Curiosity & Adventure Spiral
When opposing water currents meet, they spontaneously create whirlpools, swirling, spinning waters. The movement of the water at the base of Niagara Falls is strong and violent because there is so much rushing water falling down the Great Gorge into the moving rapids below. The pressure creates a swirling vortex, a water spiral that moves the water around and then out into Lake Ontario.
Do You Sing in the Car?
It feels so good to sing in the car. On the drive into Toronto yesterday I listened to an audiobook. Then I started to hum Ella Fitzgerald. Soon I drowned out the audiobook. By the time I passed Bowmanville I had given up on the audiobook to blast jazz standards, singing along like when I was 12. I was all in.
As the city sprouted up around me, Nina Simone and I slid our way through “Feeling Good.”
The Crossing of Candle Eyes
A poem inspired by Spring, gardens, and the gift of renewal. I found many of these phrases in my notebook from an old writing exercise and decided to work them into a fairy tale this morning. Creating this garden-world and its characters was fun. I’d love to see this illustrated one day!
A Bass Towing Nine Canoes
You may wonder how such a thing is possible, a bass towing nine canoes, especially given the size of the bass and the size of the canoes. But it happened one day last summer when I stayed in Haliburton.
The Ultimate Artist’s Date
Years ago I read Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way.” The book had such a profound affect on me that I read all her other books too. Creative people know that there is an energy to creativity. Like other forms of energy there are things that will help it to expand and things that will cause it to shrink. We learn over time how to feed the energy, control the flow of energy, and how to maximize the energy while creating.
What Does Learning Look Like?
What if we captured our learning in jars, exploring questions and details and ideas through glass walls…
Learning from Sunflowers
For the love of sunflowers
This morning I am reading about sunflowers. It’s on my bucket list to grow them in my yard. I’ve read the best time to plant the seeds is in the spring, two weeks before the last frost. Maybe a reminder on my calendar would help?
Sparking Curiosity: Seven Approaches to Inquiry in School and in Life
1) Begin with a question
Why does the moss cover parts of the tree trunk? Inquiry is as simple as a single question. When we see the world through questions we welcome learning into our lives. It is easy to say that children are naturally curious, but why are some children more curious than others? Why do some six year olds ask about moss on the tree and others didn’t even notice the tree?
