May 13, 2014 Teaching and Learning
What Matters
(Portrait of a Study Hall in Middle School)
©May 13th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Twenty-six minds in a rectangular box
Six windows to see out of,
And one door to escape from:
Boxed in, we sit, attending
Attentive, studious, silent —
Almost, but not quite.
But the hum of thought flows
Through the spaces between desks
Collect in little pools of light.
Eyes gaze into space, catch mine
From time to time, glow in
Recognition: I know you,
And I like you. You’re all right.
(I think.)
The nods, the sidelong looks
Between peers, almost friends,
Some friends, some just classmates,
Catch at filaments of connection.
Heads bent over writing, over science, math
Over drawing, over Insurgent and Divergent
As if these stories bring back some need
To rebel, to fight, but against what?
And for what?
Some long to find causes,
Others laugh at them,
Mock those who act,
Who knows why.
It does not matter. For some,
Reading equals being. Others sit,
Twitching with dissatisfaction,
Mute, itchy.
Here, now, in Study Hall
In 8th Grade, at my school,
In my plant-overflowing, poster-splattered,
Blue and green, and maroon and red
Room, where music swells
From time to time, and
Laughter bubbles, and questions
Spill over every day, and where
Thought and effort crease
My students’ brows,
My Study Hall mutters itself
Into a state that resembles
Work and focus.
And that’s all that matters —
For now.
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Tags: #Original Poetry, focus, middle school, recognition, students and teacher, study hall, what matters
May 9, 2014 Teaching and Learning
Test
(A Glimpse From My Classroom Window
While Students Take a State Math Exam)
©May 9th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Trees, a brick wall
Fighting a grey sky.
Glass windows reflect
And reflect back
Human and non-human images,
Fleeting and busy, still and silent,
Over-layered, screen upon screen
While cars flow by,
An easy stream, swift and sure,
On a road where sound
May or may not exist.
Not in my quiet classroom, anyway –
Here, where heads are bent
Over official papers
Lives the Mind,
Where only the rustle of papers,
And the scratch of pencils,
And the shuffle of abstracted
Student feet reveal a Supreme Force –
Thought, turned into abstract
Abstruse, enigmatic
Symbol, a language not
Everyone masters, but which
Life and Matter know.
Cellular and atomic
Is their knowledge.
And the Laws were
Already written, before
My students and I
Before everyone,
And everything,
Everywhere, everywhen,
Ever were.
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Tags: #Original Poetry, atomic and cellular, classroom moments, exams, Laws, mathematics, Students, teacher, universal laws
May 7, 2014 Awake in Real Time: Coffee-induced Meditations and Journal Entries, Teaching and Learning
There’s a malaise and it’s eating at everyone’s vitals — and it’s so sad to see.
Everyone looks tired, everyone’s preoccupied, everyone complains, everyone’s self-absorbed.
The answer is to step away from it, I think.
To look at it, and consider it for what it is — a virus.
The answer is to look around, take in the sights (even if they’re not always pretty).
The answer lies in saying, “What can I do to make life better for myself and others around me?”
I’m not talking about systems better, or work habits, or specific things better. I’m talking about that extra minute you give someone when he or she comes to you, even if you have a TON of work, and cannot spare that minute. The second to take before you decide to complain or not complain about your life to someone, who might have too much on her or his plate already. That second where, if you so choose, you can laugh, shrug, raise your eyes, and drink in the sunlight.
It’s in truly enjoying beauty and color, no matter where, and in whom, we see it. It’s in letting a person know if you like something about him or her.
It’s in the moment that we truly live.
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Tags: living in the moment, malaise, modern living, spare a minute
Feb 10, 2014 Awake in Real Time: Coffee-induced Meditations and Journal Entries, Reading, Writing, Thinking, Teaching and Learning
So, one of the nice things my school system does is to offer various workshops and seminars through a lovely Professional Day program. We sign up, get chosen to go by lottery, and then choose from a menu of wonderful offerings. If we are fortunate enough, we get what we want from that menu, and even if we don’t get our first choice, we still get to go for excellent seminars. I’ve gone for several workshops and seminars (many of them which offered me my first choice) over the past ten or more years, and every single one was satisfying to me as a teacher and as a student, because I always brought back ideas, both into my own personal practice of writing, and also into my professional practices as an English teacher.
I was fortunate this year, because I signed up for, and got to go to, a creative writing seminar with Michael Downing, author and Creative Writing Professor at Tufts University.
I missed the first Friday, because we had parent-teacher conferences. I went for the next two Fridays, and both were excellent. The focus was on Flash Fiction and Micro-Fiction. Mr. Downing gave excellent prompts, as well as deeply satisfying talks and feedback on the process of creative writing. I came away, feeling both inspired and somewhat overawed by the uphill slope I have to tackle as a writer.
I won’t go into all that here, however. I just wanted to say that I had such a good time, I wondered why I was not doing more writing. Yes, yes, I’ve written on my blog almost every day, except, oddly, for the past three weeks. However, I do need to get out there, and attend more workshops, create or join a Writing Group, meet with said group, give feedback, receive feedback, and read more.
I want to do all of this, as well as teach 8th Grade English, grade hundreds of papers, practice guitar, go on walks in the woods with family, cook, clean and be a good, home-schooling mom to my wonderful little nine-year old daughter, take her to swimming and dance class on the weekends, because my husband takes her everywhere else during the weekdays, while I’m teaching, and generally be upbeat and organized. Now, we’ll soon be adding a Standard Poodle pup to the mix, and I think I know I shall officially be the most distracted person on the planet, at least for a few weeks.
I’m upbeat, however. My problem is that I love doing all of those things. I love writing, I love teaching, I love being a mother, a musician, a housewife. (I could do without grading and other administrative tasks attendant upon that).
Choose! I can hear a disembodied voice saying to me.
But I don’t want to choose! I want to push the edges of the day in either direction, maybe add about four more hours to it, and have those hours book-end my writing.
Mmmm … that would be most satisfying.
(Shakes herself out of dream-state, and looks briskly around).
Right. Where were we?
Ah yes, the workshop. My next three posts will be the prompts that Michael Downing gave, and my two drafts of each of the three stories I wrote. Hope you enjoy them.
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Tags: Distraction, Flash Fiction, Michael Downing, Micro-Fiction, Work and Play, Writing, writing workshop
Jan 26, 2014 Teaching and Learning
Little Straw Folk is my myth of a creation-vs.-creator domination game. I was in a spell when I wrote the words and composed the music. I truly felt like a conduit.
Dec 31, 2013 Teaching and Learning
At least, much of the time:
I noticed long ago, and have noticed it again, that I like to write about things that vanish, leaving behind no trace. At other times, I like things that transform into other things.
I wonder about that sometimes, but it hardly needs much psychological analysis, really.
The membrane between this world and other worlds is pretty thin for me.
See you in 2014!
Happy New Year! Happy Transformations! May all bad things vanish, unless they stick around to make us better and wiser!
Love,
Dreamer of Dreams
Dec 28, 2013 Teaching and Learning
Not yet sure whether I’ll have it ready today. Am in the middle of it. Wish I could do nothing else but write.
If you’re reading this, thanks. I have to not only finish this story, but my story from the summer about the Vagabonds and the City. Also, the story I started the other day, all gritty reality set in Mumbai.
Thanks for waiting (if you’re waiting, and if you’re not, ah well)!
Love,
Dreamer of Dreams
Dec 5, 2013 Awake in Real Time: Coffee-induced Meditations and Journal Entries, Current Affairs / General Interest, Reading, Writing, Thinking, Teaching and Learning
Nelson Mandela was a Mahatma, a Great Soul.
The world is bereft, even if it doesn’t know it.
There are only a few giants among us, and he was one. The power of an idea that is bigger than a man carried him on its irrepressible tide, but it was he who steered the boat.
Twenty-seven years in prison did not diminish this man’s resolve–rather, he grew stronger.
One can argue with falsehood, with faulty premises, with those who are prejudiced, with stubbornness, with pride and prejudice.
One cannot argue with Truth and Right, with someone who is truly committed to Equality, to Justice, to Goodness. Mr. Mandela changed the face of discourse and race relations in South Africa with his indomitable spirit and passion for Civil Rights and his Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The world is a sadder, colder place for his passing. We have to, all of us, speak truth to power any chance we get. Mr. Mandela taught us how.
May he rest in peace.
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Tags: Civil Rights in South Africa, Mahatma, Nelson Mandela, Speaking truth to powe, Truth and Reconciliation
Nov 29, 2013 Teaching and Learning
Composed on Dec. 31st, 1992, in Arlington, Massachusetts, USA.
Performed by Vijaya Sundaram and Antigravity (with Vijaya Sundaram, vocals and guitar, Warren Senders, bass, Phil Scarff, saxaphone, Bob Pilkington, trombone, Jerry Leake, drums)
Recorded in 1993.
Tags: #Magic Realism, Dreams, myth, original song, remedios varo