Poem, July 21

Words

These words are not mine
They were given to me by
all the authors and singers and speakers.
So if I use one of your words please
remember, you taught it to me

Poem, July 20

Frozened

I would love to

comment

and state my opinion but

last time I got castigated

so

now I am

Poem, July 18

Shrinkage

The old don't shrink because of loss of bone density, or muscle mass or even the wearing away of cartilage.

They shrink from the weight pressing on their shoulders from the loved who are no longer there to shore them up.

Poem, July 17

Clothes

Why am I so surprised by the number, and the power of the memories associated with old clothes?

'This was one of my favorites," she smiled as she held up the dress, not bothering to share those memories. 

I rarely am drawn back simply by the sight of old clothes, clothes are simply too utilitarian. 

Jaded Old Farts

"There's nothing worse than a bunch of jaded old farts, and that's a fact."
Robert Plant

Recently a social media friend of mine (lots of convos, no face to face yet), David Theriault posted 14 Reasons Why Pokemon Go Is the Future of Learning. A fun little post leveraging the mania of Pokemon Go. The title may imply more than the post delivers, but how quickly did #eduTwitter jump to the conclusion that this was nothing but click bait that so many of the #edurockstars drive their brand with.

I suggest that many of those who condemned the post simply read the title. I know, you are shocked! The truth is, we have been so inundated with crappy posts promising the moon, the stars and even PerfectStudentEngagment™! David has not been known to post this junk, he has written some very interesting stuff, even if some are couched in pop culture references. Don't we have an obligation to do a little more research before we condemn someone based upon one post (which you probably didn't read anyway...)

This is not a post directed outward, as I have in the past and probably will continue to make way too many assumptions based upon one or two tweets in a conversation. I would just like to remind all of us that maybe we should strive to be a little less jaded, a little less old and a whole lot less farty.

Libraries---->Library Media Centers---->Digital Media Centers---->?

When I started school back in 1975, my school had a very small library. Books were scarce. Students went to the library once a week to check books out and back in. Rarely was there time to teach anything other than the basics of card files and Dewey's Decimals. The high school library was larger in the mid 1980's but there was no scheduled time to attend and definitely no teaching in that space by our librarians.

When I came back to my hometown school to teach in the late 1990's the library was still small, books still pretty scarce but the librarians would teach students lots of different things, usually revolving around books and research. The library also had videos for teachers to check out.

At some point, due to the state's requirements and an emphasis on reading in our building, the number of books in the library grew much larger. Books became much less scarce. Computers have been added to the library, allowing students to have access to sites on the internet and for content creation.

At some point in the future, hopefully soon, students will have internet capable devices that allow them to access digital media.  The library as a place for students to access content will be much less necessary than before. This will also mean the need for the computers will be minimized as well. So, what will be the purpose of the library then?