bolts and bolts and bolts

you know, I think there's something to the idea of each thing-- even inanimate things-- having a potentiality for fulfillment via actualization... the chair being fulfilled when it is a chair, versus when it was still a set of wooden logs.

I'm walking through Osgood's and feeling each bolt of fabric call out some different idea of self-- curtain sheets, heavy jacket lining, girdle, disco fox. different wishes from different textiles.

yep, definitely. even the inanimate has a will and a voice and a purpose. at least here, among the aisles and aisles and aisles.

RU there, God? It's me, Alumna.

I went to Rutgers University, a university much under-appreciated in its home state of New Jersey, but which I maintain has so much to offer curious minds and which does in fact offer rigorous academic challenges to those who seek them out. As far as affordable education goes, it is a *good* deal!

One of the things I appreciate most about Rutgers is that is a diverse model-- in the campus literature photo-op sense (yes, there really are yellow & brown people on campus, and not just in the graduate math & science programs) or in the financial sense, but also in the sense of its academic ecology. For today's purpose, take the idea of "ecology" literally, please: Rutgers is made up of 7 campuses-- College Ave, Busch, Livingston, Cook, Douglass, Newark & Camden, each emerging from differently vibrant NJ habitats-- inner city/urban, various levels of semi-urban, suburban, and downright rural. It's a beautiful thing.

This comes to my mind today, because it occurs to me that in 1995-9 I was hanging out & eventually living in a house with people whose programs nested in and across a plurality of these campuses, lending a richness to our daily conversations and experiences with each other. It was in this house that I had my first conversation with an apprentice beekeeper, a student at the Cook College of Agriculture (one of new brunswick's campuses, with greenhouses, a dairy, a museum of agriculture, ranging sheep meadows-- small by some other schools' standards, perhaps, but this is central new jersey, and the college of agriculture's campus is sandwiched between routes 1, 130 & the NJ Turnpike... the rurality of this small package of land is amazing given its larger geography). I knew the agricultural students in the house less well, and I shyly limited myself to a role of listener more than participant in the conversation, but I learned so much about the work of bees, and the love for bees that grew out of working with them, that day. That conversation has had a long-reaching influence on the way I see the value of organic eating, buying and farming, this in turn has had an influence on what I share with my students to this day.

I mention all this only because it's the end of another school year, and I have been reflecting an awful lot about why I think and feel the way I do, in particular about ecology and the teaching of it.

As the saying goes, you teach what you know, you know? And you know what you know because you once had your senses and mind open in fertile places.

Rutgers may get a bum rap in its home state, but don't believe a word of it. Good things happen in its classrooms, and good things happen, also, over the kitchen tables dotting its off-campus neighborhoods, too.

Thank you, again, to all the wonderful people who walked me to where I am today (ms. biache, where are you today?). I'm still learning, but thank you for what you have contributed to my own journey as a learner so far.

most enjoyable email exchange in a while

Dear M*****--

You are probably in bed right now, but hopefully your mom checks email a little later at night or in the morning before school.

YES you can bring your tooth in for show & tell tomorrow!

I will send the tooth fairy a text right now asking her to wait until tomorrow before visiting you!

I'm so excited to see your new smile!

Love,
Ms. Michele

On Apr 21, 2010, at 8:57 PM, **** ***** wrote:

Dear ms. Michele,

I lost my tooth. Can I bring it to school for show and tell on thursday?

Love, m*****
:: **** * *****
:: Doctoral Student, Marketing Department
:: ...


(please note: the doctoral student is actually the mother of my friend, the tooth-loser)
(also, said tooth-loser buried her face in my shoulder today and asked if i ever visit students after they move to different states or countries. man, if i didn't before, i guess i will now...)

ps: is this is me:

laughing at things that you're almost embarrassed to be laughing at

i'm sorry, but i've recently dug out mihaly csikszentmihalyi's flow and have been thinking about meaningful work and happiness, and have been writing more, and yeah. it struck me as funny.

color me square, lately.

!

"michele and Natalie Angier are now friends."


!




(also, sour milk explosion)

secret surprises, and the accompanying anticipation

(i really, really love someone, and he really, really loves good food. i have booked a reservation for a late dinner two weeks from now that should blow both our minds and i am so excited!) (shh! secret! no hints! no tags, even! look for an update in 2 weeks!)

upbeat japanese people with blogs

plus i am into her subject matter, haha

no, really: The Arm is a good thing, as is doing things on your own time that have no bearing on your professional life but which feel so, so good.

http://megropressblog.blogspot.com/search/label/New%20York




more thoughtful posts -- *writing*, even -- in a bit-- it's sunday night/monday am -- BACK TO WORK! (a good thing all on its own)

Nerd Camp

If you've been reading my things shared elsewhere, you know I've been revisiting my thoughts on the rather obnoxiously named Center for Talented Youth, the summer program for "gifted kids" run by Johns Hopkins University, which my sister and I both attended for 3 summers apiece in the mid-eighties and early 1990s.

As you may have heard on This American Life some years back, Summer Camp is an American Tradition! And it is one quite dearly held in the hearts of those who once attended.

CTY-- obnoxious name and all-- may be even more dearly held, as for most of us who attended, it was the first place in the world we truly felt among peers.

In light of my own processing of models of education, I am making this entry in part to celebrate CTY and its role in my own life, but mainly to share some further reading. (Whether "High Verbal" or "High Math" or both, we do tend to be bookish types, and we bookish types do end up sometimes writing in public). I want to do a PIECE on CTY and other such programs at some point in the future, but for now, as my own thoughts are still gelling, I offer you some pieces on CTY from other sources.

CTY's wikipedia page (did you know that Lady Gaga is an alum?? Allegedly? I did not!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Talented_Youth

CTY on the web in an official capacity: http://www.cty.jhu.edu/

CTY on slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2146134/

CTY in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/07/26/040726fa_fact_bilger (subscription required; or, go to smallcrumbs.blogspot.com: http://smallcrumbs.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-am-going-to-re-publish-something.html, though i caution that the formatting is wonky and annoying)

CTY to be made into film! based on that bilger piece: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/444894/Nerd-Camp-Universal-/overview

CTY in the urban dictionary: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=CTY

CTY from the young RA's perspective, in real-time (at the time): http://nerd-camp.blogspot.com/

i feel like i am going to explode

...in the best way possible

Here is a letter recently written to Dr. Phyllis Povell, today's Good Thing, who made me think and laugh a bit this past weekend, which will maybe summarize my general sentiment better than the long-winded & poorly organized exposition I had posted earlier:

Hello, Dr. Povell--

We met in the AMS hub in Boston-- you saw me browsing your book and joked, "Hey, if it'll make ya buy it, I'll sign it for ya..." and "I don't know who that author is, but I hear she's *nasty*!"

Of course you won me over right there, and I hadn't even really gotten into your book at that point!

I saw you speak the following day, and the whole bus ride back to NYC and all morning today, I have been engrossed in that book.

Thank you so much for writing it. Thank you so much for speaking at the conference. Thank you so much for having this bright and shining mind, and for sharing it with all of us, everywhere. I know the Montessori Life ladies said in their workshop, "Try not to use the word 'inspiring.' It's so over-used! It's ceasing to mean anything..." which is true, but at the same time, in some cases it is still the best word that fits. Your writing, your speaking, your intelligence and humor are gifts through which I feel literally inspired. I feel like something bright and energizing has been breathed into me, and I can't wait to use this energy.

I have been working in Montessori for 15 years, now, and have always loved it-- My friends who graduated college and went into finance or education or law or even the culinary arts have shifted positions in their hierarchies or industries and climbed and amassed small fortunes, and when they express surprise that I am doing more or less exactly what I was doing in 1995, I have enjoyed the fact that I am still as much in love with my job now as I was 15 years ago-- perhaps more in love, even. When my friends tell me about frustration or emptiness and the resulting career switches, I realize that I was lucky enough to hit my target with the first shot. Although the general passing of my day today resembles very closely the passing of any other school day a decade ago, no two days have ever been the same, and no two days have ever felt boring or beneath my time and utmost attention. And of course, not a single day has passed without its moments of joy.

Still, over the past few years, I've felt this itch... not to begin an "industry climb" or to amass some small fortune, as many of my friends have done, but to do something larger. I feel as though I have by now built some strength in these teaching wings, and that I'd like to stretch them out a bit and see how far they can reach. I had my first experience as a Master Teacher last year, and I have watched my former intern stretch her own young wings and take on the responsibility of her own classroom this year-- a position she is handling with pedagogical skill and a grace of personality that has bloomed with her confidence (I had little to do with that!). This is my first year as a Field Consultant for the Princeton Center for Teacher Education, and I have enjoyed observing other interns and sharing what I can about how to open up to new helpful habits, new ways to grow. Beginning this summer, I will be taking on the role of Director of Curriculum at my school in Jersey City, and I'm so excited to create resources for the young and excited staff we are building over there. I'm liking this "teaching teachers" thing! I'm proud to be a part of this tradition, and excited to do more!

Listening to all these gray- and silver-haired AMS Elders this past weekend, I saw that a teacher's career can span decades without ever growing old, and in that time, it can take many forms. Listening and reading your own book, I see how important, and what a responsibility it is, for teachers with sound foundations and strong hearts to grow up and in their turn share what they have learned, to take on positions of leadership-- large or small, I know there are so many different kinds of leadership roles-- in their teaching communities. So: I *want* to. I want to honor the legacies of Maria & Nancy & all the other giants of this profession by carrying on their work. I want to help out with New Jersey Montessori Administrators Council, which has nurtured my own experience as a Montessori teacher since my very first role as a sub and assistant in 1995. I want to give back to AMS by helping students of the teaching profession, either by assisting my training program as opportunities arise, or reading other peoples' writing and pushing their writing further along into the public. Or, who knows, by writing and publishing, myself.

As I said, I feel *energized*! Activated! It was probably a while in coming-- there was a slow, decade+ long build. But you, your book & your own energy hit a button and crystallized that energy in me into something that must materialize. I'm so grateful! And I'm sooo excited!

For all of that: Thank you! Thank you so much.

Yours sincerely,
MS