Try this: bring back a memory of yourself on a roller coaster or theme park ride. Whenever I do this, my memory doesn’t play back like memories of other events. That is to say, when I think of my high school graduation, it plays back like clips from a movie. Sometimes in these memories, I am not the point of view, I’m the observer. Maybe I’m actually having s memory of watching the video of graduation.

+++ title = “06” date = 2019 +++ When I was a teacher, my summer breaks were somewhat structured. I had a routine. Every day, I’d wake up and go for a walk around downtown Silver Spring, which is where I lived at the time. I’d visit the library and get myself a pastry. And then, around mid-July or so, right in the dead of summer break, I’d watch all of the Ocean’s movies, and both Kill Bills.

Educators and parents have made an assumption about technology that is hurting children. The thinking goes like this: children naturally understand how to use technology. We don’t even need to teach them anymore. In fact, we should be letting them teach us. But if we buy into this, we’re making a grave error. It turns out that kids aren’t inherently good at technology. Just like when we were kids, technology is a skill that must be learned and practiced.

+++ title = “06” date = 2019 +++ You can try this experiment at home. Find a nice place to sit, and breathe in and out deeply for a minute. I’ll wait. When you were breathing, you may have heard your own voice talking to yourself in your head. Perhaps your inner voice was kind of a giggle at how silly you look sitting here breathing. Perhaps the inner voice told you it was bored.

+++ title = “06” date = 2019 +++ In her fantastic book, A Poetry Handbook, Mary Oliver writes about her methods for writing and also reading poetry. One of the most interesting things she says has to do with creativity, and even though I’ve read so many books on creativity and the creative process, it still stopped me in my tracks: “Writing a poem… is a kind of possible love affair between something like the heart and the learned skills of the conscious mind.