tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-209556882024-03-07T14:58:34.342-04:00whatsnewUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger244125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-42316562346275323962012-01-31T10:46:00.000-04:002012-01-31T10:47:16.110-04:0050 good questions you need to think about - NOW!1. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?<br />2. Which is worse, failing or never trying?<br />3. If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?<br />4. When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?<br />5. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?<br />6. If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?<br />7. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?<br />8. If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?<br />9. To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken?<br />10. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?<br />11. You’re having lunch with three people you respect and admire. They all start criticizing a close friend of yours, not knowing she is your friend. The criticism is distasteful and unjustified. What do you do?<br />12. If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be?<br />13. Would you break the law to save a loved one?<br />14. Have you ever seen insanity where you later saw creativity?<br />15. What’s something you know you do differently than most people?<br />16. How come the things that make you happy don’t make everyone happy?<br />17. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? What’s holding you back?<br />18. Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?<br />19. If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why?<br />20. Do you push the elevator button more than once? Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster?<br />21. Would you rather be a worried genius or a joyful simpleton?<br />22. Why are you, you?<br />23. Have you been the kind of friend you want as a friend?<br />24. Which is worse, when a good friend moves away, or losing touch with a good friend who lives right near you?<br />25. What are you most grateful for?<br />26. Would you rather lose all of your old memories, or never be able to make new ones?<br />27. Is is possible to know the truth without challenging it first?<br />28. Has your greatest fear ever come true?<br />29. Do you remember that time 5 years ago when you were extremely upset? Does it really matter now?<br />30. What is your happiest childhood memory? What makes it so special?<br />31. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?<br />32. If not now, then when?<br />33. If you haven’t achieved it yet, what do you have to lose?<br />34. Have you ever been with someone, said nothing, and walked away feeling like you just had the best conversation ever?<br />35. Why do religions that support love cause so many wars?<br />36. Is it possible to know, without a doubt, what is good and what is evil?<br />37. If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your job?<br />38. Would you rather have less work to do, or more work you actually enjoy doing?<br />39. Do you feel like you’ve lived this day a hundred times before?<br />40. When was the last time you marched into the dark with only the soft glow of an idea you strongly believed in?<br />41. If you knew that everyone you know was going to die tomorrow, who would you visit today?<br />42. Would you be willing to reduce your life expectancy by 10 years to become extremely attractive or famous?<br />43. What is the difference between being alive and truly living?<br />44. When is it time to stop calculating risk and rewards, and just go ahead and do what you know is right?<br />45. If we learn from our mistakes, why are we always so afraid to make a mistake?<br />46. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?<br />47. When was the last time you noticed the sound of your own breathing?<br />48. What do you love? Have any of your recent actions openly expressed this love?<br />49. In 5 years from now, will you remember what you did yesterday? What about the day before that? Or the day before that?<br />50. Decisions are being made right now. The question is: Are you making them for yourself, or are you letting others make them for you?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-44643944521953904772011-12-03T01:09:00.003-04:002011-12-03T01:13:18.813-04:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB6ibrlJ2UaFgiCIFcKRsDw1ODklGjVkcX-0jEdezkOSLEt_J9ZybUfcqppGOWJ3PBov-1zj60cO4V7WuW1gV4oN0BTAiUWmdcavTGr2IgCoTgA4b25IoPvabgHjEq0pyHetDdUQ/s1600/workflow1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 237px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB6ibrlJ2UaFgiCIFcKRsDw1ODklGjVkcX-0jEdezkOSLEt_J9ZybUfcqppGOWJ3PBov-1zj60cO4V7WuW1gV4oN0BTAiUWmdcavTGr2IgCoTgA4b25IoPvabgHjEq0pyHetDdUQ/s320/workflow1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5681765814283836338" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOfqqXauhqWFzfKVdkSpSanFXjur4dZmp2ubJpGz2LO2w_dgukHiYb7u_vte1vEjEtWo3H4NOFe43G4FMW-aj4AYEWWO7T4tHeb7PxtEZXodTz_a6yRZFyt5-CN4IWvw-yJUQs1Q/s1600/ten+steps.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOfqqXauhqWFzfKVdkSpSanFXjur4dZmp2ubJpGz2LO2w_dgukHiYb7u_vte1vEjEtWo3H4NOFe43G4FMW-aj4AYEWWO7T4tHeb7PxtEZXodTz_a6yRZFyt5-CN4IWvw-yJUQs1Q/s320/ten+steps.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5681765513240859138" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3VLuCv_Qz0dihGIwZPukXN9X6ll9xmV0HrsPd-IxBMdLRPnPVLb8eEf97CIEmQ4f-vLH7HjIMY8cEaOHmRMUF2ROpm2dHdejWb2iX9fMqmDruLZLKLqnirVXd7lT7ymR57VkfQ/s1600/insecurity.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3VLuCv_Qz0dihGIwZPukXN9X6ll9xmV0HrsPd-IxBMdLRPnPVLb8eEf97CIEmQ4f-vLH7HjIMY8cEaOHmRMUF2ROpm2dHdejWb2iX9fMqmDruLZLKLqnirVXd7lT7ymR57VkfQ/s320/insecurity.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5681765288862045314" /></a><br />Where good ideas come from<br />by<br />Robert L. Fielding<br />What is a good idea? We might start by looking how the words, ‘good’ and ‘idea’ can be used and are defined. Since the word ‘good’ is a sort of catch-all word with as many meanings as it attaches itself to as an adjective, we might be well-advised to look at the list of synonyms that appear most appropriate as an adjective to describe an idea. Here is a list of synonyms for ‘good’.<br />commonsense, commonsensible,commonsensical, firm, hard, informed, just,<br />justified,levelheaded, logical, rational, reasonable, reasoned,sensible, sober, solid, valid, well-founded<br /><br />However, few, if any of those words conjure up the notion of creative. In fact, most synonyms of the word ‘good’ relate to qualities of things, rather than thoughts.<br /><br />Let’s try a word like ‘creative’ and see what we get: clever, imaginative, ingenious, innovational,innovative, innovatory, inventive, original, originative,Promethean<br />gifted, inspired, talented; resourceful; fecund, fertile, fruitful, generative, germinal, productive<br /><br />Now, these words seem more appropriate when describing a ‘good idea’. They conjure up the essence of all that is good about a ‘good idea’, particularly in the context of this discussion.<br />Now for the word ‘idea’, defined as: <br />Something, such as a thought or conception, that potentially or actually exists in the mind as a product of mental activity.<br /><br />I also want to introduce the adjective ‘new’ so that the ‘good idea’ in the title, ‘Where good ideas come from, refers to good ideas that are new ones, original ones, new, perhaps not in any real absolute sense, but rather meant to refer to those ideas that are good ones and are new and original to the person thinking them, and then outlining them.<br /><br />This outlining is essential for my purpose; good ideas that never make the light of day remain day-dreams, untried, untested, unverified, undefended and unexplained. Those ‘good ideas’ I want to discuss the origins of are those that do make the light of day, as we say, that are tried and tested, verified, defended and explained, and survive the onslaught of doubt, and are still thought of as ‘good ideas’.<br /><br />In fact, we might go so far as to say that such good ideas are ones which effect some alternative preferable to those that have gone before. It does seem commonsense to talk about those ideas that change something for the better.<br /><br />Thus, originality in thought seems to be synonymous with creativity: ‘Creativity can be defined as the process of generating something that makes a difference. It is about doing something or making something that in some way changes the world or changes how someone experiences it.’<br />http://www.purposivedrift.net/archives/000011.html<br /><br />It can occur in any sphere of human activity. Often it is quite spontaneous, a natural reaction to an event or circumstances when a creative response is almost accidental in nature. More interestingly it can also be a deliberate form of action, a process that can be learnt, a process that can be nurtured. (ibid)<br /><br />So, having a good idea can be something like a ‘light-bulb/Eureka moment, which occurs as quick as a flash, or it can be the product of a way of thinking – of orienting oneself to events, things, people, circumstances or dilemmas, for example.<br /><br />It is this second, more deliberate way of coming up with good ideas that interests me. The Eureka moments – flashes of inspiration, are valuable, but I don’t think we have time to sit around and wait for them to happen. Rather, it might be more productive to look at the ways we can be creative on a regular basis rather than relying on something like lightning to strike.<br /><br />A good starting point would be to say that in order to be creative, a person needs to have certain qualities: <br />*A creative person: <br /><br /> Is curious<br />Curiosity is the starting point in the process of coming up with ideas. You have to be curious, to wonder if something could be changed, to give enough thought to whatever it is you think could benefit from change.<br /> Is flexible<br />Flexibility is another vital quality for anyone who has new ideas. Having a mind opposed to flexibility – rigidity – would inhibit the production of anything new.<br /><br /> Connects ideas<br />The writer, E.M. Forster famously once said, “Only connect”, and although he was probably talking about what writers do, it is good advice for anyone wanting to be innovative. Connecting things that are not normally thought capable of being connected is the hallmark of the creative mind.<br /> Accepts disorder<br />Disorder can be threatening to some people, and seen as an opportunity to others. Putting some different kind of order to what looks chaotic is again a creative exercise.<br /> Is unorthodox<br />Unorthodox situations, solutions, or answers point to a creative mind. Some find unorthodox ideas threatening, out of the question, as they say, or just ridiculous. Creative people are not so threatened by unorthodox thoughts. On the contrary, they revel in them. <br /> Enjoys experimenting<br />Experimenting is something akin to daydreaming – saying ‘What if…? Testing out experiments brings the ideas underpinning them to fruition of finality.<br /> Is open to new experiences<br />Being conservative in thought word and deed usually signals that someone is not open to new experiences – finds them threatening and unpleasant. Those who are open to new experiences probably have a much more optimistic outlook on life and enjoy life much more too.<br /> Has the courage to take risks<br />Taking risks always requires some courage. It is in overcoming the threat risk taking poses that we find confidence to take more risks; not with abandon, but with a rational calculation of the odds of being successful. <br /> Enjoys humor and playfulness<br />It is in our play and in humour that we find our real selves, escape, however momentarily, from the day to day, often stultifying routines that mark our days. Humour and play are antidotes to the boredom of routine, and they are terrific stress relievers too.<br /> Sees similarities and differences<br />Our ability to see similarities in things, in people, goes a long way towards ensuring that we do not become cynical or prejudiced. Seeing the differences allows us to see gaps in our intuition.<br /> Is independent and self-reliant<br />There is nothing like being self-reliant and independent of thought to free a person from the chains that bind. With such freedom, comes freedom to ponder, freedom to enquire, and freedom to experiment.<br /> Is persistent and goal-directed<br />10% inspiration and 90% perspiration is the ratio of effort needed to see an idea though to its conclusion. The inspiration comes first, the perspiration ensures fulfillment.<br /> Questions accepted ways of doing things<br />Questioning accepted ways of doing things is something that is generally frowned upon, from the time we first ask, “Why?” to our having the confidence and the sense to question whether something is good just because it has always been done that way. However, novelty for the sake of it can be less than valuable too. <br /> Is confident<br />Having confidence generally equates with a personality that can cope with criticism and be resilient to it. Any new idea will always meet with some resistance, initially; having the confidence to be forthright and persistent pays off.<br /> Isn’t scared of being wrong<br />One thing experts like Sir Ken Robinson, the noted British educationalist, says is that if you are not prepared to be wrong, you will most probably never come up with anything new. He adds that although being wrong is not the same as being creative, not being frightened of it bodes well for anybody’s creative aspirations. <br /> Is open minded<br />Being open minded is synonymous with finding others’ thoughts and ideas acceptable. If a new idea is someone else’s, it doesn’t mean it should be ridiculed or banished. Having a closed mind is one of the ways to dying a death, whilst the opposite is to assert one is alive and a member of the human race – an active member.<br /> Is intuitive<br />Some people get a ‘feeling’ that something will work or turn out right, and although in tuition needs other qualities like logic and creativity to bear fruit, it is nevertheless a spring-board from which to start.<br /> Is adventurous<br />An adventurous nature goes with youth; not only the young can be youthful. Youthfulness is as much a state of mind as it is of the calendar. Loving adventure is living life at full speed; recklessness is not the same, however.<br /> Is willing to accept others’ ideas<br />It is in accepting others’ ideas that we find friends, colleagues who become friends, or those who are merely interested in the same things we are. Competition is fine, but collaboration is more productive. <br /> Is unwilling to accept ideas just because they are older<br />Accepting the ‘status-quo’ is something we all have to do to get by, for most of the time, but a healthy doubt that everything that is habitual is fine is integral to having productive thoughts. Everything that is older, however, isn’t necessarily always in need of being changed.<br /> Isn’t merely fascinated by novelty<br />Novelty, when it does not serve a purpose is called fashion. A fashion is merely a wish for novelty for its own sake. Being fascinated by novelty is not as useful as being intrigued by it. <br /> Is interested in the modern and the new<br />Since we live in this new age of technical innovation, we should be interested in it. If we are not, it might mean that we find it threatening. Challenging head on the things we find threatening renders them non-threatening, and in some cases welcome.<br /> Is tenacious<br />Tenacity is persistence added to determination; good ideas need to be worked on and through if they are to become anything more than dreams. Dreams are fine, but without some direction and application, they rarely see the light of day. Good ideas are dreams that are realized! <br />*My list added to by Fisher R, (2005) page 75<br /><br />If you rarely have new ideas, and almost never have new ones that turn out to be good ones, you might do well to take another look at the qualities of those who do have them. If you score low on most of those, then you might need to change in some way or other.<br /><br />Now, nearly everybody has some resistance to change built in to their persona. If we did not, we wouldn’t be the people we are, and if most of us were any other way than how we are, the world would not turn as effortlessly as it usually and happily does.<br /><br />Change, if it is to be effected, is best to be incremental and purposeful, rather than radical and chaotic. If you can change some aspects of your life without losing control or tiring yourself out, without losing your bearings in life, then change, when it comes will be welcome. No one wants to be ‘cast adrift in an open boat on a choppy sea, so to speak.<br />-00000-<br />So much for the popular, psychological-philosophical drift. Next comes the practical side of the getting of good ideas. First, it has been said that in order to have a good idea, you need to have lots of ideas, and having lots of ideas is something that can be worked upon and developed.<br /><br />The early stages of producing lots of ideas begins, for me, with making connections, associations, so that when I think of one word, ten more come out of the filing cabinet that is my brain. Similarly, if I can’t think of the name of something, I think of something that I have closely associated with it and the word comes out soon afterwards.<br /><br />You might say that’s fine and dandy for me, but your brain doesn’t work like that, to which I say, make it work like that – get those synapses crackling – forge new neural networks by associating, by seeing similarities in seemingly otherwise disparate items. I do, all the time, and it is something I work on regularly and often.<br /><br />I do crosswords – not just the harder, cryptic ones, but also the easier ones, asking for synonyms and the like. When doing these, easier types, I set myself rules that make me work harder to solve them. I will only try solving clues in which I have the first letter in place, for example.<br /><br />When thinking something through, I sleep on it, if there is time, and invariably come up with something innovative and new the day after. I do not thrash about half the night worrying. To me, worrying is the counter-productive part of wondering; worrying is putting a value on something that hasn’t happened yet and then willing it to happen merely by making yourself miserable about what will happen if it doesn’t.<br /><br />The Eastern philosophies have plenty to say about such things, whereas the Western ones tend to look at ideas and such in ways that are more logical. I think the saying, ‘East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet!’ stems from this seemingly very great difference in our respective ways of looking at ourselves and our ways of thinking, and what thought actually is, come to think of it. <br /><br />Whether you hail from the Orient or the Occident, you are just as likely to be able to come up with ideas; the ability isn’t cast in granite; the human mind is adaptable to practically anything. <br /><br /> Connect – not only those things that everybody else connects, but try to find originality in your connecting. One way of doing this is to do those little games in children’s comics – those little exercises in which one letter is changed to make a new word, and so on until the last, given words is reached. My take on this is to see how many people come between me and someone well known – the six degrees of separation they say exists between everyone and everyone else.<br /><br />I think there is something similar between things too. See how many steps it takes you to get from OXYGEN to PAPER or from OXYGEN to JOHN LENNON.<br /><br />These are not just idiotic mind games, though that is precisely what they are, and no harm in that, but ways of exercising that which we sometimes prefer not to exercise – the mind! By exercising the mind, you will find ideas flow. My way of capturing them for potential posterity is to write about them – give them a life, show them to others, have them discussed, even discarded sometimes – most of the time actually, but that doesn’t matter much to me; I don’t own them, I just have them, they are not mine, and, I know I’ll have many, many more. That’s the beauty of having ideas, you see; more ideas lead to more ideas, the source never dries up – I won’t let it! <br /> <br /> Links<br /><br />Here are some links to sites on ways to come up with ideas.<br /><br />Blog<br />http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2007/03/11/one-simple-way-to-get-a-good-idea/<br /><br />Mind Tools<br />http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCT_88.htm<br /><br />Talk – On getting creative ideas – Murray Gell-Mann<br />http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1181750045682633998<br /><br />Ten steps to boost your creativity<br />http://www.jpb.com/creative/creative.php<br /><br />Getting creative things done: How to fit hard thinking into a busy schedule<br />http://the99percent.com/tips/6956/Getting-Creative-Things-Done-How-To-Fit-Hard-<br /><br />Thinking-Into-a-Busy-Schedule<br />Brainstorming ideas to help you think outside the box – a compendium<br />http://www.forensicsciencetechnician.org/100-online-brainstorming-tools-to-help-you-think-outside-the-box/<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Robert L. Fielding</span><br /><br />References<br />Fisher R (2005) Teaching children to learn Nelson Thornes Cheltenham UKUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-85797160550859513012011-09-27T07:59:00.003-04:002011-09-27T08:01:40.695-04:00Who's that?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DR_Whm4eTtnlet0cqQGF1538XlVpsaDKWstB20u_jyP2YjOD1FiMmXg3gxme374e2KZwkyPd1rhe5CNz2G1yMdCmuWoe4wntyxUQmK6t_YUAR4DLVzsc-4S4Q0l4e16SmhFrAg/s1600/318331_10150349702863666_669028665_8054153_1932820917_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 152px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3DR_Whm4eTtnlet0cqQGF1538XlVpsaDKWstB20u_jyP2YjOD1FiMmXg3gxme374e2KZwkyPd1rhe5CNz2G1yMdCmuWoe4wntyxUQmK6t_YUAR4DLVzsc-4S4Q0l4e16SmhFrAg/s320/318331_10150349702863666_669028665_8054153_1932820917_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657008274346043106" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxw7jSiElBrHVjJTi14ILpOOOLm8LY3ZExRzLA-HqzbeiCkBBhO-KIVwV96wT6l2KemESInCvTFu6NprOAVkHLyFjdKI3yGKLDbAZvhg_igLhIeAL2Sfdt4jemZF8CZFfJy1YWjw/s1600/225253_10150212992008666_669028665_7034177_4358751_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxw7jSiElBrHVjJTi14ILpOOOLm8LY3ZExRzLA-HqzbeiCkBBhO-KIVwV96wT6l2KemESInCvTFu6NprOAVkHLyFjdKI3yGKLDbAZvhg_igLhIeAL2Sfdt4jemZF8CZFfJy1YWjw/s320/225253_10150212992008666_669028665_7034177_4358751_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5657008161491111650" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-38018911418201156002011-08-25T11:09:00.005-04:002011-08-25T11:11:22.369-04:00Biodiversity - what is it - where to find out about it!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQA3dOw98XYTqHu5wenK6fePV5yGwRf4aAxCxmGyn4dO8vNHTmukBI9K5abaC4WDqtZqJ7dykzD1gStg5x6zW465vnmbICZ2C_ykTco3fSyoAVysk5Cv5YFgI28HkQfekTR72RWA/s1600/desertification-sahara_36874_1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 163px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQA3dOw98XYTqHu5wenK6fePV5yGwRf4aAxCxmGyn4dO8vNHTmukBI9K5abaC4WDqtZqJ7dykzD1gStg5x6zW465vnmbICZ2C_ykTco3fSyoAVysk5Cv5YFgI28HkQfekTR72RWA/s320/desertification-sahara_36874_1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644811264517546418" /></a>
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaoM3K8Me-jEUzzppLE1AOYnypVCAfLbiIAH4P1limf-F3VQP2MsrofHbycYva67eJh6_NZVNnJwH_xQflQKNBPrKPOj7W2qvuSnS3ubzjtmE9hjWlrc5RGqT54OYRa6eYQUe8sA/s1600/pliocene-bryozoan_38060_1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 163px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaoM3K8Me-jEUzzppLE1AOYnypVCAfLbiIAH4P1limf-F3VQP2MsrofHbycYva67eJh6_NZVNnJwH_xQflQKNBPrKPOj7W2qvuSnS3ubzjtmE9hjWlrc5RGqT54OYRa6eYQUe8sA/s320/pliocene-bryozoan_38060_1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644811204348592898" /></a>
<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYpw8AYcu1UXRDSQncIYaiDMVBQjownp1wTqPzV9NP3myVKmOzKhrsSeLNTE1nSx6KWN4fIdQJtoH-G3O9UMAzDC0eRbmH4GHG_yZfjnL9H0CAWdExcHDtncmdQWB9TrePyYbUMQ/s1600/dragonflies-changing-species-490_35561_1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 163px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYpw8AYcu1UXRDSQncIYaiDMVBQjownp1wTqPzV9NP3myVKmOzKhrsSeLNTE1nSx6KWN4fIdQJtoH-G3O9UMAzDC0eRbmH4GHG_yZfjnL9H0CAWdExcHDtncmdQWB9TrePyYbUMQ/s320/dragonflies-changing-species-490_35561_1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644811147311492226" /></a>
<br />Biodiversity page
<br />What is biodiversity?
<br />Find the answer here - http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/biodiversity/
<br />Write the answer in your own words here
<br />
<br />
<br />What threatens biodiversity?
<br />Find the answer here - http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/biodiversity/what-is-threatening-biodiversity/index.html
<br />Write some notes here –
<br />_____________________________________________________________________________________
<br />Have we got a problem?
<br />Find the answer here - http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/biodiversity/biodiversity-crisis/index.html
<br />Write some notes here-
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Robert L. Fielding
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-90388065011696769332011-06-27T02:17:00.002-04:002011-06-27T02:19:24.573-04:00Family photos<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicCp7Y6vEhku-NflJ6mP2JZIlc2tbBQAKuMWADbJwJuKK20Ip3dLn1h3dW7Q4y6uNkQKWOReLGiY2HJX02c9qtwba_Ar4sl4RgCt0E7cYqtd3XkO7KBt149GRFypnaO5iBHOcsWw/s1600/264305_10150243289628666_669028665_7269234_4843220_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 231px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicCp7Y6vEhku-NflJ6mP2JZIlc2tbBQAKuMWADbJwJuKK20Ip3dLn1h3dW7Q4y6uNkQKWOReLGiY2HJX02c9qtwba_Ar4sl4RgCt0E7cYqtd3XkO7KBt149GRFypnaO5iBHOcsWw/s320/264305_10150243289628666_669028665_7269234_4843220_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622780222685741058" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKqebUrmv990iqTif1LH9S1HP1uuzIDhRAlHBCW6GxFx0_blhdCgYwMBseQz47haku9sl56eO0g7l0pk1s_o_dOs8plG4v0iGvOCQKuIhcWVEzI1k3ecJUob7OUHIZFP-1sfprJw/s1600/225889_10150212989543666_669028665_7034165_2725593_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 260px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKqebUrmv990iqTif1LH9S1HP1uuzIDhRAlHBCW6GxFx0_blhdCgYwMBseQz47haku9sl56eO0g7l0pk1s_o_dOs8plG4v0iGvOCQKuIhcWVEzI1k3ecJUob7OUHIZFP-1sfprJw/s320/225889_10150212989543666_669028665_7034165_2725593_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622780074114363106" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWLfjjnZAu2G_6Hc4zUNs0veLw2zkOqjCZGcehpxQNeqgbjiu3EczUdCrqjN6Fb4qc25LcNCWauBhZj4urK9htGYxgwXq1S4stf2TXy7zxiNwQqCeN2rlQSTlInwsLvdc4ZzrscQ/s1600/224323_10150213262038666_669028665_7035412_2275771_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWLfjjnZAu2G_6Hc4zUNs0veLw2zkOqjCZGcehpxQNeqgbjiu3EczUdCrqjN6Fb4qc25LcNCWauBhZj4urK9htGYxgwXq1S4stf2TXy7zxiNwQqCeN2rlQSTlInwsLvdc4ZzrscQ/s320/224323_10150213262038666_669028665_7035412_2275771_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5622779982691679906" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-21873844833035882902011-06-19T00:18:00.005-04:002011-06-19T00:20:27.770-04:00Fieldings and Leslies<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeq_s2-cDyid9s4QE7cO3LDM4UPG6FTsi7-aPT5k3OwSxSBkf31LrfNgkURnS5PqPWBmvt0-F4lpJF1oQHt0sLy228kJokdGfXF6ZYrPnbF7kHm6KPggyReZFvwyhy2wLKILtwog/s1600/261962_10150243283658666_669028665_7269194_6600497_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeq_s2-cDyid9s4QE7cO3LDM4UPG6FTsi7-aPT5k3OwSxSBkf31LrfNgkURnS5PqPWBmvt0-F4lpJF1oQHt0sLy228kJokdGfXF6ZYrPnbF7kHm6KPggyReZFvwyhy2wLKILtwog/s320/261962_10150243283658666_669028665_7269194_6600497_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619780937950554658" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdWi-QGE1lSOAMrisuw7LO7hA0HPyYxiTeS9dG-W-NSMbHWlmi9PxMRuIjWRYMYZGTxVExPWG0LdJ119UuOWzVJu38WDUPiCGtBMNpGgbP9RfW6YfIMg6srZWpOu6d1MYroIrrBw/s1600/264305_10150243289628666_669028665_7269234_4843220_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 231px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdWi-QGE1lSOAMrisuw7LO7hA0HPyYxiTeS9dG-W-NSMbHWlmi9PxMRuIjWRYMYZGTxVExPWG0LdJ119UuOWzVJu38WDUPiCGtBMNpGgbP9RfW6YfIMg6srZWpOu6d1MYroIrrBw/s320/264305_10150243289628666_669028665_7269234_4843220_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619780860136951794" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQcic4bbSjq-9v-b1XMWiyVZ2dzRkmlrWgB6OqtouZW0den73j-mG3raqnIYLVo4xklB5WZYTUoth7t16hpWBek9s8UqOPa-CCxvkndPSKl82CHi0y6EppY5Wbh76BUfyYBQUlWA/s1600/264488_10150243288513666_669028665_7269225_5537579_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQcic4bbSjq-9v-b1XMWiyVZ2dzRkmlrWgB6OqtouZW0den73j-mG3raqnIYLVo4xklB5WZYTUoth7t16hpWBek9s8UqOPa-CCxvkndPSKl82CHi0y6EppY5Wbh76BUfyYBQUlWA/s320/264488_10150243288513666_669028665_7269225_5537579_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619780743360161506" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3zKgYj55PFPoMEUWwrgt6G6Sl6loU1ErOu8UPxxHZ7HOnGSUF6IX7AD2RgfY6k73RwvdK4lLvtK47ojikE3sA8Tyg5AgaCZhDesvCj4a6p742AFsldvYKzxmxACNQ2VwATM54sA/s1600/263813_10150243290123666_669028665_7269238_6509893_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 211px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3zKgYj55PFPoMEUWwrgt6G6Sl6loU1ErOu8UPxxHZ7HOnGSUF6IX7AD2RgfY6k73RwvdK4lLvtK47ojikE3sA8Tyg5AgaCZhDesvCj4a6p742AFsldvYKzxmxACNQ2VwATM54sA/s320/263813_10150243290123666_669028665_7269238_6509893_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619780662565711554" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-33293461285098582362011-06-17T23:08:00.003-04:002011-06-17T23:10:22.066-04:00Home on the range<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZK2yLWFd1k1h3t5qVCUCvYqWS9abJOIAazWC7wXfMHvqOxsFt_GQuvV_6ezeAuZnQ-FvBDzIfenVt-5-7jn0RAyH35NUcX9g4EGsFasqELuHeyqRBWWGw0onYLtXz3n9uy_Kfdw/s1600/41017_10150249240320104_525010103_14137845_1958748_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZK2yLWFd1k1h3t5qVCUCvYqWS9abJOIAazWC7wXfMHvqOxsFt_GQuvV_6ezeAuZnQ-FvBDzIfenVt-5-7jn0RAyH35NUcX9g4EGsFasqELuHeyqRBWWGw0onYLtXz3n9uy_Kfdw/s320/41017_10150249240320104_525010103_14137845_1958748_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619391511146000354" /></a><br />This is my grandparents' fireplace/cooking range from their home at number 2, Quickwood, Roughtown, Mossley.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-86452614162754593562011-06-17T03:28:00.005-04:002011-06-17T03:33:08.042-04:00Lunar eclipse viewed from Jebel Hafeet, Al Ain, UAE15th June 2011Images from around the world<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGAl49_LzYVFsEtjdTTUc4XK6kpuDgO2ljzW1vahxjApxNBlO53Y21y0grIfyiCzMeoavRmojfW1Rqoi-c_aVb3WjHB0fmtOvcPsOmXNIctgYe1LqKJ0zu8WWDFDLsHE8owtClmQ/s1600/Lunar-eclipse-seen-from-e-001.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 227px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGAl49_LzYVFsEtjdTTUc4XK6kpuDgO2ljzW1vahxjApxNBlO53Y21y0grIfyiCzMeoavRmojfW1Rqoi-c_aVb3WjHB0fmtOvcPsOmXNIctgYe1LqKJ0zu8WWDFDLsHE8owtClmQ/s320/Lunar-eclipse-seen-from-e-001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619088349173712562" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKtqjUi-udvYMjV01phmFaGNypFAXaHSsdsiX5vEG6qCJZJxNEBjT3zfT8uV_MgcVkD7pRp4TkEC1jqA15-wsmdZTxdZXZCnASnu5s6H2vBl4QI5drMLIH7wKN2-iyqorS7lA7rQ/s1600/A-partial-lunar-eclipse--009.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKtqjUi-udvYMjV01phmFaGNypFAXaHSsdsiX5vEG6qCJZJxNEBjT3zfT8uV_MgcVkD7pRp4TkEC1jqA15-wsmdZTxdZXZCnASnu5s6H2vBl4QI5drMLIH7wKN2-iyqorS7lA7rQ/s320/A-partial-lunar-eclipse--009.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619088252660516722" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg17LFAw8hlW_yQozpkOvPRz0KMhUCrsHfX2eR52ETW9i9P_dWyx9XnDjb9muQPOmk69yum7GvC94B4t4ijZ-1t7yzSpB6UYzNHM5h4R_YkJKeFhSms_9pSfDLW0d9G336t-Ws6lQ/s1600/Lunar-eclipse-002.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 242px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg17LFAw8hlW_yQozpkOvPRz0KMhUCrsHfX2eR52ETW9i9P_dWyx9XnDjb9muQPOmk69yum7GvC94B4t4ijZ-1t7yzSpB6UYzNHM5h4R_YkJKeFhSms_9pSfDLW0d9G336t-Ws6lQ/s320/Lunar-eclipse-002.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619087915228017826" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-22219127075192200722011-06-10T00:36:00.002-04:002011-06-10T02:33:06.309-04:00The Dog Days Are Over<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXH66UTRX70wOzevAEGO9FesTQo7HiNjZxrRELKmk7wqEj_fcdTZ2Km3B2X4EkjHP5KHx2cZOy2I99fwD-8ECkMJAlsBNgfTmuCFl8JpGNaI15IyF5c5ffOre9XEHT8XtQGXsDYA/s1600/obey.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 260px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXH66UTRX70wOzevAEGO9FesTQo7HiNjZxrRELKmk7wqEj_fcdTZ2Km3B2X4EkjHP5KHx2cZOy2I99fwD-8ECkMJAlsBNgfTmuCFl8JpGNaI15IyF5c5ffOre9XEHT8XtQGXsDYA/s320/obey.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5616474042619509954" /></a><br />‘18 Days’<br />The UAEU Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences<br /> Presents <br />The First Outdoor Production at the New UAEU Campus <br />Outdoor Amphitheatre Tuesday June 7th 2011<br />In a wildly energetic flurry of song, cheering and shouted slogans, students of the FHSS Fundamentals of Stage Production Class began this ‘Orwell meets Florence and the Machine production’ directed by Dr. Jim Mirrione, ably assisted by Graeme Tennent and with guest appearances by faculty members and artists from English Literature, Fine Arts, Mass Communication and the House of Arts. <br /><br />Combining choral chanting with individual vocals, the troupe cascaded down into the amphitheatre and filled our ears with sound – taunting the leader, cowed by guards, triumphal in victory – mourning a slain comrade before exulting in their new found freedom.<br /><br />Rarely have Bernard Shaw, Plato and Mussolini been quoted on the same platform, I imagine, but they were tonight, in this utterly fascinating take on events that have held us enthralled for months now. <br /><br />Specifics were omitted, sensibly, but the values that were extolled and celebrated; the evils denigrated, were clear and plain. The swansong summed up the emotions swelling continually to the surface in this marvelous evening’s entertaining education – ‘The dog days are over!’<br /><strong>Robert L. Fielding</strong><br />Catch the song - The Dog Days Are Over by Florence and the Machine<br />http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/f/florence_and_the_machine/dog_days_are_over.htmlUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-17346704090208063722011-05-09T07:34:00.000-04:002011-05-09T07:35:39.140-04:00My namesake Robert Leslie - my great grandfather<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD5IozddhmOwfxJC-vfWtFDpj4P-e5FHPHGCSMkUyFEGr6WQHMpbQmCLi3YG2BiESDb_uDj0UkNZbJl2AQDOmlMlhyj2bf-eJ9-Yb1rEkizXzRO6V1L1yJtEVaahp6F95alwsFOg/s1600/230648_10150202115053666_669028665_6954697_7350258_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD5IozddhmOwfxJC-vfWtFDpj4P-e5FHPHGCSMkUyFEGr6WQHMpbQmCLi3YG2BiESDb_uDj0UkNZbJl2AQDOmlMlhyj2bf-eJ9-Yb1rEkizXzRO6V1L1yJtEVaahp6F95alwsFOg/s320/230648_10150202115053666_669028665_6954697_7350258_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604678497603472690" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-56267931979172068542011-05-09T07:33:00.001-04:002011-05-09T07:34:25.999-04:00Auntie Agnes, Dad, Uncle Evans<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxYD3TP1Vr-f0fmT1DBFSDfG-Fn25E0tthB4xbAnCdTArOxMLYRQSiRHOEqFfq8D8cmljVYChyQ1bKW5K9LwjnXulExqvyNDxWna46m4cuJSn9GQnZrBRZgnQHokGe7HuqbL1a0g/s1600/222556_10150202075363666_669028665_6954193_3764895_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxYD3TP1Vr-f0fmT1DBFSDfG-Fn25E0tthB4xbAnCdTArOxMLYRQSiRHOEqFfq8D8cmljVYChyQ1bKW5K9LwjnXulExqvyNDxWna46m4cuJSn9GQnZrBRZgnQHokGe7HuqbL1a0g/s320/222556_10150202075363666_669028665_6954193_3764895_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604678164816282338" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-38846828907559746932011-05-08T06:03:00.002-04:002011-05-08T06:12:38.456-04:00My Grandmother and her uncle<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizcWELKoRe7XuQJu-VJ2XSu42QhMi_SSmTff79vdV0UHT1MPR8taRqjxXo0jMyfBrDIjrjK9L3TVeAP8HnqMUbnxcjPQ-3E3dH9egRw25EqEnNZCPvxyqtaAenJPa1IQGekEjT3g/s1600/222957_10150193101578666_669028665_6882227_1578518_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 198px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizcWELKoRe7XuQJu-VJ2XSu42QhMi_SSmTff79vdV0UHT1MPR8taRqjxXo0jMyfBrDIjrjK9L3TVeAP8HnqMUbnxcjPQ-3E3dH9egRw25EqEnNZCPvxyqtaAenJPa1IQGekEjT3g/s320/222957_10150193101578666_669028665_6882227_1578518_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604283810360215554" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-25249682722957480922011-05-08T06:01:00.000-04:002011-05-08T06:02:46.305-04:00Mother and child, Grandma Pino and Dad<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioIO-dNTKoxH4AYNK-V0X0t5t5jgidAm9MYEC-uqQ9JdgYYPnbE-1KcY1MjeO6iUCMP_xfB1WpzVnTYkkj3ZmnNAiHPtyomkgBA5FOkXoYuiS7qN4ZvfZEb3mR4E-fjrN_fV-5WQ/s1600/224323_10150193109708666_669028665_6882261_2366545_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 202px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioIO-dNTKoxH4AYNK-V0X0t5t5jgidAm9MYEC-uqQ9JdgYYPnbE-1KcY1MjeO6iUCMP_xfB1WpzVnTYkkj3ZmnNAiHPtyomkgBA5FOkXoYuiS7qN4ZvfZEb3mR4E-fjrN_fV-5WQ/s320/224323_10150193109708666_669028665_6882261_2366545_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604283496695670482" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-46490236449034071362011-05-08T06:00:00.000-04:002011-05-08T06:01:25.494-04:00My lovely aunties - Mary and Ruby<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT7JqbS_gEcfb20Rav8fUP7OM859VAtrggY0gFK4MS5i3iZSdKcfHsT23h_FauT9no75yJaCUf2Vx7APCp_5o5VthjEIhxaRQECGxu-0EqR61GVSOIM85HYq6eilrrC5m6eoexHw/s1600/224323_10150193109703666_669028665_6882260_3860969_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 236px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT7JqbS_gEcfb20Rav8fUP7OM859VAtrggY0gFK4MS5i3iZSdKcfHsT23h_FauT9no75yJaCUf2Vx7APCp_5o5VthjEIhxaRQECGxu-0EqR61GVSOIM85HYq6eilrrC5m6eoexHw/s320/224323_10150193109703666_669028665_6882260_3860969_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604283186246397730" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-82740997602528509772011-04-19T06:47:00.002-04:002011-04-20T01:00:57.469-04:00My grandparents with my Dad - the eldest son, Aunty Agnes - Aunty Ruby on her mother's knee, and Uncle Evans and Uncle Randall standing<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh70BsHm2ATNZ4xOpf89HSwplHsI87rLjmW5bKKlQ17pRJaKkVOdUVt9_Cu-204kk9a-CO8eVmLlSxccFpvRQFGV87CAXbFqJQ4FTNVWnS_RJv1ej9lfQpJh92nUaGiiqJJkyqW2Q/s1600/208814_10150178923698666_669028665_6765249_7271211_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 232px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh70BsHm2ATNZ4xOpf89HSwplHsI87rLjmW5bKKlQ17pRJaKkVOdUVt9_Cu-204kk9a-CO8eVmLlSxccFpvRQFGV87CAXbFqJQ4FTNVWnS_RJv1ej9lfQpJh92nUaGiiqJJkyqW2Q/s320/208814_10150178923698666_669028665_6765249_7271211_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597244611370923634" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-33060058342212186222011-04-09T06:44:00.001-04:002011-04-09T06:44:55.376-04:00Topics for exploratory WritingExpository Essay Prompts<br />Expository (informative) writing communicates information to the reader to share knowledge or to convey messages, instructions, and ideas. It involves communicating information at various levels of understanding, such as describing information, explaining or interpreting information, clarifying a process, or evaluating information. Examples include writing reports or letters.<br />The informative topics in 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress writing assessment required students to write on specified subjects in a variety of formats, such as reports, reviews, and letters. Several of the informative topics asked students to respond to letters, cartoons, or articles. The writing assessment prompts presented students with a variety of tasks, such as offering advice to younger students and reporting to a school committee.<br />1. If you could make changes in your school lunchroom what would they be?<br />2. Most people like one particular animal more than others. What is your favorite animal? Why is it your favorite?<br />3. Everyone has days that they will always remember as being very special. Think about a special day that you have had. Write an essay telling why it was so special.<br />4. Rules are important. What are the most important rules at your school and why are they important?<br />5. If you could choose any animal for a class pet, what would you choose and why?<br />6. Explain why it is important to learn to read.<br />7. If you could change places with another person for a whole day, who would you change places with and why would you choose that person?<br />8. We are learning all the time. Some of our learning takes place in school and some outside of school. Write about something you have learned recently and how it has affected you.<br />9. Think of the ideal job for you when you grow up. Now think of reasons why this would be a good job for you. Write an essay to explain why this is your ideal job.<br />10. Think of a book that you have read and really enjoyed. Write an essay explaining why you really enjoyed that book.<br />11. Imagine that time travel to the past was possible. Think of where and when you would like to go for a visit. Write an essay telling where and when you would go in the past and explain why you choose to go there.<br />12. Your cousin is moving to your town. Write a letter explaining why your town is such a wonderful place to live.<br />13. Imagine that you had no TV, computer, or video games for one week. Think of some activities that you can do instead to keep you busy and out of trouble. Write an essay to explain what you can do to keep occupied in a week of no TV, computer, or video games.<br />14. We all have a place where we can imagine or go where we want to be alone and relax. Think of your favorite place. Now write an essay explaining why this place is your favorite.<br />15. Think about your favorite year of school. Explain why it was your favorite year.<br />16. Friends are important, but everyone has a different opinion of what makes a good friend. Explain what, in your opinion makes a good friend.<br />17. Some teachers are special. Explain why one particular teacher in your life was so special.<br />18. If your principal asked you to write your opinion about what needed to be changed in your school what would you write?<br />19. Due to trouble on the playground, the principal has sent home a letter stating there will no longer be an after-lunch recess. Write a letter to convince your principal to continue after-lunch recess. Before you start writing, think about the problem during recess. Think about why students need recess. Think about the benefits for the teachers. Decide what students and teachers can do to correct the problem. Think about the results of keeping recess during school. Now write a letter to convince the principal to continue after-lunch recess.<br />20. Your brother or sister is having a birthday. Your grandparents have asked for ideas for a present. Write a letter to your grandparents suggesting a gift your brother or sister might like. Before you start writing, think about what the gift could be. Think about why your younger brother or sister would like the gift. Think about how your grandparents can locate this gift. Now write a letter to your grandparents suggesting a birthday gift for your younger brother or sister.<br />21. Your class has been studying ways of improving our environment. One of these ways is by recycling items you would normally throw away. This might be an empty paper towel roll, empty milk carton, or an old telephone book. Write 3 - 5 paragraphs for your teacher explaining how you can create or recycle something from a discarded item or throwaway. Before you start writing, think about what item you are going to recycle. Think about what new item you are going to create from it. Decide on the materials needed for this project. Think about the clear, step-by-step directions for making your recycled item. Decide how this recycled item will be useful. Now write a paragraph or more for your teacher explaining how you will create something new from a discarded item.<br />22. Your teacher has asked you to write an essay answering the question, "Why do you like your favorite subject in school?" Before you begin writing, think about which school subject you like best. Consider exactly what it is you like about that subject. Think about interesting things you have learned or done in that subject. Now write an essay for your teacher telling why you like your favorite school subject.<br />23. Your teacher has scheduled a unit test for Monday. Write a letter to your teacher requesting this unit test be rescheduled for another day. Before you start writing, think about why this test should be rescheduled. Think about what could be done to better prepare the students for the test. Consider the benefits for the students and the teacher for rescheduling. Now write a letter to your teacher requesting a unit test be rescheduled to another day.<br />24. You lost your watch while visiting a friend in another town. Your friend's mother found your watch and mailed it to you. Write a letter to your friend's mother thanking her for returning the lost watch. Before you start to write, think about why your watch is important to you. Think about why you need your watch. Think about how you felt when your watch was returned to you. Now write a letter to your friend's mother thanking her for returning the lost watch.<br />25. Describe a favorite place you have visited. Write 3 - 5 paragraphs or describing the place. Before you begin writing, think about the location of your favorite place. Think about when and why you like to visit this place. Think about the benefits of visiting this place. Now write a description of your favorite place.<br />26. Your friend wants to come to your house. Write directions telling how to get to your house from school. Before you start writing, think about the details you will need in your directions. Think about landmarks you pass and the order in which you pass them. Think about any roads you will need to travel. Consider having a map to illustrate your directions. Now write a paragraph or more explaining to your teacher how to get to your house from school.<br />27. You have just received a letter from a friend inviting you to go along on a family hiking trip in the Cascade Mountains. Write a letter to your friend accepting the invitation. Before you start writing, think about what you need to know about the trip. Think about what activities might take place. Think about any special equipment you may need. Now write a letter to your friend accepting your friend's invitation to go on a hiking trip.<br />28. A classmate of yours had an accident on the playground during recess and had to be taken to the doctor's office. Write 3 - 5 paragraphs for the principal explaining what you saw. Before you start to write, think about exactly where you were and when the accident took place. Think about the others who were involved in the accident. Consider (think about) any details that would be helpful in your report. Now write a paragraph or more to your principal explaining what you saw when your classmate had an accident on the playground.<br />29. Most people have a favorite toy. Think about your favorite toy and why it is your favorite. Now write 3 - 5 paragraphs to tell about your favorite toy and explain why you like it.<br />30. The gym teacher has just announced that field day will be at the end of the month. Write 3 - 5 paragraphs to describe the events that take place at field day to a new student at your school.<br />31. What do you think is the most significant invention ever made and why do you think so.<br />32. Each child has a special position in their family. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the position you hold in your family--youngest child, only child, middle child etc.<br />33. You are an astronaut on a peaceful, exploratory mission to Planet Q. As a representative from Earth, you are to present three gifts from our planet. What items will you take? Write a proposal to the sponsors of your mission explaining why you think these will make excellent tokens.<br />34. When solving a math problem, you and your neighbor reached the same answer, but had different calculations and processes. Explain to your math teacher how this can happen.<br />35. Select one of the math problems completed for homework. Explain to a classmate who got the answer wrong how you computed your answer.<br />36. You are (an element, a seed, a piece of precipitation). Introduce yourself to a young child, explaining your typical day, your life processes, and how you deal with any dangers you routinely face.<br />37. In our science class, we have completed several lessons on the six simple machines: lever, pulley, wheel and axle, wedge, inclined plane, and spiral incline plane. Select one machine and clearly explain to a younger student how it works.<br />38. You have been asked to help your classmates make decisions about meals they would like added to the cafeteria menu choices. As a nutrition expert, recommend choices for athletes. Explain the advantages of your selections.<br />39. Explain how music can affect one's mood. As the person in charge of providing the background music for a (shopping mall, law firm, doctor's office, sports stadium, fast food restaurant, fine dining establishment), explain to your employer what type of music you will use and why.<br />40. Using your knowledge of (science, geography, health), explain to a new inhabitant how to orient to a new place, such as a desert, or the jungle, or a new planet.<br />41. As a student familiar with this school, explain the procedure for (fire drills, forming a line, moving between classes, moving into learning groups, finding a sentence pattern, outlining a chapter, solving an equation) to a new student.<br />42. There are many concerns facing the student council in your school. As a member of the student council, write an editorial for the school newspaper about one concern and what you think can be done to solve the situation.<br />43. Choose something you know about (a place you have visited, something you saw while traveling, something you have studied in school, a hobby you wish to share). Write a letter to your pen pal in another country telling about your topic.<br />44. You are the class president and have been asked to write an introduction for a person you admire greatly. Write an essay describing the most admirable qualities of the person.<br />45. Think of some things you learned outside of school. For example, you learn from pet care, television, or grandparents. Explain what you learned.<br />46. The restaurant association of Snohomish County is seeking nominations for "Local Restaurant of the Year." Nominate the restaurant you like by writing a letter to I.M. Phul (the restaurant association president) describing why this restaurant should win. Sign your letter, "M.T. Stomak."<br />47. Cascade Valley Hospital is seeking volunteers. Your friend asks you to write a letter to the Hospital Volunteer Coordinator recommending this friend for the volunteer job. Sign your name, "F.S. Perfect."<br />48. Your local paper has been running a series of articles on local attractions to inform new comers of places they might visit. Describe such a place in a letter to the editor of the local newspaper. Sign your name, "A. B. See."<br />49. Write a letter to the editors of Invention magazine. Name three inventions you could not live without and explain why they are so important to you.<br />50. If you could visit anywhere on Earth, where would it be and why would you want to visit there? What things would you do there? Write a letter to the judges of a travel agency contest for a free vacation trip.<br />51. If you had the opportunity to meet any person (living or dead) who would it be, why would you choose that person, and what would you want to say when you met?<br />52. You have been asked to write an essay about a day in the life of a fourth grader to be placed in a time capsule that will be buried this year and opened in 2500.<br />53. Think about how new computers can benefit your school. Your principal has decided that students in your school can have several new computers in your classroom. Write an essay for the school newspaper about how the new computers will be used to benefit your learning.<br />54. Transportation is a necessary part of modern life. Write an essay that explains how American families use the car. Explain how it is used for business, pleasure, and emergencies. Your essay will be in a new social studies book.<br />55. Write an essay about the differences between two different types of insects. Give examples of how each type is adapted to its environment.<br />56. Write a letter to your (future) grandchildren. Choose any two major events occurring during your lifetime that you believe would be important enough to pass along to your grandchildren.<br />57. A home in the community has burned. Tell how you would help the family recover from the loss.<br />58. Choose one of your favorite authors. Write a letter telling why you like his/her work.<br />59. Write the directions for "how to" do something.<br />60. Choose a book or TV show that that you have enjoyed. You are to write an essay telling the reader why you enjoyed it.<br />61. The telephone has become a most important part of everyone's life. Most of us have difficulty imagining what it could be like to live without it. Write an essay explaining how the American family uses it for business, pleasure, and emergencies. Assume that this will be published as a part of an encyclopedia article.<br />62. Each of us had a teacher that we consider to have been really good. It may not have been a person that we really like at the time. But, in looking back, we realize that that person presented and saw to it that we knew some things that would be really important. Sometimes it was how that person presented things and not just what opportunities were supplied. That person does not have to be a classroom teacher. Think about that person and the reasons that they are positively memorable. Write a five-paragraph essay and explain why this person is an excellent teacher.<br />63. The arts (music, art, drama, dance etc.,) and sports have important effects on people's lives. When begun at a young age, they can be pursued for a long time and can shape future interests, careers, and life styles. One does not have to become a superstar, but the effect can be there and shown in many ways. Choose one of the arts or a sport. Explain how it could shape a person and influence one's life if begun when one is young.<br />64. Everyone has jobs or chores. Explain why you do one of your jobs or chores.<br />65. The fourth grade at your school has decided to elect a class president. The class president will take attendance each morning, help plan parties, and collect money for field trips. Write an article for the class newspaper describing what kind of person would make a good president and why.<br />66. We hear all the time about endangered species. Write an account of the rediscovery of an animal once considered extinct.<br />67. Choose an existing animal and write an article about it as if it were an endangered species.<br />68. Weigh the risks and rewards of space flight by explaining why you would or would not like to be a passenger on the Space Shuttle.<br />69. Describe an experiment to be conducted on board the Space Shuttle.<br />70. Think of something that you just learned how to do. Explain how to do it.<br />71. Your friend was absent from school yesterday. Write a note to tell what he or she missed.<br />72. Think of something nice that your teacher did for you or something important that your teacher taught you. Write a thank-you note to your teacher.<br />73. Your class is having a party. You want other students to come to it. Write a sign about the party.<br />74. Write in your journal about a time that someone helped you.<br />75. Imagine that you could visit any place in the world. Describe where you would like to go.<br />76. Imagine that you are going on vacation and need to leave your pet with a friend. Make a list of things your friend needs to do to take care of your pet.<br />77. What is your favorite book? Write an advertisement that will convince your classmates to read it.<br />78. A new restaurant that is fun for kids is opening in your town. Write a sign for the Grand Opening.<br />79. Your class has decided to have a "Get-To-Know-Each-Other" party. Write an invitation asking students throughout your school to come to your party.<br />80. Where is the most unusual place you have ever been? Write a description of the place.<br />81. Your class is making a classroom cookbook. Write a recipe for something you like to eat at home to include in the book.<br />82. A baby-sitter is coming to your house. What does the baby-sitter need to know? Write a letter telling her/him important information.<br />83. The mayor has to make a big decision--should some land in your community be used for a new shopping mall or for a park? Write a letter to the mayor telling what you think.<br />84. A musical group that everyone likes is going to perform a special concert, and it's at your school! Write an announcement to read over the school intercom.<br />85. Your school cafeteria wants to try a new menu--one with foods that kids will really like. Your principal has asked each student to write an opinion about what the cafeteria should serve.<br />86. It is Science Week at your school. Write a report about your favorite science topic.<br />87. You are on a committee that is doing a presentation on good health for kids. It is your responsibility to write an announcement for the presentation.<br />88. You have been hired by the mayor to promote your city as a wonderful place to live. Write an advertisement to convince people to move there.<br />89. Most people go on vacation to have fun, but sometimes vacations don't turn out as expected! Think about a vacation you went on that had some unexpected surprises. Write a travel diary about your experience.<br />90. Imagine receiving an invitation to the Boston Tea Party or the first Thanksgiving dinner! Choose an historical event and write an invitation to it.<br />91. You are on the school safety committee. Write directions for fire-drill procedures for your class.<br />92. Many schools in the United States require students to participate in service projects in order to graduate. Do you think community service should be mandatory for students? Write an editorial for your school newspaper.<br />93. Think of a saying, such as "Every cloud has a silver lining" or "Don't count your chickens before they hatch." Write about an experience you had that proves that the saying is true.<br />94. It's "Career Day" at your school, and your classmates want to know about different occupations. Choose a job that interests you and write a report about it.<br />95. You saw a help wanted ad for a job that is perfect for you. Write a letter to apply for the job.<br />96. Imagine that you could "invent" the perfect sibling. What would this dream brother or sister be like? Write a description.<br />97. You are a reporter for your school newspaper. You write about products kids like and use. Besides giving basic information about the products, you tell what you think of them. Write a news article for the next edition of the newspaper.<br />98. Next year you'll be in a different class with a new teacher. Write a letter to your next teacher, telling the most important things you learned this year.<br />99. A friend asked you to come to a party. Write a note telling your friend whether or not you will be able to attend.<br />100. You are a helper at a party for young children--and the children are bored! Think of a game for the children to play. Write directions for playing the game.<br />101. Your school did a special project. Write a letter to a newspaper telling what you did.<br />102. A tract of land is being sold in your community. Fictitious bidders include the National Park Service, a children's hospital, a shopping-mall developer, an oil drilling company, and the U.S. Armed Forces. Choose one and become a lobbyist for one that group writing arguments on behalf of their interests.<br />103. Assist your students in learning how to use laboratory equipment by having them choose a scientific instrument form your lab, and write directions on how to use it.<br />104. Your students can learn about the history of inventions by writing about the origin of everyday objects, such as roller skates, safety pins, or ice-cream cones.<br />105. Form "exploration groups" of about five students. Starting with an opening line for a story, pass the story around the group, each student adding a sentence or two to the story.<br />106. Write down as many questions about a new unit of instruction as you can BEFORE the unit begins.<br />107. Choose some thing that you could imagine being (an asteroid, a cactus, a volcano), and describe why you would choose to be that thing.<br />108. Write a word on the board. Have your students make a list of words that they associate with that term. Compare the lists to demonstrate to students that they do not all have the same mental picture of the concept.<br />109. Picture yourself as part of a scientific phenomenon, and write about the experience. Phenomena include respiration, blood flow, transmission of nerve signals, chemical reactions, heat transfer, lightning, combustion, and propagation of radio waves.<br />110. Describe a museum exhibit that might have been, but was not, present at a museum that you visited.<br />111. Make up a new planet. Describe the important features of the landscape, what the climate is like, and what lives there. Write from the viewpoint of the first visitor to this planet.<br />112. Gather illustrations of plants with unusual names. Give students one name, and ask them to describe what it might look like. Give the same name to more than one student so that they can compare their descriptions. Show them the illustration of the plant after they have completed their descriptions.<br />113. You have discovered a new type of plant. Give it a name and describe it for the newspaper.<br />114. Almost everyone has had at least one teacher who is hard to forget. Think about what makes it so hard to forget. Tell what happened.<br />115. Describe a person or an animal that you will never forget.<br />116. Your students can grapple with issues concerning form and function by writing about how the world would be different if cockroaches were the size of poodles (or other such distortions of scale and size).<br />117. Write directions telling how to do something. Name/describe the items to be used and describe the steps needed to complete the task.<br />118. Write an invitation to a party.<br />119. Write a letter to your keypal recommending your favorite book.<br />120. Choose a person you admire and write a letter nominating that person for an award.<br />121. Write a letter thanking an adult (teacher, bus driver, Scout leader, Sunday school teacher, etc.).<br />122. Write a letter thanking someone for being a good friend.<br />123. Your teacher has told your class that you may have a class pet. Explain what animal you would like to have as a classroom pet.<br />124. Write a letter to an inhabitant of another planet explaining basic things on Planet Earth.<br />125. Imagine that you are a talk-show host getting ready to interview a famous person. Prepare for the interview by writing some questions that will elicit useful, interesting information from your guest.<br />126. Make up a writing prompt for your class. Use your imagination; they sharpen their language skills in a science class.<br />127. Most people know of an animal they would like better than any other as a pet. Before you write, think about what animal you would like most as a pet. Think about why you would like that animal as a pet. Write to explain why the animal you like would be a great pet.<br />128. There has recently been much discussion about violence in the music, film, and television that children enjoy. Some experts argue that the media is one major reason crime rates are on the rise. They believe the violence that youths hear and see through TV, film, and music leads them to behave in violent ways. On the other side of the issue, people say kids can make their own decisions concerning such influences and filmmakers and musicians must be free to create their art. Write an editorial for your local newspaper in which you tell what you think about the issue.<br />129. Write a letter to a friend who has moved away to tell how third grade is different from second grade.<br />130. Write a letter to a friend about why you like to read books or magazines about a certain topic.<br />131. Write a letter to a friend telling about something you do well.<br />132. Write a letter to your favorite television star telling why you like his/her show.<br />133. Write a formal letter to the President asking him for an autographed picture.<br />134. Write a letter to a city recreation department requesting information about park in your area.<br />135. Write a letter to a local animal shelter requesting information about their volunteer program.<br />136. Write a letter to your town's newspaper explaining why someone you know should get a Special Person of the Year Award.<br />137. Write directions for a new student explaining how to get to the town's library from your school.<br />138. Write a paper giving step-by-step instructions on how to make your favorite sandwich.<br />139. Write instructions to your friends on how they can recycle at school.<br />140. Write a paper explaining how to study for a test.<br />141. Write a paper explaining how to find a book in the school library.<br />142. Write a paper explaining how to earn good grades at school.<br />143. Write a paper explaining the lunch room rules to a new student.<br />144. Write about what you do and don't understand about multiplication.<br />145. Go into a natural setting and write a log of your observations and questions.<br />146. Describe your favorite or your least favorite meal.<br />147. Describe a person you respect.<br />148. Describe something you collect or would like to collect.<br />149. Describe the perfect picnic lunch.<br />150. Describe your favorite teacher.<br />151. Eating healthy food is important for good health. Think about healthy foods and why it's important to eat them. Now explain why it is important to eat healthy foods.<br />152. Most people have a television show they like to watch. Sometimes they like it because of one of the stars and sometimes they like it because of what it is about. Think about the TV show you like the best. Think about the things that make the show interesting or the start of the show. Explain why this TV show is a good one.<br />153. Everyone has at least one thing that he/she does well, something he/she is an expert at. It may be something he/she does at home or at school. Think about something you do well, something you are an expert at doing. How did you became an expert. What do you do that shows you are an expert? Explain why you are an expert at doing something.<br />154. Everyone has something that is special to them. This may be something special that people like to do or it may be a special place to go. Think about what is special, when do you do it, where do you do it, who you are doing it with, and how often you do it. Explain why you feel this is something special to do or a special place to go.<br />155. Congratulations! You have just won a million dollars in the lottery. Think about the things that you would do with your money. Tell what you will do with the money that you have just won.<br />156. You are a gum drop on the grocer's shelf. A young person has just put you in their cart. Think about your adventures in the cart. Write a story about this gumdrop's adventure.<br />157. One day you woke up and discovered that you had been turned into an animal. Think about what animal you have become. Tell what happened to you on the day you discovered that you had been turned into an animal.<br />158. Most of us have had an experience that we will never forget. Think about an experience that you remember very clearly. What happened? How did you feel? Tell about an experience that you will never forget.<br />159. Tonight you have been asked to cook dinner for your family. Think of the foods you will make, how you will prepare them and serve them. Explain how you will prepare a dinner for your family.<br />160. You are a principal. You have to hire some new teachers for your school. Think about the qualifications that this person should have to be hired for this job. Explain what would make a good teacher.<br />161. DANGER!!! Occasionally, we find ourselves in a dangerous situation. Think about what types of situations you consider dangerous. Explain what types of situations you consider dangerous.<br />162. Parents would rather have handmade gifts from their children than store-bought gifts. Think about the handmade gifts that you could make for one of your parents. Explain what types of gifts you might make.<br />163. Most of us have had to do something that was difficult. It might have been catching a softball, making the bed, washing the dog or saying "I'm sorry." Think about something that was difficult for you. Explain to the reader of your paper something difficult that you had to do.<br />164. We all have something we really want. What do you really want? Why do you want it? Write about something you really want. Explain why you really want it.<br />165. We all have things we like to do. Think about something you really like to do. How do you do it? Write about something you really like to do. Explain exactly (step by step) how you do it.<br />166. We all have things we like to do with our friends or family. Think about something you really like to do with your friends or family. Why do you really like to do this thing? Explain what you like to do and why you like to do it.<br />167. Have you ever made mud pies? Think about what you do to make mud pies. What would you need? What would you have to do? Write step by step, what someone would need to do to make mud pies.<br />168. We all have someone important in our lives. It might be a teacher, a friend or family. Think about the important people in your life. Pick one person who is especially important to you. Why are they important? What are they like? Why are they important to you? Explain who is an important person in your life and why that person is important to you.<br />169. Think about a pencil. What does it look like? How do you use it? What makes a really good pencil? Explain what a pencil looks like so someone will be able to see it through your words.<br />170. Think about your desk. What makes a really good desk? What would you do to make a desk? Explain exactly what you would need to do to make a desk.<br />171. We all have jobs or chores to do to help out at home or at school. Think about a job (or chore) you have at home or in school. Why is this job important? How does it help? Explain why your job is important.<br />172. Your class has been given money to buy a classroom pet and no one knows how to go about choosing it. Think about how that pet should be chosen. Who should decide which pet is best? Should the class vote? Should the teacher choose? Explain how your class should choose a pet to be the class pet.<br />173. Imagine that you are to choose an animal to be your classroom's pet. Think about the animal you would choose. Why would you choose that animal? Why would it be good for the classroom? What would your class learn from having this pet? Explain what animal you would choose to be a class pet and why.<br />174. You are going to decide which animal your class pet will be. Think about that animal. What is it and what would you need to do to keep it healthy? What would it eat? Would it need exercise? How would you get it to exercise? What kind of cage would it have to have? Tell about what pet you would choose for your classroom and what you would do to care for it.<br />175. Write a composition for your classmates, describing the most interesting place you have ever visited, Describe in detail where the place is, how you got there, what you saw, and how you felt.<br />176. For a children's magazine, describe your first attempt at playing a particular sport. The sport might be one that looked easy but turned out to be a real challenge, or it might be one that came quite naturally to you. Be sure to describe everything you did and how you felt.<br />177. What are some of the more important or interesting experiences you have had in your life? Have you moved, lost something that was important to you, or overcome a big fear? As you grow older your memory of the events is bound to fade. So capture one of these experiences now in as much detail as possible by writing a journal entry about it. Be sure to tell why the event was important to you.<br />178. Enter a magazine contest by writing an essay about somebody you admire. According to the contest rules, your hero should be a person you know well or a historical figure - male or female, living or dead - that you've heard or read about. Tell how you feel about your hero, what qualities you admire, and the ways in which you would like your life to be like your hero's.<br />179. Have you seen a particularly skillful feat or performance by an athlete, a dancer, or an acrobat recently? Try to visualize the physical movements of the person, and write a description of the performance for the sports and entertainment section of your local newspaper. Use concrete details and imaginative comparisons to help your readers appreciate what you saw.<br />180. Is there a special object or family tradition that is important to everyone in your family? For example, do you have an heirloom that has been handed down through generations, a quilt your grandmother made, or a special way of celebrating birthdays? For a younger relative - perhaps even for someone who hasn't been born yet - describe this family treasure or tradition in as much detail as you can.<br />181. For an audience of your classmates, write a description of a particular time and place that you know well, such as your room on a rainy afternoon, the video arcade after school, or the waiting area at your doctor's office on a busy day. Use as many specific sensory details a you can. Try to capture the moment - and share how you felt about it.<br />182. For a class anthology, describe a bird, an insect, or animal that you have strong feelings about. Choose one that scares amuses, or puzzles you. Be sure you know enough about the animal to describe it fully. Use sensory details that will make your classmates feel the same.<br />183. Imagine you've been asked to explain to a group of students from a foreign country how to prepare a hot dog for lunch. They have never eaten a hot dog before and do not know anything about them. Tell them each step you take in preparing a hot dog.<br />184. You have been chosen to represent your school at an international convention for students. This convention will take place during your family's scheduled summer vacation, and it is being held in Paris, France. You will be traveling alone. Write a composition as if you were explaining this situation to a friend. Write about the good and bad aspects of attending this convention. Explain each of your points completely.<br />185. Many young people your age read very little. They get their news and information from television and the movies. They would rather read a magazine than a novel. No one is quite sure why this is true, but many people are concerned about the situation. Your teacher has asked you and your classmates to write essays which explain your thoughts about the causes of this situation. Your essays will be shared with other students in your school. Your teacher hopes that these essays will help the school develop a program to increase the popularity of reading for pleasure.<br />186. Are there any problems in your school? Do you get too little time to eat lunch? Between classes is it hard to find a water fountain that works? In a letter, make your school principal aware of the problem and suggest a solution. Be sure to explain what the causes of the problem are, who is affected by it, and how something could be done to solve it.<br />187. Your school is having a health awareness day. For the occasion, write a short composition about a health problem you think is avoidable. Begin with a brief explanation of the problem - how it comes about, who is affected by it, and how. Then tell how you think people could prevent this problem. In conclusion, either urge your readers to follow your advice or warn them what may happen if they don't.<br />188. Does somebody do something that really drives you crazy? Do you have a friend who always insists on being in charge? Is there someone in your class who always takes credit for other people's work? Choose something that bothers you. Now take a moment to figure out a way to solve this problem. Then write a composition in which you describe the problem and explain your proposed solution to it. Address your composition to others who are also troubled by this behavior.<br />189. Think about some of the problems in your community that affect you and your friends. Choose a problem that concerns you. Then prepare a brief written report in which you state the problem, and offer a solution to it. In your report, make clear to your neighbors why they should do something about the problem.<br />190. Do you have a special relationship with someone? Take a moment now to consider why this person matters to you and what he or she adds to your life. Then write an essay in which you define the role of this individual in your life. You might begin with words like "An aunt is someone who..." Plan to share this essay with the person about whom you are writing.<br />191. Most hobbies and sports have special words to describe the equipment and the plays unique to that activity. For example, chess players talk of rooks and pawns, and baseball players speak of knuckle balls and sliders. Imagine you are helping to write a manual for beginners in a hobby or sport you know well. Write an explanation of an important term that all beginners need to understand.<br />192. Choose a custom or holiday that you enjoy or that has special meaning to you. For instance, do you love celebrating Independence Day? Hanukah? In a letter to a pen pal, explain the practice or event you have chosen. As you write, remember that this pen pal lives in another country and knows nothing of your customs or holidays.<br />193. A magazine for children is conducting a survey on children's taste in movies. The editors want you to compare and contrast a movie that is in the theaters now with your favorite film of all time, and then draw a conclusion about what makes a movie great. The best responses will appear in a future issue of the magazine, so be sure to write for an audience of magazine readers your own age.<br />194. Your principal is considering a new dress code requiring all students to wear uniforms. State whether you think this is a good policy. Support your answer.<br />195. Name a favorite book and give reasons why you think it's worth reading.<br />196. Think about your favorite activity when you are out of school. Write about this activity and tell why it is your favorite activity.<br />197. Think about an animal you would like to be for one day. Write about this animal and tell why you would like to be this animal for one day.<br />198. If you could go anywhere in the world, think about the place where you would go. Write about this place and tell why you would go there.<br />199. Think about the famous people you know and choose one you would like to meet. Write about this person and tell why you would like to meet them.<br />200. Think about a place where you like to go to be alone. Write about this place and tell why you like to go there to be alone.<br />201. Lucky you! You are going on a trip to the moon. Think about three things you would take with you and tell why you would take these three things.<br />202. Name one goal you would like to accomplish and give specific reasons why. Give enough details so that your teacher will understand your ideas.<br />203. Your teacher has asked you to write about one person you would choose to be if you could be someone else for one day. Name that person and give specific reasons why you would like to be that person for one day. Give enough details so your teacher will understand your ideas.<br />204. Your teacher has asked you to write about one person who has made a difference in your life. Name that person and give specific reasons why that person has made a difference in your life. Give enough details so your teacher will understand your ideas.<br />205. You wake up at night and find your room filled with smoke. Describe the problem and explain how you would solve it.<br />206. After he takes your lunch money every day, a bigger kid warns he'll hurt you if you tell anyone. Since you don't believe in fighting to solve problems, what other actions might you take?<br />207. Your family has just moved to a country where you don't speak the language. What will you do to get through your first week of school?<br />208. Students in your school are unhappy with the student bathrooms. Write a letter to your principal describing the problem and suggesting ways to solve it.<br />209. The students in your school think that there is a problem at recess. Write a letter to your principal stating the problem and suggesting ways to solve it.<br />210. A classmate is being picked on during recess. Describe the problem. What could you do to help him/her solve it?<br />211. Write a letter to your principal explaining a problem in your school cafeteria (library, playground, bus, etc.) and offer a solution to the problem.<br />212. Think about a problem in our environment such as air pollution, overcrowding or endangering species. Write a letter to a younger child identifying this problem and offering a possible solution to the problem.<br />213. Imagine you have just been given the name and address of a penpal. Describe yourself to that person.<br />214. Describe your favorite park or playground.<br />215. Describe your favorite relative.<br />216. Describe a really fun day.<br />217. Describe your favorite meal.<br />218. Describe your favorite outfit including any accessories.<br />219. Think about a new invention you would like to create. Describe this invention and tell what it can do.<br />220. Think about an outdoor scene, such as a mountain, a beach, a waterfall, a park, that you consider interesting. Describe this sight so that your reader will be able to picture it.<br />221. Select a particular place you have come to know well and that is special to you. It can be a back yard, a setting in the woods or on the water, a store, a secret hideout, a certain room or any other spot that is special to you. Name the place and describe it so your reader can picture it.<br />222. What is your favorite room in your house. Explain why it is your favorite.<br />223. What is your favorite pastime? Name the activity and give reasons why you like it.<br />224. You have the chance to be the first student astronaut to explore another planet. Would you accept the job? Give reasons why or why not.<br />225. Almost everyone has had at least one teacher who is hard to forget. Think about what makes it so hard to forget. Tell what happened.<br />226. What's your pet peeve? Is it graffiti? Too many television commercials? Violence in movies? Write an editorial for your school newspaper. Clearly state what your gripe is and what you think should be done about it. Try to persuade your readers to accept your opinion.<br />227. It is ten years from now. Write a letter to an old classmate telling where you are. Where do you live? What do you do? How did you get where you are? What goals have you reached? etc.<br />228. Write a letter to a teacher you've had in your past that really made a difference in your life. Describe a specific experience that you remember vividly. Thank this person for taking the time to care about you. (replace teacher with person or adult.)<br />229. Write a story about something that has been recycled, like a can, newspaper, or plastic bag, and its adventures along the way.<br />230. Write a story about a ride in a hot air balloon.<br />231. Choose a problem from last night's homework assignment, and write an explanation to your teacher of the steps you used to solve that problem. Be sure you list and explain the steps you took to solve the problem. Include enough information and details so the reader will understand your steps.<br />232. You are a Confederate/ Yankee soldier of the Civil War. You fought valiantly in the Battle of Gettysburg. You are cold, tired, and hungry, yet before you fall asleep, you must first write a newspaper account of your experiences for your hometown paper. Describe your experience. Give details that are specific and relevant to your experience.<br />233. Imagine that someone invented a time travel machine and offered you the opportunity to invite and transport any person to your classroom from any time in the past. If you had your choice of the most interesting person with whom you could share the class day, who would it be? This person could someone from any part of life: politics, military, media, the arts, sports etc. Write a five-paragraph essay to explain how this person could be of benefit and interest to your class.<br />234. Invention and technology have always been an important part of changing the way one lives. Things that did not exist when your parents or grandparents were young, now have changed the way most people in this country live. Some of those inventions are large and others are small. No mater what their size, they have altered the lives of the average person today. Think about an invention that came about in the last hundred years or so. Write an essay on how that invention changed the lives of the people. Explain how life was then, how it is different today, and whether the result is positive or negative.<br />235. You have studied about the early settlers to this country. You know about the hard times that they encountered and know that most of the settlements survived and prospered. They lived in environments that were often difficult, but they overcame those difficulties. Many of the simple everyday acts required individual creativity and effort. They had to live everyday being resourceful enough to meet their needs and the needs of their family and community. Even at an early age, each member was expected to contribute. Write an essay about how the colonists used their creativity and resourcefulness to survive and succeed.<br />236. You probably have read many interesting books or watched an exceptional TV show recently. It probably stands out in your mind for many reasons. It is the kind of show that many people really enjoyed and would not mind watching again. Maybe it was a painless way to learn, perhaps it dealt with a subject that you particularly enjoy. Maybe it stimulated the imagination. Whatever the reasons, you know that many people found it interesting. Choose a book or TV show that that many people enjoyed. Write an essay telling the reader why many people enjoyed it.<br />237. Your class has been discussing the problems in our environment such as littering the land and water, using products that cannot be recycled, burning toxic chemicals and other waste products, cutting down trees, filling in the wetlands, and killing rare kinds of birds and animals. Your teacher has asked each of you to choose one problem in our environment, explain why it is a problem, and suggest things that can be done to help solve it.<br />238. Your class discussed the different kinds of workers in our society and the things they do to make our community a better place. Your teacher has asked you to choose one type of worker and explain how the work is important to your school, your community, or the country as a whole. Write an essay telling how the work is important for you and your town, the school or the country.<br />239. Describe your best friend.<br />240. Describe how you make your favorite sandwich.<br />241. What this class needs to make it better is...<br />242. Describe your favorite place to eat.<br />243. We all have favorite objects that we care about and would not want to give up. Think of one object that is important or valuable to you. For example, it could be a book, a piece of clothing, a game, or any object you care about. Write about your favorite object. Be sure to describe the object and explain why it is valuable or important to you.<br />244. Regardless of where they live, everybody knows of a special place. Describe your special place, wherever it is. What does it look like? How does it feel to be there? Who shares it with you?<br />Return to: Writer's WebUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-68816088735480789152011-04-08T04:14:00.005-04:002011-05-04T03:12:05.083-04:00How writing Socratic Dialogues helps critical thinkingA Socratic Dialogue - is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with differing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas.<br /><br />The ways in which writing Socratic Dialogues improves critical thinking are explored in the following dialogue.<br /><br />Dialogue 1: A teacher (RLF) discusses writing Socratic Dialogues with one of his students (R).<br /><br />Robert Leslie Fielding: Writing Socratic Dialogues is supposed to enhance a person’s critical thinking – do you agree that it does? <br /><br />R: Well, I know it has improved mine.<br /><br />RLF: Can you tell me more about what you mean?<br /><br />R: Well, writing them is the strangest thing I’ve experienced when writing. Once you begin, the writing almost seems to take you over. I think it’s the logic of what you are writing about that has a life of its own.<br /><br />RLF: I always feel that way whenever I’m writing them. I get engrossed in the dialogue – in the logic of it – and then it flows out of me while I write. I think it’s got something to do with the questioning technique.<br /><br />R: I agree. I reckon that because you are asking your own questions and then replying to them yourself, something happens – it’s different from other forms of writing. Thoughts seem to run on from other thoughts.<br /><br />RLF: Yes, I think so too. You write down a question, and in forming the answer, ideas tumble out, one after the other. As you write one thought down another follows it.<br /><br />R: Yes, I wonder why that happens like that when it doesn’t happen quite as readily when you are writing ‘normally?’<br /><br />RLF: I think it may be connected to our attempt to answer a direct question – it focuses our mind on the task of answering.<br /><br />R: Yes, I agree, and the other thing is that once you get going, a sort of rhythm establishes itself and you find yourself thinking almost automatically.<br /><br />RLF: Automatically?<br /><br />R: Yes, but I don’t mean it happens without thinking, but rather that your thinking is triggered by this question and answer technique.<br /><br />RLF: Let’s try to see why we think that is true. First of all, you have a topic you want to discuss – this one, for example.<br /><br />R: Yes, and so you prepare your mind for the topic you are about to discuss.<br /><br />RLF: Then you ask a sort of opening question, to get things underway.<br /><br />R: That’s right, and that question opens up your mind to specifics; you write down the answer to that question, and while you are writing it, something associated with it comes into your mind and you write that down too.<br /><br />RLF: Then, because you are thinking out both question and answer, you become involved – or I should say your mind becomes involved.<br /><br />R: Yes, and because you are the asker and the answerer you can control the pace of the discussion.<br /><br />RLF: Not just the pace, but also the direction too.<br /><br />R: You say you control the direction, but is that true?<br /><br />RLF: If it isn’t you controlling the direction, then who is it – nobody else is involved.<br /><br />R: Nobody else, that’s true, but something else.<br /><br />RLF: What do you mean – something else?<br /><br />R: You said it yourself earlier, the logic of your dialogue takes over and you write truthfully and logically, as logically as you can, which is to say that you are writing truthfully, true to your own thoughts, for how could you do otherwise?<br /><br />RLF: That’s an important point, I think. If it is your internal logic commanding your directions, then you must be writing about something you know already, mustn’t you?<br /><br />R: Yes, I think so. In fact, I think that’s the whole point of them – of writing Socratic Dialogues – that in writing them you find out what you know – you find out things you didn’t know you knew, if you understand me.<br /><br />RLF: Yes, I understand you perfectly. We all have such a lot of knowledge in our heads, but what is difficult is accessing it. I think writing these dialogues goes some way to helping us to access what is in our heads.<br /><br />R: That's right. In what other ways could you do this, I wonder.<br /><br />RLF: I would say you could do it by talking with someone you trust and respect.<br /><br />R: Probably, but I doubt if you would find out so much so quickly.<br /><br />RLF: Why do you say that?<br /><br />R: Because we all have our own persona, our own ego, our own intellect, and our own opinions, don’t we?<br /><br />RLF: We do, and many of the things we have an opinion about are personal to us, that’s to say that our opinions are dear to us and having someone question them can be and is often threatening to us as individuals, whereas when we alone write a Socratic Dialogue – asking questions and answering them, we do not find it threatening.<br /><br />RLF: And I would go further and say that not only do we not find it threatening, but that in fact, we find it stimulating and creative.<br /><br />R: That is probably because we are finding out something about ourselves that we had previously been consciously unaware of – our thoughts and opinions, based upon our internal logic.<br /><br />RLF: Now, do you think everyone has the same internalized logic, or would it depend upon the cultural background of the writer?<br /><br />R: I am sure it must have something to do with that, yes. I also think it might have something to do with the level of your education.<br /><br />RLF: Yes, and probably with your willingness to try it too.<br /><br />R: You are right. I mean, you are never going to experience what writing a Socratic Dialogue can do for you if you never try it out.<br /><br />RLF: Are you glad you tried it?<br /><br />R: Absolutely. I have always enjoyed writing, but now I enjoy it more and more as I get engrossed in writing a dialogue about something new.<br /><br />Dialogue 2<br />Incremental progress<br /><br />RLF: I think the way arguments or themes make progress through the course of a written Socratic Dialogue contributes to the progress made in understanding all the elements in the theme.<br /><br />R: That’s rather a lot to take in all at once, isn’t it? Would you like to explain what you mean step by step?<br /><br />RLF: That’s very clever of you – well said, for it is what I meant to say – that because each point is developed before proceeding to the next one, an understanding is made clearer.<br /><br />R: I thought that was what you meant to say. Isn’t it curious how we hold to one thing in the Dialogue before moving on to the next?<br /><br />RLF: Yes, it is, and I think that is a vital part of the way these Socratic Dialogues proceed, not quickly, but incrementally, step by cautious step until a deeper understanding has been reached.<br /><br />R: And as we said earlier, because the steps issue from our own mind, our concentration is not lost or sidetracked by another’s train of thought.<br /><br />RLF: That is generally the way with discussions between different people – that while one is speaking, the other person is free to wander in his mind, leaving some things unsaid or left off.<br /><br />R: Whereas when one person is ‘discussing’ a topic in a written Dialogue, the mind has no chance to wander off, it being fully occupied in providing the answers to those questions it has been responsible for formulating in the first place.<br /><br />RLF: Yes, indeed. It is the mind working with itself rather than against another person’s mind. And valuable as that can often be, it is another thing completely. This arguing with itself means that concentration can go deeper than would otherwise be the case. I think that is the crux of the matter, and how writing Socratic Dialogues aids critical thinking.<br />R: I think you are right. <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Robert L. Fielding</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-81997209586163344542011-03-23T01:29:00.001-04:002011-03-23T01:30:44.461-04:00Me<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM3lOXXdgRWVdAHaxR8sDTBx9fBmx5MUFCQCohD-BIV9wfbWSQrM1AQFYX0G8vLqgz823skH5cIngaupoESZfujCJ5GSjRiVbnQ-Q4ilKsz-xwyd9AZdxd2x41rhlPY9ZVFmZQiA/s1600/190727_10150141397868666_669028665_6611925_4581542_n.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM3lOXXdgRWVdAHaxR8sDTBx9fBmx5MUFCQCohD-BIV9wfbWSQrM1AQFYX0G8vLqgz823skH5cIngaupoESZfujCJ5GSjRiVbnQ-Q4ilKsz-xwyd9AZdxd2x41rhlPY9ZVFmZQiA/s320/190727_10150141397868666_669028665_6611925_4581542_n.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5587143518087780386" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-8611179652544397362011-03-19T03:04:00.004-04:002011-03-19T05:51:30.968-04:00Quickwood<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIWDTAnx2ygS9zjXvPrsViHz5ix_eSuYWq0_s1hBO_gSC6nEWEAWaA6OO_PChk1MG46t4WFtBuew2z8dbaX4wR7kEiCraSZ4PbNnQObXxM0WoMbC-vCLZRoExT1FdBuaIPNrt_Kw/s1600/Quickwood.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 294px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIWDTAnx2ygS9zjXvPrsViHz5ix_eSuYWq0_s1hBO_gSC6nEWEAWaA6OO_PChk1MG46t4WFtBuew2z8dbaX4wR7kEiCraSZ4PbNnQObXxM0WoMbC-vCLZRoExT1FdBuaIPNrt_Kw/s320/Quickwood.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5585684417601466162" /></a><br />The small boy on the left is my father, Leslie Fielding, with his parents - my grandparents, Ruby Fielding nee Leslie, born in Maryhill, Glasgow, and my grandfather, Evans Fielding, a great cricketer and soldier in the First World War, serving with the York and Lancaster Regiment in France. I'm not sure who the lady on the right is, but I will find out.<br />This photograph was taken sometime in the 1930s, possibly, in Quickwood, a neighbourhood in the district of Roughtown in Mossley, Lancashire.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Robert Leslie Fielding </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-39542978907894782812010-11-08T08:32:00.001-04:002010-11-08T08:39:41.702-04:00Earth from outer space<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkTxyqlzuyEG81V6Xsd5ALwo_x6Ypp62kx-fs58iar62mnaVsNu1uc_2WSkvGvktTEHqGD9XzqJoPBpiM4_0jlRLlNY0by43YhUz-GqVWTqLq-D5PS7HYyW95M-Ch9-YSlqHmvgQ/s1600/earth.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkTxyqlzuyEG81V6Xsd5ALwo_x6Ypp62kx-fs58iar62mnaVsNu1uc_2WSkvGvktTEHqGD9XzqJoPBpiM4_0jlRLlNY0by43YhUz-GqVWTqLq-D5PS7HYyW95M-Ch9-YSlqHmvgQ/s320/earth.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537157133789836018" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidfLXx91elJfRN02v4RyPXjwcBoNZwZBh1uzf2laiUyJYjXFh3XI6PO5GCgCAJZ5UIhyphenhyphenVME6T_YV1dn9LiBHVHr4LsIdP9ZQdt3ZuaGxzAPPT68Q0JLSyG7EKspohNQKi0YT6isQ/s1600/Earth-arabian.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 319px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidfLXx91elJfRN02v4RyPXjwcBoNZwZBh1uzf2laiUyJYjXFh3XI6PO5GCgCAJZ5UIhyphenhyphenVME6T_YV1dn9LiBHVHr4LsIdP9ZQdt3ZuaGxzAPPT68Q0JLSyG7EKspohNQKi0YT6isQ/s320/Earth-arabian.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537157027171171602" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Se69igfzuv7ouhDbnR6Gtc9zo09doh_-2oPe7BSLtx0VIKsO7je6eMqIYFbyKe9IGzVupr-YX9uYVdNCo3YEhajDphJaaE-iXhl_D8xLMPN4LbbVJiT_ISz88uYB6tu921tSBQ/s1600/Dubai.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Se69igfzuv7ouhDbnR6Gtc9zo09doh_-2oPe7BSLtx0VIKsO7je6eMqIYFbyKe9IGzVupr-YX9uYVdNCo3YEhajDphJaaE-iXhl_D8xLMPN4LbbVJiT_ISz88uYB6tu921tSBQ/s320/Dubai.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537156861622638434" /></a><br />Quotes From Astronauts<br />For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.<br />- Donald Williams, USA <br />My first view - a panorama of brilliant deep blue ocean, shot with shades of green and gray and white - was of atolls and clouds. Close to the window I could see that this Pacific scene in motion was rimmed by the great curved limb of the Earth. It had a thin halo of blue held close, and beyond, black space. I held my breath, but something was missing - I felt strangely unfulfilled. Here was a tremendous visual spectacle, but viewed in silence. There was no grand musical accompaniment; no triumphant, inspired sonata or symphony. Each one of us must write the music of this sphere for ourselves.<br />- Charles Walker, USA <br /><br />Looking outward to the blackness of space, sprinkled with the glory of a universe of lights, I saw majesty - but no welcome. Below was a welcoming planet. There, contained in the thin, moving, incredibly fragile shell of the biosphere is everything that is dear to you, all the human drama and comedy. That's where life is; that's were all the good stuff is.<br />- Loren Acton, USA <br /><br />The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic. The Earth was absolutely round. I believe I never knew what the word round meant until I saw Earth from space.<br />- Aleksei Leonov, USSR <br /><br />The sun truly "comes up like thunder," and it sets just as fast. Each sunrise and sunset lasts only a few seconds. But in that time you see at least eight different bands of color come and go, from a brilliant red to the brightest and deepest blue. And you see sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets every day you're in space. No sunrise or sunset is ever the same.<br />- Joseph Allen, USA <br /><br />The Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man, has to make a man appreciate the creation of God and the love of God.<br />- James Irwin, USA <br /><br />Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth . . . home.<br />- Edgar Mitchell, USA <br /><br />My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity.<br />- Edgar Mitchell, USA <br /><br />For the first time in my life I saw the horizon as a curved line. It was accentuated by a thin seam of dark blue light - our atmosphere. Obviously this was not the ocean of air I had been told it was so many times in my life. I was terrified by its fragile appearance.<br />- Ulf Merbold, Federal Republic of Germany <br /><br />A Chinese tale tells of some men sent to harm a young girl who, upon seeing her beauty, become her protectors rather than her violators. That's how I felt seeing the Earth for the first time. "I could not help but love and cherish her.<br />- Taylor Wang, China/USA <br /><br /><strong>Robert L. Fielding</strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-91888395567841144792010-11-08T06:48:00.005-04:002010-11-08T07:36:41.769-04:00Education is the answer to the world's ills, not money!In praise of not being wealthy<br /><br />Robert L. Fielding<br /><br />Right away, I need to say that the title – ‘In praise of not being wealthy’ is NOT the same thing as ‘In praise of being poor’ – Being poor is an onerous position to find oneself in.<br /><br />No, my drift is that being wealthy, rich, affluent – does have its drawbacks, though I can hear most readers complaining that they would just as soon have the drawbacks if they could have the wealth.<br /><br />That is chiefly because becoming wealthy – or at any rate, wealthier than we are at the present, is a national – an international – a global obsession. Everybody desires more money – even the rich desire more – even the filthy rich – billionaires – desire more money. <br /><br />Let’s just first explore that one; Why do the fantastically (rich beyond your wildest dreams) people desire to have more? Is it because they haven’t got enough stuff – can’t get away from the rat-race enough, need one more town house, or villa by the sea?<br /><br />Probably none of those things – it could be that wealth equates with power, and, as we know, you can never have enough of that! Power corrupts….<br /><br />For the rest of us menial types, surviving on what we earn under normal working conditions – you don’t work – you don’t earn, and what you do earn is hardly enough to give up work on – for us, we desire money for the freedom it would give us – we imagine.<br /><br />We wouldn’t have to work again, we wouldn’t have to scrimp and save, we wouldn’t have to worry? Ah, there we have it in a nutshell; we wouldn’t have to worry. Now that is something you can always never have too little of.<br /><br />We worry where our next meal is coming from – some of us; we worry about house prices – most of us; we worry about sending our kids to university, and we just worry generally – most of our worries centring around money – the lack of it.<br /><br />I doubt very much if the rich and famous worry about having too much money – though they probably do worry that their stocks will crash and their wealth will disappear overnight, but apart from that gnawing worry, they probably don’t have financial worries.<br /><br />But is that true? Isn’t almost everything we do connected with how much money we have, or haven’t got, as the case may be?<br /><br />And the wealthy will have as many worries as the rest of us – why? It’s called ‘the human condition’ – we worry because we are human. Do zebras in the Serengeti worry that one of these days a group of cheetahs, or whatever the collective noun is for those magnificent creatures, will bear down on them at an incredible speed and devour them? I very much doubt it, somehow. If we humans, however, had even only an outside chance of being eaten by a bigger, faster animal, we would never set foot out of doors again, at least not without carrying a gun.<br /><br />This existential worry we are habitually burdened with isn’t removed by a fatter wallet, though we all mistakenly think it will be, and even that it should be.<br /><br />The wealthy worry, like everyone else; it’s just that the reasons they worry are different to the reasons we worry. <br /><br />Now, apart from this imagined removal of worry, the most commonly mistaken, if admittedly entirely plausible notion about wealth, is that everything and anything can be bought, acquired, gotten, with it. Not true!<br /><br />Of course it isn’t true – everybody knows that the best things in life are free – that money can’t buy happiness, let alone that most valuable of commodities – our health.<br /><br />Money can get us into a good hospital, money can help us avoid the interminable waiting lists for operations the rest of us have to join for that hip replacement, but generally, money makes not a halfpennyworth of difference to our health or lack of it.<br /><br />On the contrary, the lack of spends usually keeps drinkers sober, makes ‘em get up early and live an active life working to earn their keep. Sitting on velvet cushions soon pales, I should think, if you’ve nothing else to do – ever! <br /><br />Now let’s think of some of the things being loaded does prevent us from doing; the son of a wealthy man, if he is an under achiever at school, which is by no means unlikely, would not even consider a job learning how to maintain motorcycles, even though he might love to know how is own bike works. Being from a rich family probably means that doing what is little more than manual labour, at first, whilst learning the ropes as an apprentice mechanic, precludes his entering that career. The pay is too little, the hours are too long, and the work is dirty – all that, to be sure, but it is interesting work – work that young men invariably find fascinating, particularly if they enjoy motoring in one form or another, and which young man doesn’t like doing that.<br /><br />Now let’s think about the rich kid’s sister, who, like her brother, didn’t do as well at school as her parents might have hoped. Ideally, she would become a ladies hairdresser, were she to come from a more plebian family – she would learn the trade, start her own salon, eventually, and earn her own keep and be in charge of her life. Her stumbling block is that she would hardly consider doing such poorly paid work and having to sweep floors and watch hair being cut long before she was let loose on a customer’s head of hair. She would certainly enjoy it once she got into it, as we say. The trouble is that she would never begin it chiefly because, financially, it is beneath her.<br /><br />Now tell me that money can buy anything! True, it can buy her a salon of her own, in which she sits and controls the money coming in, but would she enjoy doing that as much as she would learning how to make a fishwife look like a film star? Most definitely not!<br /><br />The opportunities open to wealthier sons and daughters are limited in ways that is not the case for others. For young people of more modest means opportunities open to them are also limited – severely limited, but for different reasons. Still, I do stick by my claim that Intelligence Quotient for Intelligence Quotient, more opportunities, more interesting opportunities exist at lower income levels, for the reasons I have just explained.<br /><br />Certainly, a kid from a back street in Bombay has not the slightest chance of opening a salon for wealthy females wanting their hair done – yet! The wonderful thing about our world is that people can rise from poverty and often do, to the dizziest heights. It must be said though that relatively few ever do. Those that are fortunate enough are held up by the class they join as proof positive that all you need to get on is the determination and the breaks.<br /><br />It is this dubious fact that holds the whole rotten system together. Barefoot kids kicking a ball about in the slums of Rio all think that they can be the next Pele. 99.999% can’t and won’t. But that one kid who does eventually play for Santos and Brazil keeps everybody hopeful that it can and will happen to them.<br /><br />It is nothing more or less than a monumental waste of talent, energy, resources, and, worst of all, children’s ambitions and aspirations. It makes a mockery of education, and subverts any real progress of making this world of ours any better. <br /><strong>Robert L. Fielding</strong>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-88362685864690049902010-09-17T06:46:00.002-04:002010-09-18T02:14:21.047-04:00What is daydreaming?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCkzOtZNquiv71unCZU1HNGcXCbDW8DNDEx-X-G77eF8WccD31XGLcd0eC33_o8wBrh5LZSvBwFIJIMF_-sQMupV8pRz80sSRgBY3nt7J636HLSa0n_YX2t4JT0F_SIfWJYmHuw/s1600/200px-WayneTWOTW.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkCkzOtZNquiv71unCZU1HNGcXCbDW8DNDEx-X-G77eF8WccD31XGLcd0eC33_o8wBrh5LZSvBwFIJIMF_-sQMupV8pRz80sSRgBY3nt7J636HLSa0n_YX2t4JT0F_SIfWJYmHuw/s320/200px-WayneTWOTW.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5518132962278756418" /></a><br />Daydreaming: the mind in neutral<br />A discussion between Mr. Jung and Mr. Freud<br />by<br />Robert L. Fielding<br /><br />Mr. Freud: When we are what we usually refer to as ‘daydreaming’, what, in your opinion, are we really doing? Clearly, we are not dreaming – we are not in that unconscious state of mind characterized by rapid eye movement.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: No, of course we are not actually dreaming – rather that is our habitual term for what we are doing when we let our mind wander.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: And is that the same as being ‘absent minded’? <br /><br />Mr. Jung: That is again, only an expression. Our minds can never be absent, even when we are asleep, as you have stated elsewhere. But let us deal with this phenomenon we call daydreaming. It seems to me to be the opposite of paying attention to something, which is nothing more or less than focusing on one particular problem or on one thing, let us say.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Then if we are not focusing our attention – the direction of our mind’s focus, is on nothing, is that true?<br /><br />Mr. Jung: That is true; it is focused on nothing, and on everything, or let us say that everything that can be imagined can be included in daydreaming.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: What do you mean when you say, ‘everything that can be imagined’? Can we think of anything of which we are unaware – that exists in our imagination?<br /><br />Mr. Jung: Here lies the difficulty for those of us studying the workings of the mind. How can we know what is in our imagination? When does our imagination manifest itself?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Why, it would seem to manifest itself in dreams, but at times when we are in a conscious state, I would say the imagination manifests itself in various ways and at various times.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: When, specifically?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: When, for example, we are writing a story, or when we are telling one – making one up, I mean, not remembering one and retelling it.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: I might agree, were it not for the seemingly obvious fact that we are fully cognizant of what we are doing – what we are thinking – how our train of thoughts is taking us on through our made up story, written or otherwise. When we begin to embark upon telling a story – rather like embarking on a journey, we dress for the occasion – we do not go out unprepared, do we?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: I rather think we start quite unprepared, unless we give our story a title before the telling of it.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: Can you illustrate what you mean?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Yes, I mean that if one of the younger members of our family asks us to tell them a story – a bedtime story, for example, that we do so in the knowledge that we should tell a story that has a happy ending, and we will probably be asked to give our story a title before we begin. We might begin, by saying that “this is a story about a little girl who lost her way in the woods.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: And how would that prepare us?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: By giving us the setting and at least one of the characters in the story – in this case a little girl.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: What then?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Then we might begin in the usual manner in story telling – ‘Once upon a time’, we might begin, thus preparing our listeners to hear something that is not necessarily true. After all, we would not want to alarm the child just before she goes to sleep, now would we?<br /><br />Mr. Jung: Quite.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Whereas if we began our ‘story’ with the words “Have you heard what happened to that little girl who lives down in the village…” Then that would particularize our subject – make her a real person, about whom we would be wrong in making a story up about.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: Yes, yes, I see what you mean. But how are we prepared by the first line proper of our story, and how do we use our imagination in the telling of it.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: By treading step by step through the story as we go along. If we are blessed with a fertile imagination, we may well be one or two steps ahead of our youthful listeners, even though we will most probably not have worked out exactly how the story enfolds right up to its end.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: And we might, most probably, speak in chunks of story, describing the scene as the little girl wanders lost through the woods.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: That is perfectly reasonable to expect, since our imagination must come from somewhere. If we knew nothing at all of forests, we might have difficulty describing what it was like to walk through the middle of one, and still keep our description plausible to the hearer, who may well know what forests are typically like.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: So are we saying, in fact, that in this making up of a story from our imagination, we are in fact drawing upon some aspect of the knowledge we already possess?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Yes, I think we could say that.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: But what about making a story up about somewhere we had never been – say about being on the Moon or on Mars – what knowledge would we have to draw upon then?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Then we would be using our imagination in a more pure form, I think.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: But would we not be calling upon some sort of ideas about what we believe the Moon is like?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Not necessarily. I could give you a description of the Moon that has no bearing at all on any reality that I am aware of. I could say, for example, that the surface of the Moon was like cheese, and then go on to describe how someone travelled across it, stopping to eat bits of it on the way, if you like.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: So you could describe something outlandish, something which truly does not exist, though it might do, and do so without drawing upon any knowledge you could speak of consciously.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: That is right. But, if you think about it, you would still be using your knowledge of something you were aware of, but using it in an unexpected way.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: That way being what we refer to as being creative. And how do you think all this relates to what is going on when someone is daydreaming?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: When someone is daydreaming, they are allowing their minds to wander freely – perhaps ‘allowing’ is the wrong word, for that conjures up a sort of conscious volition, whereas when we daydream, it is the mind, I think, that does the wandering, without any directions from our conscious thoughts.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: But is that always true. We might, for instance, let our minds wander to a desert island, imagining the soft ripple of waves as they lap the shore. We might then let our minds wander to that island, placing ourselves lying upon the white sand and sipping a cooling drink of cocoanut juice.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Then we might have to distinguish certain sorts of daydreaming as, let us say, some species of wishful thinking. There we are, doing some onerous task in the course of our working day – a task we are well able to do without paying any attention to it, and so giving our mind the freedom to wander in any direction we choose.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: Do you think we choose the direction or the direction chooses us?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Probably both, at one time or another. We probably daydream about our lacking something we particularly desire at that moment of our beginning to daydream.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: Can you illustrate what you mean?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: If, for example, you are working in a very hot place, a place you cannot leave for another hour or two, say, then your mind might wander to a cooler place, with things around you to ensure that you stay cool – cold drinks, snow or ice. In essence, you are placing yourself in what I might call an ‘If only’ situation – If only I were sitting on the banks of a stream, letting my feel dangle beneath the cool water, feeling entirely refreshed the coolness of the water creeping up my whole body, making me feel cooler than I am in the here and now.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: Yes, I see what you mean. So you think that daydreaming can be brought on by a felt need?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: I do indeed.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: and could you forecast the direction of that daydreaming, based upon what you know of the person doing the daydreaming?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: You could try, but your efforts might miss the mark. You might well expect a person working in front of hot ovens in a bakery, to be daydreaming about somewhere cool, but unless you are thoroughly acquainted with every facet of that person’s life, then it is extremely doubtful whether you could forecast the direction his daydreams might take.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: Better to examine the direction of your own daydreaming to retrospectively examine your own needs or your own sense of well being. It might be the case, for example, that if your daydreams invariably follow the same course, you might be right in thinking that your mind knows you in ways you had not thought of.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: But then don’t we come back to thinking of daydreaming as an activity that is consciously directed?<br /><br />Mr. Jung: Yes, I suppose we do. The only way we can progress; it seems to me, is to remember the substance of our daydreams and subject them to scrutiny.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: But I fear that in so doing you would stem the flow of any future daydreams – subjecting them to mental scrutiny seems like actual thinking rather than daydreaming – that is to say, anticipating – saying to yourself - “How would it be if I just did this or that”<br /><br />Mr. Jung: But is that daydreaming?<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Yes, I would say that it is. I am sure that much of what we call our conscious thought is of this type – hypothesizing.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: Which we might term worrying, if that anticipated future state is painful or if we are reluctant to go that way.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Then I think we can say, can’t we, that to daydream is to use our minds in ways that are healthy, advantageous to our sense of worth or well being.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: I totally agree, for it now seems that what we might in fact be doing, when we are daydreaming, is compromising reality, equalizing our needs and fulfilling some of them, if only in our minds, and only for the duration of the daydream.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: And thereby keeping our sanity intact. I can easily imagine prisoners locked up for long periods of time, regaining their freedom in their daydreams, and so finding their incarceration more bearable because of this use of daydreaming to negate the negative and accentuate the positive.<br /><br />Mr. Jung: I think we might well have found a new way of differentiating homo sapiens from other creatures: Man as a user of his imagination to get through the difficulties he faces every day of his life, for I think I would be right in saying that no other living creature is able to do this.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: My only question now is this: Is it possible to daydream without language? Do we need words to name parts of our existence – imagined existence?<br /><br />Mr. Jung: That is the perfect way to leave this particular discussion.<br /><br />Mr. Freud: Why do you think that?<br /><br />Mr. Jung: Because now we have something to daydream about?<br /><br />Robert L. FieldingUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-9158659200757615242010-06-11T06:46:00.000-04:002010-06-11T06:47:24.666-04:00Informal Writing and preparationInformal, in-class writing activities<br />Pamela Flash <br />Informal, exploratory writing, when assigned regularly, can lead students to develop insightful, critical, and creative thinking. Experience tells us that without this prompted activity, students might not otherwise give themselves enough time and space to reflect on class content, or to forge connections that will allow them to remember and use ideas from assigned readings, lectures, and other projects. These brief writing activities also allow instructors to get a general sense of students’ grasp of course concepts and materials, and can, in turn, inform future lecture notes, class plans, and pacing.<br />What follows is an annotated listing of some of the more common write-to-learn activities assigned in classrooms across the disciplines at the University of Minnesota.<br />Freewriting<br />Freewriting, a form of automatic writing or brainstorming trumpeted by writing theorist Peter Elbow, requires students to outrun their editorial anxieties by writing without stopping to edit, daydream, or even ponder. In this technique, all associated ideas are allowed space on the page as soon as they occur in the mind. Five-minute bouts of freewriting can be useful before class to spark discussion; in the middle of class to reinvigorate, recapitulate, or question; and at the end of class to summarize. It is also useful at many points in the drafting process: during the invention stage as students sift for topics, and during the drafting process as they work to develop, position, or deepen their own ideas.<br />There are at least two types of freewriting assignments: focused and unfocused. Focused freewrites allow students opportunities to initiate or develop their thinking on a topical, instructor-supplied prompt, for example, “What is a virus?” Unfocused freewrites, on the other hand, allow students to simply clear their minds and prepare for content activity. In either form, students are instructed to write generic phrases like “I can’t think of anything to say, I can’t think of…” or “Nothing nothing nothing” if their minds go blank. Once their self-consciousness or resistance lowers, ideas will begin to flow again. <br />It’s important, particularly in the case of focused freewrites, that students take a few moments after the timer has gone off to read over what they’ve written, highlighting useful and interesting ideas that may be glittering from amidst the verbal rubble (see example below). These insights might then be developed into formal writing assignments, or at least be contributed to discussions. <br />Note also that freewriting is often personal and messy. It should be a low-stakes writing activity for students, and should therefore remain ungraded. <br />This excerpt is from a timed freewrite and shows the student’s subsequent highlights.<br /> <br />One-Minute Papers<br />One-minute papers are usually written in class on an index card or scrap of paper, or out-of-class via email. The limited space of the card forces students to focus and also presents such a small amount of writing space that it usually lowers levels of writing anxiety. On their cards, students may be asked to summarize, to question, to reiterate, to support or counter a thesis or argument, or to apply new information to new circumstances. Such writing helps students to digest, apply, and challenge their thinking, achieving enough confidence to contribute fruitfully to class discussions. These short writing assignments also deliver quick, valuable feedback to instructors on what students are learning.<br />The following are examples of prompts:<br />• Any discipline: <br />Create a bumper sticker that would summarize yesterday’s lecture.<br />Without referring to the text, jot down one or two points that surprised you.<br />• Anthropology: <br />Try to view this slide through the eyes of a member of your target subculture. List your observations in the order they occur to you.<br />• Medical Ethics: <br />“People suffering from schizophrenia or manic-depressive disorder should/should not be forced to take their medication" (Bean 124).<br />• Algebra: <br />Think of examples of your own personal experience to illustrate the uses of vector algebra. You might consider such experiences as swimming in a river with a steady current, walking across the deck of a moving boat, crossing the wake while water-skiing, cutting diagonally across a vacant lot while friends walk around the lot, or watching a car trying to beat a moving train to a railroad crossing. Use one or more of these experiences to explain to a friend (a Kinesiology major) what vector algebra is all about. Use both words and diagrams (adapted from Bean 121). <br />Scenarios<br />Scenarios are short, imaginative writing activities that allow students to broach a topic or apply content to new contexts. Examples of scenario activities include writing letters, editorials, memos, and persona pieces such as dialogues or role play. <br />Sample prompts include the following:<br />• Create a hypothetical dialogue between 3-5 individuals who have different perspectives on, but definite stakes in, your argument. <br />• Write a short letter to the author of this novel in which you pose unresolved question(s). <br />• You are Adam Smith. You have an intercom connection to WorldCom. What do you say? <br />• Write a letter to an elderly and taciturn patient (who has recently been diagnosed with diabetes) explaining what is meant by the glycemic index of foods and why knowing about the glycemic index will help her/him to maintain healthy blood sugar levels. <br />Logbooks <br />Logbooks (called journals* in some contexts) provide students with opportunities to think through material in their own voices. They may be structured or unstructured, requiring students to complete frequent short entries in which they, for example, summarize material, connect course topics with their observations and experiences, answer questions you design, or reflect on their own notes using double-entry notebooks. Unlike individual short writing assignments, logbooks compile student writing throughout an assignment, a unit, or semester and, like portfolios, allow students to see the development of their observations, ideas, and skills. These notes may be kept in notebooks, binders, or electronic folders. <br />* You are cautioned against calling the logbook a journal or diary. Students may associate those terms with strictly personal records of intimate thoughts and wishes and day-to-day activity. Students need to be clear that the purpose of a logbook is the open (public) record of ideas and findings. <br />Microthemes<br />Microthemes, conventionally similar to the one-minute paper, have, in practice, taken the form of one-page papers written outside class. Informal and exploratory, these assignments should, again, present students with low-risk situations where they can feel free to speculate and work through their thoughts, paving the way for more sophisticated analysis and evaluation. Examples include the following:<br />• History: <br />Write a microtheme of between 250-350 words on the following topic: China and India both had dramatic encounters with Western countries during the nineteenth century. Select an encounter each country had with the West in the 1800s and compare and contrast the Chinese and Indian responses. Discuss these two responses in terms of at least one trend in world history.<br />• Wildlife Conservation and Management:<br />Write a microtheme addressing an issue or concern based on a news release from a non-governmental organization (NGO) or other stakeholder group. The news release of the NGO should be from the period November 1999 - January 2000. Write the microtheme from the perspective of a natural resource agency person (you). The microtheme will be addressed to me, your supervisor. You will express, and defend, either your opposition or your support of the perspective raised in the news release. You will be expected to use the World Wide Web (WWW). In addition, give the WWW address for the NGO or stakeholder group. <br />Teaching with Informal Writing Assignments: Some Notes on Procedure<br />• When introducing the activity, give students your rationale for assigning it. Avoid characterizing it as a “fun little writing activity.” <br />• If you’re using a prompt, present it both orally and visually by writing it on the board or projecting it on the screen. Exceptions include disciplines where response to oral instructions is valued.<br />• Whenever possible, do the activity yourself before presenting it to students and/or do it along with them in the class. This makes a significant impact on student motivation.<br />• Before students write, describe next steps. Will the writing be collected? discussed? included in an assignment portfolio? graded? If students are going to be able to be truly informal, they need to know that they aren’t going to be judged on the quality of their exploratory writing.<br />• Be clear about time limits (“I’ll stop you in 5 minutes”) and when time is almost over, give a one-minute or 30-second warning.<br />• At the completion of the assignment, ask students to reflect on insights and developments.<br />• If you collect student writing, summarize, or at least highlight and comment on your findings during a subsequent class.<br />Effective write-to-learn assignments...<br />• Are short (3-15 minutes) <br />• Ask students to write a word, a sentence, question, or a paragraph or two <br />• Are integrated (explicitly) into class content, objectives, and activity, and, are optimally, utilized in subsequent writing projects <br />• Elicit multiple responses <br />• Where appropriate, receive some content-focused (versus mechanics-focused) response <br />• Aren't formally graded, but count toward a portion of the grade <br />Now What?: Responding to Informal Writing<br />If the primary purpose of informal writing is learning (rather than communicating what has been learned) and if the intended audience is usually limited to the writer, how are instructors advised to grade or respond to the writing generated by these activities? Unlike finished student work elicited by more formal assignments, informal writing is not assessed for style or grammar; you’ve asked students to formulate and pursue ideas in a creative and potentially messy process. With this in mind, consider the following strategies for working with completed informal assignments:<br />For In-Class Short-Writes:<br />• Do nothing more: continue with the discussion, demonstration, or lecture, confident that the activity succeeded in allowing students to deepen their understanding of the target content.<br />• Follow the activity by giving students class time to voice ideas and/or questions they may have uncovered by writing. In large classes, ask students to discuss ideas from their writing with a peer in order to share or synthesize responses that you then pull into discussion.<br />• Collect the writing with or without student names. You can read them quickly for your own information, and then summarize this information in the next class session, or you can grade them (check, check minus, check plus). <br />• Ask students to keep their writing until the semester’s end, then hand in their five best for grading. <br />Three important caveats:<br />• Freewriting often results in personal writing that students should not be asked to make public. Make sure that you are clear about audience before the assignment is undertaken.<br />• Whether or not their informal writing receives a grade or comment, students should be given credit for doing it. Allocating a percentage of their final course grades to informal assignments and/or class participation can allow you a place to accumulate the minor number of points given to these small assignments. You might also ask students to compile and turn in all “process pieces” like drafts and informal writing with a final project, and allocate a percentage of that project’s cumulative grade.<br />• Anticipating that students may be as unfamiliar with un-graded assignments as they are with the whole concept of writing-to-learn, expect that their engagement with either aspect may require some discussion of rationale on your part as you introduce the activities. <br /> <br />For Longer Informal Assignments:<br />Longer pieces of writing done outside class (microthemes, logbooks, response papers) are read for content. Instructor or peer comments should focus primarily on relevance to the assignment and quality of ideas. Criteria for success in these assignments is usually based on the thoughtfulness of students’ responses and their ability to think coherently on paper. If you find that a student’s ideas are obscured by error-ridden writing, you won’t be able to respond to them.<br />Writing supportive and engaging comments is, of course, the ideal as these comments will reinforce the idea that these informal assignments are indeed about exploration and the pursuit of insight. If writing substantial comments is not an option time-wise, you (or a classmate) can still note brief questions and reactions in the margins.<br />Grading Informal Writing Assignments:<br />Respond with a simple check plus (excellent), check (satisfactory), or check minus (sub-adequate) and, if time is limited, minimal comments:<br /> “Your insights on issues relating to privacy in health care reporting are strong and could be developed into a compelling argument!” <br /> “You’ve named some of the most important issues involved with privacy and health care, but don’t develop any of them persuasively.”<br /> “You’ve summarized the articles and have responded thoughtfully, but don’t answer the assigned question.”<br />Bean, John. C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.<br /><br />http://writing.umn.edu/tww/assignments/in-class.html<br />http://writing.umn.edu/tww/assignments/assignment_index.html<br />Owl at Purdue<br />http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/728/02/<br />English for students<br />http://www.english-for-students.com/Exploratory-Writing.html<br />http://www.english-for-students.com/Writing-That-Explains-and-Explores.htmlUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-20447032118861688382010-05-03T05:30:00.005-04:002010-05-03T05:34:08.828-04:00Letter from America<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MUBm-cVwj8iOQZicIA0HZ8A8I637dGnHlg8mP9aoDxiAoPgInwCmr-pWCwJNJqCEDRbPAqPUSLEHX7J-68jmzVrscQ9j8nVZsdLgC86gy6RX6SNBAHdWxYLSfy7LJ4h53kC0UQ/s1600/letter-from-america-1946-2004.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 206px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MUBm-cVwj8iOQZicIA0HZ8A8I637dGnHlg8mP9aoDxiAoPgInwCmr-pWCwJNJqCEDRbPAqPUSLEHX7J-68jmzVrscQ9j8nVZsdLgC86gy6RX6SNBAHdWxYLSfy7LJ4h53kC0UQ/s320/letter-from-america-1946-2004.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466974236010360370" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zi_b9qQxW9NF2C8lDsvDQHlpp3-FlULlfirV1Nkpwwp4tW7zRNZEcvn0x6Vgoc-mexMKI5mNU2Sci1qGbXnq63MfSr3399YLDeTEqAFY33hhTX6LGJH27VNj4IqIiCSxlZZK1g/s1600/CookePA2201_468x649.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 230px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zi_b9qQxW9NF2C8lDsvDQHlpp3-FlULlfirV1Nkpwwp4tW7zRNZEcvn0x6Vgoc-mexMKI5mNU2Sci1qGbXnq63MfSr3399YLDeTEqAFY33hhTX6LGJH27VNj4IqIiCSxlZZK1g/s320/CookePA2201_468x649.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466974068025381234" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK7diP8pkiRE2GU3j_r_Opa5WaJ_nCErnpEXNJGlNsT1NJIMLEUWT5AqfuZARMzctk1oKgIOxmXaIxcUkL-P9MYJK5EpcQttLW12xZ14PqruI75xjSrSfntsftAjJ79hA0cUcs1Q/s1600/ACookeCorb460.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK7diP8pkiRE2GU3j_r_Opa5WaJ_nCErnpEXNJGlNsT1NJIMLEUWT5AqfuZARMzctk1oKgIOxmXaIxcUkL-P9MYJK5EpcQttLW12xZ14PqruI75xjSrSfntsftAjJ79hA0cUcs1Q/s320/ACookeCorb460.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466973900390090882" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Letter from America – Alistair Cooke – creative nonfiction - written to be heard<br />Robert L. Fielding<br />Covering a vast array of events in contemporary US history, Alistair Cooke’s well known and beloved broadcast, ‘Letter from America’ was delivered in a style that was unique – probably still is.<br /><br />His disciples, not just members of the American diaspora living and working within earshot of the BBC’s weekly broadcasts, sat close to the radio to listen to the velvety syrup of his voice roll out the significant happenings that particular week in America, many more of us did too.<br /><br />And we heard this supremely English man talk eloquently and entertainingly about all manner of things – from the night Joe Louis, the ‘Brown Bomber’, won his first title fight, to the somber days after the Kennedy assassination – from the very different styles of messrs Carter and Reagan, to the death of John Gotti, an infamous gangster.<br /><br />In all his talks, now back in paper, Letter from America Penguin (2004), Cooke, born in Salford in 1908, displayed an amazing breadth and depth of knowledge on American culture, letting us know how George Washington spoke to folk, and how Robert Frost used everyday items to say something profound about the human condition.<br /><br />It felt as if he knew his subjects, which he did, of course – intimately, either personally or through reputation in word and deed. His illustrations were perhaps sometimes a little too apostolic for some tastes, particularly where grandees from DC where concerned, but he was acutely aware of something journalists ignore at their peril – the mood of a nation in times of consequence.<br /><br />I say his talks are now back in paper, for that is how they began. Cooke sat down and penned them afresh, calling upon historical fact and a sort of anecdotal knowledge of the good and the great of American society; he quoted Joe Louis accurately after a bruising encounter with another Joe – Jersey Joe Walcott – asked if he had been worried during the fight, and expected to say that he hadn’t, he said – “ I was worried the whole way through. Yes, sir, I aint 23 no more.”<br /><br />And being written to be spoken, as they were, his letters retain the freshness of the day they were written. Something more; his phrasing is rhythmical in a way that purely written prose – wrote to be read, usually isn’t.<br /><br />No doubt Cooke heard the words he composed, like some playwrights claim they do, hearing cadence and rhythm, rise and fall of the language being written. Poets – good ones – inevitably ‘listen’ to the words they write, but it does seem rare in what is something akin to journalism.<br /><br />Read a column in one of your classier dailies and I doubt whether you will hear any such sounding composition. Only with writers like Edward Abbey (Down The River), Anthony Burgess (Homage to QWERTYUIOP), or anything by Diane Ackerman (A Short History of the Senses), do you find this preoccupation with the ‘sound’ of words on the page.<br /><br />Of course, novelists have long known the lure of the sound of words striking a reader’s ear. Who can forget the repetitive beginnings of Bleak House, or A Tale of Two Cities – ‘Fog everywhere….’ – ‘It was the best of times……’, but that is the novelists stock-in trade, or used to be. Now, writers of that new genre with the paradoxical sounding name of ‘creative non fiction’ are doing it everywhere and on all sorts of topics, from descriptions of rascals in Papua New Guinea to high fashion houses in Milan, Paris and London. <br /><br />It sounds new, especially if you haven’t heard of it yet, but Alistair Cooke knew how it was done even before it had a name.<br />Robert L. FieldingUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20955688.post-46610107821230588952010-03-28T07:19:00.001-04:002010-04-08T04:59:43.402-04:00The Lesson LearnedNot all that is gold, glitters, you know. Look at me. I’m a handsome Prince in disguise: I’m a rich man in a poor man’s garb; I’m Einstein in a lunatic asylum.<br />One day, I thought I’d go and take a look at my father’s company’s Head Office in Hounslow, Hertfordshire. I was wearing my usual stuff – jeans and a Tee-shirt – trainers and a baseball hat – like I said, not the kind of clothing you normally associate with the wealthy.<br />I was just getting into the lift – that one for the CEO and his minions – that one with gold buttons – that one that is the only one to go to the 43rd floor – my dad’s Penthouse flat/office.<br />I knew he’d be up there, doing all that vital stuff he has to do to keep his firm up there with the best – practicing his putting stroke into an upturned empty coffee cup lying facing him in the opposite corner of the room.<br />“How was your day, dear?” my Mum would ask him as he stepped through the front door.<br />“Been hard at it all day, love”, was his usual reply. I knew better.<br />The lift door opened, and there in front of me was a man in what we used to call a pin stripe suit.<br />“Hey,” I said, “I didn’t think anybody still wore those things!”<br />The man straightened with annoyance. The hair on the back of his neck stuck out like a porcupine’s bottom. This man was angry, I could tell.<br />“And just where do you think you are going?” he asked shirtily.<br />“Oh, just up to see the old man,” I replied.<br />He stiffened again.<br />“I don’t think so, young man,” and he barred my way and pressed one of the gold plated buttons – number 43.<br />I took another lift. <br />“I can walk the last one, I said to myself. I went to the next lift and pressed the UP button – the door opened, and a man in blue denim overalls greeted me.<br />“Going up, Sir?” he asked.<br />“Sure am,” I said cheerily”, and up went the lift.<br />“Which floor, sir?” I pointed to 42.<br />“I can walk the last one,” I said.<br />“Bbbut, sssir, you can’t go to the 43rd!” <br />“Why not?” I asked.<br />“Because the boss will be busy. He’s always busy in the afternoons.”<br />“I know,” I said, “that won’t be a problem.”<br />“But you need to make an appointment, everybody does.. except ….”<br />“Except his CEO, right?”<br />“Exactly so, sir” the man said. “He doesn’t like surprises.”<br />“He’s going to get one today, isn’t he?” I laughed.<br />“Sir, sir, let me come up with you so that I can knock on his door.”<br />“OK, sure, “I said, “come with me.”<br />On the long trip up to the 42nd floor, I got to know Mr. Bloggs, the cleaner. I got to know that he was a very honest man, that he loved working for my Dad, and that he would do anything for him.<br />As the lift stopped and we trudged up the stairs to the penthouse suite, the man in the pin striped suite appeared above us.<br />“And just where do you think you two are going?” he shouted stiffly.<br />Before I could say anything, Bloggs was whispering to me.<br />“This is Mr. Smith, the managing director, nobody likes him.”<br />I whispered back, “I’m not surprised.”<br />Suddenly, Smith was pushing the little cleaner backwards. He spun past me and banged his head on the corner of the wall. Insensible, he fell down the stairs and lay dead still in a heap.<br />“Why did you do that?” I shouted up at Smith.<br />“He had it coming,” Smith hotly replied.<br />Suddenly, the landing light went on above us. My father appeared, red in the face and looking slightly frightened.<br />“Robert, what are you doing here?” he asked me.<br />“Coming to see you, Dad,” I said.<br />“DAD??” said Smith shakily.<br />“Yep, that’s right, Dad.”<br />That was all last year. The brass plate on the CEO’s door now reads <br />MANAGING DIRECTOR<br />Joe Bloggs<br />Smith cleans the stairs and landings.<br />Robert L. FieldingUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0