Photograph: Ernie Childhood Toy Spotted at the Museum of the Moving Image

I had this Ernie puppet toy growing up — it was manufactured by Topper Toys in 1972 — mine was a handme down from my older brother. I liked Ernie (better than Bert). Watching Sesame Street as a kid, Ernie was the lovable one while Bert was irascible and perennially annoyed. Ernie was definitely the better guy for me. The toy is made from rubber and polyester. What's the main idea? Toys influence a life. I felt a visceral response seeing this same toy in the Museum of the Moving Image @movingimagenyc.

PDF Copy for Printing

To Thine Ownself Be True

I'm not pensive. Usually. Read what I write. Comment. Rant. Share. But, whatever you do, remember to support teachers,  writers, and artists.

PDF Copy for Printing

Photograph: The Constellation Orion Hangs in the Late Autumn Nighttime Sky

"Hitch your wagon to a star."

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fall Night Sky 🌌 in Nassau County - The constellation Orion, named after the agile Greek hunter, is easily visible in the night sky. Look for him. Also, I’m happy this photograph came out so crisp and clean.

PDF Copy for Printing

Photograph: Looking Out the Window at Night

Windows. Side windows. Curtains. Basketball bounces define the streets of the city. Conversations. Night walking. Visions. Of Joanna.

PDF Copy for Printing

You Talk Too Much: On the Pleasures of Logorrhea

Wherein I expound on the pleasures and gains of excessive talking.

Is Silence Golden?

Common wisdom says silence is golden. I respect the virtue of a silent tongue. For example - silent meditation is divine. In the morning, I like to think in the quiet nil of the morning. However, there is also a perverse virtue in talking a lot. Talking relieves pressure and it helps the mind sort out ideas. Talking is enjoyable and it’s a salient way to test out new ideas and words (and stuff). I’m often told I talk too much (if you know me well, reading that last part will make you grin). I don’t think loose lips 👄 sink ships. I think talk should be loose. Otherwise how can you get closer to the truth? 

Let Talking Dance!

Talking lets you dance between binaries. Find value in common sense. I’d wither in a world of oppressive silence. Now. Don’t get me wrong. Quiet spaces are wonderful. Today all my kiddos were each reading books they’d chosen. Silently. But. Afterward, we were laughing and crying - sharing what we read! I’d be cheeky to say everything in moderation (because I think moderation is overrated). Go be loquacious. Don’t think about what you want to say. Free associate. But dip into the silence if you want to. But when there’s talking join the fray. It’ll boost societal health. Try it.

Random Fun Facts I Learned Today

1. Satan is an anagram for Santa.

2. Afghanistan is a land-locked country.

3. "-stan" means country in Persian.

4. The word "typewriter" can be written using only the top row keys of a QWERTY typewriter. 

5. China has city populations of millions-of-people-and-more than any other modern country.

6. The English word "goodbye" originally comes from "Go with God".

7. French fries are called "pomme frites" in France. Not French fries.

8. The Belgians are the first people to actually innovate on the fried potato.

9. The word "philosophy" derives from ancient Greek and it literally means "love of wisdom".

10. Braille can be found on the support columns of most New York City subway stations to help blind people read the names of stations.

11. People once thought that maggots spontaneously generated from rotten meat.

12. Quasars are the brightest and most distant objects in the known universe.

13. Dorothy in the original Wonderful Wizard of Oz books wears silver slippers (not ruby ones).

14. The capital of China is Beijing. If you translate the name of the city it literally means "North Capital".

15. Contrary to popular belief, an astronaut living inside the International Space Station won't be able to see the Great Wall of China from space. 

PDF Copy for Printing

Lesson Plan: Teaching New York City with the Musical "On the Town"

I created a fun, engaging lesson for Middle and High School students
inspired by the Broadway-turned-MGM-film-classic "Our Town."

    If you like New York City (it's where I happen to reside) and if you love musicals then you may know there is a famous musical produced in the 1940s about the Big Apple. On the Town is a fun day-in-the-life story of a trio of sailors who take a tour of the city and find love and hijinks. In 1949, MGM  made the Broadway hit into a movie.

    Inspired by the film and the song "New York," New York" I invited my students to plan a one-day itinerary to explore the Big Apple. The kids were surprised by how this old-school song is still humorous today. The lyrics are also fun: "The Bronx is up, and the Battery's down" and people "get around in a hole in the ground." I asked my students some trivia questions, too. Do you know where Grant's Tomb is located or do you know the best way to get to the Bowery?

    We then learned more about the history of New York City and then as an extended learning project created itineraries to explore the city on our own terms (in which I encouraged everyone to share their creations with their family and friends who may not know the city very well). 
    I created a lesson plan based on my classroom experience that is three days long, and I used it for my English Language Learners (ESL), but it also fits for a Humanities, English Language Arts, or Social Studies lesson.

My lesson plan includes the following features:

• 1 Lesson Planning Guide and Calendar
• 1 Cloze Passage Worksheet
• Lecture Notes for the Teacher
• 1 Guided Notetaking Organizer
• 6 Editable Google Slide Templates
• 2 Color NYC Landmarks Contact Sheets
• 1 NYC Itinerary Template
• 1 NYC Map Template
• 1 NYC Map Resource List
• List of New York City Regional Transit Maps (including the New York City Subway)
• *Google Classroom / App Friendly Resource*

Suggested Classroom Use:

• Unit on New York City History
• ESL Class for English Language Learners
• Middle School Humanities

For other resources using maps and geography check these out:

• Using Census Data to Explore Ethnic Diversity in New York City Neighborhoods
• Geography Awareness using a Blank World Map

Add my TpT store to your favorites so you can follow me on my journey. I offer original resources for teaching, writing, and all things arts and letters in the Middle and High School classroom.

Images: Paula Kim Studios

PDF Copy for Printing

Train Report: Riding the Lake Shore Limited from New York to Cleveland

The Amtrak Station in Cleveland is spartan by design.

Why Take an Amtrak Train?     

    Why take a train when even a car is faster? For me, train travel is the most relaxing way to travel even with possible delays and motion sickness. I like surrendering myself to the massive stretch of rails, freeing myself from the burden of having to operate a vehicle myself. Who wants to drive when I can cozy up with a book in my near-better-than-airline seat (preferably a window).

Riding the Lake Shore Limited

   My last journey took me from New York Pennsylvania Station in midtown Manhattan to the shores of Lake Erie where the city of Cleveland lies amidst the lake and the Cuyahoga River. I had to travel to Ohio for my mother — she’s having surgery at the Cleveland  Clinic. So I took family leave from school to be with her. I left New York on an early Sunday afternoon and arrived in Cleveland in the wee hours of the morning at 3:30 — before the sun had come up. It’s a long stretch — but for those going to the line’s terminus in Chicago, even longer. 

Arriving in Cleveland to See My Mom

   The train station in Cleveland sits between FirstEnergy Stadium and a line of tracks. Mostly freight. So it is not easy to walk to from downtown. It is close to the light rail Waterfront line at West Third Street. The building is utilitarian; there are bathrooms and when Amtrak trains are running there is a station attendant, and you can get automated latte from the coffee vending machine. When I arrived, several Mennonites were waiting for the eastbound train. I took a rest for a few minutes then took a Lyft to the hotel.

PDF Copy for Printing

Getting Ready For A New School Year (And Seeing Lots of Dog Walkers in Jackson Heights)

I love this photograph (even though I took it). If you look at the image carefully you may notice I used “tilt-shift”. By shifting focus and adding a blur effect, the images become “toy-like”. I’m gearing up for the new school year so I’ve spent time these past few weeks planning and creating lessons. I do have a TpT store  I mainly sell English, Humanities, and ESL lessons for middle and high school students - but my philosophy and ethics lessons are suitable for undergraduate and adult learners. I use pictures like the one I took (above) in my classroom - taken from “What’s Going On In This Picture?”, a learning experience from the New York Times, I get my students engaged in visual literacy. It’s amazing what you can do with ten minutes. Ask your students what’s going on in this picture? Zoom in. Go further. What details do you notice? What makes you say that? My ESL students build their vocabulary skills because we’ll label what we see using the picture word induction model. I’ll also make them create a caption. Google Docs or Slides are great for this type of project. I make a template with the picture inserted into the Doc or Slide and make a copy for every student (using Google Classroom). After we label the picture we build sentences and categorize the objects we’ve found. As an added activity, we predict what’s going to happen next. Or, for creative types, we write a short story. Let me know in the comments how you use pictures in your classroom to encourage thinking and writing.

PDF Copy for Printing

Reflection on Authority, Power, Gods, Teaching, Mothers, Sons, and Acceptance

Before you read: In this teacher's journal I do a quick reflection on my old friend who once told me he tells his students: "You may call me sir, or God."

"You may call me sir, or God."

I had an older teacher friend who said he would tell his students, "You may call me sir, or God." I thought it was funny. I get the either/or. Either you respect me or you respect me. You get it? Disregarding the tautology, all this talk about divine authority makes me think about my mother. I have been prone to talking to my mother on the phone a lot lately. She likes it because it is uncharacteristic of our relationship. We have gotten closer over the years but it has been the last few years that our mother/son relationship has gone to new levels. We are both adults and even though I am still her son we parlay at the level of related adults. You hear me? It is gratifying to reach that level of intimacy with a parent. Not that I let it all hang out. Mind you. I am civil. But I am more honest and less afraid of reprisal. When you are a kid you are rather incompetent compared to your parents who lord it over you. It is the way of the familial structure. But as you grow older you either do three things. You drift away. You stay at the level of infantile / parent  — where mom and dad are always in charge — or you coalesce into something new and different. So. This is why I am more open — and — I think why I am more confident in general. It probably helped that I came out to my mom a few years ago. That helped to even the playing field. And that openness has made me more pliable to the cascading nature of power. It comes in waves — and like a wave — it plunges you into the deep with a secret; but, once the secret is revealed the power of the secret is lost and I am able to be made new again. Do you see the connection? So that is the way of mortals — neither animals or gods. Something in between. But you may call me sir, or God.

PDF Copy for Printing

Teaching Eleven and Twelve Year Olds How to Conduct Online Research is Fun

Working Every Day With Kids

I'm a teacher. I don't have a classroom of seventy kids. My largest class has twenty-three students. I work at a small school. There is a lot of interaction between teachers and students and I'm often in the middle of things every day. Because of my schedule, I get to teach several different subjects to different age groups. I teach two different groups of Sixth graders once a week. We've had this schedule since September. 

Teaching Kids How to Research Online

I teach a class called Research. We do activities in the computer lab. I make them create customized Google Maps. We use Google Earth. For one lesson the kids created their own Encyclopedia Britannica online account. I teach them how to find good resources online. I make them take notes on Google Docs. I talk about Internet safety. Sometimes we play silly HTML games online. It's an easy class to teach because we’re doing stuff I like. Give me an encyclopedia or an atlas and I'm lost in it for hours. I'll forget to eat or take a shower. So I'm in my element twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. It's the closest I get to feeling like a librarian. Also, I get a kick out doing Internet-related stuff with kids. It's interesting finding out how much they know. Eleven and Twelve-year-olds are also really hilarious and curious. 

Creating Surveys to Teach Qualitative and Quantitative Questioning

Leveraging my students' insatiable curiosity, I made them create their own Google Forms. We did a unit on qualitative and quantitative questions. How many hours do you spend online? That's a quantitative question. How do you feel about going to the dentist? That’s a qualitative question. And I talked about the differences between open and close-ended questions. Using those two concepts we created surveys. A large percentage of the kids wrote survey questions about video gaming habits. Elliot wrote a survey collecting information about eating-out habits. And another kid named Amber wrote a survey that used Google Form’s redirect feature to make the survey different based on answers respondents gave to questions. It was the first time I had ever made kids make their own Google Form. So I was happy. Sending out the Forms to others took some work, though. Kids had fun emailing the persistent link to friends, teachers, and family - but, to be honest, the kids who had their parents post the link to other adults via social media garnered the most results. I was impressed that one savvy researcher amassed 70+ results. Most of us managed only to get twenty. But the goal of the lesson was in designing and creating the survey - not in its popularity. So I praised kids’ design efforts over popularity. 

Creating Google Forms With Students

If you want to do a similar lesson with kids keep these things in mind:

• The first question should be required:
• Set the Google Form to not collect respondents’ emails. And disable required Google login to take the survey.
• Turn off quiz mode. There are no right or wrong answers.
• Make a snazzy visual header.
• Brainstorm lots of ideas. Look up and model good examples.
• A survey on BBQ versus Hot Pot is a better survey than just FOOD.
• Use lots of relevant images!!!! 
• Divide your survey into sections.
• Use the grid question type in Google Forms.
• Make your kids use all the question-types.
• There is a difference between a checklist question and a multiple-choice question.
• Make your kids create at least one linear scale question.
• Don't make all questions open-ended.
• Have kids explain their questions. Not everyone understands what Fortnite and dap mean.

Other Things to Consider: 

Explain to your students that they're conducting research using qualitative and quantitative data and exploring general interests and preferences. They're not collecting personal information. Don't collect first and last names, addresses, emails, or birthdates with month, day, and year. 

If your school is not set up to use Google Apps don't worry. If kids are thirteen and older they can create their own Google accounts. If kids are under thirteen, they'll need parental permission to make a Google Account for kids. 

Proofread your kids’ work before allowing them to send it out to the world. Once you decide a survey meets your standards make the student draft a Researcher’s Letter and save it to Google Docs. That way they can be like real data scientists. 

An Example of Student Work

Dear Friends, Etc.,
I’ve created a qualitative and quantitative survey to represent students in Middle School and their favorite things (this survey only applies to students in 4th, 5th and 6th grade.). I’m conducting this research for a school project. I am not collecting personal information. Thank you for taking this survey!

Best Regards, Lilly Here is the URL:  https://forms.gle/43JVcWDe3rjPn9666

What Has Been Your Experience Teaching Kids Online Research Skills?
Thank you for reading my blog. I write a lot of stuff about different topics; so, I hope you enjoyed this one about using Google Apps in the classroom. Let me know in the comments if you've ever experimented with Google Forms in a classroom setting.

PDF Copy for Printing