Skip to main content

R.I.P. Mr. Lux - addendum

As news of Mr. Lux's passing travelled through the air waves, I began to reflect further on what I tentatively touched on in my post yesterday. (By the way, through most of this post, I refer to E.J. as Mr. Lux because this is more about him as a teacher to my daughter and her friends than it is about E.J. as a colleague.)

What struck me about the messages of condolence was that many of these were from former students who alluded to Mr. Lux as a special teacher whom they will always remember.

These messages were posted on FB, which made me reflect on FB - the good, the bad, and the ugly. So much is exposed on FB and so much more remains hidden. We get snippets of people's lives and we allow ourselves to be lulled by these casual glimpses of big and small events. Not that FB hasn't been good to me - I've connected with many friends and family members over the years; I love being privy to the snippets. Yet, every once in a while something happens; I'm reminded how fragile life is, how important those connections are, and how critical it is to nurture them.

Other than an occasional "like", I never really reached out to E.J. through a comment or a question. FB allows for those connections to happen yet we flippently focus on the number of "friends" we have or how many followers we have on Twitter. (I just did this at breakfast this morning.) And while an ever widening circle of connections potentially enriches us, it also has the potential to impoverish our ties to each other unless we're careful.

So, what's my point? I think what I'm trying to say is that it's important to nourish our friendships and to invest a few extra minutes every day to say, "You matter. I care. Whatsapp?"

Social media makes this easy to do; let's take advantage of the possibilities.

March Slice of Life Challenge, Day #3.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Reading Strategies Book - Chapter 12, Supporting Students’ Conversations – Speaking, Listening, and Deepening Comprehension

The strategy lessons highlighted in Chapter 12, Supporting Students’ Conversations – Speaking, Listening, and Deepening Comprehension, in The Reading Strategies Book by Jennifer Serravallo are critical to students’ engagement and comprehension, as well as their ability to write literary essays, or even book reviews, summaries and reflective pieces about books. If students aren’t able to talk about books in a way that is invigorating and joyful, they will be less likely to develop an interest in growing ideas for writing about books. In her introduction to this chapter, Jennifer Serravallo, reminds us that when conversations go well, children are inspired by what they read and are motivated to keep reading. However, when conversations fall flat, then kids get bored and tune out. How do we avoid this situation and teach kids to  have  focused conversations about books?  The answer is easy: teach kids  strategies to help them develop effective conversa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Partner Reading and Content, Too Routine (PRC2)

I'm a hoarder. There, I've said it. I try to deny that I'm a hoarder but it comes back to haunt me every time I move houses, or pack up my classroom at the end of the school year. I have old articles, lesson plans, handouts, folders brimming with teaching ideas, past issues of profesional journals. I hardly throw anything out though I've learned to be more selective over the years. My one rule of thumb, and I really try to stick to this, is that if I haven't used or referred to something in a year, then it's time to toss it into the recycle bin. One exception to this rule (you knew this was coming, didn't you?) is past issues of journals from professional organizations. However, with the ability to locate articles online through my professional memberships, even this exception is becoming less and less useful, which brings me to the topic of this blog post. I am currently reading a copy of The Reading Teacher from 2010. I've clipped a cou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rewards and Punishments

I'm always surprised and disappointed when educators I respect support the use of rewards and punishments to control student behaviour. Whenever I feel like my students are "misbehaving" or not behaving as expected or agreed, it's usually because I'm "misbehaving" or not behaving as expected or agreed. Sound odd? Perhaps, but think about this for a minute. When something goes wrong, i.e. not according to plan, it's usually because the kids have responded in unexpected ways to what I'm teaching or presenting to them. Unless I'm prepared to handle these contingencies I can lose focus of the lesson and the children. I find that the best way to deal with these "disruptions" isn't to control behaviour through carrots and sticks but rather to take a deep breath and think about what may be causing the problem. Often the cause has to do with one or more of the following: how I've presented the lesson (it's confusing, ...
10 comments
Read more