Morning, sleepyheads. Time to shut down the Minecraft server, press pause on the anime, stop rolling your eyes ironically, text Your Highness to make sure she’s 1) up, and 2) practicing her incredible microwaving skills, and get to work!
Steps:
1. Find a place where you can focus and where you will not be interrupted.
2. Clear off your work space.
3. Prepare your materials: comp book, pencil, bravery.
4. Below is an illustration by Margaret Jones from The Mabinogion – you may remember from our work in Term One that this text is the basis of all early Welsh mythology. In those tales, Gwydion is very different from Lloyd Alexander’s hero – here, he is a villain!
Your job it to either zoom in on one aspect of this illustration and copy it in detail, or to try to do a rough sketch of the entire image.
When you are ready, press “Play” on the music link below: the superlative Claudio Abbado conducting the mind-boggling Lucerne Festival Orchestra in the Prelude to Wagner’s opera Lohengrin. Once the music starts, keep your pencil in motion until it stops (approx. 10 minutes). Don’t get hypnotized by the video – you can always go back and watch again after.
If you’d prefer a large version of the image, right-click (or control-click) here to open a new tab after you click “play” below.
You do not need to email me your drawing; I may ask you to hold it up during our morning check-in.
This illustration might also provide inspiration for various aspects of your The Black Cauldron work. How awesome is that swoop of the Milky Way?
Good morning, friends, and welcome to your first Do It at Home Index Card Drawing!
This is required work for all members of the Mental Asylum for Corrupted Children (MACC), and optional fun for parents, siblings, or any former students trolling this blog – if any of you feel like you might benefit from taking an extended moment to focus your mind and channel your creative impulse, please join in (and email me a photo of the final product!).
This is bound to feel a little strange at first, but I am confident that we’ll all find a rhythm with this – and who knows, you may even grow to love doing this within the comfort and (relative) privacy of your own home.
My advice: use this activity as we do in class – to focus and calm our minds and prepare ourselves for our work day. Try not to do this and then just go back to playing Minecraft; instead, use it as your external and internal cue to begin your at-home school schedule, in a certain frame of mind.
Read this entire entry before you begin, but try to not think about what you are going to draw before you start – like in class, try to read the prompt, start the music, and begin drawing, following your first impulse and doing your best to silence The Two Questions.
Steps:
1. Find a place where you can focus and where you will not be interrupted.
2. Clear off your work space – we create space on our desk (or whatever) so that we can create space in our minds.
3. Prepare your materials: comp book, pencil, bravery.
4. Draw an index card-sized frame in your comp book (unless you, incredibly, have a secret stash of index cards…) (Hey! I want those back, klepto!). Try to resist the impulse to use a ruler. Your choice as to landscape or portrait.
5. Picture someone around the same age as you, with the same hopes and fears and challenges, in this present moment in time, somewhere in the world. What message would you like to send to them?
Draw you, Ivan Brunetti-style, sending that message to them, Ivan Brunetti-style. How you communicate with them is entirely up to you – it could be literal or abstract.
Rules:
Faces visible.
Whole bodies.
Be brave.
Keep your pencil in motion until the song ends (7 minutes), then stop.
Press “play” to hear this so-good-it-will-blow-your-mind song by Stevie Wonder.
Put the date on the outside of the frame, take a clear picture, and email it to me. Resist the impulse to perfect (used as a verb) the image before you send it; it is perfect (used as an adjective) just the way it is. You are not being judged on your artistic abilities, only on your willingness to fully engage in this activity.
(You won’t be sending me every index card – only sometimes.)
Now go look up Stevie Wonder. See you in the class meeting!
PS: all credit goes to the one and only Lynda Barry for creating this Morning Index Card Drawing structure.
The results (you can hover over an image to pause the slideshow):
You do not need to read the article (but can if you so wish); instead, when you are ready, click on “Listen.”
I’d like you to focus in particular on the section from around the 6-minute mark to the end, but please do also listen to the beginning. In today’s world, last week is old news, but it does help the stage for the reset of the interview.
While you listen, from the 6-min. mark on, take notes in your comp book of images and ideas that stand out to you (you can write or write and draw); however, when Dr. Maskalyk leads the audience through the breathing exercise, put down your pen/pencil and join in.
Afterwards, either on your own or with your family, if they joined in, discuss and/or make notes about what stood out for you. How might you use these ideas in your own life? What difference might it make? Can you make any connections to Richard Wagamese or other previous learning?
Then, use “Leave a Reply” to leave at least one idea of when what you just heard might be useful/helpful. Try to be specific. You can build off of others’ ideas if you like. Remember to use your class name in the Name field (if parents post ideas, they can perhaps use “Mr. [your child’s class name]” or “Mrs. [your child’s class name]”)
Please complete this by Monday morning. Bring your ideas to share in next week’s class meetings!
Okay, so here we are in this next strange phase of human existence. If you’re anything like me, you have been bouncing around through all kinds of emotions and thoughts, ranging from “Ahhhhh…. nothing to do…” to “AAAHHHH!!!! NOTHING TO DO!!!!!” And if you’re anything like me you’ve found profound relief in the simple distractive pleasures of Survivor (and Top Chef! And Next in Fashion!) (don’t judge) and you’ve maybe discovered the deep satisfaction that comes with getting home, washing your hands, and disinfecting all door knobs, faucets, and light switches and then exhaling. How strange that this has become, for now, the way we live.
Another day I will tell you the story of my epic two-week hunt for spray disinfectant and the story of the time I knocked over a bowl of marinating chicken in my fridge, spilling raw chicken juice over all the groceries I had just wiped down half an hour before, but in the meanwhile, let’s get to what I know is the burning question in your minds: what is school going to look like? (Actually, that is more likely a barely simmering question – “How late can I sleep in tomorrow?” and “How many more hours of _______ [fill in the blank with preferred game or anime channel] can I get away with before I get yelled at?” are probably the burning questions…)
The short answer to the question about school is: TBA.
A virtue that will be demanded of all of us over the next few weeks is patience. Things will roll out slowly. We might end up trying one format and then discovering that another works better. This will not and cannot be a replacement for the in-person classroom learning we are all used to. You may feel like you are getting less (or more!) that you want. There will be mistakes. But we will make those mistakes together, and we will help each other through.
Some things that, unfortunately, we will have to let go of for the time being:
Dungeons and Dragons. I am so sorry about this – I know many of you were super jazzed about becoming immersed in this great group storytelling game, and I was very excited to witness your discovery of its pleasures, but given our present circumstances, I just don’t see how it will work. If there are any tech-savvy DMs out there who want to explore the possibilities of platforms like roll20.net or other virtual tabletop tools, I’d be happy to try to support your discoveries. In the meanwhile, if you have grown intrigued by the game and want to have the distraction of watching some experts of the game at work, you can invest in the 1000s of hours of the hit show Critical Role (made up of voice-over actors you are sure to recognize from gaming and from animated series – seasons 1 and 2 are posted on YouTube – warning: there is quite a bit of swearing in that show, so if you are going there, please check in with your parents first), or check out Relics and Rarities with the amazing DM Deborah Ann Woll or anything with Chris Perkins or Jeremy Crawford.
Lit Circles. Again, due to present circumstances, getting copies of books to people is just not possible. I will, however, at a later date, post a list of the books that were going to be options for Lit Circles – if something on the list strikes your fancy and you are able to secure a copy, feel free to read for pleasure! Or, contact me and I can give you some ideas of how to conduct an independent novel study for extra credit. Or if a group of you is interested in a particular book and are able to find e-copies or hard copies, I would be happy to help facilitate on-line book clubs.
Mini-Brain-ing. I am open to suggestions, but at the moment I am not sure how to continue with class government from afar.
3-Square and Giant 6-Rectangle. There are no words to describe this loss. (Hmmm… would any geniuses out there be able to code a version similar to this??)
Pointing out Prof. Great Brain’s myriad mistakes – oh, wait, that is definitely possible, and the steep learning curve I am on exploring on-line learning tools will provide you with ample opportunities. What are we at now? Mistake 21,433 or thereabouts?
Some things that will for sure continue:
Our amazing graphic novel adaptation of The Black Cauldron – my intention is to send a copy of our final product to Lynda Barry as a thank you, so get those hands in good shape. More on this soon, but for now continue with practicing your characters, objects, and places every day. Reread the section of the project outline that related to the Creation phase we are about to embark on. If you do not have a way to get in touch with your partner, please contact me and I will hook you up.
Science inquiry projects. Again, more on this later, but we will continue with check-ins around your research and work toward making Mind Maps of the results.
First Nations studies. We will continue to explore the writing of Richard Wagamese, focusing on deepening our understanding of the items on our vocab list and seeking personal relevance in the material – as previously discussed, we are working toward a visual representation of that relevance; note-taking (from Term 2 and moving forward) is key, so that you have a lot of ideas to work with.
Daily Diary (open to parents, siblings, and former students who are trolling this blog, too!)
Index card drawings (also open to parents, siblings, and former students)
Morning Check-Ins
Crossword puzzles
Silent reading
Math – see Terror Level chart above
Survivor! I hope you have been keeping up to date and taking notes. Your first assignment starts… now! Go here and open the Second Pick doc. Note the deadline of next Wednesday, April 8. Do keep track of your notes of what you learned about social politics from each episode – once we get our on-line learning platforms up and running, we will begin sharing those ideas. Please be careful of spoiling friends: always start any Survivor conversation with, “Are you caught up?”
Please note that all of the above is subject to change as we explore our on-line learning tools and get a sense of the daily flow of learning – things may be added and/or dropped.
Finally, can each of you please email me with your preferred email address? Some notes on email etiquette (learned in the School of Hard Knocks, AKA emails from past students):
When writing to anyone whom you would use “Vous” in addressing, always begin with some form of salutation (“Hello Prof. Great Brain,” or “Dear Grandma”).
Offer a friendly opening (along the line of “I hope this finds you well” or “I just wanted to check in about _______”)
Avoid text-style abbreviations – those are great for texting, but not really appropriate for emails unless with close friends.
If you are requesting help, try to express gratitude and don’t make it sound like a demand that you are entitled to make.
Include a sign-off (“Yours truly,” “Sincerely,” “Best wishes,” “See you soon,” etc.) and include your name (ahem the REAL Maya ahem).
If your initial email leads to a message thread, it is okay to gradually drop these formalities, but always err on the side of politeness, especially at first. For certain people – for example, if you were writing to Mr. Kanno – you would always follow the above format, regardless of the length of the email chain.
If you are writing about something you are angry or upset about, always wait at least 6-24 hours before sending. Reread with a calmer mind and ask, “Do I need to send this?” If yes, edit for tone: an angry or accusatory tone will only get the other person’s back up and make them defensive, and little or nothing will be accomplished – and/or you will suffer from Sender’s Regret when you think back on the email in a neutral state of mind.
You’ll receive more info from me shortly, either through your parents or the blog. Get in the habit of checking the blog every morning for updates and/or activities. If you want to get ahead of the game (and maybe become my Tech Support!), start exploring on-line tutorials about how to use the tools available within Teams in Office 365 – that will be our first stop in exploring our new way of working together.
Finally, amidst all the emotions I am managing now, mourning is a strong one. As you know, underneath my crusty “No Talking in the Hallways!” exterior is a big softy (don’t let that out to the grade 5s, yet, please!), and I am missing you all terribly. I am confident, though, that we will find ways of feeling connected. In the meanwhile, remember your civic duty to help contain the Covid-19 virus: hand-washing like a boss, strategies to avoid touching your face, coughing in appropriate places, physical distancing from those outside your family bubble. Remember that your parents’ lives are really complicated right now – do what you can to ease their burden (this includes things like resisting the urge to torture your siblings). Think about who you know who might benefit from a text, an email, or a phone call. Reach out to your grandparents and other elderly relatives who might be feeling profoundly isolated. Bring your best self to this period of time. Remember to breathe. Spend as much time as you can outside and pay attention to nature – I’ve been hitting the Lynn Canyon and Seymour River trails every day since we last saw each other and it is a great tool in perspective-taking: there is new green emerging, the robins have come back, and the river keeps on flowing. In times like these, it is important to remember that life continues. We are strong and we will get through this – we will do it together.
And finally-finally, just when I thought I couldn’t admire Judy Woodruff more:
Check out the reaction at the 3:13 mark, and then her simple but explicit words of support to Yamiche Alcindor. What might this look like in your own life?
I have emailed Ms. Woodruff to let her know about our “Shields and Brooks!” thank you tradition, and sent her a photo of our class agreement, noting Meow’s suggested addition after our exploration of Jim Lehrer’s “Rules of Journalism” (“Do nothing you cannot defend”). I am not expecting a reply any time soon, given how crazy things are in the world right now, but if and when it comes, I will be sure to share it.
To recap: the roll out of learning will happen in pieces, read the Survivor criteria carefully, send me your preferred email, actively do your part as a member of your family community, and check the blog each morning.
More soon,
Prof. G. B.
Vocab: generally speaking, an introvert is someone who recharges by spending time alone, an extrovert is someone who recharges through social interaction with others, and a Type-A personality likes to run the show (and win the show). Perhaps think, during Silent Blocks do you lose yourself in a book and get surprised when time is up (introvert), need reminders to do your activity silently and independently (extrovert), or organize your desk, color-code your notes, and then get a jump-start on work block and think about how great it would be if everyone did the same but hopefully to a slightly lesser degree than you (Type-A)?
Right now I am definitely the Optimist Introvert type, being forced through necessity into adopting a Type A Extrovert attitude. What quarantine type are you? Use “Leave a Reply” below to post your answer – class names only, please! Let’s get the ball rolling!
On that main page, if you scroll down a teeny bit, you’ll see the “Full Episodes” section. Please note that episodes are usually posted on Thursday mornings and get locked after one week – so you must watch that week’s episode before the following Wednesday.
I have redone the graphic organizer according to the new tribes, to spare your poor little fingers a lot of page turning (“How did Prof. Great Brain get to be so kind? Is there no limit to his generosity??”) (answers: by watching Sesame Street and no) (or rather, not yet – growth mindset!). You can download the new g/o here: Survivor Observations Graphic Organizer season 40 after tribe swap
Note that the graphic organizer is on 11″ by 17″ paper – if you cannot print that out at home, you can type into the doc and print it out at school, or create a quick table in your comp book and transfer your notes once we are back in school.
After each episode, please take an extended moment to think and take notes on the following: what was the learning here? What might that look like in my life? Think back to some of our previous discussions – the dangers of trying to control others or playing both sides of the fence, Danni’s getting paranoid that everyone was talking about her when they weren’t and a simple conversation could have cleared things up, the power of simply standing with someone who is struggling, etc.
2. Go outside. Pay attention to nature. What are the lessons?
3. Get together with friends. Arrange to go to someone’s house or to go for a hike or to the park. Go for a walk with your friends. If you are unable to do this in person, please arrange for video chats. As a last resort, spend time on the same server and play some games. But remember the common thread going through so much of what we have learned this year: connection. Connect.
Maybe Do’s (not required, but can help set you up for success for Term Three):
1. Practice sketching the characters, objects, and places that appear in your chapters of The Black Cauldron. Have your hand ready to go when we meet again. Remember that our goal is to funnel the character guidelines through your imagination, not to copy from book covers or Disney images.
2. Practice printing the alphabet slowly, letter by letter, aiming for precision and legibility, so that you are ready to add text to your panels.
3. Practice drawing lines that bisect a page, then again in half, and again and again until you can’t fit another line in. Try to do each line in one bold stroke.
4. Check in with the NewsHour or other options from our media list. Stay on top of international developments.
Open source access to the Players Handbook can be found here: 5e Players Handbook
(It may take a couple of minutes for the above pdf to load.)
There are also many, many, many videos to explore on YouTube. Aim for a general understanding rather than expertise, unless you can’t help it!
Do’s If You Have Nothing Else to Do and Feel Like You’re Going Stir Crazy (totally not required):
1. Find more writing and videos by and about Richard Wagamese.
2. Read graphic novels and notice techniques for panel construction, page lay-outs, and transitions that you like.
3. Lie out on your roof (with your parents’ permission!) or go on a blanket on the grass and spend time under the night sky, contemplating your place in the Universe.
4. Find cool resources for your Science research.
5. Do your Daily Diary so that you have an archive of this strange stretch of human history for future reference.
6. Put on a 3-4 minute song and do an index card drawing in your comp book.
1. If your family decides to travel over the break, please be mindful of the Provincial Health Guidelines: as of this writing, the government says that if you travel outside of Canada, it is recommended that you and your family self-isolate for two weeks upon your return. If you know that this will apply to you and your family, please be in touch.
2. Let’s acknowledge the strangeness of these times. I appreciate that we are all managing our own sense of uncertainty and maybe also some anxiety and fear. Remember to stay grounded in facts, and remember to try to allow these kinds of crises to move you toward compassion and empathy and away from clannishness and paranoia. Keep reaching out to others. Beware of obsessive news-checking. Double-check your sources. Keep the elders in your life at the front of your mind. Do the things we know help keep us safe, but if you find yourself getting scared or ruminative, reach out to someone else and let them know how you’re feeling. Pay attention to those around you: who might benefit from you being Natalie, Amber, and Danni to their Ethan?
And finally, 3. At some point over the break, maybe when you are feeling scared or down, check this out:
There is a new position opening up in the Capitol Hill MACC 6/7 program: the MACC Mini-Brain.
The Mini-Brain is a job similar to “class president.” The role of the Mini-Brain is to be the teacher when Prof. Great Brain isn’t in the room or when he doesn’t feel like being the teacher. The Mini-Brain is to Prof. Great Brain as Robin is to Batman. The Mini-Brain is a natural leader, fair and kind, and helps shape policies that affect the lives of the students of Division 3.
(Full disclosure: this idea was stolen directly – and then adapted – from the incomparable Ms. Cowan, founder of the Cap Hill MACC Pack.)
Job Description
Duties:
Forms government of choice
Leads the creation of our Class Agreement
Holds bi-weekly Town Hall meetings to share policy decisions and hear the concerns of constituents
Records attendance
Leads students to the gym and Music and sends people to start again if they are talking while in the halls
Helps Prof. Great Brain make decisions, such as:
– what activities to do for D.P.A.
– when to take breaks
– what movies to watch for the end of term celebrations
– how much milk and sugar to put in his coffee (remember: we are only capable of 7-8 truly thoughtful decisions a day)
– things he doesn’t want to think about
Controls the class jobs basket
Helps classmates solve minor conflicts
Holds the tie-breaking vote in the case of a tie in class votes
Reminds people to do their jobs
Welcomes guests to the room and helps make TOCs’ lives bearable
Politely corrects Prof. Great Brain’s spelling errors (and French pronunciation, if so able)
Sighs wearily at the P.A. system when there are too many announcements
Other duties as they arise
Mandatory Skills/Assets – some combination of the following:
Trust-worthy
Optimistic
Prepared
Open-minded
Responsible
Positive
Confident
Helpful
Respectful
Experienced
Wise
Eco-friendly
Understanding
Efficient
Caring
Fun
Polite
Empathetic
Amusing
Professional
Encouraging
Righteous
Purposeful
Economically Responsible
Loyal
Patient
Brave
Committed
Charismatic
Peaceful
Honorable
Ambitious
Grateful
Good-natured
Generous
Forward-thinking
Factual
Inspirational
Mature
Powerful Speaker
Proud
Principled
Straight Forward
Honest
Relatable
Welcomes Diversity
Smart
Fair
Supportive
Nice
Passionate
Hello, Leaders of Tomorrow. Welcome to your first campaign.
For a combination of Social Studies, Career Education, Writing, Math, ADST, and Art, you will each create a project to determine the first MACC Mini-Brain!
Remember that letter and package from President Obama that we explored? For the campaign for the MACC Mini-Brain project, you will each create your own version of that document. It will contain:
A persuasive essay, explaining why you should be the first MACC Mini-Brain. In this essay, you will try to win our votes by explain how and why you best fit the Mini-Brain job description. On Campaign Day, you will deliver this speech to the class.
A campaign poster, done on 8.5 x 11 paper or cardstock. This can be a self-portrait, like the photo of President Obama that was in the package we explored, or a catchy and meaningful visual with a catchy and persuasive slogan; or some combination of those two representations.
Creative choice: remember the bios of the two Obama dogs? What would you use on this third page to humanize yourself, grab our hearts, and tell us more about your values?
A written interview, in which you answer the same questions that President Obama answered, with the idea of being truthful and showing your personality, but also trying to win our votes.
Remember: there is no one way of being an effective leader, and there are not leaders and non-leaders; leadership potential exists inside us all, and there are an infinity variety of ways of expressing it—what’s yours?
Parents, grandparents, and junior cooks of Division 3, I know I speak for our entire class when I offer up a big, whole-hearted THANK YOU for the sacrifice of time and resources that led to our having an AMAZING Thanksgiving feast this past Friday. I was blown away by the generosity represented at the table, and also by the incredible cooking skills evidenced in the to-a-dish delicious offerings. Thank you, thank you – and then once again, thank you. It’s three days later and I am still full…
All hands were on deck during the set-up: while the Microwave Crew braved the strangeness of being a student in the Staff Room, everyone else was involved in making the room pretty. There was lots of inventive napkin folding and some very precise measuring of our tablecloth, which was given a very satisfying roll-out from one end of the table to other – exactly. Because Math.
In the torturous half-hour before eating, each student introduced their dish, letting us know the main ingredients and why the dish was important to their family.
And then the great chow-down began!
In our break between main and dessert courses, it seemed appropriate to offer some spontaneous thankfulness.
Prev
Next
Once again, families: we are in awe of your culinary prowess and your generosity of time and spirit. From the bottoms of our hearts: Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub!
It seems almost impossible to believe that the summer break is almost over and that we will soon be stepping onto the conveyor belt of the 2019-20 school year. One of my goals is to try to bring some of the calmness and expanse of August into our classroom – we’ll see how long that lasts (probably until the first unlucky loud student passes by the doors of Room 105…).
One of my obsessions this summer has been this (click the Play symbol, then click “watch on youtube”):
The Lucerne Festival Orchestra was known as the best pick-up band in the world: the musicians came together just for the festival each year, handpicked by the conductor, Claudio Abbado, from the best orchestras and ensembles in Europe (as well as some of the world’s best soloists, like clarinetist Sabine Meyer and flutist Emmanuel Pahud), brought together by a love of the music and a love of this particular maestro.
From what I’ve read, Abbado’s vocal instructions to the orchestra during rehearsals consisted almost entirely of one word: “Listen.” To each other, to the music, to the space between the notes – “listen.”
That is something I am going to be encouraging you all to do this year: to listen. To each other, to yourselves, to the silence between things. This will require a certain mindset, one that we spent a lot of time exploring last year and that we will explore again in the months to come. Grade 7s, remember Lynda Barry’s advice regarding attracting images – that it requires the same sense of calm friendliness one would use when faced with a shy forest animal that you wanted to encourage to come closer.
If you watch the Abbado video, you will see evidence of that mindset and you will see the deep listening that is happening, both on the podium and in the orchestra. Notice he doesn’t use a score. Practice + relaxation + openness is what we are after, and real, active listening is the clearest and surest path there.
For those who have the time and are so inclined, go for it: watch the whole thing. (And if you want to go deeper into your understanding of what Mahler was intending, take a look here.)
For those of you who are not so inclined or are too busy working on your 15,788th hour of Super Smash Bros., please do watch the first opening minutes so you can see what I am referring to above, and so you can also see the wonderful sense of Abbado as Prospero, the sorcerer of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, casting his spell over the ocean of those strings. And then skip to the very end (about 1:24:45) and watch how the musicians relate to each other after the performance – the joy and friendliness and pleasure they take in each other and what they have accomplished. Wouldn’t it be amazing if our class ended like that? Every day? Another goal…
As you put the finishing touches on your speeches (I know that is what you all are doing right now; of course no one is out sledding or snowball fighting or winter wonderland walking; and of course no one is just sitting there playing video games or scrolling through their Instagram feed…), a few things to keep in mind.
This is not an exercise is seeing who is the best speech writer or who is the best public speaker; it is an exercise in communication. As a reminder, here were the thoughts you generated about communication after watching some political speeches and those TED Talks by kids:
Prev
Next
I also want to cast your minds back to 5000 years ago when we did our first exercises in descriptive writing. Remember that time when you each received a laurel leaf that looked like every other laurel leaf, and you had two minutes to study it and then find it again when they were all collected and mixed up?
And then you sat and wrote about your leaf for what seemed like an eternity, and then we mixed up the leaves and the comp books and people had to match the leaf to the writing, just through the power and precision of your description?
And then you wrote what you considered was your best sentence on the board?
And then, just when you thought you were done with having to do the seemingly impossible, you were asked to do it all over again, this time with sunflowers?
And then (what’s with all the “And” sentence onsets? Who does this guy think he is, Philip Pullman?? Yeesh…), while you sent your Seeker to find the sunflower that another pod had written about, everyone else made the checklist of descriptive details, so that you could be extra sure you had chosen the right one?
Prev
Next
And then you did the whole “writing your best sentence on the board” thing again?
Prev
Next
Well, if you’ve forgotten, let this post serve as your external hard drive.
One thing I was impressed with, looking back, was the change from your leaf sentences, which were mostly factual, to your sunflower sentences, which were more figurative. I wonder if there is room for a nice metaphor or simile in your speech, if you are taking time today for a Final Artist Moment…
But the main point of this post is to remind you to take your own advice regarding effective communication: don’t yell, don’t wear too much make-up, and whatever you do, please don’t yodel (unless it’s for effect); but do vary your word choice and your sentence lengths (for effect, not just randomly!), don’t be afraid to be personal, and remember that double-box around “relatable.”
Your speech is your gift to us. Sharing it is an act of generosity. We are excited to hear what you have to say.
Red leather, yellow leather. And three points in the Interconnectivity Contest for each person who comes in with a sentence containing a good metaphor or simile for snow (or Snow Day!).
