The Pyre

The past couple of years, students enrolled in PreAP English II at Olathe Northwest High School have read Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Rom Brafman. This book is a short Malcolm Gladwell-esque look at why we humans do all of the stupid things that we do. The great thing is about this book is how it sparks so many valuable discussions about bias, labeling, politics, group dynamics, etc.  My work with students reading, writing, and talking about all of these topics have made me realize that my experience with students in teaching this text has taught me more than I would have ever learned just reading the book. Here are these top five lessons: Lesson #1: Cheater, cheater: loss aversion eater! Early in the book, the authors articulate a simple definition of loss aversion: "our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid potential losses" (Brafman and Brafman 17). They develop the readers' understanding of loss aversion through examp...

Your blog post should delineate the top five things you learned from your experience with the book Sway and related readings, writings, and discussion. Emulate the Top Five Social Media Lessons blog post we read in class to help you with your writing. Here are the requirements of your post: Compose a first paragraph in which you introduce the topic in an interesting way (consider relating it to yourself) and preview the rest of the blog post. Include a numbered list of the five lessons you learned from Sway and related learning experiences. Consider revisiting your focus questions, evidence connections, and Socratic Seminar packet as you brainstorm what you are going to write about. Your lessons can be SPECIFIC TERMS (like "loss aversion"), SKILLS (like how to compose central claim statements), or IDEAS (like re-evaluating your own biases). Develop your ideas in at least one paragraph under each numbered lesson using anecdotes, definitions, quotations, definitio...

That first day of school. As a student, those words sent shivers down my spine. As a teacher, those words absolutely terrify me. But the reason I'm terrified of the first day of school as a teacher might not be what you expect. On the first day of school, I want to welcome my students. And get to know them. And build a sense of community. And let them know what to expect from my class. And I have to do all of this in between accomplishing all of the things I'm required to do like fire drills, tornado drills, distribute planners, etc. This year, I attempted to accomplish as many as my goals for the first day of school by playing a tabletop game called Witness . In essence, this game requires players in groups of four to communicate and collaborate by piecing together clues to solve a mystery. I've wanted to integrate tabletop games into my classroom the past couple of years, but quite honestly, that's pretty much as far as I went. Thanks to my sophomore collabo...

First, a confession: it’s been over a year since I began toying with the idea of integrating tabletop games in my classroom, but I have yet to use even one. Recently, I attended my second MNU Games and Learning Conference. So, the pressure is on now. No excuses. A key part of the conference was time to play games from the Center of Games and Learning’s games collection . One of the games I played was Snake Oil . How to Play the Game The goal of Snake Oil is simple: convince a customer to buy a product in 30 seconds. The player who is the customer selects a card that provides a descriptor: anything ranging from “senior citizen” to “beggar.” The other players have six cards in their hands with words like “TV” and “glasses.” Players combine two of the words to create a product the customer would want. For example, I might pitch “TV glasses” to the “senior citizens”: “Have you ever trouble seeing that TV from across the room? Ever been frustrated by misplacing t...

The Writers Place Creative Introductions: Poems of Introduction  and Response to Creative Introductions Seven Blind Mice: Reaction Scribe Notes:  6.15.16 Zoom Notes Reflections on Orlando:  Permission Nicole's Poetry Exercise: My Life as a Fla ir Pen Rankine's  Citizen :  Reading Response Power of Place: Out of Place Shelly's d6 Tables of Creative Creation Exercise: Byron's Vociferous Gun is Unloaded   Casey's TIW Exercise: Write a letter convincing somebody to date you (commitment fear evident) Teacher Inquiry Workshop:  Tired & Haggard (Research Paper)  and  Presentation   Colby's  Some of My Best Friends Are Black :  Reading Response Literary Luncheon:  Offering Poem Inspired by AC Cleaning:  Poem for Rowan Myself  as a . . .  Writer , Reader , Teacher , Learner and Second-Language Learner GKCWP KC Tour: Blue Hil...

I am flying like a green rocket through the air and across the page. I am smooth and matte but bisected, composed of hard plastic and alcohol-soaked felt. I am from a far-away island, bombed and occupied and then reconstructed. I am forgotten in the bottom of bags and wedged under car mats but nowhere to be found. I am lush yet practical and cathartic, birthing irregular circles that sprawl across whitespace, delivering well-intentioned commentary on nascent thoughts, bearing stream of consciousness upon the page before sleep.

The cottonwood seeds my daughter says make our cul de sac liminal gather around the outside of our air conditioner. Like a cocoon, the puffs of fluff congregate on the metal webbing, converging into a solid layer. I unwind the green hose, fighting against its kinks and untying its knots, until water spurts from the nozzle. The white cocoon softens in the deluge, graying as the dirt melts into the fibers, and then breaks into continents. Each continent floats downward, toward the leaf-crusted concrete; some tiny islands loiter at the metal crossroads. I press my thumb harder into the nozzle, forcing the water to coax the remaining islands out and down. A halo around the machine, what was once the fluff that revealed the faerie circle hidden in our cul de sac splayed out, drowned.