A Joy — Reading To Children

It is so good to have libraries all around. Our local Greenland, NH library has such beautiful and well stocked books for children and teens. AND it's all FREE! 

As I have mentioned earlier, I read to preschoolers at two different schools, and many of my books-to-read come from their school and town libraries AND my own books that have accumulated over the years. Here is a children's favorite, Boffo The Great Motorcycle Race.

What a joy it is to be with them watching their faces as I read stories, especially when I change voices of characters in the readings. Here is a Boffo read I implemented during COVID when I could not be with the children . . . 

Nexus - Stone Age to AI - A Lesson for all to Learn

Nexus is a special book for educators and parents and the children they serve. They will all get a clear, outstanding picture of the evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Yuval Noah Harari is one of my favorite authors. He is so thoughtful and brilliant in how he takes the reader from the beginning of humanity to AI, making sure he explains democracy, wars, evolution of communication via newspapers, radio, television, phones, computers, and the many aspects of algorithms. 

If you don't have the time to read the book, go to the BIG THINK website to listen to Harari's Nexus 75-minute interview; he is such a good speaker.

The Power of Words

The power of words can make a huge difference in our lives — especially when children are learning how to use words well. 

This video is amazing the way it helps one understand the power words have when used correctly . . . particularly when we are in the midst of elections.

Journey With a School Janitor

Fifty-five year old Richard Goodall has been serving as a janitor at a local school for 23 years. He loves to sing and make people happy. He had the opportunity to be on stage at America's Got Talent TV show on May 28. As of June 14, his YouTube performance below has over 13.4M views! His story, wrapped around a popular song, moves everyone when he sings. 

When Should You Reach Out to an Old Friend or Colleague?

Here is a 96-second podcast by author Daniel Pink. Short as they always are, Daniel gives excellent advice. Watch and listen to what he has to say about reaching out to an old friend or colleague. 

Can Children Appreciate Classical Music?

Of course they can. Here are some fabulous resources.

The book, The Carnival of the Animals is a beautiful rendition of the classical piece with the same name as the book. The book I received from Amazon is precious and is accompanied by a CD with a reading of the story and the classical piece by composer Camille Saint-Saens.

The book, Wild Symphony written by the popular author, Dan Brown, is beautifully illustrated and comes with an app that plays classical-like music that is composed by Dan Brown. It is spectacular.

Benjamin Zander helps us appreciate classical music, AND what makes his talk so inviting is how he weaves in classical music and children.

The Importance of Libraries

"It checks out — libraries are an 'investment that's well worth it" a 5-minute podcast from David Brancaccio of MarketPlace is spot on regarding the importance of libraries. Having spent many months working on the Building Committee of our local library and recently celebrating the completion of the library renovation have been such important work over the past year and a half.  The picture above gives you a quick view of the library transformation, but visit the Weeks Public Library website, and you can watch the beautiful 6-minute slide show to get a full view of what I am talking about. 

Town, school, and at-home libraries are so important!!

School Boards & Parents and Some Great Guidance

 

Here are two of the best experts in the field of education, Dr. Robert Evans and Dr. Michael Thompson. You may have read one of their many books. Raising Cain by Dr. Thompson and Seven Secrets of the Savvy School Leader by Dr. Evans are two of my favorites.

They have co-authored Hopes and Fears Working with Today's Independent School Parents that goes nicely with their podcast.

Here is a link to their podcast on SOUNDCLOUD. It is a must-listen-to resource, especially for school Boards of Trustees/Directors.

Make Schools More Human

 "Make Schools More Human" by Jal Mehta appeared in the NYTimes Sunday Review section on December 27, 2020. It cites Casco Bay High School in Maine, a school where students had the idea of writing a song that would celebrate community and social isolation. Well, look at what these students came up with for a virtual orchestra . . . 

When I viewed it on the morning of Dec. 27th it had 8,300 views. As of this posting there are now 24,000! Enjoy.

Using the NAIS Trustee Table Podcast with COVID-19

 

The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) has a podcast The Trustee Table that is perfect for nonprofit board growth and development. It can be used for onboarding of new trustees/directors and ongoing board professional development work. Podcasts usually run 15 to 25 minutes in length.

Here is an excellent, timely podcast sample: "COVID-19 Generative Governance - Board Guidelines from Dr. Richard Chait," Dr. Chait, by the way, is my favorite guru on nonprofit governance. I look at his book Governance as Leadership as the governance bible. New York City heads of school collaborated to have him as a keynote speaker when I was the head at Brooklyn Heights Montessori School in Brooklyn, NY.

A Look at the Pandemic

I find myself asking what are we learning from this historic pandemic?

Some thoughts and resources . . .

Humanity is far better off when everyone is working together, rather than forming tribes and forcing people to care for their tribe rather than caring for humanity, especially when we look at the world population. In America, we experienced this humanity/tribe effect before, during, and after the Civil War and World War II.

Tribes and the evolution of humanity are so well explained in the popular book Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari—see my June 9, 2019 blog post, and in Sebastian Junger's book Tribe—see my July 8, 2016 blog post. Both books can be helpful in understanding where we are as a global society in the midst of this pandemic.

One last resource is equally powerful: the podcast "Making Sense" with Sam Harris and his May 1 conversation with Yuval Noah Harari. It has so much good pandemic perspective information on what is going on around us during these difficult time.

History - A Special Glance Into the Past

If you want to give your children/students—and yourself—a sample of what radio used to be like, click over to Heirloom Radio.  John Lovering has captured over 50,000 radio plays. Personally, I am always impressed at the evolution of audio and video production over the years.

Perspective on Leadership

Just when you think you have gone as far as you can go as a leader, you have to read Pulitzer Prize winner Doris Kearns Goodwin's masterful book Leadership in Turbulent Times. What makes this book so special is that it not only is jam packed with amazing leadership advice and perspective, but I found that it read like a novel.

The leaders and turbulent times are as follows:

• Abraham Lincoln - Emancipation Proclamation & Civil War
• Teddy Roosevelt - 1902 Coal Miners' Strike
• Franklin Roosevelt - The Great Depression
• Lyndon Johnson - Post Kennedy Assassination & Civil Rights

Here is a Goodwin interview with PBS News Hour's Judy Woodruff:

Feed — Just Like 1984

Like George Orwell's powerful book 1984 (written in 1948), the young adult book Feed published in 2002 is coming true to life. If you have not read Feed, by all means do; it is a great YA book for students and adults. Also, listen to the npr clip below to hear what is happening with artificial intelligence management. Once you read Feed, you will see its connection to the npr piece and 1984.

A Force for Good

In my quest to find out more about emotional intelligence, I discovered emotional quotient expert, Daniel Goleman's book A Force For Good: The Dalai Lama's Vision for Our World. Goleman brings out the Dalai Lama's determination to raise the care of humanity and having a purpose in life of reaching out and helping others.

Here are two quotes that reflect a snapshot of the book's connection to emotional intelligence:

“Compassion reduces our fear, boosts our confidence, and opens us to inner strengths,” the Dalai Lama adds. “By reducing distrust, it opens us to others and brings us a sense of connection with them and a sense of purpose and meaning in life.” [pages 55-56]

“And when high- and low-ranking people in the same organization interact, the person of higher status not only shows less attention as indicated by gazing less at the other person but also interrupts more and monopolizes the conversation.” [p. 93]

A School's Way To Fight Phones In Class

From NPR website

Listen to this excellent NPR story, “A School's Way To Fight Phones In Class: Lock 'Em Up' ” by Tovia Smith. (January 11, 2018)

Here is how the story begins . . .

“Any teacher will tell you, class has never been the same since kids started coming to school with cellphones. Ancient Roman history will pretty much never win the day when competing with Snapchat and Instagram.

And sneaky as kids think they are, teachers know exactly what's going on when students look up with those zombie stares and constantly ask: 'Can you say that again?'

‘You can see that they're not listening to you,’ says history teacher Tony Patelis, at Newton North High School in Massachusetts. ‘They're looking down, and they tell me they're checking the time, even though the clock is on the wall.’ ”