O Me! O Life!

Walt Whitman laments existence and purpose in his poem "O me! O Life!," helplessly but hopefully searching a seemingly increasingly cold and "faithless" society for some sense of why we inhabit this sphere for a brief moment.  The conclusion he reaches is is beautiful and offers hope to all of us searching meaning.  His Answer? 

"That you are here—that life exists, and identity;
That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.	"

As I have long loved this poem, I have often skipped to the end in an effort to discover what my verse will be and in doing so I missed the real keystone of the answer.  IDENTITY.  The verse you contribute is your identity, your character.  As we venture forth into an age hyper interconnectedness and accelerated culture the most important thing we as educators can do is build the character of our students.  This is the fundamental lesson.  All other lessons are built upon this reality.  This challenge is intensified by the fact that we can only teach students to have the highest levels of integrity if we ourselves have that same integrity.  This is the supreme challenge to an educator: To display the highest level of character that our students may learn from our actions as well as our words.  We know that the most effective method of teaching is modeling and we are constantly modeling even when we are not actively in front of a classroom involved in instruction.  I write these lines to encourage everyone who seeks to contribute a positive verse to the powerful play. Thank you for your effort to maintain high character and standards.  Your identity lights a candle. Thanks for being the change you wish to see instead of cursing the darkness.  With enough of us lighting candles, the future looks bright indeed.

As for the functionality of this blog, it is an obvious work in progress.  i plan to archive show pictures and hopefully videos here as well as providing useful links for instruction and travel.  Please feel free to link to me, ask questions, or engage me in conversation.  Thank you for your time.  -Jay

21st Century Learning

One of the main concerns of our society is the current state of our educational system.  We spend hours lamenting the structure of our current system, complaining about unmotivated students, and lamenting the lack of quality teachers as more and more talented educators flee the schools to find jobs more lucrative and fulfilling.  One problem we, as educators, experience is lack of germane in-service training. We spend hours listening to the same old pep talks and same old pedagogical dogma, all watching our clocks and waiting to get back to our summers.  While I try to be very positive about each in-service I attend, I must admit to having lowered expectations after years of doing this.

Thank goodness for 21st Century Learning teams.  We are actually learning things that will transform education and prepare our students to continue education for a lifetime as well as compete in society for the best educations and jobs worldwide.  I have learned today how use technology to engage students.  I feel like doors are opening to me as an educator and that the possibilities are endless for my students. I ask that you feel free to comment on this blog and to return again and again to offer you thoughts and ideas. Thanks for your time.  I promise to offer many positive things in the days, weeks, and months to come.  -Jay Williams

As an activity for a slow summer evening, I would ask you to post as a comment something you have learned from me.  It can be in or out of a classroom setting. You may be very specific or very general and you may list a single word or phrase or pontificate voluminously. Please feel free to write as much or little as you like.  Thanks for your time and your thoughts.