000th page view. But the numbers aren't so important anymore. The bloggers are. The connections are.

Over at Lifestylism, Jeremy discusses the balanced life.

Over at The Voices from the Mountain, I get to keep up-to-date with LamaMamaJama, who just started her permaculture-building-family blog this week. (Welcome, sister!:-) Then, Expat accepted a new teaching position over at Expat Nomad, And best of all? Over at think:lab I discover that the writing of my students inspires someone else (other than me!) 10,000 miles away. (That post brought tears to my eyes!) And then, as always, there is the consistant, delicious marriage of visual imagery and insightful content over at Moon River.

So here's to connections, and to so many of you out there whom I've never met. Your writing has influenced my life.

Living a Balanced Life

The ancients such as Socrates believed that there was great value in following the creed “everything in moderation, nothing in excess”.

When is it time to say “enough is enough” at the job and take time to feed our souls with the things that sustain us?